Culturally Based Education for Sustainability—Insights from a Pioneering Ultraorthodox City in Israel

Abstract

Because culture affects the way people perceive human–nature relationships, it is acknowledged as a crucial component of sustainability. Israel has made efforts to involve cultural groups in education-for-sustainability (EfS). However, EfS within minorities still lags behind the dominant social majority. This study addressed incorporating EfS in the ultraorthodox sector (“ultraorthodoxing” EfS), focusing on a pioneering ultraorthodox municipality. In this interpretive study, interviews were conducted with nine stakeholders that hold key-positions regarding EfS policy-making. It explored how sustainability is introduced into ultraorthodox discourse and promoted in this community. Challenges to incorporating EfS include low environmentalism among the ultraorthodox and cultural–religious barriers. The findings indicate several directions of activity implemented by the Municipality to adapt EfS to ultraorthodox values and worldviews. The study suggests several principles for incorporating EfS in diverse cultural groups within multicultural societies (for example, allocating leaders from within the cultural group and developing their professional expertise, and establishing productive external–internal partnerships). Based on the findings, we suggest that implementing the particularistic approach within specific communities provides the means for empowering them, and is a necessary stage towards the participation of such cultural groups in pluralistic dialogue in wider society.