Graduate, Tuesday 12:00-14:00
The class will explore a key dilemma facing educators and policymakers: the role of parents in education. To what degree should parents be allowed involvement in schools’ everyday operations, learning, and policy? Does parents’ involvement contribute to students’ achievements? And if so, what types of involvement? What is the difference between parents’ individual involvement in behalf of their child and parents’ collective involvement? And what happens when there are conflicts between parents and schools? To discuss these issues, the class will combine academic reading materials, policy papers, and students’ practical hands-on knowledge. We will build on existing literature in Israel and worldwide to discuss questions about school-parents relationship in the everyday practice of Israeli schools.

Undergraduate, Wednesday 12:00-14:00
The seminar will engage with the different social elements that shape schools and learning. We will discuss different levels of influences on schools, from culture, policy, and the judicial system, through neighborhoods and cities, to communities and parents. We will ask what are the different ways through which what happens in schools is shaped by the intersection with other social aspects. The seminar will brings together current sociological and educational academic scholarship with current day events, popular culture, and students’ experiences. The students will write an empirical seminar based on original data collection in any method of their choosing. The final grade will include presenting the paper to the class in the second semester.

Undergraduate, Tuesday 10:00-12:00.
The class will look at higher education and its relationship with the next life stages such as career, family, and adulting. The class will address these issues from historical and sociological perspectives while presenting current research and data. We will ask questions about higher education policy, and the relationship between higher education, employment, politics, residential decisions, and life choices. The class will combine academic reading materials with movies and other resources and will also bring together academic discussions with personal and timely discussion to understand the dilemmas faced by the higher education system and the students in it as they are building their future.