Israel A Modern Education System

Study of the educational system in Israel, with particular reference to secondary education and teacher training - includes historical and geographical aspects. Bibliography pp. 175 to 181.

Study of the educational system in Israel, with particular reference to secondary education and teacher training - includes historical and geographical aspects. Bibliography pp. 175 to 181.

Each year, Israel's young men and women are drafted into compulsory military service and are required to engage directly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This conflict is by its nature intensely complex and is played out under the full glare of international security. So, how does Israel's education system prepare its young people for this? How is Palestine, and the Palestinians against whom these young Israelis will potentially be required to use force, portrayed in the school system? Nurit Peled-Elhanan argues that the textbooks used in the school system are laced with a pro-Israel ideology, and that they play a part in priming Israeli children for military service. She analyzes the presentation of images, maps, layouts and use of language in History, Geography and Civic Studies textbooks, and reveals how the books might be seen to marginalize Palestinians, legitimize Israeli military action and reinforce Jewish-Israeli territorial identity. This book provides a fresh scholarly contribution to the Israeli-Palestinian debate, and will be relevant to the fields of Middle East Studies and Politics more widely.

Israel witnessed rapid changes during the last five decades of its existence as an independent state. Geopolitical developments, particularly the continuous conflict with its Arab state neighbors, affected all spheres of life including education. Demographically, changing patterns of Jewish immigration has transformed the Jewish population several times from predominantly European in the late 1940s to Middle-Eastern during the late 1950s and 1960s and back to European following mass immigration from the former Soviet Union in the late 1980s and 1990s. These demographic changes, including waves of immigrants from Ethiopia, have raised issues of equality in educational policies. The authors of this book provide historical backround and analyses of Israel's educational system that they believe is on the crossroads of still another transformation as a result of the prospects of peace in the region.