Iris Alkaher | Seminar Hakibbutzim College (original) (raw)

Papers by Iris Alkaher

Is Population Growth an Environmental Problem? Teachers’ Perceptions and Attitudes towards Including It in Their Teaching, 2019

Population growth (PG) is one of the drivers of the environmental crisis and underlies almost eve... more Population growth (PG) is one of the drivers of the environmental crisis and underlies almost every environmental problem. Despite its causative role in environmental challenges, it has gained little attention from popular media, public and government agenda, or even from environmental organizations. There is a gap between the gravity of the problem and its relative absence from the public discourse that stems, inter alia, from the fact that the very discussion of the subject raises many sensitive, complex and ethical questions. The education system is a key player in filling this gap, and teachers have an opportunity to facilitate the discussion in this important issue. While educators mostly agree to include controversial environmental topics in school curricula, calls for addressing PG remain rare. This study explores teachers' perspectives of PG as a problem and their attitudes towards including it in their teaching, focusing on environmental and non-environmental teachers. While perceiving PG as an environmental problem and supporting its inclusion in schools was significantly higher among the environmental-teachers, similar concerns were reported by all the teachers concerning engaging students in discourse around this controversial issue. This consensus indicates the limited impact of knowledgeability on teachers' intentions to address PG in class. Teachers' challenges reflect the dominant Israeli sociocultural norms, religious values and the national pronatalist ideologies. The findings demonstrate how the absence of PG from the public discourse and from school curricula influences teachers' motivation to address it in class. This study highlights the necessity to encourage teachers to address PG in their teaching, even in this reality, by providing them with appropriate tools that will enable them to successfully engage students in this controversial issue.

Sustainability, 2019

Developed understanding of environmental problems, consequences, and risks constitutes a core tar... more Developed understanding of environmental problems, consequences, and risks constitutes a core target of environmental education (EE). Ecological risks (ERs) are inherently complex, interconnected, and subject to perceptual biases. To explore whether an exposure to EE in academia improves ER literacy, we compared ER perception of students who were exposed to EE ("EE majors") with students who were not ("non-EE majors") Drawing on the psychometric paradigm from risk perception research, we compared ER perception between the two groups to identify whether the students perceive, appraise, and prioritize ERs differently, and whether they provide different reasons for their decisions and evaluations. We found significant differences in the perception of overall severity of environmental problems, especially of the less "popular" and familiar ones, characterized by global, complex, and extensive consequences. Compared to non-EE majors, EE majors perceived most ERs as more certain, personal, and temporally and spatially close. Risk prioritization and the reasons given for these choices also differed; EE major students' choices were mostly guided by holistic reasons, whereas the non-EE major students' explanations were more anthropocentric or one-dimensional. The discussion focused on the importance of ER literacy in reducing misconceptions of environmental problems and on developing an informed assessment of their severity.

Because culture affects the way people perceive human–nature relationships, it is acknowledged as... more Because culture affects the way people perceive human–nature relationships, it is acknowledged as a crucial component of sustainability. Israel has made efforts to involve cultural groups in education-for-sustainability (EfS). However, EfS within minorities still lags behind the dominant social majority. This study addressed incorporating EfS in the ultraorthodox sector (" ultraorthodoxing " EfS), focusing on a pioneering ultraorthodox municipality. In this interpretive study, interviews were conducted with nine stakeholders that hold key-positions regarding EfS policy-making. It explored how sustainability is introduced into ultraorthodox discourse and promoted in this community. Challenges to incorporating EfS include low environmentalism among the ultraorthodox and cultural–religious barriers. The findings indicate several directions of activity implemented by the Municipality to adapt EfS to ultraorthodox values and worldviews. The study suggests several principles for incorporating EfS in diverse cultural groups within multicultural societies (for example, allocating leaders from within the cultural group and developing their professional expertise, and establishing productive external–internal partnerships). Based on the findings, we suggest that implementing the particularistic approach within specific communities provides the means for empowering them, and is a necessary stage towards the participation of such cultural groups in pluralistic dialogue in wider society.

