Abstract
In this chapter I describe the central role played by the ideologies of teachers’ mentors in Jewish education as these shape their practice. Based on the mentors’ Jewish cultural and educational ideologies I propose three mentoring orientations in Jewish studies: a collaborative-developmental mentoring orientation, termed “Hevruta,” a directive mentoring orientation, named “Rav-U-Moreh,” and a control-functional orientation (one focused on implementation), named “Posek.” Professional discussion in Jewish studies is strongly connected to personal attitudes. Thus, the goals of teacher-mentoring in Jewish education should include enhancing awareness of the ideological-cultural components of personal attitudes toward Jewish resources.
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Notes
- 1.
In this article I use the term mentoring as a general term for many kinds of in-service teacher training. See a broader discussion of the terms “mentoring,” “clinical supervision,” and “coaching” below.
- 2.
I refer especially to the developmental and reflective models of clinical supervision, see for example Pajak (2002).
- 3.
- 4.
Previously (Muszkat-Barkan, 2005), I used the term supervision to translate the Hebrew terms “hanchaya” or “hadracha.” In this chapter I use the term mentoring for the reasons explained below.
- 5.
TALI is a nationwide network of over 120 Israeli public schools that are committed to providing pluralistic Jewish education. http://www.tali.org.il/
- 6.
See a description of “Hevruta” in teachers’ professional training settings in Eli Holtzer (2002) and in the chapter of that name above. I use this term as a description of collegiality partnership between a mentor and a teacher in the reflective exploration of the teachers’ practice.
- 7.
Lamentations/Eichah Rabbah, Petichtah 2, ed. Buber 1b: “Who are the guardians of the city? They are the teachers of the written Torah and the oral Torah/tradition that contemplate, review, and preserve the Torah day and night.” See also Aberbach (1982).
- 8.
In previous research (Muszkat-Barkan, 2005) I divided the orientation of Rav-U-Moreh into different titles because of two distinct emphasis among mentors in relation to the personal component in the professional development processes. Looking at the data again, I see many commonalities in the various components of their mentoring orientation in Jewish education and merge them into one title.
- 9.
A relevant discussion on the influence of the personal ideologies of the rabbi on his way of making normative decisions, “Psikot,” is discussed in A. Rosenak (2009). See especially pp. 2–3, 138–139.
- 10.
Idealization of teachers as knowledgeable and well respected was a rabbinic trope, and it didn’t always reflect the reality of the relationships between a teacher and the community. See Gafni (1999).
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Muszkat-Barkan, M. (2011). Mentoring: Ideological Encounters – Mentoring Teachers in Jewish Education. In: Miller, H., Grant, L., Pomson, A. (eds) International Handbook of Jewish Education. International Handbooks of Religion and Education, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0354-4_49
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