Student body diversity is a key goal of Israeli higher education policy. While this goal aims to reduce inequality, a group-based national plan with differential guidelines for Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Jews of Ethiopian descent uncovers systemic stratifying mechanisms. This article examines why a policy intent on promoting equality does so…

Sex education presents a major dilemma for state-minority relations, reflecting a conflict between basic rights to education and religious freedom. In this comparative ethnography of informal sex education among ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) in Israel and England, we frame the critical difference between "age-appropriate" and…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the kinds of motivation driving Arab and Jewish students in Israel to choose teaching as a career. This study addressed several issues that have been largely overlooked in previous research such as the focus on Content Value motives (the motivation to teach specific subjects) as well as linking demographic…

This article discusses the implications of sociopolitical and cultural challenges and complexity on educational leaders' use of strategic thinking skills in divided societies, using the case of Israel, a deeply divided society with a hegemonic Jewish ethno-national state and Bedouins -- a subculture of the minority Arabs. In the suggested model,…

This article investigates the phenomenology of "Social Education Coordinators" in Israeli high schools regarding school's civic education. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted, followed by a two-stage coding process. The Social Education Coordinators indicate that their schools seem to be unified behind the goal of…

This research examines the interaction between international governmental organizations (IGOs) and national governments around the development of secondary social studies curriculum in post-genocide contexts, with a special focus on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) involvement with secondary social…

In January 2012, a team of curriculum specialists based at Bar Ilan University in Israel were approached by a Jewish day school in Australia to design a new Jewish Studies curriculum for its school. The mandate was to design a curriculum model from first-steps that would form the basis for the new curriculum. This article demonstrates how…

A widely read article from this journal explores innovative Jewish educational programs, initiatives, and organizations, arguing that these share a comdmitment to being "learner-centered" and recommending that a system be created to foster collaboration among them (Woocher, 2012). Using five San Francisco Bay Area-based…

Despite substantial interest and research in measuring leader's skills, little is known about the measurement equivalence and mean differences in the scores measuring principals' skills (cognitive, interpersonal, strategic) across cultures (collectivism versus individualism). The aim of the present study was to assess measurement…

This article offers an ethnographic account of the professional activities of mental health practitioners, employed by the state's religious education system. I analyze various models implemented by practitioners for the purposes of preparing pupils for the state-mandated evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza and the West Bank. By focusing on…

This ethnographic case study explores parent volunteers at two Jewish American schools and two Israeli schools of similar ideological background. It is an attempt to understand parent involvement in general--from the viewpoint of the parent him or herself--as well as the influence of volunteerism on school culture. It offers a new categorization…

We frequently encounter the claim that a particular Jewish educational experience will be "transformative" for the participants. The language may be hyperbole. But it may also point to educators' aspirations to affect not just knowledge and practice but character and identity. In order to understand this phenomenon--not the phenomenon of…

Dr. Woocher's essay, states Mirvis, is seminal in the field of Jewish education. It proposes a new paradigm for Jewish education in North America. This proposed paradigm is supported by a comprehensive multi-disciplinary research drawing on literature from education, philosophy, history, sociology, psychology, and economics. The essay reflects a…

Research studies demonstrate the efficacy of the story-sharing experience on children's moral development. This article explores how the triadic relationship between a Jewish children's story, the child, and the parent storyteller can impact the youngster's moral growth. Using examples from two leading projects in Jewish…

The current study examines the workings of a bilingual school for Jewish and Palestinian-Israeli students and its contribution towards the goal of educating for equal citizenship in Israel's multicultural society. The findings indicate that this school succeeds in advancing the notion of equal citizenship, as demonstrated in the fact that the…