This year, preparations in the Community Coordinator staff meetings for the year-opening student seminar began in September and took place over a period of three months. Preparations focused on evaluations of previous seminars, with an emphasis on last-year’s student evaluation reports. One of the primary conclusions that we drew from the reports and which informed us in our planning for this year was the need to supplement training and to provide hands-on tools in Critical Pedagogy that would guide the students in their work with children in the Learning Communities. Consequently, we decided to hold the year-opening seminar this year later than in the past; this way, students would arrive with some field experience and with questions based on actual experiences. We decided that the first student study day that takes place in each of our seven communities prior to the national seminar would focus on disempowered communities and on the work of Mahapach-Taghir, thus providing us with more time for issues pertaining to Critical Pedagogy in the national seminar itself.
Of the 150 volunteering university students in Mahapach-Taghir, 130 attended December’s national seminar. Topics raised in the seminar included gaps in education, tracking, and tools in Critical Pedagogy, among which were reading comprehension skills, the application of knowledge, and the construction of a yearly work plan for the Learning Community based on a common vision. The introductory lecture was presented by the two national coordinators – Amal and Liron – who will be leading the organization by year’s end, and presented the work and vision of Mahapach-Taghir as both focusing on education, and as conducive in promoting social change on the national level.
The second part of the seminar, which took place on the second day, was dedicated to familiarizing the students with various social change organizations active in Israel that deal with human and civic rights. These included the Gisha Center and their campaign aiding Palestinian students in Gaza; ‘Yadid LaAssir’ that struggles for the rights of Palestinian children in detention; ‘Zochrot’ and its focus on the Palestinian Nakba; ‘Koach LaOvdim’ on the infringement of workers’ rights in the work-place; and the Tmura Center, that deals with feminist issues in the legal arena. Workshops were offered concurrently, and students chose which to attend according to their personal inclinations and interests.
As in previous national seminars, Jewish-Arab partnership and the prominence of the Arabic language played an important role both in lectures and in student downtime. In the social get-together in the evening, students participated in mixed discussion groups that enabled them to become acquainted with other Mahapach-Taghir volunteers from different social and cultural backgrounds.
In summarizing the seminar this year, participants told of the new horizons and new modes of thought that had been opened to them. For returning students, namely those for whom these topics were not new, the seminar enriched the experiences they had last year and enabled them to more fully understand the social milieu in which they are active. All of the students said they would have liked more time to get to know one another and to familiarize themselves with volunteers in the other communities. We were pleased to note that a significant number offered to take part in organizing the second annual student seminar, which will take place in the spring. To summarize, the overall impression of all that were involved was a positive one, and the emphasis on the pedagogic, as opposed to the political context of last year, was deemed a success.
Following the seminar, Mahapach-Taghir’s staff convened in order to review personal reflections and to pinpoint topics that should continue to be addressed within the organization. As in the past, these include a deeper investigation into Jewish-Mizrahi political identity, the part that the Arabic language should play within the organization, the nature of a dialogue based on partnership, Mahapach-Taghir’s feminist agenda, and the place of the political within an organization for social change.
More Photos from the Album, Here.
