Over the past few years, the State of Israel has experienced crises that have highlighted gaps in personal, social, and national resilience. These events have harmed the fabric of life in general and the education system in particular. For instance, two decades of terror in the Gaza Envelope, the global COVID-19 pandemic, and most recently, the ‘Iron Swords’ war that broke out unexpectedly in October 2023, claiming the lives of thousands of residents, have left a deep social and national scar on Israeli citizens, including all members of the education system—staff and students. In particular, the ‘Iron Swords’ war introduced a period of uncertainty in various aspects of life for Israelis: security, economy, society, and politics (Blank, 2023). Alongside these challenges, the Israeli education system struggled to function continuously and provide an immediate response to the needs on the ground. As a result, educational staff and students found themselves on a frontline that disrupted their daily routines, affected their performance, and impaired their functional and academic abilities (Hazan, Buchnik & Even Zahav, 2024).
The purpose of this research is to examine the actions taken by educational staff—individuals and groups—on a voluntary and informal basis, to assist, care for, and teach the evacuated students following the attack, with the aim of maintaining educational continuity during the ongoing crisis. The proposed research aims to examine the actions taken by volunteers and educational teams—individuals and groups—on a voluntary and informal basis, to assist, care for, and teach the evacuated students following the outbreak of the war, in order to maintain educational continuity during the ongoing crisis. The research will focus on volunteers who operated in hotels, evacuation centers, and schools that functioned within the community across Israel.
Research Questions
- How did the initiative and pioneering spirit of educators manifest in alternative educational environments during the ‘Iron Swords’ war?
- What actions/methods/strategies did educators employ during the emergency period to ensure educational continuity, education, and learning for Israeli students staying in hotels/evacuation centers/schools that operated within the community across the country?
- What factors enabled the volunteers’ work, and what challenges did they face?
Research Process and Stages
- Stage A: In-depth interviews with approximately twenty educators to identify key themes related to the functioning of educational teams in evacuation hotels.
- Stage B: Validation of the findings through a questionnaire to be distributed to a wider population of educational staff involved in educational activities with evacuated students.
- Stage C: Development of a preliminary version of a model describing the activities of educational teams in evacuation hotels.
- Stage D: Additional in-depth interviews to validate the model.
- Stage E: Validation of the model through a questionnaire to be distributed to a wider population of educational staff involved in educational activities with evacuated students.
- Stage F: Refinement and finalization of the model based on the analysis of all data.
Research Tools
The research will be based on two main tools: in-depth interviews and questionnaires. The research tools are detailed in the appendix. Initially, semi-structured, in-depth interviews will be conducted with the educational teams that operated during the ‘Iron Swords’ war in the educational spaces for the evacuated students. The interviewees and their identities will represent the human diversity within the Israeli education system. The interviews will be developed based on a review of professional literature and the researchers’ experience in resilience studies (Dr. Einat Shoshan Refaeli) and their personal acquaintance with the Israeli education system (both researchers), both before and during the ‘Iron Swords’ war.