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Between the dream and the reality: vocational education in Israel, 1948–92

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 19; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13537121.2013.799867

1743-9086

Nirit Raichel,

Education Systems and Policy

Abstract The article deals with the dream and the reality during the development of vocational education in Israel from 1948 to the end of the twentieth century and refers both to education for manual labour as a value and to the attempt at practical guidance of students towards productivity and vocational education. It describes the gap between leaders' statements – declaring their commitment to educate the younger generation to be productive and work oriented – and the actual focus on policies of expanding academic high schools while marginalizing vocational schools time and time again. Keywords: Israelvocational educationproductivityeducational systemnew Jew Notes 1. A.D. Gordon, Nation and Work (Jerusalem: Zaionist Library, 1951), 295 [in Hebrew]. 2. Y. Iram and M. Shmida, The Educational System of Israel (Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 1998); Nirit Raichel, The Story of the Israeli Educational System (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2008) [in Hebrew]. 3. Y.A., “Idea-Work,” Hapoel Hatzair, Jaffa, 7 September (Tishrei) 1913: 3. 4. Nirit Reichel, “Horizons in Contrast to ‘Realization’, The Hebrew Academic High Schools between Two Goals, 1906–1935,” Iyunim B'tkumat Yisrael 6 (1996): 288–329; Nirit Reichel, “The Portrait of the Desired Eretz-Yisraeli Pupil, 1889–1933,” Cathedra 83 (April 1997): 55–96. 5. A. Rodrigue, French Jews, Turkish Jews: The Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Politics of Jewish Schooling in Turkey 1860–1925 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 32–36; M. Rinot, Education in Eretz-Yisrael, 1882–1918 (Tel Aviv: The Israel National Academy of Science and the Biyalik Institute and Publications, 1999), 23. 6. The term ‘vocational education’ refers to education that is meant to provide technical skills and training – control of tools and machines, acquaintance with materials and their characteristics, knowledge of processing and production, work procedures and related skills, in order to prepare the learner to be an effective worker in a technical field. ‘technological education’, on the other hand, prepares the student to function in a high-tech science-based environment, an environment which changes frequently with scientific progress. This type of education aims to grant the pupil the ability to exploit knowledge effectively in order to find solutions that could and should be effectively applied. 7. A. Reiger et al., Vocational Education in Jewish Settlement in Eretz-Yisrael (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1945), 136–41. 8. E. Tsafroni and Y. Rosenman, The ORT Network – Its History and Its Education (Tel Aviv: Ort Publishers, 2004). 9. Prof. Benzion Dinur, the third Minister of Education in Israel, was an educationist – he was the principal of one of the two first teacher training seminars in the pre-State period, David Yelin (now academic college) in Jerusalem, a professor of history at Hebrew University. He was a member of the National Israeli Academy of the Sciences and was awarded the Israel Prize for his work. 10. Benzion Dinur, the Education and Culture Committee of the Knesset, May 20, 1952. 11. Aran was a member of the Knesset and minister, representing the Mapai. He served as Minister of Education for 11 years: 1955–60 and 1963–69. 12. Y. Yonai, Education for Work and for Profession, Documentation Series 66 Jerusalem: Ministry of Education (Yonai was the Ministry of Education's archivist and published a series of booklets containing documents issued by the ministry on various subjects). 13. Zvi Zameret, “Zalman Aran and the Productivitization of the Youth of ‘Immigrants from Middle Eastern Countries’,” in Iyunim B'tkumat Yisrael (Beersheba: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 2005) [in Hebrew]. 14. A. Levy, “Eighteen Years of the Seker Exam in the Eighth Grade,” Dor L'dor 7 (1994): 37–53 [in Hebrew]. 15. S. Eisenstat, Israeli Society (New York: Basic Books, 1965). 16. The fourth (1924–28) and the fifth Aliya (1929–39) consisted of middle class populations who worked in the free professions. In the fourth Aliya, comprising more than 50,000 newcomers, the motivation to immigrate was, in part, economic difficulties in Poland, the Soviet Union, Romania and Latvia. During the fifth wave, 280,000 newcomers arrived, about a quarter of whom were from Germany. D. Zucker, “Vocational Education – A System of Cross-firing Values,” in Education in a Society in Creation, ed. V. Ackerman, A. Carmon and D. Zucker (Tel Aviv, Jerusalem: Hakibbutz Hameuhad and the Van Leer Institute, 1985), 4: 447–471. 17. Y. Yonai, Abba Eban – Education in the Age of Knowledge (Jerusalem: Ministry of Education, 2002), 34. 18. David Ben-Gurion Archives, Protocols and Committees, 12 (1962). 19. R.J. Havighurst, American High School Education in the 1960s (Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1960); B. Jackson and D. Marsden, Education and the Working Class (London: Taylor & Francis, 1962). 20. C. Ish-Shalom and M. Shmida, A Social Revolution in Israel and Other Nations- Secondary School Education for All (Tel Aviv: Ramot, 1993) [in Hebrew]. 21. Zvi Zameret, “Zalman Aran and the Educational System,” in The Second Decade, 1958–1968, ed. Z. Zameret and Ch.Viblonska (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2000), 68 [in Hebrew]. 22. R. Bar-Yosef, “De-socialization and Re-socialization: The Adjustment Process of New Immigrants in Israel,” International Migration Review 2s (1968): 27–45. 23. The Ministry of Education and Culture, Vocational Schools in 1970 (Jerusalem: Department of Vocational Education, 1970) [in Hebrew]. 24. Zucker, “Vocational Education,” 446–71. 25. During the 1960s, educational policy in Israel focused on bringing the various Jewish population groups closer and narrowing the cultural and pedagogical gaps by educational, cultural and social integration of children of this sector. 26. It should be noted that in the past there was a clear distinction between vocational education focusing on attaining technical skills and training for working life and technological education, dealing with training in a highly technological environment based on wide scientific knowledge. Today, there is no unequivocal distinction between the terms and they may describe similar systems. 27. Zucker, “Vocational Education,” 446–71. 28. M. Avigad, “Vocational-Technological Education,” in Education in Israel, ed. C. Ormian (Jerusalem: Ministry of Education, 1973) [in Hebrew]. 29. Ibid. 30. Y. Melamed, The Technological Educational System in Israel, Achievements, Challenges and Proposals (Tel Aviv: ORT Israel, 1992) [in Hebrew]. 31. Report of the Public Committee to Update the Goals of Technological Education, 1985 [in Hebrew]. 32. Technological Education in Israel towards 2000, Report of the Public Committee to Update The Goals of Technological Education, Center for Technological Education, Holon, June 1985 [in Hebrew]. 33. Technological Education in Israel – Looking to the Future, Ministry of Education (Jerusalem: Science and Technology Department, 1991) [in Hebrew]. 34. Position Paper Regarding Education for Work in the Israeli Educational System, 1989, Published by the Pedagogical Secretariat of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Jerusalem (Hebrew). 35. Yonai, Documentation, 212.