Allozymic diversity was studied for proteins encoded by 28 putative loci in 170 plants of wild ba... more Allozymic diversity was studied for proteins encoded by 28 putative loci in 170 plants of wild barley, Hordeum spontaneum, and for 13 loci in 78 different thalli of the lichen Caloplaca aurantia, from the Lower Nahal Oren microsite, Mt. Carmel, Israel, designated by us 'Evolu-tion Canyon'. The samples of wild barley were collected from six stations: three (upper, middle, lower) on the south-facing slope (SF-slope) and three (lower, middle, upper) on the north-facing slope (NF-slope). The samples of C. aurantia were collected from three stations: two (middle and upper) on the SF-slope and one (upper) on the NF-slope. Higher solar radiation on the SF-than on the NF-slope makes it warmer, drier, spatiotemporally more heterogeneous, and climatically more fluctuating and stressful. Consequently, it exhibits an open park forest representing an 'African' savanna landscape. Significant inter-and intraslope allozymic differentiation was found in both organisms with generally higher polymorphism, heterozygosity, allele and gene diversity on the more variable and stressful upper station of the SF-slope, as expected by the niche-width variation hypothesis, and the environmental theory of genetic diversity. Solar radiation, temperature and aridity stress caused intersiope and intra-slope differences on the SF-slope in genotypes and phenotypes of wild barley and the lichen at the 'Evolution Canyon' microsite, as was the case for beetles, diplopods and earthworms tested at the site. Diversifying natural (microclimatic) selection appears to be the major evolutionary driving force causing interslope and SF-intraslope adaptative genetic divergence. 'Evolution Canyon' proves an optimal model for unravelling evolution in action, across life and organizational levels.

Purpose – Distributed leadership has been reported in the literature as an effective management a... more Purpose – Distributed leadership has been reported in the literature as an effective management approach for educational organizations such as institutions of higher education.This study aims to investigate the role of distributed leadership in the
promotion of sustainability in an Israeli college of teacher education. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the Multi-Level Model of Leadership Practice in higher education, taken from Bolden et al. (2008a) and from Woods et al. (2004), the authors investigated how the characteristics of distributed leadership are expressed in three central organization-wide structures in the college (a student group, the green council and a professional development program). They also explored in what ways aspects of distributed leadership promote sustainability-oriented activities on campus.They used a deductive and inductive interpretive approach in this case study.
Findings – The authors found three organization-level processes that are based on the principles of distributed leadership and that promote sustainability on campus: distributed leadership enables change in the organization’s internal culture with respect to mainstreaming sustainability; distributed leadership encourages collaboration between the entire campus population and between different departments and distributed leadership on campus enables the development of diverse “bottom-up” and “top-down” structures intheorganization. Originality/value – While the study’s ﬁndings indicated several challenges regarding the implementation of distributed leadership in the organization, they ultimately support the idea that distributed leadership may contribute to the long-term, organization-wide implementation of sustainability in higher education institutes. Therefore, the authors recommend that institutions that are willing to promote sustainability adopt distributed leadership as their major management approach.

This study focuses on the impact of a sustainability leadership development program (SLDP) design... more This study focuses on the impact of a sustainability leadership development program (SLDP) designed to develop staff members as leaders who encourage sustainability practices within institutions of higher education (IHE). Using the framework of community of practice (CoP), we explored the program’s contribution by interviewing 16 staff members who had attended the program. At the individual level, we found that the SLDP provided participants with opportunities to learn from and with other members of the CoP and to engage them in debate about the various meanings of ‘sustainability’, increasing their environmental awareness and their environmental involvement within the IHE’s community. At the institutional level, the SLDP disseminated the college’s socio-environmental mission statement, increased its administration’s commitment and involvement, served as a platform for addressing local socio-environmental problems and initiated an Education-for-Sustainability (EfS) activists’ network. However, the participants indicated that the SLDP had limited impact on the environmentalism of other staff members and that the on-going mentoring and support from the college administration was insufficient. This study highlights the importance of such EfS professional programs to the development of both staff members and entire institutions as sustainability leaders. It also suggests ways to increase staff involvement in institutional EfS discourse.

