Schools of social work are increasingly offering study abroad courses as a strategy for enhancing future practitioners' knowledge and skills in serving individuals and families of diverse sociocultural backgrounds. Literature relative to such educational initiatives has focused on the characteristics, motivations, and outcomes for students and…

Judaism and Christianity, the religious traditions most influential on Western civilization, taught that the universe was created by the Word and that human beings were distinguished from all other animals by their use of words. What characterizes our age is a growing reliance on images as our words are being desymbolized. This desymbolization of…

This article offers a reading of a story from the Babylonian Talmud ("Bava Batra" 8a). Through this reading several key themes emerge, including: the power and politics of knowledge acquisition, the connection between spiritual and physical nourishment, the relationship between religious educators and students, and the meaning and value of…

This study attempts to explore Israeli and American teachers' perceptions based on their ethical dilemmas in Jewish schools. A cross-national study was undertaken in Jewish schools, examining fifty teachers from Israel and fifty-one teachers from the United States. Designed with team-based simulations, this study revealed strong similarities…

This article summarizes a study of the viewpoints of Bible lecturers in the Kindergarten Education Department while teaching content related to the biblical "other." The study, by two researchers themselves part of the study population, was conducted according to the qualitative approach and included interviews with participants from a…

Teachers' beliefs regarding civil sanctity were studied in the context of their pedagogical activities regarding two Israeli national memorial days--Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day. Interviews were conducted with 30 educators in six secular and six religious junior high schools with diverse populations and 12 memorial…

The teaching and learning of Modern Hebrew outside of Israel is essential to Jewish education and identity. One of the most contested issues in Modern Hebrew pedagogy is the use of code-switching between Modern Hebrew and learners' first language. Moreover, this is one of the longest running disputes in the broader field of second language…

The author explores the topic of Jewish rhetorics by examining how particular Jewish thinkers have conceptualized the ethical relation between self and other. She draws particular attention to the tacit rhetorical methodology at work in the teachings of Rabbi Yehouda Leon Askenazi. She shows that he distinguished himself from the more well-known…

Reflective journaling is frequently employed to help preservice educators make sense of fieldwork experiences. Analyzing the weekly journals of eight preservice educators, I offer conceptual language to describe how journal writing provides a window into students' capacity for reflection. This capacity is described in terms of three continua:…

Educators employed in devoutly religious institutions often teach students who view even their secular higher education through a uniquely religious lens. Based on his own experiences teaching psychological science at a Jewish university, the author suggests enhancing student interest and enthusiasm by wedding secular curricula with religious…

A century ago a group of educators led an effort to transform American Jewish education to enable it to operate successfully in the 20th century. Today, with American Jews living under very different conditions, a similar effort is needed to reinvent Jewish education for the 21st century. Changes and new initiatives already taking place on the…

Critical race scholars have argued that curricular portrayals of the Civil Rights Movement are undermined by master narratives that legitimate the racial status quo. Although many scholars have critiqued Movement master narratives in social studies and society, few studies have examined Black students' interpretations of such representations and…

Civic studies in Israel and elsewhere are unlike any other school subject. This course of study has a higher purpose--to transform students into good citizens. In contrast to other core subjects, civics, in essence, strives to realize ethical goals. While other subjects perceive the instilling of values as a secondary outcome, in civics the…

This study assesses whether more frequent participation in Jewish activist learning events is associated with higher levels of engagement in social justice-related activities and conceptions of Jewish identity. The study design was cross-sectional and comparative. An online survey was completed by 165 participants in an activist learning program.…

Practitioner research was conducted on Grade 10 students' arts-based projects of Numbers 12 in order to assess the value of using the arts in Jewish secondary schools. Based on interview transcripts, projects, and written statements, three themes emerged that demonstrated why teachers should use the arts in their classes. The arts provided…