Educational integration in Israel: thirty years of hesitant policy in view of changing ideology

The policy of integration ushered in by the 1968 education system reform applied mainly to junior high schools - an outcome of the structural reform. This paper analyzes the social conditions and political context that led to a policy of integration, and discusses the social forces and interest groups the supported and opposed its introduction. The role of academic research in the lengthy process is discussed, and a summary provided of the study finding relating to the academic and social effects of school and classroom integration and the effects of pedagogical intervention. Finally, we discuss the social changes and the rising interest of the public discourse concerning plurality parental choice and multiculturalism, which took place during the 1980s 1990s, and led to a diminishing interest in integration.