ABOUT THIS BOOK

Examines how day schools are educating diverse Jewish youth in a variety of content areas.

Teaching and Learning in Jewish Day Schools offers an important analysis of Jewish day school classrooms today. In light of difficulties initiating, evaluating, and sustaining educational innovation, this volume takes stock of what is happening among students and teachers in contemporary Jewish day school classrooms. The authors of this volume confront and question several bedrock principles of Jewish education to address how day schools intersect with broader societal issues including race and gender. They point to themes and topics that scholars and practitioners are grappling with to explore new potential pathways to evaluating student learning and learning outcomes: assessing core subject areas; understanding the ways social and environmental factors contribute to learning; and studying how race, ethnicity, class, and gender shape student learning and school culture. The chapters address topics relevant to educators working in contemporary Jewish day schools including Zionism, the outcomes of Israel education, Jewish engagement, the experience of Latinx students, community building, and more.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jonathan B. Krasner is associate professor and the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Professor of Jewish Education Research at Brandeis University with a joint appointment in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education. Jon A. Levisohn is associate professor and the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Chair in Jewish Educational Thought at Brandeis University, where he directs the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education. Sharon Avni is professor of academic literacy and linguistics at Borough of Manhattan Community College, part of the City University of New York.

REVIEWS

“As both timely and essential reading, Teaching and Learning in Jewish Day Schools makes a significant contribution by offering empirically grounded portraits of how Jewish education is enacted on the ground. Several chapters stand out for their analytic clarity and sensitivity to tensions practitioners routinely confront. . . . The value of Krasner, Levisohn, and Avni’s volume lies in the conversations it invites-about method, coordination, and purpose across research and practice in Jewish education.”

— Contemporary Jewry

“From Bible to Zionism, Jewish history, and Hebrew, subject matter becomes the stage that provides access to how teachers teach and how learners think in Jewish classrooms. A virtual tour of schools of different denominations, ages and content areas treats readers to analyses of teachers’ pedagogies and learners’ experiences, including those of Latin American, Haredi, urban, and suburban Jews.”

— Miriam Heller Stern, CEO, Builders of Jewish Education, Los Angeles

“Researchers and practitioners alike will benefit from the volume’s accessible presentation of rigorous research. Readers will gain insight into how learning and development happen in these settings and an appreciation of the role Jewish day schools play in fostering positive Jewish growth.”

— Jeffrey Kress, provost and professor of Jewish education, Jewish Theological Seminary

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Chapter 1: Learning the Language of Zionism
Chapter 2: Knowledge and Connection as Outcomes of Israel Education
Chapter 3: Intercomprehending in Action: Text-Based Discussion in a 7th Grade Bible Classroom
Chapter 4: Connected but not Confident: The Gender Confidence Gap Regarding Israeli Politics and History
Chapter 5: Understanding Attitudes of Jewish Day School Students: A New Typology of Jewish Engagement
Chapter 6: Responsive Classrooms Meet the Rabbis: The Impact of Delet on Teachers’ Community Building Practice
Chapter 7: What do Parents Want from Hebrew Studies in Jewish Day School Education?
Chapter 8: Three Conceptions of Rabbinics: Understanding Teachers’ Thinking
Chapter 9: Four Approaches to the Instruction of Halakha
Chapter 10: Signature Pedagogy and Constituent Authenticity: A New Model of Authentic Activity in Jewish Day School Classrooms
Chapter 11: Orienting Students to Engage with Pluralism: A Cultural Approach
Chapter 12: Designing Schools Around Five Dimensions of Community
Chapter 13: Sometimes Seen: The Experience of Latinx Students in Jewish Day Schools
Conclusion: What We’ve Learned about Teaching and Learning in Jewish Day Schools, and What We Still Need to Learn