In recent decades the pendulum is swinging away from the idea and ideals of public education, and a new ethos increasingly takes over the shrinking public space of education. In the 1980s markets were elevated to social and economic icons, becoming a new secular faith. Privatizing public education became a credible policy in many countries and there have been an increasing number of attempts to restructure and deregulate state schooling. Global trade agreements foster domestic and international trade in education services treating education as a commodity to be sold and purchased, and many countries adopt various forms of market-related practices in education. These are not neutral, technical, managerial changes in the production and delivery of public education. They transform education in ways that have profound social and edu- tional consequences. To justify the introduction of market reforms in education public schools and educators are being defamed and accused of a series of vices, such as inef?ciency and laziness. We must be reminded that public education, i. e. , mandatory publicly ?nanced schooling, that was introduced in Austria as early as in 1874 and spread to other countries, was considered the most progressive movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Public schools were established to make education univ- sally available to all children, free of charge, and have been recognized as gateways to opportunity (Kober, 2006).

Political, economic, technological and cultural changes have taken place all over the globe, changes which have transformed the meanings of citizenship and citizenship education. This volume represents an effort to analyze the implications of these changes. It covers the political socialization of Palestinian children on the West Bank in Israel, the role of the mass media in citizenship education, gender egalitarianism and democracy.

Political, economic, technological and cultural changes have taken place all over the globe, changes which have transformed the meanings of citizenship and citizenship education. This volume represents an effort to analyze the implications of these changes. It covers the political socialization of Palestinian children on the West Bank in Israel, the role of the mass media in citizenship education, gender egalitarianism and democracy.

In recent decades the pendulum is swinging away from the idea and ideals of public education, and a new ethos increasingly takes over the shrinking public space of education. In the 1980s markets were elevated to social and economic icons, becoming a new secular faith. Privatizing public education became a credible policy in many countries and there have been an increasing number of attempts to restructure and deregulate state schooling. Global trade agreements foster domestic and international trade in education services treating education as a commodity to be sold and purchased, and many countries adopt various forms of market-related practices in education. These are not neutral, technical, managerial changes in the production and delivery of public education. They transform education in ways that have profound social and edu- tional consequences. To justify the introduction of market reforms in education public schools and educators are being defamed and accused of a series of vices, such as inef?ciency and laziness. We must be reminded that public education, i. e. , mandatory publicly ?nanced schooling, that was introduced in Austria as early as in 1874 and spread to other countries, was considered the most progressive movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Public schools were established to make education univ- sally available to all children, free of charge, and have been recognized as gateways to opportunity (Kober, 2006).

The central objective of this book is to analyze the characteristics of the social contexts and environments in conflict situations, and the impact that these socializing environments may have on the political learning and emerging citizenship orientations of youngsters. Special attention is given to the socializing environments of Palestinian and Israeli youngsters, drawing on material recently collected in Israel.
Ichilov's incisive research uses a multilevel and interdisciplinary approach to argue that political learning is structured within social environments and that there are fundamental differences between the socializing environments in conflict and non-conflict situations.