A New Look at Israel Education: Mapping the Field and Charting the Future
Source: eJewish Philanthropy
Anne Lanski, Executive Director of the iCenter, writes about the "iThink: A New Look at Israel Education" conference hosted by iCenter in partnership with the Schusterman Family Foundation, the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Marcus Foundation and the AVI CHAI Foundation . For a full day, more than 80 organizational leaders, Jewish and Israel educators, funder representatives and scholars reflected on the emergence of the field of Israel Education and envisioned what the future could look like.
The basis for this conversation was "Mapping the Field", a new report commissioned by the iCenter that documents the growth of the field of pre-collegiate Israel Education over the last 10 years and offers recommendations and goals for building on its progress.
Over the last decade, much progress has been made in developing the field of Israel education guided by the establishment of iCenter. The "Aleph-Bet of Israel Education" provides a powerful language for Israel educators. Masters degree concentrations and certification programs have been established. Foundations like the ones that sponsored iThink have committed significant resources to developing the field. And the iCenter exists as a North American agency.
Yet, a great deal more work remains to be done. Mapping the Field presented four major areas of recommendations, including: promulgating standards of practice for the field; increasing the availability of and access to high-quality, developmentally appropriate resources; investing in intensifiers – strategic interventions with a multiplying effect – that can be deployed across settings; and encouraging experimentation, risk-taking and expanded offerings by practitioners and organizations in the field.
Follow a recording of iThink presentations and discussion on Youtube.
Read Anne Lanski's article on eJewish Philanthropy.