Political socialization in kindergartens: Observations of ceremonies of the Israeli Jewish holidays and memorial days

This study investigated political socialization in Israeli-Jewish kindergartens. Specifically, it examined the scope of conflict supporting and peace supporting themes that Jewish-Israeli kindergarten teachers transmit to children during ceremonies of national events. Sixty-eight observations in 17 state-secular and state-religious kindergartens were conducted during five ceremonies: Passover, Holocaust Day, Memorial Day for Israeli Fallen Soldiers, Independence Day, and Jerusalem Day. The findings reveal that teachers transmit messages that comply with the conflict supporting themes to the children. The most dominant themes were collective self-perceived victimization, justness of one’s own goals, positive collective self-image, ingroup security, and patriotism. These themes were more dominant in state-religious than in state-secular kindergartens. Thus, we found that the kindergarten teachers serve as agents of political socialization who transmit the hegemonic national narratives to the younger generation.