Ideology in Hebrew Educational Contexts

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

Research in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology has found that ideology plays an important role in language education (e.g., Moore 2004, Friedman 2006, Duff 2007, Fader 2009). In multilingual contexts, participants (teachers, students, parents, community leaders, and others) have diverse ideologies regarding languages. Some value one language more than another or associate one language with a particular group, activity, or stance. Language ideologies can influence which languages are taught and how they are taught, as well as the surrounding metalinguistic discourse. This panel offers insight into language ideology in educational settings involving Hebrew. In a bilingual public school in New York, supplementary schools throughout the United States, and an American university in Tel Aviv, leaders and participants hold diverse ideologies about Hebrew, including who should know it, what they should know, and its relationship to racial/ethnic/religious/national categories and other languages.

The panel consists of three papers and subsequent discussion. Avineri and Benor present results of a study on Hebrew education in supplementary schools, emphasizing conflicting ideologies about what type of Hebrew should be used and what skills should be emphasized. Hary and David analyze a college course on Hebrew and Arabic at an American university in Tel Aviv, emphasizing the ideological underpinnings of the course and the student outcomes. Avni focuses on a bilingual Hebrew-English public school in New York that attracts white Jewish and black non-Jewish students, showing how raciolinguistic ideologies are perpetuated and black students are marginalized. Together, these papers will offer new insight into ideologies surrounding Hebrew in diverse settings and with diverse populations.

Sub Unit

• Jewish Languages and Linguistics from Antiquity to the Present

Chair

• Ari Y. Kelman, Stanford Graduate School of Education

Individual Presentations

• Hebrew education in part-time Jewish schools in the United States today: Goals and ideologies - Netta Avineri, University of California, Los Angeles; Sarah Bunin Benor, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

• A Combined Hebrew and Arabic Class at NYU Tel Aviv: Ideological Underpinnings, Achievements, and Challenges - Benjamin H. Hary, New York University; Noa David, NYU Tel Aviv

• A raciolinguistic perspective of Hebrew learning at a NYC public school - Sharon Avni, CUNY

• Hebrew and Arabic: In Dialogue Class - Dina Roginsky, Yale University