Bilingual education, though acknowledged as having the potential to help overcome a wide variety of societal and cultural tensions, remains controversial and frequently misunderstood. The present study examines the extent to which sociohistorical and political contexts, in conflict-ridden areas, influence language attitudes and the implementation of bilingual educational initiatives geared toward encouraging sociocultural tolerance and the recognition of each of the participating groups while

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... abling students to become bilingual. More specifically I investigate and document how a particular bilingual Arabic-Hebrew program is interpreted and implemented in an integrated Palestinian-Jewish educational initiative in Israel. The current effort hopes to stimulate educators, parents, and policymakers into thinking about how to develop dual-language programs to address the particular contextual challenges which, when left unaccounted for, can prejudice their bilingual educational efforts.