Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2003-09
The educational impact of Rechov Sumsum/Shara’a Simsim: A Sesame Street television series to promote respect and understanding among children living in Israel,the West Bank,and Gaza
A pre-and post-test study assessed the effects of Israeli and Palestinian
children’s viewing of Rechov Sumsum/Shara’a Simsim, a
television series presenting messages of mutual respect and understanding.
Israeli-Jewish, Palestinian-Israeli, and Palestinian preschoolers (N = 275)
were interviewed about their social judgments. Results showed that although some of
the children had negative conceptions about adult Arabs and Jews, children, on the
whole, did not invoke these stereotypes when evaluating peer conflict situations
between Israeli and Palestinian children. Exposure to the programme was linked to an
increase in children’s use of both prosocial justifications to resolve
conflicts and positive attributes to describe members of the other group.
Palestinian children’s abilities to identify symbols of their own culture
increased over time. The results indicate the effectiveness of media-based
interventions such as Rechov Sumsum/Shara’a Simsim on countering
negative stereotypes by building a peer-oriented context that introduces children to
the everyday lives of people from different cultures.
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