Zehavit Gross

Reflective Teaching as a Path to Religious Meaning-Making and Growth 1

Abstract This qualitative study examines how respondents evaluate the influence of their teachers upon the formation of their religious discourse in terms of content, process, and structure. This study addresses the educational-value aspect of religious schooling, as distinct from the instructional aspect, as an integral part of the school curriculum. The findings show that the role of teachers in the construction of their students’ religious world is limited. The style of most of the teachers in Religious Education is instrumental; only a small minority utilizes reflective strategies. However, these teachers had a meaningful impact on their students’ religious socialization processes.

The Construction of a Multidimensional Spiritual Identity via ICT

This article aims to examine how media and computers can serve as a vehicle for the enhancement of spiritual and religious identity and socialization. An innovative typological model (RSTM) for assessing secularity and religiosity and its implications on the need to utilize advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) are discussed. In addition, another innovative theoretical model (KPIF) describes how, through the use of advanced ICT, information is transformed into knowledge and becomes an integral part of the meaning‐making and identity formation processes. La Construction d’une Identité Spirituelle Multi‐Dimensionnelle par le truchement des TICE Cet article a pour but d’examiner comment les medias et les ordinateurs peuvent servir de vecteurs pour l’enrichissement de l’identité spirituelle et religieuse et de la socialisation. On examine ici les avantages et les inconvénients d’un modèle typologique innovant (RSTM) pour évaluer la religiosité et les implications que cela entraîne en termes de nécessité d’utilisation des technologies avancées de l’information et de la communication (TIC). Par ailleurs, un autre modèle théorique innovant (KPIF) décrit comment grâce à l’usage des TIC avancées, l’information est transformée en connaissance et devient partie intégrante du processus de construction du sens et de formation de l’identité. Der Aufbau einer multidimensionalen geistlichen Identität über ICT Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist, zu prüfen, wie Medien und Computer als ein Vehikel für die Verbesserung von Spiritualität und religiöser Identität und Sozialisation dienen können. Ein innovatives typologisches Modell (RSTM) für die Beurteilung der “secularity” und Religiosität und ihrer Auswirkungen, dem Bedarf nach der Nutzung fortschrittlicher Informations‐ und Kommunikationstechnik (ICT), wird erörtert. Außerdem beschreibt ein anderes innovatives theoretisches Modell (KPIF), wie durch die Verwendung von fortschrittlicher ICT Information in Wissen transformiert und ein integraler Bestandteil der Bedeutungserstellung und des Identitätsformungsprozesses werden kann.

The Attitudes of Israeli Arab and Jewish High School Students towards Extrinsic and Intrinsic Values.

The aim of this research was to investigate the attitudes of Israeli Arab (n = 259) and Jewish (n = 259) high school students toward extrinsic and intrinsic values. A questionnaire, which consisted of eight value scales in two groups—extrinsic and intrinsic values—was administered. Participants were asked to state whether they agreed or disagreed with 31 statements on a five-point Likert scale. Jewish students who experience school-based values education endorsed more intrinsic values (e.g. autonomy: Jews M = 4.27, SD = .53; Arabs M = 3.92, SD = .83), whereas Arab students, whose education as a minority group focuses on education towards achievement, endorsed more extrinsic values (e.g. attractiveness: Jews M = 3.56, SD = .82; Arabs M = 3.96, SD = .84). The findings suggest that the use of a more refined and complex analysis of extrinsic–intrinsic scales yields multiple interpretations of moral education in a modern world. This research may contribute to the discussion on moral education for minority groups, especially where they are a distinct minority in a society where they are surrounded by different cultural values. The growing cultural diversity in the Western world requires that through moral and civic education, schools explicitly expose their students, and especially minority groups, to the diverse interpretations of values and to the need to both respect differing interpretations, on the one hand, and to challenge them, on the other.

Multiple Religious and Secular Definitions of Secular Adolescents in Israel

This study explores the validity of a novel theoretical model for assessing secularity and religiosity that proposes two dimensions — conceptual and inherited — in an efffort to further refijine the religious/secular dichotomy applied in research to date. These new dimensions describe the manner in which people structure their world, religious or secular world as the case may be, and the signifijicance they ascribe to it. The study, conducted among grade 12 students (N=100) in state (secular) schools in Israel, revealed that only fijive of the eight types in the theoretical model are manifested empirically: three secular (conceptual, inherited and integrative) and two religious (conceptual and inherited). It posits that the concepts “religious” and “secular” are comprehensive and cannot fully describe the complexity of an individual’s self- and public defijinition in a modern, pluralistic world.

