Bulletin: Education in Israel

Books

• Barry Chazan, A Philosophy of Israel Education
• Anat Even Zahav and Orit Hazzan, Risk Management of Education Systems. The Case of STEM Education in Israe
• Malka Muchnik et al, Elective Language Learning and Policy in Israel
• Miri Yemini, Internationalization and Global Citizenship. Policy and Practice in Education

Articles

• Audrey Addi-Raccah and Yael Grinshtain, Forms of Capital and Teachers’ Views of Collaboration and Threat Relations With Parents in Israeli Schools
• Audrey Addi-Raccah and Yael Grinshtain, Teachers’ capital and relations with parents: A comparison between Israeli Jewish and Arab teachers
• Orly Alaluf, Dorel Ungureanu, and Alina S. Rusu, Israeli Teachers’ Attitudes Assessment regarding Parental Involvement of Children with Special Needs
• Ayman K. Agbaria, The ‘right’ education in Israel: segregation, religious ethnonationalism, and depoliticized professionalism
• Khalid Arar and Asmahan Masry-Herzalla, Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Justice Leadership: Female Jewish and Arab School Principals in Israel
• Nimrod Aloni, Humanist Schools in the Face of Conflicting Narratives and Social Upheaval: The Case of Israel
• Iris BenDavid-Hadar, Education for All: The Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Schools
• Miri Goldratt and Eric H. Cohen, Non Formal Education: A Case Study of Personal Education in Israeli Schools
• Eyal Kaminka, Teaching about the Holocaust in Israel
• Ofer Katchergin, The Medicalizing Power of Rhetorical Images in the Israeli Learning Disabilities Field
• Adam Nir et al, School autonomy and 21st century skills in the Israeli educational system
• Iair G. Or and Elana Shohamy, English Education Policy in Israel
• Oren Shlomo, Sub-formalization in East Jerusalem Schooling
• Benzi Slakmon, Educational Technology Policy in Israel
• Tina Waldman, Efrat Harel, and Götz Schwab, Getting their feet wet: trainee EFL teachers in Germany and Israel collaborate online

Reviews

• Toni Rickenback, on Zvi Bekerman’s The Promise of Integrated Multicultural and Bilingual Education

Theses

• Tamar Bulmash, iPosture: A Closer Look at the Lifestyle Practices of Jewish Israeli School Children

 

New Book: Bekerman, The Promise of Integrated Multicultural and Bilingual Education

Bekerman, Zvi. The Promise of Integrated Multicultural and Bilingual Education. Inclusive Palestinian-Arab and Jewish Schools in Israel. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

 

 

The Promise of Integrated and Multicultural Bilingual Education presents the results of a long-term ethnographic study of the integrated bilingual Palestinian-Jewish schools in Israel that offer a new educational option to two groups of Israelis–Palestinians and Jews–who have been in conflict for the last one hundred years. Their goal is to create egalitarian bilingual multicultural environments to facilitate the growth of youth who can acknowledge and respect “others” while maintaining loyalty to their respective cultural traditions. In this book, Bekerman reveals the complex school practices implemented while negotiating identity and culture in contexts of enduring conflict. Data gathered from interviews with teachers, students, parents, and state officials are presented and analyzed to explore the potential and limitations of peace education given the cultural resources, ethnic-religious affiliations, political beliefs, and historical narratives of the various interactants. The book concludes with critique of Western positivist paradigmatic perspectives that currently guide peace education, maintaining that one of the primary weaknesses of current bilingual and multicultural approaches to peace education is their failure to account for the primacy of the political framework of the nation state and the psychologized educational perspectives that guide their educational work. Change, it is argued, will only occur after these perspectives are abandoned, which entails critically reviewing present understandings of the individual, of identity and culture, and of the learning process.

 
Table of contents

• Introduction
• Part 1
• 1. Positioning the Author
• 2. Theoretical Perspectives
• 3. Methodology: From Theory to Implementation
• 4. Schools in Their Contexts
• Part 2
• 5. The Parents
• 6. Teachers at Their Work
• 7. The Children
• Part 3
• 8. School Routines: Culture, Religion, and Politics in the Classroom
• 9. Ceremonial Events
• 10. Conflicting National Narratives
• Part 4
• 11. The Graduates
• 12. Conclusions
• Author Index
• Subject Index

 

ZVI BEKERMAN teaches anthropology of education at the School of Education and The Melton Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His main interests are in the study of cultural, ethnic, and national identity, including identity processes and negotiation during intercultural encounters and in formal/informal learning contexts. He is particularly interested in how concepts such as culture and identity intersect with issues of social justice, intercultural and peace education, and citizenship education.

 

 

 

New Article: Taller-Azulay & Rusu, Parents’ Support in Education of Hearing Impaired Children

Taller-Azulay, Galia, and Alina Simona Rusu. “Parents’ Involvement in Supporting Education of Hearing Impaired Children in Israel.” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 209.3 (2015): 188-94.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.213

 

Extract

This article aims to investigate the psycho-pedagogical variables associated to the parents’ involvement in the special education of the hearing impaired children in Israel. It is generally acknowledged that parents of disabled children often go through a grieving process after the birth of their children. We assume that there is a difference between parents in regards to their gender and to the individual coping mechanisms with the birth process of a child with hearing impairment. All these differences are expected to be reflected in the level of parental involvement in the special education of their children.

 

 

 

New Article: Yakhnich, Immigrant Parents in the Educational System

Yakhnich, Liat. “Immigrant Parents in the Educational System. The Case of Former Soviet Union Immigrants in Israel.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 46.3 (2015): 387-405.

 

URL: http://jcc.sagepub.com/content/46/3/387

 

Abstract

This qualitative study focuses on immigrant parents’ perceptions of their children’s academic adaptation, their attitudes toward the host country’s educational system, and their motivation for school involvement. The participants are parents of adolescent children aged 11 to 17 years, who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union (FSU). Open in-depth interviews were used to obtain data regarding the participants’ views and insights. The interviews showed that the immigrant parents perceive education as an essential factor in their children’s successful adaptation to the host country. They report significant disparities between educational methods in the FSU and in Israel. They perceive Israeli schools and teachers as being more “friendly” and sensitive to children and granting them equal opportunities for success, yet they are highly frustrated by the teaching level and by discipline issues. Concerned about their children’s academic adaptation, parents try to influence their learning process from the home. Yet, they have difficulty becoming involved in the school and communicating with the teachers. The primary factor that promotes their school involvement is the teacher’s personal characteristics, such as availability, patience, and flexibility. The findings have significant implications for educators who wish to advance immigrant students’ adjustment by means of meaningful cooperation with their parents.