This volume describes and analyses the structure of Israel's education system from a political and policy-making perspective.

The book provides the reader with a multifaceted picture of mathematics education in Israel, put into an international perspective where relevant. It is intended to give an overview of a wide range of topics covering issues such as raising and maintaining motivation, search for excellence, treatment of difficulties, teacher education, language issues, minorities issues, curriculum changes over the first 70 years of the state of Israel, and many more. This includes aspects of research and practice into the teaching and learning of mathematics, innovation, developments, policy, achievements, and implementation with some international comparison as well.

effectiveness and creativity in different contexts. In this issue this will be presented in full detail in the articles which refer to different aspects of the Israeli educational context. This special issue of Studies in Philosophy and Education concentrates on the intellectual impotence, moral devotion, cultural willingness and social and techno logical efforts for the preservation and enhancement of the tyranny of normalizing education over human beings in a specific arena. The various studies in this issue, with all their differences of orientation and issues under consideration, will recon struct the ways for forcing subjects and communities to commit themselves to destroy the otherness - or the human potential - of the inner and external Other. They reveal this phenomenon as a characteristic of both the victimizers and their 8 victims. Normally philosophy of education supports this process and justifies or hides this reality. As will be shown in this special issue, however, at the same time philosophy of education might also become a non-productive or even a rebellious element in the culture industry and present a serious challenge to the present order. It can address and challenge the perpetual success of normalizing education, in all its versions, among all rival communities, narratives and armies of teachers, consumers, soldiers, and intellectuals. This, of course, does not guarantee that such a critique or resistance will not become another dogmatic or nihilistic blow to the free Spirit, or nothing but another version of normalizing education.

This book analyzes how the higher education system can impact upon regional and local development in Galilee.

How do children determine which identity becomes paramount as they grow into adolescence and early adulthood? Which identity results in patterns of behaviour as they develop? To whom or to which group do they feel a sense of belonging? How might children, adolescents and young adults negotiate the gap between their own sense of identity and the values promoted by external influences? The contributors explore the impact of globalization and pluralism on the way most children and adolescents grow into early adulthood. They look at the influences of media and technology that can be felt within the living spaces of their homes, competing with the religious and cultural influences of family and community, and consider the ways many children and adolescents have developed multiple and virtual identities which help them to respond to different circumstances and contexts. They discuss the ways that many children find themselves in a perpetual state of shifting identities without ever being firmly grounded in one, potentially leading to tension and confusion particularly when there is conflict between one identity and another. This can result in increased anxiety and diminished self-esteem. This book explores how parents, educators and social and health workers might have a raised awareness of the issues generated by plural identities and the overpowering human need to belong so that they can address associated issues and nurture a sense of wholeness in children and adolescents as they grow into early adulthood.

Higher Education and the Palestinian Minority in Israel examines perceptions concerning the characteristics of higher education acquisition in the indigenous Palestinian Arab minority in Israel. Arar and Haj-Yehia show that Palestinian Arabs in Israel clearly understand the benefit of an academic degree as a lever for social status and integration within the state of Israel. The authors discuss difficulties met by Palestinian high school graduates when they attempt to enter Israel's higher education institutes, and the alternative phenomenon of studying abroad. The cultural difference between Palestinian traditional communities and 'Western' Israeli campuses exposes Arab students to a mix of ethnicities and nationalities, which proves to be a difficult, transformative experience. The book analyzes patterns of higher education acquisition among the indigenous Palestinian minority, describing the disciplines they choose, the challenges they encounter, particularly for Palestinian women students, and explore the implications for the Palestinian minority and Israeli society.

This book provides a unique map of the focus and directions of contemporary research on school leadership since 2000 in 24 countries. Each of these directions has its own particular cultural, educational and policy history. Taken together, the various chapters in the volume provide a rich and varied mosaic of what is currently known and what is yet to be discovered about the roles and practices of principals, and their contributions to the improvement of teaching and the learning and achievement of students. The particular foci and methodological emphases of the research reported illustrate the different phases in the development of educational policies and provision in each country. This collection is an important addition to existing international research that has shown beyond any reasonable doubt that the influence of school principals is second only to that of teachers in their capacity to impact students’ progress and achievement and to promote equity and social justice.