Title: Pre‐vocational education: the making of Israel's ethno‐working class
Abstract: Abstract This article deals with pre‐vocational education that was first implemented in Israel's educational system in 1955 in 7th and 8th grades of elementary school. The purpose of the article is to examine the role that this education played in making Israel's ethno‐working class. This role emerged, we argue, through conflicting dynamics involving two opposite rationales: universalistic and particularistic. On the one hand, pre‐vocational education was perceived as an integral component of both a pedagogic conception and a national worldview that viewed vocational training, respectively, as crucial for the development of every child and for ‘economic equilibrium’ in the country. Yet, on the other hand, from the beginning of the program's implementation the universalistic rationales were abandoned or collapsed as growing importance was attributed to particularistic rationales. In other words, pre‐vocational education came to be seen primarily as a means by which to ensure the ‘integration’ of Mizrahi children (i.e., children of Asian and African background) into Israel's social and economic life, thus contributing significantly to creating Israel's ethno‐working class. Presenting the dynamics leading to this result, we proceed to offer the reasons that led the particularistic rationales to gain the ascendancy over the universalistic rationales. We argue that these reasons owe to the dynamics characterizing of the nation‐building processes in general. That is, the particularistic rationales are implicitly embedded within the universal and homogenizing logic of these processes, processes that tend to suppress this logic from within. Whereas the inherent internal logic of the modern nation‐state appears to necessitate equality of opportunities, it was that same logic, we argue, that constructed certain groups that are ‘incapable’ of benefiting from that equality, because they are ostensibly unable or unwilling to adopt the basic values of modernity. Notes Corresponding author: Department of Education, Ben Gurian University of the Negev, Beer‐Sheva 84105, Israel. Email: [email protected]. Remarks made by Education Minister Zalman Arranne in the Knesset, 12 March 1956 (1410). Statistical Abstract of Israel, 1965, n. 16, tables 20.17. Knesset Record, volume 24, p. 1401, 18 March 1958 (cited by Yonai, 1992 Yonai Y 1992 Education for education and profession (Jerusalem, Ministry of Education) [Google Scholar], p. 67). For example, Eisenstadt, one of Israel's leading sociologists, devotes only one paragraph in his book Israeli society: background, development and problems, to pre‐vocational education (1967, p. 226). State Archives, Ministry of Education, Gal /2/6/24/1661. Quoted in Yonai, 1992 Yonai Y 1992 Education for education and profession (Jerusalem, Ministry of Education) [Google Scholar], p. 64, p. 66. Translated to English, the term ‘yishuv’ means settlement. It refers to the Jewish community and its state‐like infrastructure existing in Mandatory Palestine prior to the inception of the State of Israel in 1948. However, the expression ‘the veteran Yishuv’ is often used in Hebrew to refer to those who belonged to this community. The quote is taken from a research published by Frankenstein in 1947, two years after Riger published his book. Thus, the quote from Frankenstein intended only to show his perception of Mizrahi Jews. Riger, however, draws upon Frankenstein's studies of delinquent Mizrahi children (Riger, 1945 Riger E 1945 The vocational education in the Jewish society in the land of Israel (Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) [Google Scholar], p. 46, p. 48). 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The inverse proportion Mizrahi and Ashkenazi students who respectively attended secondary academic and vocational schools becomes much wider if we add the following fact. Of the one‐third of those Ashkenazi students who attend secondary vocational schools, a disproportional percentage of them—compared to Mizrahi students who attended secondary vocational schools—were actually enrolled in prestigious vocational schools that consequently allowed them to achieve a matriculation certificate (Swirski, 1990 Swirski S 1990 Education in Israel: schooling for inequality (Tel Aviv, Breirot) [Google Scholar], p. 100). Central Bureau of Statistics, 1983, (table xx) (cited in Swirski, 1990 Swirski S 1990 Education in Israel: schooling for inequality (Tel Aviv, Breirot) [Google Scholar], p. 10). 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Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 23
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