Acculturation Attitudes and Perceptions of Collective Narratives

Abstract

The relationship between acculturation attitudes and attitudes toward collective narratives is explored in the context of Palestinian adolescents, citizens of the State of Israel. Employing Berry’s acculturation framework, we expected that approaching the hegemonic Israeli Jewish culture would be related to higher acceptance of its collective narrative concerning main historical events. We further expected that retaining the Palestinian culture would be related to higher acceptance of the Palestinian narrative of the same events. Data were collected from a sample of 365 teenagers in six Israeli Arab high schools. Generally, the results tend to support our hypotheses regarding relationships between acculturation and attitudes toward collective narratives. Majority of the adolescents endorsed a separation strategy and expressed rejection of the Israeli Jewish collective narrative while endorsing the Palestinian one. The findings suggest that acculturation attitudes may be composed of different behavioral, cognitive, and emotional components, and those components may not be well correlated.