Introduction to Multiculturalism and Cultural Diversity

Head of the project: Dr. Elaine Hoter is a pioneer in online collaborative learning since 1995. She is a senior lecturer at Talpiot College in Holon, Israel where she lectures in the master degree programs. In 2001 she jointly organized and led the first online international conference for teacher educators. She jointly established the Center for Technology Education and Social Diversity (TEC) in 2005. Today she is at the forefront of the innovative pedagogy of the center and heads the virtual worlds development team. Elaine has given lectures and workshops on every continent and is a Fulbright alumna.

The techno-pedagogue of the course, he holds a doctorate in educational management and policy and is a lecturer in the education department at Hemdat Hadarom College in Israel. He has been working in the field of integrating teleprocessing into teaching since 1991. Ilan was an instructor and facilitator in the Department of Education for internet in teaching, and a trainer in continuing teacher education in a number of fields including initiatives and research[MJ1] , in teacher training colleges and at the Mofet Institute. He is involved in research in the following fields: cooperative learning (virtual learning communities), online teaching and learning, and multiculturalism.

Content and development manager of the team for citizenship, citizen education, and shared life in the Center for Educational Technology. Responsible for developing digital programs, and teachers’ professional development courses on issues such as dealing with racism, protecting human rights, fostering intergroup empathy, and a shared life in Israel. Her second degree [MJ2] thesis was on multiculturalism, democracy and violence in Israeli schools. Her doctorate concerns the development of empathy between groups in an[MJ3]  online learning environment. In addition, she is a lecturer at Oranim College in the social sciences department, and at Kinneret College in the Department of Education and Community.

Lecturer and pedagogical counsellor in the English department at Sakhnin College, she has managed the annual teleprocessed international TEC day for the last two years, and is a member of the TEC Center and manager of project ACCESS, instigated by the American Embassy. She is a supervisor for multicultural strategic teaching in the environment, and international relations.  She has taught for nine years in a cooperative teleprocessed course “Relating to multiculturalism in the classroom”: this deals with multiculturalism and conflict resolution among Arab students at Sakhnin college TEC and Jewish students at David Yellin College in Jerusalem. She is also manager of the teleprocessed TEC course called “Journey between cultures by means of English literature”, together with four other lecturers from different colleges in Israel. Dr. Yazbak Abu Ahmad was in the postdoctoral program at University of Michigan, Ann Arbour, and teaches a joint teleprocessed course with them called “Global Understanding”. She is also a member of the sixth international TEMPUS project “development and evaluation of new curricula in multiculturalism,” the ERASMUS CURE project “Active Citizenship,” and the ERASMUS SILICE project “Development of Social and Economic Initiatives.” Dr. Yazbak Abu Ahmad has received two research grants from the Mofet Institute (2010/11 and 2016/17) and a Fulbright postdoctoral scholarship. Her research interests are: cooperative teaching and multiculturalism in advanced environments, understanding the other, and class m[MJ4] obility.

Lecturer in advanced studies on the course for headteachers, and head of the second degree program in “Education in the age of information technology” at Kaye Academic College of Education in Beersheva. Her research fields are: integrating information technology in education and teacher training, social network research[MJ5] , internalization in higher education, evaluation of teacher training programs, integration of project based learning in teaching, and processes by which innovations are disseminated in educational institutions. Between 2007 and 2015 she led a research group focusing on evaluating implementation of the national program for adapting colleges to the needs of education in the twenty-first century. 

Deputy principal and lecturer at the Arab College of Education in Haifa, head of the department of education and academic coordinator at the college, she is also a pedagogic counsellor in special needs education. She completed her doctoral studies at Tel Aviv University on the intergenerational transmission of collective memory, and her post doctorate at the Mofet Institute was on multiculturalism in teacher training colleges.

Head of the TEC Center at the Mofet Institute and lecturer in the second degree program in technology in education at the Kibbutz Seminar. She researches and teaches in the following fields: cooperative teaching, online teaching and learning, virtual worlds, and education for multiculturalism.

Lecturer and researcher at Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education, head of the Center for MOOC Development, and advisor to the college president on the advancement of women. Third degree alumna from the faculty of science and technology education at the Technion. Her doctoral research focused on multi- participant online open courses (MOOCs) as the basis for projects in nanotechnology and nanosensors, examining motivation in learning and acquisition[MJ6]  of knowledge. During her third-degree studies she worked as a teaching assistant on the first MOOC to be developed at the Technion, on nanotechnology and nanosensors. Dr. Watted completed her first and second degrees in the civil engineering faculty at the Technion (1998 and 2005 respectively). She completed a further second degree in science and technology education at the Technion in 2013. Dr. Watted’s research focuses on: learning in MOOC environments, project-based learning (PBL), learning based on laboratory research, motivation in science learning, and innovative thought.

Head of the training program for kindergarten teachers in the Bedouin sector, and member of the team for first year studies at Kaye Academic College of Education at Beersheva. She received her third degree from Ben Gurion University of the Negev in the interdisciplinary department of medicine and science teaching. Her doctorate was on research into teaching on heredity and genetics, relating to marriage between close relatives and genetic diseases in the Bedouin community.

Senior lecturer at Talpiot Academic College of Education in Holon, in disciplines related to teaching English as a second language. She wrote the masters degree program at the college on “English as an international language”, now in its third year. She also lectures on education in a multicultural society at the TEC center. She has written th[MJ7] ree books: The Audacity of Holiness: Orthodox Jewish Women’s Theater in Israel (2007), which won a translation award from the Center for Research into Jewish Women at Brandeis University; the updated English version came out in 2011 as an online book published by Brandeis. In 2017 her third book keshenipagesh asaper hakol (when we meet I will tell everything) was published, on the letters of Reina De Vries-Spier (1945-1946). First degree: University of Bar Ilan, English Department. Second degree: University of Tel Aviv, Theater Department. Third degree: The Hebrew University, Department of Anthropology and Sociology. Her research and teaching interests are: education, multiculturalism, theater in education, creative teaching, English literature.

Lecturer in political philosophy and philosophy of education at the Kibbutz Seminar College (retired).

Pedagogical counselor, lecturer and internship advisor at Ohalo Academic College of Education. She was previously coordinator of pedagogical counseling, and of the excellence program, and advisor on continuing education for teachers in centers for the development of teaching personnel.  Manager of the course for extra mural teaching training coordinators for school trips, in the framework of the national program for excellence at academic colleges for teacher training. First degree: Land of Israel studies and history, including guiding, at Beit Berl College. Second degree: Educational processes, at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Areas of interest and teaching: teacher training-didactics, measurement and evaluation in education, Land of Israel studies, education for democracy, talent and excellence.