One aspect of the increasing position of sustainability in higher education is establishment of d... more One aspect of the increasing position of sustainability in higher education is establishment of distinct interdisciplinary environment-oriented programs. The point-of-departure of this study is differentiation between teaching- and non-teaching-oriented students, in view of their different respective professional roles in society. The motives and environmental literacy (EL) of incoming students were investigated in three types of sustainability programs in Israel: undergraduate teacher-training, graduate teachereducation and graduate non-teacher programs. For all students acquiring knowledge was the major motive for studies. Undergraduate studentteachers demonstrated the least developed EL, although it is slightly higher than that found for incoming student-teachers a decade ago. Graduate teacher-students displayed strong identity as educational agents-of-change and role-models; however, their limited environmental-knowledge raises questions concerning providing knowledge foundations in undergraduate teacher-training programs, indicating the necessity to supplement this in graduate teacher-programs. Graduate non-teacher students perceive their continuing sustainability-oriented studies as a means for developing an environmental career and enter these programs relatively environmentallyliterate. The implications focus on necessary components and characteristics of sustainability-programs directed to teaching- and non-teaching-oriented students. These include the necessity to strengthen the environmentalknowledge component in programs directed to teachers; and embed opportunities for professional internships within graduate programs for non-teachers seeking environmental careers.

This interpretive study identiﬁes challenges of working with Bedouin and Jewish Israeli youth in ... more This interpretive study identiﬁes challenges of working with Bedouin and Jewish Israeli youth in two multicultural projects: education for sustainability and place-conscious education. It also describes the ways the adult project leaders addressed these challenges and their views on the effectiveness of their decisions. Participants comprised 16 Bedouin and Jewish educators. Data collection included interviews and observations of project meetings and staff meetings. Project leaders reported challenges related to (1) intergroup differences in environmental viewpoints, knowledge, and learning styles, (2) embedding issues of environmental justice in the multicultural discourse, and (3) BedouinJewish interactions. To address these challenges, the leaders separated groups for some learning activities, directed discourses, adopted bilingual teaching strategies, and emphasized unique socio-cultural characteristics. Their level of satisfaction with most of their decisions is high. They avoided discussing the broader socio-political ArabJewish conﬂict. The ﬁndings highlight dilemmas that multicultural environmental projects pose and suggest the need to adopt critical pedagogy of place to address such dilemmas and challenges. The ﬁndings also emphasize the need to better prepare educators for environmental education in multicultural settings.

Sunal, D., Sunal, C. & Wright, E., Mason, C., and Zollman, D. (Eds.) (2014), Research based undergraduate science teaching. Charlotte, N.C.: Information Age Pub.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences, or CUREs, are increasingly common because they e... more Course-based undergraduate research experiences, or CUREs, are increasingly common because they engage undergraduates in research at schools lacking a research infrastructure or cannot accommodate large undergraduate populations in internship-style research. Course-based undergraduate research experiences are lauded for their scientific and instructional authenticity as they present cognitive demands that learners would encounter in the real world and engage students in scientific practices that encourage them to view themselves as scientists and position themselves as contributors to the scientific body of knowledge. In addition, CUREs may influence students’ academic and career paths more than internship-style research experiences, which typically serve to confirm students’ prior academic or career choices. Here, efforts to integrate science research experiences into undergraduate courses are reviewed. Theory informing the design and implementation of CUREs is described, CURE models, mechanisms, and impacts are summarized, and an evaluation of research on CUREs is offered, including the quality of the measures and shortcomings or gaps. Results are described from our own qualitative, interpretive study of how CUREs can be tools for undergraduate self-authorship, specifically: (1) ways in which undergraduates’ views about the source of scientific knowledge change as they participate in course-based research, (2) ways in which undergraduates’ scientific identities change as they participate in course-based research, and (3) ways in which undergraduates’ views about their relationship with science change as they participate in course-based research. The profiles of six undergraduates who represent the range of developmental transformation toward self-authorship are described. The chapter concludes with recommendations for further study and practice of CUREs.

