New Article: Klein & Shimoni-Hershkoviz, Privatization and Competition in the Education System

Klein, Joseph, and Lizi Shimoni-Hershkoviz. “The Contribution of Privatization and Competition in the Education System to the Development of an Informal Management Culture in Schools. A Case Study in Israel.” International Journal of Educational Management 30.4 (2016).

 

URL: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJEM-08-2014-0113

 

Abstract

Regulation and privatization of education systems has led to a “league standing” mentality regarding school achievements. The present study examines how school principals deal with the pressures of competition and achievements while aspiring to imbue pupils with values and a broad education. 12 high school principals were interviewed about external demands imposed on them, their educational policy and modes of operation. Publicly, school supervisors advocate a balance between core studies and education for values and enrichment. Informally they pressure principals to allocate maximal resources to preparing for high risk tests at the expense of other educational activities. School administrators and teachers, while dissatisfied with this approach, maintain a covert informal culture that concentrates mainly on external test achievements, which contrasts to their public value-rich educational vision, and undertake actions that raise educational, management and ethical questions. Placing the schools’ informal culture on the research agenda will increase institutional transparency and may contribute to a greater correspondence between school visions advocating knowledge and values, and the policy actually implemented. Raising this subject for discussion may contribute to a demand for more transparency in how schools allocate their resources. It may also help to increase the correspondence between the values and vision promulgated by schools and the educational policy they actually implement.

 

 

 

New Article: Arar & Massry-Herzllah , Motivation to Teach: The Case of Arab Teachers in Israel

Arar, Khalid Husny, and Asmahan Massry-Herzllah. “Motivation to Teach: The Case of Arab Teachers in Israel.” Educational Studies (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2015.1127136

 

Extract

This paper describes an attempt to identify factors influencing teachers’ motivation in the Arab education system. In-depth interviews with 10 school principals, 15 teachers and 3 counsellors, yielded three themes influencing Arab teachers’ motivation: (1) Arab culture, (2) the school climate and (3) government policies. Arab teachers try to meet both government requirements and the minority Arab society’s expectations that they will shape students’ academic achievements, national identity and culture. Deficient resources and Arab principals’ detached management styles augment the difficulty, negatively influencing teachers’ motivation. Suggestions are given to improve government policies and Arab principals’ work and thus to enhance teachers’ motivation.

 

 

 

New Article: Fast, School Violence Policies in Israel

Fast, Idit. “Understanding Educational Policy Formation. The Case of School Violence Policies in Israel.” Sociology of Education (early view; online first).

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038040715615923
 
Abstract

This study explores mechanisms underlying processes of educational policy formation. Previous studies have given much attention to processes of diffusion when accounting for educational policy formation. Less account has been given to the day-to-day institutional dynamics through which educational policies develop and change. Building on extensive governmental archival data, complemented with interviews and media analysis, I study the development and transformation of school violence policies in Israel. I argue that diffusion of global policy ideas and practices provides the menu of possible policies, while within-country struggles over legitimacy in the policy domain serve as a mechanism shaping which items on the menu becomes actual policy. Specifically, in the Israeli case, the interest in and action toward school violence were influenced by a global trend, but the actions of Psychological-Counseling Services (PCS) who struggled to assert their legitimacy as the authority on school violence in the Israeli Ministry of Education (MOE) shaped the adoption, rejection, and institutionalization of the specific school violence policy ideas and practices.

 

 

 

New Article: Hager & Jabareen, Arab-Palestinians in Israeli Academia

Hager, Tamar, and Yousef Jabareen. “From Marginalisation to Integration: Arab-Palestinians in Israeli Academia.” International Journal of Inclusive Education (early view; online first)
 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1090488
 
Abstract

The Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel, one-fifth of the country’s population, has been underrepresented in Israeli institutions of higher education since the establishment of the state. This article focuses on the authors’ shared aim of promoting diversity and multiculturalism in institutions of higher education in Israel. It first introduces Arab marginalisation within Israeli society as a whole. Subsequently, it offers a critical overview of existing data and research on the challenges faced by young Arab-Palestinians in higher education institutions in Israel. Based on this indispensable analysis, which clearly shows the numerous obstacles that await Arab-Palestinians on their path to graduation, the article goes on to suggest some required changes. Presenting some useful policy transformations and courses of action, it subsequently introduces multicultural academia as a better conceptual and practical framework for achieving inclusive education.

 

 

 

New Article: Schoenbaum et al, Policy Issues Related to Educating the Future Israeli Medical Workforce

Schoenbaum, Stephen C., Peter Crome, Raymond H. Curry, Elliot S. Gershon, Shimon M. Glick, David R. Katz, Ora Paltiel, and Jo Shapiro. “Policy Issues Related to Educating the Future Israeli Medical Workforce: An International Perspective.” Israel Journal of Health Policy Research (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/110.1186/s13584-015-0030-y

 

Abstract

A 2014 external review of medical schools in Israel identified several issues of importance to the nation’s health. This paper focuses on three inter-related policy-relevant topics: planning the physician and healthcare workforce to meet the needs of Israel’s population in the 21st century; enhancing the coordination and efficiency of medical education across the continuum of education and training; and the financing of medical education. All three involve both education and health care delivery.

The physician workforce is aging and will need to be replenished. Several physician specialties have been in short supply, and some are being addressed through incentive programs. Israel’s needs for primary care clinicians are increasing due to growth and aging of the population and to the increasing prevalence of chronic conditions at all ages. Attention to the structure and content of both undergraduate and graduate medical education and to aligning incentives will be required to address current and projected workforce shortage areas. Effective workforce planning depends upon data that can inform the development of appropriate policies and on recognition of the time lag between developing such policies and seeing the results of their implementation.

