Linguistic landscape for joint learning amid conflict in Israel

Abstract This article describes two ELT initiatives in Israel, offered by the English Inspectorate, aimed at learning about ‘the other’ in an area of intractable conflict. These initiatives create contact between Jews and Arabs, teachers and students, where the two school systems are separated, and contact between the communities is scarce. Both initiatives are based on linguistic landscape (LL) pedagogy that fosters activism and critical thinking. In the first initiative, teachers planned projects for learning about cultural narratives through LL. The second initiative involved collaborative work of Jewish and Arab students who met to study each other’s LL environments, inspired by the Shared Education model. The manuscript integrates visuals from the projects. We show how LL can be used to bring politically divided communities together, enabling contact in times of severe tension in long-standing conflict.