Mothering, Education and Culture ― Russian, Palestinian and Jewish Middle-class Mothers in Israeli Society

This book is an ethnographically-informed interview study of the ways in which middle-class mothers from three Israeli social-cultural groups – immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Palestinian Israelis and Jewish native-born Israelis – share and differ in their understandings of a ‘proper’ education for their children and of their role in ensuring this. The book highlights the importance of education in contemporary society, and argues that mothers' modes of engagement in their children's education are formed at the junction of class, culture and social positioning. It examines how cultural models such as intensive mothering, parental anxiety, individualism, and ‘concerted cultivation’ play out in the lives of these mothers and their children, shaping different ways of participating in the middle class. The book will be of interest to anthropologists and sociologists studying mothering, education, parenting, gender, class and culture, to readers curious about daily life in Israel, and to professionals working with families in a multicultural context.

Deborah Golden is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Israel and is a social anthropologist, specializing in the anthropology of education. Her interests encompass the anthropology of childhood, early childhood education, socialization of immigrants, material culture in education, and cultural perspectives on the passing of time. 

Lauren Erdreich is Lecturer at the Levinsky College of Education, Israel and Research Tutor for teacher educators at the MOFET Institute, Israel. She is an anthropologist of education and her research and teaching interests include anthropology of literacy, anthropology of educational organizations, gender and education, spirituality in teacher education, Arab education in Israel, and parental involvement.

Sveta Roberman is Lecturer at the Gordon College of Education, Israel and a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Innovation in Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Her research interests and fields of expertise include anthropology of education, migration and questions of belonging/s, social inclusion and exclusion.