From Practice-to-Research-to-Practice: Building the Field by Building an Evidence Base in Jewish Education

Source: AVI CHAI Foundation Blog 

Susan M. Kardos, announces the establishment of a Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education on the AVI CHAI Foundation Blog. 

"Motivated by AVI CHAI’s desire to invest in this needed aspect of a strong Jewish education field, and inspired by the Jim Joseph Foundation’s commitment to and investment in research and scholarship in Jewish education, the two foundations joined forces to imagine and fund the first phase of what we are calling the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE).

In Phase 1 of CASJE we plan to identify 4 critical questions in Jewish education and assemble “panels” of perhaps 12-20 scholars and practitioners who have much to say on the particular panel question. Panel questions might fall within topic areas such as Israel education, Jewish education leadership, or adolescent spiritual development and will examine the questions from multiple disciplinary perspectives and in different educational settings.

Each panel will create:

1. A review of the current literature in the field related to that question: What is known? What is not known? What is contested and how?
2. A digital monograph of the panel materials such as essays, briefs, videos and artifacts,
3. A research agenda that will grow out of the literature review and the panel colloquium. We have 2 serious commitments that stretch across all the work of Phase 1, from how we do the planning to all of the work of the panels. First, we are committed that all of the work fully integrates practitioners, is guided by practitioner questions from the field, and is readily applied to practice. Second, we are committed to utilizing 21st Century technologies to democratize the effort and ensure field participation in all stages."

Visit the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education website.