Once again, this year’s fellows of the Mandel Scholars in Education program attended the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), held in Chicago in late April. The conference, titled “Toward Justice: Culture, Language, and Heritage in Educational Research and Praxis,” was attended by some 14,000 participants.
Two of the Mandel fellows gave presentations of their research at the conference. Yuliya Lipshits-Braziler presented elements of her doctoral work, which investigates ways of dealing with the decision-making difficulties involved in choosing a profession. Eli Vinokur presented his article “The Contribution of Pro-Social Education to the Development of Ecological and Sustainability Awareness in Pupils.”
Along with attending the conference events, special meetings were also arranged for the fellows with two of the world’s most prominent educational researchers Prof. David Hansen of Columbia University, whose work is in educational philosophy, and Prof. James Banks, the director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington in Seattle. In these meetings, the fellows discussed their educational worldviews, and the future directions of educational research.
During the conference the Mandel Foundation hosted a celebratory Shabbat meal for the fellows and for other Mandel graduates, faculty members, advisers, and visiting faculty members who were also attending the conference. Dr. Eli Gottlieb, director of the Mandel Leadership Institute and vice president of the Mandel Foundation-Israel, congratulated those present on their collaborative work with the Institute to strengthen links between educational research and practice in Israel.
