The research examined teachers' perceptions of factors affecting their perceived effectiveness in online teaching in the Israeli educational system, comparing Jewish and Arab teachers' views during the Covid-19 crisis. The research employed quantitative and qualitative approaches. 295 teachers responded to a questionnaire, and 22 teachers participated in a semi-structured interview. Quantitative data analysis found that the variables socio-economic status, the teacher's age, technological competence, frequency of synchronous teaching and their satisfaction with the profession significantly predicted perceived effectiveness in online teaching. Comparison between Jewish and Arab teachers indicated the correlation between sector and perceived effectiveness in online teaching is mediated by the number of teachers' synchronous teaching hours. Above all the variables, Jewish teachers' perceived effectiveness in online teaching is best explained by the number of synchronous teaching hours. Jewish teachers taught on average more synchronous online hours per week in comparison to Arab teachers, and the number of synchronous teaching hours predicted perceived effectiveness in online teaching. Quantitative and qualitative data, gathered from the interviews with the teachers were triangulated, reinforcing findings and explaining the quantitative data. Findings revealed that the transition to online learning may increase extant gaps between Israeli society's sectors.

The Corona pandemic has engendered drastic change throughout the world and schools in most countries have, relatively quickly, been required to transfer from frontal traditional learning to online learning. The research investigated the relationship between transformational leadership style and teaching mediated by school communications and moderated by sector (Jewish and Arab) in education systems in Israel during the Corona pandemic. 331 Jewish and Arab teachers participated in the research, expressing attitudes on the principals' leadership, the quality of school communications and the success of their online teaching during the Corona crisis. A positive correlation was found between principals' transformational leadership style and the success of online teaching, and the quality of communications in the school mediated this correlation. It was also found that the Jewish teachers reported more successes in online teaching and that the indirect correlation between transformational leadership and successful online teaching, through the quality of school communications, was moderated by population sector, so that it was stronger among Jewish teachers in comparison to Arab teachers. These findings have significant implications to improve organisational effectiveness, especially in the transition to online learning, and especially regarding the cultural uniqueness of different sectors.

The research investigated whether there is a correlation between participation in a course entitled "Diversity and multiculturalism in the global era" as perceived by Jewish and Arab students in Israel and a change in the students' attitudes and behaviors and their performance of activities in a multicultural context in the education field. The course was part of a master's degree program in Policy and Administration in Education in an academic college in central Israel. Pre-course and post-course questionnaires were administered to the course participants. Participants were 528 students; 177 responded to the pre-course questionnaire and 351 responded to the post-course questionnaire. The research findings indicated a direct association between participation in the course and activities conducted in the education field. In addition, students' acquisition of knowledge on multiculturalism mediated the association between participation in the course and performance of multicultural activities in the education field. Differences were found between Jewish and Arab students' reports: Jews reported a multicultural academic atmosphere significantly more than Arabs. Contrastingly, Arab students gave significantly higher grades than Jewish students to reciprocal relations between the groups in the college and reported a more positive change in their attitudes towards the other group and towards multiculturalism and were more convinced that the course contributed to their multicultural thinking. These findings have theoretical and practical implications that can inform policymakers planning education for multiculturalism as a permanent component in academic programs, while responding to different sectors' cultural uniqueness to promote equality between them.

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