Doctoral Dissertation Research: How Children Learn Identity and Difference

新学院大学的博士生Zohar Rotem将在Lawrence Hirschfeld博士的指导下，对以色列儿童如何形成“犹太人”和“阿拉伯人”的内化社会类别进行研究。社会类别的区别，表现在信仰、态度和行为上，通常被认为是理所当然的。然而，它们是后天习得的区别，而人们对这种习得是如何发生的还不是很清楚。研究人员将把注意力集中在儿童如何将这些社会规定的区别融入他们的日常生活中，研究这些信念是如何被教导和学习的。这项研究将在以色列一所面向犹太和阿拉伯学生的双语/双文化学校进行，并在校外、儿童之家和更广泛的社区进行。研究人员将构建一个民族志描述儿童的生活在这些设置。此外，从认知发展心理学改编的实验方法将用于评估儿童的信念（例如，关于这些种族-国家类别在多大程度上是“自然的”），否则儿童就难以表达这些信念。这项研究既及时又重要，因为它将揭示在暴力和棘手的种族冲突背景下，种族-民族差异是如何在儿童生活中出现并在社会中再现的。这项研究还将为教育工作者的工作提供信息，因为他们寻求缓解群体间的紧张关系和敌意。

New School University doctoral student Zohar Rotem, under the supervision of Dr. Lawrence Hirschfeld, will conduct research on how Israeli children develop their internalized social categories of "Jew" and "Arab." Social category distinctions, manifested in beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, are often taken for granted. Nevertheless, they are learned distinctions and it is not well understood how that learning takes place. The researcher will focus attention on how children incorporate these socially prescribed distinctions to make meaning in their daily lives, examining how such beliefs are taught as well as learned. The research will be conducted in Israel, in a bilingual/bicultural school for Jewish and Arab students, and outside the school, in children's homes and the wider community. The researcher will construct an ethnographic description of children's lives in these settings. In addition, experimental methods, adapted from cognitive-developmental psychology, will be used to assess children's beliefs (e.g., about the degree to which these ethno-national categories are "natural") that children otherwise have difficulty articulating. This research is both timely and important, as it will shed light on the ways in which ethno-national differences, in the context of violent and intractable ethnic conflict, emerge in children's lives and are reproduced in society. The research will also inform the work of educators as they seek to alleviate inter-group tensions and enmity.