Mothering, Education and Culture: Russian, Palestinian and Jewish Middle-class Mothers in Israeli Society (Colloquium with Dr. Lauren Erdreich, Beit Berl College, Israel)
From 26 till 30 May Dr. Lauren Erdreich is visiting the Chair of Diversity Education and International Educational Research as ERASMUS+ Guest Lecturer.
Dr. Lauren Erdreich is the Head of the Nonformal Education Track at Beit Berl College in Israel. She is an anthropologist of education who has conducted research on marginal women in higher education, religion and teacher education, and most recently a comparative study of mothering and education in Israel. At FAU she will give several lectures about parenting and education, specifically focusing on class and culture in the reproduction of social advantage. The lectures are based in a sociological/anthropological approach, which argues that parental involvement must be understood in tandem with an understanding of the social and cultural meaning of parenting at a given historical moment. The lectures focus on education as the locus of modern parental practices, and are designed to help students of education consider the deeper meaning of parental involvement for parents as well as for children. She will also be sharing her experience conducting ethnographic research with graduate students. From the exchange at FAU, Dr. Erdreich hopes to gain a better understanding of the educational issues European students find pressing today and to learn about the unique cultural and class issues involved at the nexus of parents and education in Europe.
Colloquium: „Mothering, Education and Culture: Russian, Palestinian and Middle-class Mothers in Israeli Society“
Date and Venue: 28th of May, 2019 14:00 – 16:00, St. Paul 00.513
Dr. Lauren Erdreich presents 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 presentation 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 presentation will be of interest to educationalists, 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.