I write about the connection between emotions and social status, the perception of oneself as having a high status, cultivating a critical social consciousness, and expanding awareness of the consequences of social stratification.
Teacher identity in elite schools in Israel: Shared habitus, a sense of chosenness, and an open future
This article examined two key questions: What characterizes teacher identity in elite high schools? Whether and how does teacher identity play a role in producing and cultivating privileges? To resolve these questions, 20 teachers in elite high schools in Israel were interviewed. The main research findings revealed three unique characteristics of teacher identity: a shared habitus experience between teachers and students ...
Elite identities in high schools: entitlement, pragmatism, a sense of best place, and apoliticism
Based on 20 semi-structured interviews with high school students in elite schools in Israel, this article examines two key research questions: How do students in elite high schools define and experience their identity? Do these identities contribute to the production and maintenance of privilege, and if so, how? To examine these questions, we relied on theoretical and empirical reports suggesting privilege to be examined as identity.
Problematizing teachers' accounts of privilege in elite high schools
The research question at the core of this paper concerns how teachers in elite Israeli high schools explain their educational work in this context, given its central role in establishing and perpetuating privilege in the current polarized era. To answer this question, we conducted 28 interviews with teachers from three elite high schools in Israel.
Processes of cultivating critical consciousness among teachers and tutors: An encounter between the personal and the political
This chapter is written from a personal perspective, my perspective as a leader of a Naomi Hatam training house. It is concerned with fostering critical consciousness processes among teachers in general and among Hatam teachers who teach disadvantaged populations in particular, and it will also present several principles in training that realize the possibility of fostering this consciousness. The basic premise is that critical consciousness will inevitably change the complex educational action that Hatamists and Hatamists are required to undertake in a reality of inequality and social gaps, and will serve as a mechanism for social change.
Mentors - On the Orientation of a New Educational Role in an Elitist School
This article examines the role of "mentoring," a new role in a private school of high socioeconomic status, in order to understand how a relatively new educational policy (called "therapeutic education") is translated into specific educational practice. This empirical examination helps to understand how privileged class identities are maintained.
Teacher Identity in Elitist Schools: Shared Habitus, Sense of "Selectedness," and an Open Future
This article examined two central questions: What characterizes teacher identity in elitist schools? Whether and how does teacher identity play a role in the production and maintenance of privilege and cultural capital? The main research findings reveal three unique characteristics of teacher identity: teachers’ shared habitus with their students, a sense of selectivity, and the cultivation and practice of an open future. Teachers also described specific metaphors of teacher identity in elitist secondary schools.
Articles
Haaretz, interview in the personal interview section, 2022
Why is there no equality in education in Israel?
Students in elitist schools learn to speak with authority, and live with a sense of entitlement. They move around the world like householders.
"What defines the dreams of the lower class are the conditions in which the children live. You often hear: So at least you have a profession, it's important to have a steady income and a continuing education fund. It's a discourse of restraint, limitation, restraint, objective difficulties, survival."
Local conversation, 2022
Potential for blossoming or youth at risk: The attitude of teachers to students perpetuates gaps.
A study conducted at an elitist school shows that teachers give students the feeling that "the sky is the limit." According to a study at a vocational school, the attitude toward students is almost the opposite. These different approaches distance the chance of equal opportunities.