Professional Identity of Hebrew Teachers in Jewish Day Schools in North America

The study explores the professional identity of Hebrew teachers in Jewish schools in North America. Albeit the attention professional identity of language teachers has received, there is a lacuna in research on professional identity of Hebrew teachers in the Diaspora. This research addresses this gap. In the late twentieth century Hebrew education in North America has gone through some evolution, due to internal contextual dynamics of the Jewish community and changes in the broader global social and political world. These transformational trends posed challenges to Hebrew teachers and might have had implications to their professional identity and pedagogies. In order to learn about Hebrew teachers’ professional identity, the following research question is posed: How do Hebrew teachers in Jewish schools in North America perceive their professional identity, what underlies their perceptions and what implications does it have on their practical field, if at all?

In order to investigate this question, the methodology that was utilized is within a qualitative paradigm while employing the inductive narrative approach. The primary research tool to collect data was in-depth interviews with eight teachers who teach Hebrew in different Jewish schools in different age groups in North America. The interviews focused on their personal and professional stories. Each narrative lasted about 60 minutes. All eight narratives were analyzed through a multistage analysis. In the first phase the data analysis was based on the thematic analysis method. In the second phase the data analysis was based on Davey’s (2013) Professional Identity Model, and in the third phase it was based on Gee’s (2000) Identity Theory.

The choice of this approach revealed the personal, professional and social story of the teachers as reflected in the beliefs and meanings they gave to the reality of their work and the choices they made within it in the light of the Post-Structuralist approach. Using the Post-Structuralist approach helped reveal the multiple layers of the professional identity of Hebrew teachers in North America, and the perception underlying their perception.

The professional identity emerging in this study is characterized as complex, flexible, dynamic, and temporary, despite the deterministic nature it may carry in certain contexts. It is based on personal and professional background and experience, and is influenced by the time, place and situations that Hebrew teachers face in their work. It is not predictable and is not limited only to the context of the Israeli ethos or the Jewish ethos. The teachers' identity carries positive and negative values. It entitles them to social status and professional authority, but at the same time acts as a promoter of prejudice, thereby denying them another aspect of that status. Because the concept of professional identity is based on beliefs and feelings, reducing it to a number of ethnic aspects and ignoring the teachers' voice, impairs the teaching and learning process, prevents standardization of the profession, and promotes teachers’ burnout processes as they are constantly required to deal with conflicts attributed to their professional status in the context where they work. These conflicts reflect the gaps between the way the teachers perceive and define their professional identity and the way their partners in and outside of their workplace define it.

The study contributes to the wider extant of knowledge regarding the concept of professional identity of teachers particularly Hebrew teachers in North America. It expands the existing knowledge, in making the voices of the teachers heard, and in formulating a multidimensional model of professional identity of teachers and enables its investigation in a holistic manner. This is a prime concern for policy makers, program designers, educational leaders and teachers, as teaching the Hebrew language in the diaspora is more than a methodology, it is a concept bound by ideologies, values and identities.