The 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies

From “Carrier” to “Creator”: Identity Construction in a Humanistic Knowledge-Building Community

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Background: The Knowledge Building Community (KBC) approach has been driving innovation in educational theory and technology for close to three decades. Looking beyond the existing KBC research, and given the “political turn” in the learning sciences, I asked how KBCs can mediate the socio-political goals of Jewish education.

Methods: I present a telling case study aimed at elucidating previously obscure theoretical relations by providing a rich and detailed account of a single student. Specifically, I draw on Discourse Analysis methods to generate an empirically grounded answer to the research question.

Findings: I show how one student’s encounter with the learning environment shaped his views of the curricular content, his own Jewish identity, and his understanding of Judaism as a social category. I also provide a theoretical framework to conceptualize the connection between the three elements.

Contribution: This article opens the door to a new strand of Jewish education research, by demonstrating and conceptualizing the socio-political affordances of an educational approach that has previously been applied to achieve epistemic aims.