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ABSTRACT
This article explores the characteristics of naturalistic digital forum conversations, focusing on the Israeli education system in times of crisis. The existing professional literature suggests that (1) There have been numerous attempts to change this system, but they have not been successful; (2) Discourse analysts have often used micro and macrolevels of analysis to explore professional life and the construction of individual or group positioning in digital discourse; (3) Figurative language (e.g. metaphors, similes and metonymies) often organises the essence of the text. This article shows that the naturalistic digital forum enabled the study’s participants (teachers, parents, and others who care about education) to vent their feelings and thoughts, as well as to use organising figurative language to highlight how the teachers positioned themselves and how they were positioned by the parents. Finally, the article underscores the need to bring about a radical change in the Israeli education system.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank The MOFET Institute Post-Doctoral Programme for supporting the study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Sheffi, “Israeli Education System.”
2. Among them, the Gori Committee (1950), the Etzioni Committee (1970), the Dovrat Committee (2005), the New Horizon (2008), and Oz Reform (2012).
3. A first-order change occurs within a given system when it contributes to the system but the system itself does not change, while a second-order change changes the entire system Watzelwick, Wickenfeld, and Fish, Change.
4. Darling-Hammond, Empowered Educators; and Vardi-Rat et al., “Teacher Training Colleges.”
5. Buskila and Chen-Levi, “I Wanted to Shout.”
6. Swirski and Dagan-Bozaglo, Differentiation.
7. Stromquist, “The Global Status.”
8. Volansky, “The Lack of Demand”; and Cook et al., “A Stakeholder Approach.”
9. Buskila and Chen-Levi, “Teachers Without Air”; and Kuzminski, “Teacher Status.”
10. The first protest took place well before the establishment of the state in 1932. There have been two major strikes. The first took place in 1978 and lasted 45 days, and the second took place in 2007 and lasted 64 days. Naor, “Will there be Studies?”
11. Barber and Chijioke, Education.
12. Salberg, Learners from Finland.
13. Meredith, “Conversation Analysis,” 241.
14. Giles et al., “Introduction.”
15. Hillel-Lavian and Kupferberg, “Exploring Discursive.”
16. De Fina and Georgakopoulou, “(Con)Textualizing Discourses.”
17. Gee, “Discourse.”
18. Given, The SAGE Encyclopedia, 150.
19. Wilkinson and Kitzinger, “Conversation Analysis.”
20. Hepburn and Wiggins, Discursive Research.
21. Meredith, Giles, and Stommel, “Introduction.”
22. Wilkinson and Kitzinger, “Conversation Analysis,” 81.
23. Green and Kupferberg, “Religious Israeli Jews.”
24. Speer, “Natural.”
25. See note 15 above.
26. See note 23 above.
27. Korobov and Bamberg, “Strip Poker.” The term “Discursive Positioning” differs from the term status. The former is a qualitative process whereby several features of one’s identity are manifested in interaction. The latter is a social concept that can be measured quantitatively via questionnaires.
28. Kupferberg, Touching the Sky.
29. Georgakopoulou, Narrative Performance.
30. Semino, Metaphor, 1.
31. See note 28 above.
32. See note 15 above.
33. Meredith, “Conversation Analysis,” 2.
34. Rogers, “Critical Discourse Analysis.”
35. Bartlett, “Positive Discourse Analysis,” 133.
36. Ditchfield, “Ethical Challenges.”
38. Meredith and Potter, “Conversation Analysis.”
39. Kupferberg and Green, Troubled Talk.
40. Meredith et al., “Introduction,” 9.
41. See note 22 above.
42. Rogers, “Critical Discourse Analysis”; and Bartlett, “Positive Discourse Analysis,” 133.
43. Bartlett, “Positive Discourse Analysis.”
44. See note 37 above.
45. See note 28 above.
46. See note 36 above.
47. Meredith et al., “Introduction.”
48. A citation that is not presented in the examples.
49. The citations in this paragraph are not present in the examples.
50. Green and Kupferberg, “Religious Israeli Jews”; and Hillel-Lavian and Kupferberg, “Exploring Discursive.”
51. See Example 6 and comments.
52. Gilat, The Status.
53. See note 5 above.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Reut Gamliel
Reut Gamliel is a researcher at the Mofet Institute and lecturer at the Department of Educational Counseling, Jerusalem College.
Irit Kupferberg
Irit Kupferberg is Professor (Emerita) at the Levinsky-Wingate Academic College Center.