Auswertungsbericht

Alle ASA-Teilnehmende sind verpflichtet zum Ende des Programms einen Auswertungsbericht abzugeben. Alexandra Dick hat ihren Auswertungsbericht als Leitfaden zur Verfügung gestellt. Der in Englisch geschriebene Bericht umfasst insgesamt sieben Seiten: ein Deckblatt, eine halbseitige Zusammenfassung, einen vierseitigen Report sowie ein Foto mit Kommentar.

Der Report selbst untergliedert sich in die „Persönliche Motivation“, eine „Projektbeschreibung“, einen Absatz über den „Arbeitsalltag“ sowie einen Absatz über den „privaten Alltag“. Einen Großteil nimmt die Beschreibung von „Problemen, Herausforderungen und Lernansätzen“ ein. Daran schließt sich eine Zusammenfassung und die Beschreibung der eigenen Aktivität Globalen Lernens an.

Der Text von Alexandra Dick auf Englisch ist ein gutes Beispiel für den Auswertungsbericht:

One year prior to my participation in the ASA-Program I signed up for the notification to get informed when the online application system would reopen. Already back then I intended not only to apply for the ASA-program, but also for this specific project at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as it matched my interests and skills. My studies in Cultural Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies provided a good theoretical basis for the project. Furthermore, I was familiar with scientific methods and academic working practices. Having conducted interviews for scientific and journalistic research helped me during the interview situations.

Moreover, Jerusalem fascinates me. As I had participated in an exchange program with a school in Israel in 2008, I already knew large parts of the country, also Jerusalem. Through the ASA-Program I had the possibility to live in this city, the point of reference for so many different religions, cultures and societies. Since I chose to specialize in Arabic language during my studies, I also hoped to have the opportunity to practice and enhance my language skills in everyday life.

The project at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is part of a larger ongoing research at the Melton School of Jewish Education. The aim of the research is to analyze the intersection between the civic and the religious. The main question is how the religious and cultural background of a person influences the attitude towards the state.

This is scientifically examined on different levels. In previous years NGOs and other social actors were included in the research. In the year of my participation in the project the focus was on Jewish Israeli and Israeli Palestinian, also referred to as Arab Israeli, teachers of either religious education or civic education (for example a subject at school comparable with socio-political education to legitimize the state of Israel) in secondary schools working in the Israeli education system. This means that teachers in the West Bank were not part of the research, as they are not part of the Israeli education system. All the teachers I interviewed were religious. However, the attempt was made to equally include religious and secular persons in the larger research.

My tandem partner and I shared the workload. Our task was to read relevant academic articles on civil society, religion, politics and democracy and write literature reviews, as well as to conduct and transcribe interviews. For this, the project coordinator developed an interview guide, which constituted the framework for the interviews and the whole research. A member of the research group established contact with the teachers. We then set up the interviews, which in most cases did not cause any problems. Some interviews, however, were more difficult to set up for time reasons or safety reasons. During most of the interviews I was alone with the interviewee. We met at cafés or schools. One interview was in Akko. This was a great opportunity for my tandem partner and me to combine work and leisure and to spend the weekend there.

The project coordinator, my tandem partner and I regularly had meetings to discuss and evaluate our work progress. Besides that, we always stayed in contact via email. One interesting result of the research was that Jewish Israeli teachers tended to agree to the statement that Israel was a democratic state, while Israeli Palestinian teachers disagreed. This shows that privileges and rights just become visible, when they are not granted. Thus, the perception and attitude of the privileged group and the underprivileged group differ. The fact that all my Israeli Palestinian interview partners were religious Muslims leads to the assumption that they wanted to live in an Islamic country or society. Yet, all interviewees preferred to live in a secular state, in order to avoid religious and cultural discrimination

I lived at a student dorm close to the university. The project coordinator kindly helped me with the registration, as I was not a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and therefore could not live at a student dorm without the consent of a university department. The student dorms are mostly gender segregated. However, couples are allowed to live together. At the dorm’s office I was asked whether I preferred to live together with Jewish or Arab students, which obviously startled me, since I did not expect this question. I answered that I did not care what apartment I would live in. So, the dorm’s office chose an apartment with two Israeli Palestinian girls for me. I got along with them really well right from the beginning and we soon became close friends. My tandem partner visited me in the apartment from time to time and we spent a great time all together. One of my roommates even invited my tandem partner and me to stay at her parents’ house in Nazareth for the weekend.

Furthermore, I attended an Arabic language course for spoken language twice a week. At university I had just studied Modern Standard Arabic. Now I wanted to seize the opportunity to study the Palestinian dialect.

The political situation in Jerusalem at that time was tense. There were clashes, terrorist attacks and police actions in Palestinian neighborhoods. However, at no point did I feel that my personal security was limited. Just the usage of public transportation might have been problematic, although I personally never experienced any problems. As the project coordinator bore the responsibility for the project, he decided to cancel further interviews that required leaving the university campus. The overall situation impeded the research, which decreased my motivation. At the same time, it showed me the necessity of the research. Through my roommates and friends who suffered from the situation, the scientific research became a tangible experience: How and in which type of state can people from different religious and cultural backgrounds live together?

During my stay in Jerusalem I faced different realities. For the first time I felt that not belonging to the local society can facilitate life. Nobody expected me to take sides. In Jerusalem I met people who differentiated and did not take sides either, although they experienced the everyday dimension of the conflicts. Through the ASA-Program I had the possibility to create new narratives for myself, but also for others by contributing to the research project and writing monthly reports on my project and my life in Jerusalem, which I sent to my family and friends. I talked and read a lot about politics and different realities of life with my roommates, friends, my tandem partner and the project coordinator. Moreover, I could connect my personal experience with some of the contents of the ASA preparatory seminars, for example how to recognize privileges and power structures.

Apart from the political situation, living in Jerusalem never created any problems for me. I felt comfortable and easily found friends. I always could imagine myself to live in Jerusalem for a longer period of time.

I am really thankful that I had the possibility to participate in the ASA-Program. Through the preparatory seminars I gained new insights and perspectives and found friends with similar interests and ambitions. Through the project at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem I had the opportunity to contribute to a scientific research and thereby enhance my skills of scientific methods and academic working practices. I intensively dealt with the research topics by reading academic articles, conducting interviews and having discussions about different ideas of civil society, religion, politics and democracy. The whole process brought me closer to formulating my own attitude towards these concepts. This year I will start a Master’s program in Development Studies. Thus, I will continue to deal with these issues.

I have already carried out my Global Activity. It was not directly linked with my project in Jerusalem. It rather developed out of an urgent need. I organized and implemented an intercultural learning seminar for people who want to support asylum seekers in the town where I grew up. The arrival of the refugees is is a new experience for the town that has hitherto never provided accommodation for asylum-seekers. A lot of citizens are willing to support the arriving people and to integrate them in communal life. However, sometimes situations can arise that require intercultural understanding.

In two days and 12 hours of seminar in total we reflected own perspectives and the understanding of culture, analyzed cultural assumptions as well as the formation of stereotypes and prejudices and practiced non-violent communication. Furthermore, I intended to dismantle power structures between people who "give help" and people who "receive help" by moving the focus away from the refugees and towards the local citizens. The feedback for my global activity was very positive. This encouraged me to organize further intercultural learning seminars. I therefore participated in a training seminar for Bildung trifft Entwicklung multipliers of global learning by Engagement Global.