The Role of Context in Preparing Jewish Day School Teachers: The Case of DeLeT

• In Event: 66.046 - Inspiring Teaching: Context-Specific Teacher Education for the 21st Century

Abstract

Since the 1960s the number of students attending Jewish day schools has increased. While Orthodox schools dominate this school sector, their proportion dropped from 95% in 1965 to 76% in 2004. Most notable is the rapid growth of non-Orthodox day schools which now serve 15% of the student population (Cooper, 2002). The establishment of these schools and their desire for a new type of teacher created a demand for a new kind of teacher education. This paper studies one program that responded to this demand—the DeLeT (Day School Leadership Through Teaching) program at Brandeis University.

Launched in 2002, DeLeT prepares teachers who identify with the mission of day school education and who can teach general and/or Jewish subjects in grades 1-6. Approved as an alternative route to certification, the program combines professional studies with a year long internship in a day school classroom. Drawing on interviews with faculty and program leaders and an analysis of program documents, the paper explores the distinctive requirements for teaching in a Jewish day school and how the program prepares teacher candidates to succeed in this setting. Specifically, it shows how the program frames the role and practice of a day school teacher around three layers of context -- classroom culture, school community and a vision of what it means to be a Jewish American
The 2008 DeLeT Handbook characterizes Jewish day schools “as learning communities where students can form integrated identities as they study and experience their dual heritage as Americans and as Jews” (p. 5). To help teachers realize this vision, DeLeT encourages a two-pronged approach to integration. Teacher candidates explore the possibilities and limitations of curricular integration, including the integration of general and Jewish subjects. They also learn to create classroom communities infused with Jewish and democratic values. One question is whether the program sensitizes teacher candidates to possible tensions between these values, for instance, the tension between individual rights and communal obligations.
DeLeT emphasizes the importance of teachers as authentic role models. A core text by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1966) makes the claim that teachers should be “textpeople” who stand for what they teach and model Jewish learning and living. The program also helps teachers explore their Jewish journeys and the intersection between their Jewish identity and their professional identity.
DeLeT relies on an extended internship to induct students into the distinctive culture of Jewish day schools where parental expectations loom large and the diversity of students’ learning needs and religious beliefs and practices surprise and challenge.
In a recent program evaluation, researchers claimed that DeLeT represents a “paradigm shift” in a field where teachers typically have a strong sense of vocation but lack professional preparation (Kapelowitz et al, 2008). By introducing a unique blend of context specific sensibilities and teacher professionalism, DeLeT fits Bourdieu’s (1985; 2005) notion of a “heterodoxy,” a sub-group that shares core values in a field while trying to reshape the way core activities are understood and enacted.

Author

• Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Brandeis University