Pedagogical Success Against All Odds:  Educating Children of Refugees and Migrant Workers In Israel

Lecture, Discussion and Screening of the Oscar-Winning Film, "Strangers No More"

With Professor Nimrod Aloni, Ph.D., UNESCO Chair of Humanistic Education, Kibbutzim College, Israel, MSU Visiting Professor, Educational Foundations

September 21, 2011

2:45 pm - 4:45 pm in University Hall Room 1070

In the heart of Tel Aviv, there is an exceptional school where children from 48 different countries and diverse backgrounds come together to learn. Many of the students arrive at Bialik-Rogozin School fleeing poverty, political adversity and even genocide. Here, no child is a stranger. The film follows several students' struggle to acclimate to life in a new land while slowly opening up to share their stories of hardship and tragedy. With tremendous effort and dedication, the school provides the support these children need to recover from their past. Together, the bond between teacher and student, and amongst the students themselves, enables them to create new lives in this exceptional community.

Professor Nimrod Aloni, Ph.D., a UNESCO Chair in Humanistic Education at Kibbutzim College in Israel and a visiting scholar in MSU’s Educational Foundations Department, will discuss the community of refugees and migrant workers in the city of Tel Aviv and the ethical and pedagogical challenges involved in educational work with the children – from birth to high school graduation. Following an introduction by Prof. Jaime Grinberg, Ph.D. (Educational Foundations) and Prof. David Schwarzer, Ph.D. (Chair, Curriculum and Teaching and former principal of the Bialik-Rogozin school), Prof. Aloni will lead a discussion on education, social assimilation and multiculturalism in an era of globalization and intercultural settings.

Sponsored by the Department of Educational Foundations, the Global Education Center, the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, and the Jewish American Studies Program.

For further information contact Dr. Grinberg at 655-4427 or Wendy Gilbert-Simone at 655-4185.