React: a pedagogical framework for political-democratic teaching with emotional awareness

This study reconceptualizes political education as a means for cultivating democratic values, emotional engagement, political literacy, critical thinking, and active citizenship. Using a qualitative design with 48 Israeli public-school teachers (24 interviews and four focus groups), it mapped pedagogical strategies for addressing socio-political issues in classrooms following the 7 October 2023, attack and the subsequent war. Based on the findings, we developed the REACT model, which includes five interrelated elements that can be integrated across subjects and curricula: (R) recognizing emotional responses, (E) enriching political knowledge, (A) analysing critically, (C) concluding and formulating positions, and (T) taking action through civic engagement. The model offers a systematic framework for teaching democratic and political literacy while fostering emotional awareness and respectful dialogue in classrooms marked by diversity of opinion and heightened tension. The study reveals that controversial issues emerged both spontaneously from students and intentionally through teacher initiatives, highlighting the dynamic interplay between emotional and cognitive dimensions of learning during crisis. While grounded in the Israeli context, the REACT model contributes to a theoretically grounded and practically applicable roadmap for educators worldwide seeking to strengthen civic resilience and democratic commitments amid polarization, misinformation, and social fragmentation.