ABSTRACT
In the second case study, the focus is on the epistemology of hermeneutics – or why the goals at stake are particularly meaningful – at the formative phase of AE. Why do the various key stakeholders in an AE – individually, in terms of their identity groups and across them – view these goals as their individual, group and system-level definitions of success? The AE project described in this chapter was conducted over a two-year period by approximately 100 Arab and Jewish faculty, administration and students at Jezreel Valley College in Northern Israel. This case study focused on promoting success in their relationships on their campus. Asking such a range of stakeholders to reflect together in a participative and egalitarian manner about their “community of practice” is itself a major undertaking: an even bigger challenge was doing so with a minority Israeli-Arab, majority Israeli-Jewish population on their own college campus. Yet, with the use of AE, we did so in a sustained and systematic way for two enriching years. In exploring this process, we illustrate how self-narration and the development of group dialogical skills can help forge a community and culture of reflection – one that, in turn, may forge a collective identity, essentially embodying its reflective process as it experiences it.
