Shared education on colonial grounds: regulating difference in English language programmes

Shared education initiatives are often framed as dialogic spaces that promote encounter across difference. This paper shows that when implemented in colonial contexts they remain entangled within the racial and political hierarchies that structure them. Employing Fraser’s remedial framework and Stroud’s linguistic citizenship, we examine an English language shared education programme implemented in some Israeli schools. Based on field notes and interviews with Palestinian and Jewish English teachers, analysis shows how participation is structured through parental refusals, asymmetrical life-worlds, and surveillance. We argue that language-mediated encounters within intercultural frameworks can regulate difference while leaving structural inequalities and colonial hierarchies intact.