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Mothering, Education and Culture

Russian, Palestinian and Jewish Middle-Class Mothers in Israeli Society

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  • © 2018

Overview

  • Provides a finely textured investigation of the ways in which middle-class women beyond the European-North American context understand the task of educating their children
  • Compares mothers and mothering from three social-cultural groups sharing the same class affiliation, as well as the same broader social, cultural and political context
  • Proposes an innovative approach to the study of mothering and education as forged at the intersection of class, culture and social positioning
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book is an ethnographically-informed interview study of the ways in which middle-class mothers from three Israeli social-cultural groups – immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Palestinian Israelis and Jewish native-born Israelis – share and differ in their understandings of a ‘proper’ education for their children and of their role in ensuring this. The book highlights the importance of education in contemporary society, and argues that mothers' modes of engagement in their children's education are formed at the junction of class, culture and social positioning.  It examines how cultural models such as intensive mothering, parental anxiety, individualism, and ‘concerted cultivation’ play out in the lives of these mothers and their children, shaping different ways of participating in the middle class. The book will be of interest to anthropologists and sociologists studying mothering, education, parenting, gender, class and culture, to readers curious about daily life in Israel, and to professionals working with families in a multicultural context.

Reviews

“Mothering, Education and Culture depicts the importance and centrality of ‘intensive mothering’ as part of the Israeli gendered model of the (good-enough) mother, a model in which mothers dedicate tremendous time, energy, and money into raising their children. The book focuses on middle-class mothers from three Israeli socio-cultural groups … .” (Pnina Peri, Israel Studies Review, Vol. 35 (1), 2020)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Deborah Golden

  • Levinsky College of Education, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Lauren Erdreich

  • Gordon Academic College of Education, Haifa, Israel

    Sveta Roberman

About the authors

Deborah Golden is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Israel and is a social anthropologist, specializing in the anthropology of education. Her interests encompass the anthropology of childhood, early childhood education, socialization of immigrants, material culture in education, and cultural perspectives on the passing of time. 

Lauren Erdreich is Lecturer at the Levinsky College of Education, Israel and Research Tutor for teacher educators at the MOFET Institute, Israel. She is an anthropologist of education and her research and teaching interests include anthropology of literacy, anthropology of educational organizations, gender and education, spirituality in teacher education, Arab education in Israel, and parental involvement.

Sveta Roberman is Lecturer at the Gordon College of Education, Israel and a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Innovation in Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Herresearch interests and fields of expertise include anthropology of education, migration and questions of belonging/s, social inclusion and exclusion.   

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Mothering, Education and Culture

  • Book Subtitle: Russian, Palestinian and Jewish Middle-Class Mothers in Israeli Society

  • Authors: Deborah Golden, Lauren Erdreich, Sveta Roberman

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53631-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-53630-3Published: 18 December 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-71063-8Published: 27 October 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-53631-0Published: 01 December 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 225

  • Topics: International and Comparative Education, Sociology of Education, Ethnicity in Education, Religion and Education, Sociology of Education

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