Spirituality in Teacher Training at an Islamic College in Israel

ABSTRACT

This article looks at an Islamic teacher training college in Israel in an attempt to understand how religious revival shapes women’s understandings of being Muslim women professionals in Israel. The college grew out of Islamic revival in Israel; its teacher training program reflects the sensibilities that Islamic revival hopes to foster in women who study there and in the children they will teach. The article is based on ethnographic research at the college. Adopting a theoretical approach to spirituality as a cultural phenomenon, experienced as authentic, yet culturally informed, can serve as a powerful resource for creating social meaning and as a source of pedagogies of change. I illustrate the means by which the institution makes space for a spirituality that infuses teacher training with a sense of social purpose, civil commitment, and personal unity with the divine.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by postdoctoral fellowships from Princeton University, Tel Aviv University, and the Hebrew University. I thank the research group on alternative education in Arab society and two reviewers for very constructive comments, and the community of Al-Qasemi for their cooperation and inspiration.

Notes

¹ My use of the term spirituality is from the religious perspective and should not be confused with the use of the term in New Age movements. I thank Rachel Werczeberger for highlighting the difference.

² The department has expanded since the years I did my research. It now employs a manager and three assistants. The college continues to actively host conferences and workshops on academic and social issues. The covenant is still germane.

³ Faculty involved in this conference have been instrumental in founding a cross-college institute for technology and dialogue.

⁴ I have left out the first names of the teachers and referred to them as they are referred to by the students.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lauren Erdreich

Lauren Erdreich is an anthropologist of education. She has published articles on Palestinian women, higher education, and social change and on motherhood and education.