In troubled societies narratives about the past tend to be partial and explain a conflict from narrow perspectives that justify the national self and condemn, exclude and devalue the 'enemy' and their narrative. Through a detailed analysis, Teaching Contested Narratives reveals the works of identity, historical narratives and memory as these are enacted in classroom dialogues, canonical texts and school ceremonies. Presenting ethnographic data from local contexts in Cyprus and Israel, and demonstrating the relevance to educational settings in countries which suffer from conflicts all over the world, the authors explore the challenges of teaching narratives about the past in such societies, discuss how historical trauma and suffering are dealt with in the context of teaching, and highlight the potential of pedagogical interventions for reconciliation. The book shows how the notions of identity, memory and reconciliation can perpetuate or challenge attachments to essentialized ideas about peace and conflict.

The International Handbook of Jewish Education, a two volume publication, brings together scholars and practitioners engaged in the field of Jewish Education  and its cognate fields world-wide. Their submissions make a significant  contribution to our knowledge of the field of Jewish Education as we start the second decade of the 21st century.  The Handbook is divided broadly into four main sections: Vision and Practice: focusing on issues of philosophy, identity and planning –the big issues of Jewish Education.Teaching and Learning: focusing on areas of curriculum and engagementApplications, focusing on the ways that Jewish Education is transmitted in particular contexts, both formal and informal, for children and adults.Geographical, focusing on historical, demographic, social and other issues that are specific to a region or where an issue or range of issues can be compared and contrasted between two or more locations.This comprehensive collection of articles providing high quality content, constitutes a difinitive statement  on the state of Jewish Education world wide, as well as through a wide variety of lenses and contexts. It is written in a style that is accessible to a global community of academics and professionals.

First international effort which challenges the discourse of culture in minority/migrant educational policy and practice

An important contribution to critical educational theory which focuses on ‘the social’ and ‘the in-between’.

Over 40 theoretical and empirical studies which cover more than 20 locations in Europe, America, Australia and Asia.

Migrants and minorities are always at risk of being caught in essentialized cultural definitions and being denied the right to express their cultural preferences because they are perceived as threats to social cohesion. Migrants and minorities respond to these difficulties in multiple ways — as active agents in the pedagogical, political, social, and scientific processes that position them in this or that cultural sphere. On the one hand, they reject ascribed cultural attributes while striving towards integration in a variety of social spheres, e.g. school and workplace, in order to achieve social mobility. On the other hand, they articulate demands for cultural self-determination. This discursive duality is met with suspicion by the majority culture. For societies with high levels of migration or with substantial minority cultures, questions related to the meaning of cultural heterogeneity and the social and cultural limits of learning and communication (e.g. migration education or critical multiculturalism) are very important. It is precisely here where the chances for new beginnings and new trials become of great importance for educational theorizing, which urgently needs to find answers to current questions about individual freedom, community/cultural affiliations, and social and democratic cohesion. Answers to these questions must account for both ‘political’ and ‘learning’ perspectives at the macro, mezzo, and micro contextual levels. The contributions of this edited volume enhance the knowledge in the field of migrant/minority education, with a special emphasis on the meaning of culture and social learning for educational processes.

Content Level » Research

Keywords » acceptance - adaptation - assimilation - belonging - conflict of cultures - cultural - culture - differences - education - educational research - emancipation - ethnic - exclusion - governance - heterogeneity - immigrants - integration - international - learning - learning process - migration - minorities - minority education - multiculturalism - networks - recognition - school policies - schooling - self-determination - social - social change - social cohesion - social learning - social limits - social mobility - socialisation - transculturality

Related subjects » Education & Language - Population Studies - Social Sciences

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A Case Study of Jewish Day School Leadership: How Way Leads on to Way surfaces core challenges confronting Jewish day schools today: how schools can develop productive ways of working with one another and with other communal agencies; how leadership transition can enable the healthy renewal of institutions; how the conditions of financial sustainability might be cultivated in schools; and how day schools can contribute positively to the ecosystems of Jewish communal life. This groundbreaking publication was featured at the 2010 PEJE Assembly for Advancing the Jewish Day School Field.