Academy is teaching the teachers

A cohort of five new Jewish Studies teachers graduated from The Academy of Jewish Thought and Learning in February, bringing the total number of such graduates to 39 in the past five years. 

Close on another 40 also have a Master’s degree in Jewish Education or Hebrew Teaching from the institution in Johannesburg. 

A brand new group began their initial one-year undergraduate course this week. 

The Academy took on educating Hebrew and Jewish Studies teachers five years ago because universities had stopped offering relevant courses for Jewish educators. 

“In the past, the only way that you could become accredited as a teacher in South Africa was by doing a four-year Bachelor of Education, or you finished your undergraduate degree and then you did a postgraduate certificate in education,” says Rabbi Ramon Widmonte, dean of the Academy of Jewish Thought and Learning. 

“However, South African universities have closed their Jewish Studies and Hebrew faculties. There are no departments, which means that there is no way for a Jewish Studies or Hebrew teacher to qualify in their subjects in South Africa anymore.” 

This is why the Academy stepped in. 

“We did this because so many of our Jewish Studies and Hebrew teachers have never been able to qualify. They need it, our schools need it, and our kids need it. And without the training, the output from our Jewish education system is nowhere near what it could be,” says Widmonte. 

He says that there’s been a shortage of trained Hebrew and Jewish Studies teachers. 

“This is an international problem shared by our country. We have a very low number of trained Kodesh (Jewish Studies) and Hebrew teachers. And it really is placing us in a terrible bind because it means, especially in the Hebrew space, we have the teachers retiring or unable to teach, and there’s simply no-one to fill their shoes. 

“Many of the educators trained at The Academy were already teaching, but without significant training or any training sometimes,” says Widmonte. 

Two different programmes are offered: Jewish Studies and Hebrew, with 10 teachers graduating from the Jewish Studies course and 29 graduating from the Hebrew course over the past five years. With many teachers of Jewish Studies being rabbis, a major part of the syllabus is key educational jargon and educational psychology concepts. 

Sheila Valentini, head of the Kodesh Teacher’s Certificate at The Academy, says, “Most people who come to teaching have natural skills; they’re amazing, they shine in the classroom. But having never studied the profession formally, they lack the professional terminology or exposure to educational ideologies. This course provides the professional ‘lingo’ and an opportunity to reflect on scientific research. This knowledge will give them the terms for what they have been doing instinctively. Being able to converse in the profession’s lingo puts everybody on the same page and enhances both teacher collaboration and parent-teacher meetings.” 

Valentini explains that one of the units in the Jewish Studies course focuses on enabling teachers to move from being solely “the sage on the stage” to also being “the guide on the side”. 

“A sage on the stage stands at the front of the classroom day after day, delivers a mind-blowing shiur to 12-year-olds, and then hands out a worksheet. We’re trying to move beyond that model by exploring lessons that are differentiated and experiential,” says Valentini. “One rabbi found this method challenging, insisting this approach could never work for Gemara. Not being familiar with the content, I asked him to give me a topic. He said he was teaching the halachot of time, not exactly thrilling material. So, we workshopped it. I suggested sending students outside with a paper plate and a pencil to build a sundial. Teach them how to read the time using the sundial and then reflect on what they currently ‘govern’ in their own lives, and what they might take responsibility for in the future. They will never forget it. He reported that it was a huge success.” 

In terms of the Hebrew course, Widmonte says they are aiming to get teachers to teach Hebrew the same way in which any second language is taught. 

“Most of our Hebrew teachers in South Africa, and indeed in the world, are Israelis. And most of them have never had the opportunity to train properly,” says Widmonte. “The big shift that we’ve also introduced is that we’re training teachers to teach Hebrew proficiency. That is the term: proficiency is how second languages are taught worldwide.” 

Widmonte explains that these teachers then get students to use the language straight away. They do so by using the framework set out by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, which has four components: comprehending the language, speaking in the language, reading in the language, and writing the language. 

“All of those are viewed as a unit, not one over the other, so that you’re able to use the language from the beginning, and that is what we’re training teachers to assist the students to do in Hebrew as a second language,” says Widmonte. 

“We spend a significant amount of time teaching Hebrew in our schools (we still need more), yet many students can’t use the language confidently or at all. The key lies especially in the pre-primary and primary school years. If Hebrew is taught properly at that stage, children can achieve fluency that is appropriate for their age and level of development. But this depends on four critical factors: the amount of time invested, the curriculum, the way teachers are trained to teach, and the teachers themselves,” he says. 

“The real question is whether the system and the educators are teaching for proficiency, for students to actively speak, understand, read, and write Hebrew, rather than primarily aiming to pass exams. When sufficient hours are devoted to the language, and skilled teachers are properly trained in proficiency-based methods, students can emerge with meaningful, functional Hebrew.”