The global–local negotiation: between the official and the implemented history curriculum in Israeli classrooms

ABSTRACT: Globalisation and technological advances in the twenty-first century have caused a blurring of national lines, which in the past were the basis of a nearly indisputable model of civic identity. This process has led to a noticeable trend of the globally oriented pressures within the national curricula, on top of the existing locally oriented demands. By employing an interpretative, qualitative methodology, this study offers a multidimensional analysis of the tensions and power relations within the global–local nexus in history teaching. We reveal and discuss Israeli teachers’ perceptions and behaviours regarding the tension between the global and local inclinations within four major themes: teachers’ entrepreneurial performance, critical views of the existing curricula, the presence of Israeli–Palestinian conflict throughout teaching involvements, and the meaning the teachers attribute to Holocaust in their teaching. The context for this study is Israel: a developed OECD country locked into an intense and long-standing ethnic and political conflict. The tension between the ‘global’ and the ‘local’ in the Israeli education system, studied through the prism of teachers themselves, provides a thought-provoking case study.