Abstract

Since 2009, the civic education curriculum for high schools in Israel has been often at the center of a heated political debate that span well beyond the pedagogical and educational discourses. I will use the case of the debate over the civic curriculum in Israel and the changes that were implemented in the past five years, to examine the influence of the rise of the populist right in Israel on educational discourses. In particular, I will critically explore how the meaning of the ‘political’ and what is considered politically legitimate and desirable in the education system in Israel, have changed over the years as a result of broader political and socio-economic pressures.

About the speaker:

Halleli Pinson (BA, TAU ; MPhil, PhD, Cambridge University) is a senior lecturer at the Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University and former member of Wolfson College. Pinson is a political sociologist of education, she has published extensively on citizenship education in conflict-ridden societies, neo-liberal policies in the context of minority education, and education and forced migration, especially on educational policies and school practices in relation to the integration of asylum-seeking children. She is the co-author of Education, Asylum and the ‘Non-Citizen’ Child, and a co-editor of Citizenship, Education and Social Conflict. She is currently the president of Israeli Comparative Education Society and a member of the UNESCO -UCLA network of Global Citizenship. She is also a member of the editorial boards of the BJSE and Race Ethnicity and Education.

Refreshments from 17.30, talks start at 17.45