Discussing the Future of Technology Education at Tefen Industrial Park
 
An exciting new venture involving Mandel fellows, graduates, leading academics and professionals in the field of education began in January with the first meeting of the ‘Round Table Workgroup on Technology Education’, which took place at Tefen Industrial Park in the rolling hills of the Western Galilee.

The Mandel Graduates Unit has created three ‘think tanks’ in order to assist the shaping of education policy of topics which are currently on the educational-public agenda. One group will focus on Technology Education, another on the status of the teacher and the third on the future of education in Israel.

The ‘Round Table Workgroup on Technology Education’ comes in the wake of a proposition by Mandel graduate Dan Prat and is led by Mandel fellows Ram Zahavi and Batya Shochen, both former school principals.

 The group’s first meeting was launched with a tour of Tefen Industrial Park, home to some 20 companies, factories, 5 museums, sculpture gardens and art galleries. Here group participants learned about the history and current state of Technology Education in Israel.

“The experiential encounter with the educational projects which are taking place in the Tefen and Lavon Industrial Parks added a practical dimension to the theoretical discussion,” said Shochen. “The tour was fascinating,” she added.  “We experienced an interesting learning experience which awoke within us both questions and insights."

For some, it was an opportunity to overcome objections or assumptions about Technology Education which are widely-held in the field of education.
“Beyond the academic study which takes place at Mandel Leadership Institute, it is actually the field encounters with educational and leadership personalities and Israeli society, in this case in the periphery, which invites critical observance of one’s personal basic assumptions.” said Zehavi.

 “In the past, I took an unequivocal standpoint of opposition to Technology Education. This standpoint was formulated during my work with students of the Religious Comprehensive School in Netanya. Acquaintance with weak populations forces an educator “to do everything” for both their educational and social advancement. Technology Education was perceived in my eyes as failing education; inferior and not worthy.”

Yet Zehavi was impressed by the different models of Technology Education he saw at Tefen.
“I saw quality technology and industry which makes a meaningful social contribution,” he said. “The tour in Tefen made me think differently about my basic assumptions and about the links between education, society, and social mobility.”

Participants of the discussion group met Dan Sharon, formerly manager of the ORT network, students, workers and past and present principals of technological schools.
Mandel graduate Dan Prat, who is in the process of establishing a new education foundation initiative, described the meetings as, “meaningful, productive and inspiring.”

“The subject is a very important one,” he added, “but one charged with explosives and social and educational traumas from the past. The fundamental questions were raised and focused around a discussion which is not simple.”

The process of learning and research aims to outline models and practicable policy in schools in Israel. The groups will continue to meet throughout the year, culminating in the Graduate Conference at the end of 2008, when members will present their models before the Mandel community.