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl , Jul 1, 2011

In this qualitative study, we describe and characterize the pedagogical decisions that three coll... more In this qualitative study, we describe and characterize the pedagogical decisions that three college instructors made to mitigate challenges they faced as they taught by inquiry, as well as the rationale for their decisions and their perceptions of the efficacy of their decisions. We found that instructors made a range of decisions, including reorganizing course content and structure, adding more opportunities for and models of inquiry practice, adding more opportunities for feedback and assessment, and enhancing scaffolding of the inquiry. Notably, single instructional decisions had the capacity to mitigate multiple challenges. The instructors were satisfied with many of their decisions, yet they continued to question the efficacy of certain decisions and to generate ideas for further changes to address their students’ and their own struggles with inquiry teaching. Although many of their decisions reflected the instructors’ responses to external factors, such as their students’ needs or the logistical constraints of their classes or institutions, other decisions reflected the instructors’ own development as teaching professionals. Our findings serve as concrete examples of how instructors can alleviate the challenges of inquiry teaching at the college level. Our results also highlight the need for appropriate instructional preparation and support for all students during inquiry teaching, regardless of their backgrounds or undergraduate majors.

Key words: inquiry teaching, undergraduate, instructional decisions, teacher education

Environmental Education Research, Apr 8, 2011

Socio-environmental projects involving Arab and Jewish youth in Israel are uncommon. In this stud... more Socio-environmental projects involving Arab and Jewish youth in Israel are uncommon. In this study, we interviewed 16 adult leaders of two projects that were carried out in the Galilee in northern Israel, to better understand the views of the leaders and their motives. The two projects focused on mutual environmental issues and dealt with social, cultural, and political aspects with respect to the environmental context. The participants were teachers and principals of the students who participated in the projects and facilitators of two environmental organizations. We found diverse views with respect to environmental education, local environmental issues, and possible solutions. The Arab adults expressed stronger attachment to the local environment than the Jewish ones. The major projects’ goals according to the leaders included: (improving) knowledge, awareness, and environmental behavior of the students and their communities; an opportunity for taking part in community collaboration and action; an opportunity for multicultural interaction; and meaningful long-term learning in the outdoors. Our findings highlight the importance of identifying the views of educators of diverse cultures in order to carry out future successful multicultural environmental projects. Our findings also suggest adopting critical pedagogy of place while designing and implementing such projects in sensitive regions such as Israel.

Keywords: education for sustainability; multicultural environmental projects; socio-environmental projects; environmental views; sense of place

International Journal of Science Education, Mar 21, 2013

Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2010

A multicultural socio-environmental project that is framed in the ideas of education for sustaina... more A multicultural socio-environmental project that is framed in the ideas of education for sustainability brought together Jew and Arab students was investigated to identify the participants’ views of the program’s objectives and their accomplishments. We investigated the project’s strengths and weaknesses according to the participants’ views and the way culturally diverse students addressed the main local socio-environmental conflict related to conservation versus development of a local creek. The participants agreed that the environmental objectives were properly attained, while the social objectives were accomplished to a limited extent. All the participants emphasized the importance of multicultural knowledge and expected to learn and work together. We found different views of the Jewish and the Arab participants regarding expectations, collaboration and overall satisfaction, with higher expectations of the Arab students and leaders. The students’ views of the local conflict varied but were not associated with their ethnic background. We suggest that the differences between the groups result from the different positions and needs of each community, and mainly as a consequence of the difficulties that the Arab minority faces in Israel. Overall, we found that the project allowed the expression of multiple voices of both groups, and suggested an applicable program for education for sustainability in a multicultural society.