The preclinical and clinical phases of Israeli undergraduate medical education (medical school), the mandatory rotating internship (stáge), and graduate medical education (residency) are conducted as separate “silos” and not well coordinated. The content of basic science education should be relevant to clinical medicine and research. It should stimulate inquiry, scholarship, and lifelong learning. Clinical exposures should begin early and be as hands-on as possible. Medical students and residents should acquire specific competencies. With an increasing shift of medical care from hospitals to ambulatory settings, development of ambulatory teachers and learning environments is increasingly important. Objectives such as these will require development of new policies.

Undergraduate medical education (UME) in Israel is financed primarily through universities, and they receive funds through VATAT, an education-related entity. The integration of basic science and clinical education, development of earlier, more hands-on clinical experiences, and increased ambulatory and community-based medical education will demand new funding and operating partnerships between the universities and the health care delivery system. Additional financing policies will be needed to ensure the appropriate infrastructure and support for both educators and learners.

If Israel develops collaborations between various government agencies such as the Ministries of Education, Health, and Finance, the universities, hospitals, and the sick funds (HMOs), it should be able to address successfully the challenges of the 21st century for the health professions and meet its population’s needs.

 

 

New Article: Rosenblatt, Teacher Involvement in Decision Making in the Israeli School System

Rosenblatt, Zehava, Hilla Peretz, and Lya Kremer-Hayon. “Teacher Involvement in Decision Making in the Israeli School System.” In Do Teachers Wish to Be Agents of Change?: Will Principals Support Them? (ed. Allen Menlo and LeVerne Collet; New York: Springer, 2015): 151-68.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-959-3_8

 

Abstract

This chapter is organized in four sections. The first section describes the Israeli educational system and reviews recent literature on teacher participation and involvement in decision-making – particularly with respect to change and development projects. The second section describes the nature of the Israeli study: its purpose, data gathering methods, and analytic procedures.

New Article: Blass, Trends in the Development of the Education System

Blass, Nachum. “Trends in the Development of the Education System,” Policy Paper Series, Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel. Policy Paper No. 2014.13

 

In recent years, several important changes have taken place in the education system: the trend in the demographic composition of pupils has changed significantly; the resources at the disposal of the education system have grown considerably; and with regards to the work force, all of the primary and a large portion of post-primary education teachers are now part of the most recent educational reforms (“New Horizon” and “Courage to Change”).

The professional education qualifications of teachers have improved, and the great majority of them now have higher education. The learning achievements of Israel’s pupils have also improved, as is evident from the results of the Meitzav tests, matriculation exams and international testing. Furthermore, the achievement gaps between pupil populations have narrowed, including those between Jewish and Arab Israeli pupils. Improvement is also evident in the educational environment of schools. Despite these changes, the financial allocation per pupil in Israel is still low relative to the OECD countries, and despite the narrowing of gaps between various population groups, they remain among the largest of the OECD countries. There is still a long way to go until the quality of what the education system provides to its pupils and until pupil achievement, in both learning and educational terms, meet the standards of the countries that Israel seeks to emulate.

For a PDF of the full policy paper, click here.

 

 

ToC: Israel Studies 20,1 (2015)

 

 

1. Special Section: Landscapes
   1. Zippori National Park as a Composite Narrative (pp. 1-30)

      Tal Alon-Mozes and Matanya Maya
   2. The Geopolitics of Interment: An Inquiry into the Burial of Muhammad Ali in Jerusalem, 1931 (pp. 31-56)

      Maoz Azaryahu and Yitzhak Reiter
   3. Greening the Curriculum: Current Trends in Environmental Education in Israel’s Public Schools (pp. 57-85)

      Gonen Sagy and Alon Tal
2. Articles
   1. The Need to be Part of Europe: Israel’s Struggle for an Association Agreement with the EEC, 1957–1961 (pp. 86-109)

      Gadi Heimann
   2. Crisis and Development: Menachem Begin’s Leadership Throughout the 1960s (pp. 110-133)

      Amir Goldstein
   3. Imperialism and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Revisions in Matzpen’s Historical Perspective (pp. 134-158)

      Joshua Blass
   4. Pinchas Sadeh’s Religiosity (pp. 159-179)

      Gideon Katz
   5. Homogeneity vs. Heterogeneity in the Young Adult and Children’s Literature of Devorah Omer (pp. 180-194)

      Rima Shikhmanter
3. Notes on Contributors (pp. 195-197)
4. Guidelines for Contributors (pp. 198-200)

Cite: Mendel, On the Creation of the Israeli Accelerated Arabic Language Studies Programme

 Mendel, Yonatan. “A Sentiment-Free Arabic: On the Creation of the Israeli Accelerated Arabic Language Studies Programme.” Middle Eastern Studies 49.3 (2013): 383-401.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/mes/2013/00000049/00000003/art00003

 

Abstract

This article analyses the creation of the accelerated Arabic language
studies programme in the Israeli-Jewish school system, `The Oriental
Classes’, over the years 1950-67. The article investigates the networks
that enabled and controlled the `Oriental Classes’, the main actors
involved in its operation, the aims of this programme as well as the
ways to achieve them. It argues that this flagship programme serves as
an example of the dominant orientation with which Arabic studies have
been associated in Israeli-Jewish society, that of political and
military intelligence needs, and that this can add a new angle to our
understanding of the way Israel perceives the Arab world, vis-à-vis its
relations with the Arab `other’ and the Palestinian citizens of Israel.