This study explores the perspective of day school parents as they engage with questions of race with their children and in the context of their day school choice. We convened a book group in summer 2020. Nine White mothers of school-aged children met over four ninety minute sessions to discuss Margaret Hagermans' (2018) White Kids: Growing up with…

The contrast between student-centred and knowledge-centred teaching is explored through a qualitative case study exploration of the pedagogies (Bruner's 'folk pedagogies') of six teachers of Jewish studies. These teachers, based in orthodox Jewish schools in the UK and Australia, discussed their roles as teachers in the context of their…

The current study delves into the professional identity of elementary school rabbis within the national-religious education system in Israel, focusing on the perspectives of the rabbis themselves and examining how their professional identity impacts their work. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 rabbis who were selected using a convenience…

The kindergarten teachers of the Religious Kibbutz movement (RK) as a unique group are connected both to the educational approaches of the kindergartens in the general Kibbutz Movement and the state religious kindergartens. A qualitative study included semi-structured interviews with 15 RK kindergarten teachers in order to explore their…

Controversy surrounding the teaching of secular education (SE) has fomented recurrent conflicts between liberal states and religious enclave communities (ECs). The current study explored Haredi (Jewish ultra-Orthodox) community-based activism aiming to promote SE in New York Hasidic schools for boys. It sheds light on how Haredi activists'…

In this essay, I explore Jewish composer/singer/liturgist Debbie Friedman and her time in Houston (1978-1984) as a crucial moment in the history of Jewish education. Working as a music educator in two area synagogues, Friedman negotiated a changing environment as cantorial training rose to become a mark of communal musical authority. She…

The study's aim was to identify the entrepreneurial process ten Jewish immigrant religious educators utilized when establishing innovative educational institutions, thereby affecting the Israeli religious education system. We utilized a social innovation approach to education entrepreneurship applying a qualitative analysis of life story…

This paper speaks to translation as a powerful window into students' developing religious literacy practices. It considers how 10- and 11-year-old North American Modern Orthodox Jewish students read and translate the Hebrew Bible refracted through their own cultural and religious expectations: in other words, how students use translation to…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore with a group of nine NYC high school department chairs from three different Modern Orthodox yeshivas, their perceptions of their role and responsibilities, their perceptions on how they manage any challenges they might face, how they support professional growth through any of the four…

The purpose of this paper is to summarize research about the experience of newer instructional leaders in Jewish day schools in order to identify best practice in supporting them. Data is drawn from the results of a narrative study that explored the socialization of ten Jewish day school principals in the first three years of their first position…

This basic qualitative research study describes how Jewish supplementary school directors and educators define inclusion, include students with disabilities in their religious school education programs, identify different components of the schools that benefit inclusion, and understand barriers that impede inclusion. Through in-depth interviews…

This study tests the effects of performing daily kind acts over a 4-week period on upper elementary students' subjective well-being (happiness) and academic engagement. It also tests the correlation between increases in both measures. Upper elementary students often experience a decrease in academic engagement due to increased difficulty and…

Although several prior studies portray integration in Jewish high schools, this study presents a unique example from a Jewish middle school, where a team of 7th-grade teachers met over two years to integrate their disciplines. Investigating factors that facilitated and hindered integration, I found that the following factors helped drive…

Despite the popularity of distributed leadership theory, the investigation of the micro-political aspects of such models have scarcely been explored, and insights on the cultural variety of distributed practices in schools are limited. The present study aimed to explore what micro-political aspects emerge in participative decision making in…

The Israeli state-religious-education system (SRES) held an unfavorable view of Mizrahi religiosity in the 1980s. Text analyses of religious-education heads' writings indicate that they saw Mizrahi religiosity as a primitive relic of the past and as a "low-level religiosity" and regarded Mizrahi students as uncommitted and compromising.…