Section archive - Formal Education

This qualitative research aims to explore the experiences of teachers in the implementation of prayer services in religious high schools for boys in Israel. It is a continued research project following on from a study which focused on the experiences of students in the implementation of prayer services.

Jewish education in Israel’s non-religious state (Mamlakhti) schools is intended to support an open-ended, pluralistic dialogue surrounding the question of Jewish identity. The distinct features of Knowledge Building Communities (KBCs) set them apart as a pedagogical approach that is particularly suitable for achieving this educational goal. In this article, we report on a year-long study that redesigned a tenth-grade Jewish philosophy class in Israel as a KBC.

Yeshiva boarding high schools were the leading educational institutions of state-religious education in Israel in the 1980s. These were institutions for boys only, which combined holy studies with regular high school diploma (Bagrut) subjects. Given the marginality of Mizrahi religion in the yeshiva high school daily life, this article points out the centrality of Mizrahi religiosity in the Purim events celebrated in theses yeshivot, as expressed in the personal histories of Mizrahi graduates.

This study is a qualitative project which took place with six elementary-aged children in a progressive Jewish education program. The children took photos around their synagogue of items related to gender. The children chose their favorite photos, then explained and discussed the photos with their peers. All explanations and discussions were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and inductively analyzed. Results emphasize the importance of providing opportunities for children to voice their opinions on social-justice related constructs like gender equality. The results also speak to the role of institutions such as synagogues as environments where children develop their beliefs about gender.