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

Published in the International Journal of Behavioral Development1, this 14-page evaluation details the results of a pre- and post-test study assessing the effects of Israeli and Palestinian children's viewing of Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim (which means "Sesame Street" in Hebrew and Arabic).

This set of two Hebrew/Arabic bilingual television programmes, based on the American television series Sesame Street, began airing on Israeli and Palestinian television in April 1998. Each of the 70, 30-minute Israeli episodes was broadcast throughout Israel and parts of Palestine; a 20-episode, 15-minute Palestinian version of the programme was broadcast in 5 Palestinian cities, as well. The series presents messages of mutual respect and understanding in an effort to help children better understand their own culture and that of others. Designed to break down cultural stereotypes by familiarising Israeli and Palestinian children with each other, the show integrates educational messages within an entertaining, magazine-type format that includes animation, live-action documentaries, and studio segments. In the programme, characters demonstrate prosocial actions (they act to help another person, particularly when they have no goal other than to help), some of which involve contact between Arab and Jewish characters (other segments were oriented toward day-to-day encounters with peers within a given culture).

Significantly, the Palestinian children viewed a version produced by a Palestinian group, and were exposed to relatively few segments presenting the everyday activities of Israelis. Further, the Palestinian children were living in a more "encompassing and intrusive environment of negative Israeli/Palestinian relations". These differences - both in the productions and how they were created, and in the cultural context - may explain some of the differences in impact of the show on Palestinian, as opposed to Israeli, children (differences that are detailed, below).

The purpose of this summative evaluation was to determine whether Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim would have a positive impact on Israeli and Palestinian children's knowledge of and appreciation for the lives of peers from their own culture as well as from different cultures. The study also explored whether exposure to this series could help children resolve social conflict situations. Researchers interviewed 275 Israeli-Jewish, Palestinian-Israeli, and Palestinian preschoolers about their social and cultural judgments before the programme began and then 4 months after the series began broadcasting. A tool called the Social Judgment Instrument (SJI) was developed; examiners individually interviewed each child in his or her native language, with schematic cartoon-like drawings used to aid the questioning process. [Editor's note: a copy of the instrument is available from Charlotte Cole or Nathan Fox; please see below]. The SJI was used to assess:

1. Palestinian and Jewish children's stereotypes of one another
2. Children's understanding of the everyday lives of the Jews and Palestinians living in the region
3. Children's problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills
4. Children's awareness of cultural symbols.

The report shares pre-test findings, as well as pre- and post-test comparisons. Below is a summary of some of the key findings:


Stereotypes of One Another

• Analyses of the pre-test data revealed that Palestinian and Israeli children as young as 4 years of age held negative stereotypes about the "other" culture; Palestinian children, in particular, were more likely to provide negative descriptions of Jews. The authors note, however, that children were asked to describe what an Arab (or Jew) was and were shown a picture of an adult male person, rather than a peer.
• After a 4-month exposure period, participants responded to the question, "What is a Jew/Arab?", Palestinian children displayed an increase in the use of negative attributes toward Jews, while the Israeli children (both Jewish Israeli and Arab-Israeli children) displayed an increase in the use of positive attributes toward children from the other culture. Researchers explain these results by pointing to the difference between the versions of the programmes that the children viewed, and the cultural context (see above).

Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution

• Despite the above finding, the majority of children were found to apply their moral concepts of fairness to peer conflict situations at pre-test. "This is quite remarkable given the bombardment of negative messages about the other culture in the Middle East. It provides support for the power of peer play situations as an important source of experience by which children construct notions of cooperation, negotiation, and turn-taking" - that is, the types of illustrations provided by Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim.

Awareness of Cultural Similarities

• After 4 months of exposure to the broadcast, the Israeli-Jewish groups showed greater gains in awareness of cultural similarities compared to the Palestinian children. Researchers did note, however, that the latter group also made progress; the Palestinian children "gave friendship justifications [appeals to interpersonal relationships or maintenance of the group activity as justification for a child's actions] when evaluating the conflict scenarios following the viewing of the show" (as opposed to appealing to cultural, selfish, fairness, or rule-based reasons). The researchers consider this finding "quite remarkable" in light of the fact that these Palestinian children initially made very negative statements about Jewish people during the pre-test.

Identification of Cultural Symbols

• Prior to the broadcast, Palestinian and Israeli-Jewish children were more likely to correctly identify symbols from their own culture compared with those from the other culture. Palestinian-Israelis were more likely to accurately identify both Arab and Jewish symbols. After broadcast, Palestinian children were more likely to to identify symbols from their own culture than they had initially. This is likely because Palestinian children saw episodes that consisted primarily of Palestinian-produced segments.

Knowledge of Characters

• Children are more apt to be knowledgeable about and to favour characters that are clearly related to their own lives and languages. The Palestinian and Israeli Muppet and human characters were developed specifically for the Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim project and reflect cultural and linguistic characteristics of their respective societies in the Middle East "Thus, it seems that the producers' aim to present characters that are familiar and relevant to the children's cultures is being reached."

In closing, the authors note that, while producing a television show for children in the context of negative cultural stereotyping and even animosity poses significant challenges, these data "provide evidence for the power of media in presenting positive images and for potentially changing children's attitudes and social knowledge about another culture." They speculate that entertaining, media-based interventions such as Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim can be effective in countering negative stereotypes by building a peer-oriented context that introduces children to the everyday lives of people from different cultures. In the years since Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim was produced and broadcast, Sesame Workshop developed Sesame Stories (Hikayat Simsim in Arabic; Sippuray Sumsum in Hebrew), another multi-media project in the Middle East to promote the goals of respect and understanding. Informed by the findings from the Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim study, the Sesame Stories project, now airing in the region, consists of three parallel productions aimed at Jordanian, Palestinian and Israel children. A summative evaluation examining the educational impact of the Sesame Stories project was completed in 2005.

1 Cole, C. F., Arafat, C., Tidhar, C., Zidan, W. T., Fox, N. A., Killen, M., Ardila-Rey, A., Leavitt, L., Lesser, G., Richman, B. A., & Yung, F. (2001). 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. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27, 409-422. Editor's note: This article is available by paid subscription only; please click here for access information.