A Quest for the Realm of Spirituality

The aim of this chapter is to analyze through the RSTM typological model the location of the realm of spirituality and assess its character. The basic assumption of this model is that both religiosity and secularity are types of search for meaning. They are parallel, equivalent entities and constructs, and not opposites. Both contain a spiritual aspect which is “located” in a different place within the human capacity. Spirituality in this regard is engaged with the loftier functional side of life.

Islamic Education and the Challenge of Democratic Citizenship: A Critical Perspective.

ABSTRACT This article analyzes how concepts of liberal and progressive Islam, which have been developed in the political and theological academic literature, may inform the curriculum of Islamic education and the practice of religious educators in Islamic schools in the US. We investigate the meaning of in-faith Islamic education and how it can conform to the life in a democratic, multicultural, and multi-faith society. Liberal Islam challenges the transmission-oriented and rigid interpretations of Islam and seeks to appreciate and to contextualize the religious claims which are compatible with ideals of reflective education, rational thinking, mutual respect, and equal citizenship. It suggests that students become critical ‘consumers’ of Islam, its moral and civic purposes, and the cultural politics of religious interrogations.

Combatting antisemitism in the school playground: an Australian case study

ABSTRACT The aim of Gross and Rutlands paper is to analyse the problem of antisemitic bullying in contemporary Australian state schools by investigating the case of Jewish children in those schools. The study is interdisciplinary, drawing on historical data and educational methodology, and employs a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews conducted in Sydney and Melbourne with all the major actors: students (55), teachers (10), principals (4), parents (13) and Jewish communal leaders (10). Gross and Rutland argue that classical anti-Jewish stereotypes are perpetuated in the school playground, transmitted by children from one generation to the next. This finding provides an additional perspective to the general literature, which argues that racial prejudice and stereotypes are acquired primarily through home socialization, religious institutions and the media, and neglects the role of the school playground.

Introduction: Challenging Patriarchy: New Advances in Researching Religious Feminism and Religious Education

The aim of this unique book is to enhance interdisciplinary discourse on the complex interrelations between gender, religion, and education in today’s world. The immense changes in terms of globalization and migration of peoples have had a profound effect on cultures and identities. Does this result in shifts in religious identities for women and men in different contexts; can such shifts be viewed as beneficial, negative, or insufficient; or does the social change take the direction of new conservatism or fundamentalism? Related to these questions is the role of education in any change.

Creating a safe place: SRE teaching as an act of security and identity formation in government schools in Australia

This study seeks to analyse the components that contribute to Special Religious Education (SRE) classes in government schools in Australia being considered as a ‘safe place’ and the ways in which they facilitate an understanding of the students’ own religious and cultural identity. Our research focuses on one of the small faiths, Judaism, as a case study through observation of the Jewish SRE/SRI classes in the two largest Jewish population centres, Sydney and Melbourne. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 90 participants, and classroom observations were undertaken in both cities. This paper draws on Kymlicka’s concept of the rights of minority groups in a liberal society and discusses the distinction between thin and thick multiculturalism. Our findings show that the Jewish SRE teachers implemented Jackson’s interpretive approach, ensuring that the students’ educational experience is meaningful. As a result, they are able to develop their unique identity capital, which is important in a multifaith society to ensure ‘thick’ multiculturalism. Our argument is that students need to have an understanding of their own particularistic identity, as well as learning to respect other religions.

Religious-Zionist Attitudes Towards the Peace Process

Abstract The aim of this article is to analyse the attitudes of Religious-Zionists toward the Middle East peace process. The Religious-Zionist movement served as the flag-bearer for Jewish settlement in the occupied territories of Judea, Samaria and Gaza and the principal reserve of the settler population. The tragedy of Religious-Zionism may well be its desire to integrate within and benefit from historical realities originating in relative, pragmatic conceptions, along with its refusal or inability to liberate itself of thinking tools, conceptions and norms belonging to a theological, a-historical world controlled by absolute values and dreams. The dominant trend in Religious-Zionism was found to have a direct influence on the nature of Jewish public discourse and is expected to influence the shaping of Jewish society and culture in the State of Israel after the peace agreements are signed.