Constructing Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessing Young Children in Israel’s Mosaic of Cultures

Abstract

When the nation of Israel was declared in 1948, a strong culture of formal education was already in place, including preschool education. The early Zionist ideals of return to the ancestral homeland and the revival of the ancient Hebrew language were driving forces behind the early moves to establish preschool frameworks for the children of the early pioneers. Traditions such as Froebel influenced a play-based curriculum. With the state’s founding, the Jewish population tripled within 10 years, due to massive immigration of European Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab nations who had been expelled. The public schools took on the task of socializing the immigrant children through an early childhood curriculum based heavily on learning Hebrew and instilling cultural values. During the first decade of the state, the school system was divided into sectorial factions: Jewish, Arab, and Christian. A common secular and academic curriculum was established, allowing for young children to learn their own language and religious traditions. Over the past 30 years, curriculum initiatives cut across these sectorial divisions, focusing on specific areas such as art, family, music, science, safety, and language development. In addition, a comprehensive assessment program was offered to the teachers as a means tracking children’s progress. In the last 10 years, the Ministry of Education developed core curriculums for major domains: literacy, math, technology and science, and physical education. A recent educational reform requires evaluating children’s competencies according to core domains. As a result, the strong socialist tradition of unionism has come to the fore, with teachers expressing organized opposition both to the core curriculum and the assessment expectations at the expense of the play-based program which has been the basis of Israeli early childhood education since its inception. These dynamic social forces will continue to determine the nature of curriculum and assessment in Israel into the future.