Bible teachers cultivate social awareness of otherness

ABSTRACT

This article discusses Israeli Bible teachers’ perceptions of the ‘otherness’ and their actions in a reality in which teachers are required to balance the tension between being experts in the field of knowledge, coping with a state curriculum that promotes a faith-religious worldview, and acting as educators in promoting discourse dealing with social issues of inclusion, respect, and tolerance for the ‘other’. The research is qualitative-interpretive, based on interviews with 13 teachers. It focuses on describing and explaining Bible teachers’ perceptions and interpreting their actions. Findings point to two main perceptions: (1) A perception that transcends the boundaries of biblical academic discourse and fosters a moral dialogue of integration, tolerance, openness, and awareness of the ‘other’ as part of the Bible teacher’s role. (2) A perception focused only on biblical discourse and refrains from dealing with issues of ‘otherness’ in the lesson. This research offers new tools and courses of action to implement these perceptions. Its conclusions may encourage teachers to develop pedagogical flexibility and an ability to navigate through issues of ‘otherness’ while responding to social, value, and moral issues that arise spontaneously in the multicultural dialogue in Bible lessons.

KEYWORDS:

• Bible teachers
• otherness
• moral dialogue

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dolly Eliyahu-Levi

Dr. Dolly Eliyahu-Levi, Head of the Hebrew language department at the Levinsky-Wingate Academic College. She is a Senior lecturer researching migration processes and social integration in Israel and worldwide, exposing applied practices to reduce linguistic, social, cultural, national, and national gaps. Her research focuses on multiculturalism and multilingual issues, developing intercultural ability, and designing learning-teaching processes based on culture-relevant pedagogy and emotional-social learning principles.

Galia Semo

Dr. Galia Semo, Head of the secondary school program at the Levinsky-Wingate Academic College in Israel. Her academic degrees are from Tel Aviv University. Her research focuses on teacher training in secondary school education and Bible teaching in multicultural contexts. Her Bible research focuses on prophecy and biblical theology.