Comparative Approaches to Dialogue-Based Peace Education Among Israeli, Palestinian, and American Youth

Phillip L. Hammack

War is characterized by the absence of opportunities for dialogue among groups in conflict. At least two distinct paradigms of formal dialogue facilitation have emerged in the curricula of peace education programs. In one paradigm (the contact approach), facilitators seek to reduce individual prejudice and stereotypes through acquaintanceship. In another (the social identity approach), facilitators seek to raise awareness of collective action, policy, and power dynamics in conflict reproduction. Though both approaches exist in practice, no systematic research has compared the process and outcome of participation in distinct paradigms of dialogue. In this field study of a peace education program for Israeli, Palestinian, and American youth, participants were randomly assigned to one of these two paradigms of dialogue facilitation. Fusing qualitative and quantitative methods in a longitudinal design, I will examine the relationship between dialogue paradigm and four process-related factors (identity salience, emotion, use of collective narrative, and power dynamics) and two outcome-related factors (support for political violence and participation in peace-building activities). The goal of the project is to provide peace education practitioners with vital data on the distinct processes and outcomes associated with particular dialogue paradigms and to thus identify best practices for peace education programs.

About Phillip L. Hammack

Phillip L. Hammack is Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received his Ph.D. from the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago and has published widely in social, cultural, and developmental psychology. His research broadly investigates youth identity development in political and cultural context. He is the author of Narrative and the Politics of Identity: The Cultural Psychology of Israeli and Palestinian Youth (Oxford, 2011). His work on peace education among Palestinian and Israeli youth has been funded by the Spencer Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, and the National Science Foundation. Professor Hammack identifies as a “scholar-practitioner” and has thus also held a number of non-academic positions in peace organizations, including roles in group facilitation and program administration in peace education programs. From 2010-2011, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Professor Hammack has presented his research across the globe, including in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Canada, and at numerous professional meetings and universities in the United States.