Project Director: Prof. Eyal Naveh
Ever since the State of Israel's earliest days, politics has been deliberately abandoned at the school gate with disastrous consequences. As a result of the education system's failure to promote political awareness among students, “politics" has become a dirty word and the political arena has become alien and contemptible. Through the eyes of a superficial and sensationalist media, students and graduates of the educations system witness the corrupt goings-on of an assortment of mediocre partisan go-getters. Thus, there is an ever increasing sense of alienation between politicians and Israeli youth. Although some of today's youth seek change, they lack the insight and tools with which to effect it because they never received a proper political education.
A generation of youth lacking political awareness may be inclined to seek easy solutions, preferring external authority to assuming responsibility, which could eventually lead to the acceptance and support of dictatorial solutions. It is obvious that the majority of today’s youth are abandoning the public sphere. Some have adopted an attitude of apathy and nihilism towards society and the State, while others express dangerous longings for “a strong leader to set things straight.” A politically illiterate society may be highly advanced in the areas of culture, technology and science, but could easily lose its resolve as a democracy, as has occurred repeatedly throughout history.
In light of the current crisis afflicting Israeli society, it is clear that the State is in dire need of an education system that promotes political awareness. In order to make political awareness a fundamental element of education, and to strengthen Israel's development as a pluralistic and democratic society, it is essential to design an educational program that includes core value content common to all students in the education system. A program of this type must address the reciprocal relationship between the individual and the group; focus on intercultural encounters; develop an interdisciplinary approach to issues of citizenship; and emphasize the common ground and the many mutual interests that exist among diverse societies, sectors, ethnic groups, and nationalities.
Toward this end, the Israel Democracy Institute will launch a program aimed at promoting political awareness among educators.
Target Audience: Leading school principals and educators (a nationwide group of principals and teachers and a mixed group of Jewish and Arab teachers from the Central Region), accompanied by academic researchers, totaling 80 – 100 participants, will engage in a course of study during the 2008-2009 academic year.
Vision: Political education has been shunned in public discourse and an effort must be made to initiate discussion and activity in this field. The IDI's goal is to make politics and democracy central to education and education central to political discourse, emphasizing the natural affinity between these two areas.
Objective: To expose various groups within the education system to the theoretical and practical aspects of politics in order to promote knowledge, critical analysis, and political activity throughout the education system.
Method: “The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.” Arthur C. Clarke (1917- 2008).
The IDI has accumulated extensive knowledge within the framework of the educational activities headed by Ms. Dafna Gruber, who has been working closely with schools, communities, and other bodies within the education system over the years. Under the direction of Prof. Eyal Naveh, IDI's political education staff has conducted extensive research and developed a model for political education in Israel that combines educational activism and theoretical research. The initiative for the conference and the consequent activities of the work groups are the fruit of the cooperation between these two projects.
Stage A – Opening Conference
Various positions will be presented at the conference concerning the question: “Whose School Is It?” Principals, teachers, students, representatives of the Ministry of Education, and academics will all address this question. This issue gives rise to a multiplicity of questions spanning a broad range of topics and disciplines, from abstract political theory and cultural criticism, on the one hand, through everyday pedagogical practice, on the other. The conference will bring together academic theorists and educators who work in the schools in an attempt to create a fertile union between critical, theoretical thought and practical, pedagogical efforts. From a theoretical point of view, the objective of the conference is to explore the relation between the theoretical and practical aspects of both education and politics. From a practical point of view, the objective of the conference is to establish a basis for developing and distributing theories in the discipline of political education, and methods for their application according to the model detailed below.
Stage B – Work Groups
Following the conference, the IDI will host three work groups: one composed of school principals, a second of teachers and pedagogic coordinators who will develop content and methodology, and a third group of teachers (Arab and Jewish from the Central Region). The groups will be accompanied by IDI staff members, academics, and representatives from the Ministry of Education.
Each group will focus on a common project (details to follow). The discussion will be conducted in three stages: an evaluation and critical analysis of the current relevant political conditions; an ethical discussion aimed at identifying the desired goal; and a practical, political discussion to determine the viable courses of action. The third stage will be divided into two phases: a discussion of what may be achieved “tomorrow morning,” given the current constraints, followed by a discussion of what may be done to alter the constraints themselves.
The Groups
1. "Content Generators": Principals and Teachers
Moderator: Prof. Eyal Naveh
General
In order to promote long-term change, it is our intention to assemble principals, select teachers, and educational and social coordinators from various schools. The sessions are intended to develop an active political and civic culture both in and out of the classroom – including the hallways, the schoolyard and the principal’s office. Two work groups will be formed within this framework: the principals and social coordinators will be responsible for the “hallway,” and the teachers and educational coordinators will be responsible for the “classroom.” These groups will work, jointly and separately, to create a democratic and political environment at school with a holistic perspective, including both the organizational and administrative aspects of managing the school, as well as a pedagogical point of view, i.e. the course content and the manner in which it is taught.
In the first two sessions, the groups will work together in order to fully understand the existing and the desired political culture, both inside and outside the classroom. Thereafter, the groups will be divided into two working groups: one group of teachers and educational coordinators, who will draft the curriculum and develop the methodology to foster critical thinking and adherence to civic duties (political education inside the classroom); and a second group of principals and social coordinators, who will discuss how to best manage a school in accordance with the values of political education, that is, in ways that will promote critical analysis and creative expression, ensure fair treatment of the students, and encourage them to engage in public activities at school (political education “in the hallways")
There will be four to six group sessions of four hours each, which will be documented and transcribed:
A. Political Education “In the Classroom” – Teachers and Educational Coordinators of History, Biology and Civics
Objectives: To design lesson plans and teaching methods that embody aspects of critical, political education, which may be implemented “tomorrow morning,” and to make organizational recommendations that would allow teachers to adapt the curriculum and accepted teaching methods in order to optimally encourage critical thinking.
B. Political Education “In the Hallways” – Principals and Social Coordinators
Objective: To make two types of practical recommendations for creating a democratic atmosphere and political culture in schools:
- Recommendations that may be implemented “tomorrow morning,” that is, within the existing framework of the schools' organizational and administrative culture.
- Recommendations that target the political arena, vis-a-vis the State and the public.
2. Jewish Arab Group
A group of Jewish and Arab teachers and principals from twenty schools in the Central Region will be trained at IDI in order to initiate the implementation of these procedures at their schools and at interschool forums of mixed populations. The group will participate in the conference and then in a study course during the 2008-2009 academic year that will focus on the issue of Political Education In Light of the Division of the Education System into Separate Sectors. Here, too, a critical evaluation of the existing situation will be conducted initially, followed by a discussion to determine mutual educational goals and to develop a plan to implement them in the schools. Moreover, the possibilities for changing the existing conditions will be discussed. The constraints in the current system will be viewed not as insurmountable barriers, but rather as challenges that call for creative thought and a search for innovative and original courses of action.
Stage C - Conclusions
At the conclusion of the sessions, the teams will assemble for an additional conference to present the fruits of their labor. It will include a presentation of the processes of development that they undertook, their plans for future action, the study materials they collected and the position papers they drafted, followed by a discussion on how to advance to the next stage.
We believe that the proposed model can generate real change in the political culture within the education system and likewise establish education as a major consideration in political discourse. We believe that the confluence of theoreticians and practitioners is fundamental to political education, as demonstrated by the German experience, and offers a real opportunity to advance both the theoretical and the practical in the disciplines of education and politics alike.