We test Foster's enduring assertion that "the best vocational education is an academic degree" by examining a case study of Israeli Bedouin women and men, young professionals who shared with us their personal stories of their parents taking them out of their local separate but equal schools and moving them to the majority schooling…

In this article, we focus on the transformations imposed on schools by individual parents, arguing that schools as modern organisations change not only through top-down pressures orchestrated by an array of international organisations, for-profit companies and media as shown in previous research, but also through the agency of mobile parents, who…

The current study examined the case of religious students who opted to study in a secular teacher-training college despite the fact that there are religious colleges that would have suited their needs. This phenomenon is unusual because the education system in Israel is segregated and each educational sector has its own teacher-training colleges.…

Homeschooling is an alternative to conventional education in many countries all over the world, though legal regulations vary. This article examines why parents opt for homeschooling. The large body of research on the topic (especially from the United States) points to a variety of reasons for making the choice to homeschool. The most common…

Many countries are struggling to reconcile greater flexibility in school choice with the need to ensure quality, equity and coherence in their school systems. This report provides an international perspective on issues related to school choice, especially how certain aspects of school-choice policies may be associated with sorting students into…

Education researchers and policymakers have been focusing for the last three decades on increasing parental involvement in schools. Their work focused on the positive effects that parental involvement has on varied aspects of school quality and functioning. In this study we examined "trust," a known predictor of parental involvement in…

This article presents a comparative analysis of a metasynthesis of Israeli and US studies on parental choice of two-way bilingual education. My analysis reveals that the reasons majority-language and minority-language parents expressed in the US and Israeli studies converge in some aspects but, significantly, also diverge. I argue that the…

This article explores the meanings parents attribute to homeschooling. The literature reveals two main approaches to this subject: a view of homeschooling as a pedagogical practice and a holistic perspective. Employing qualitative methodologies, we administered in-depth interviews to 30 mothers who engaged in homeschooling in Israel, in order to…

This literature review on school choice analyses the impact of choice schemes on students and on school systems focusing on equity. Reviewing the evidence can be difficult, as the literature is often fragmented and inconclusive, and the political importance of this research often results in high-profile attention given to individual studies rather…

The present study examines parental attitudes toward bilingual and peace-promoting education at a school in Israel, and how these affect the behaviors and perceptions of their children studying there. The questions of interest were: (a) what are the parents' perceptions of and attitudes toward the bilingual and peace-promoting education? (b) Are…

This article is a product of in-depth research in "Yaffa, The Arab Democratic School" that was carried out in 2004/05, as part of a study on alternative Arab education in Israel. Its aim, beyond telling the story of Yaffa, is to explicate the motivations that underlay this initiative, and to examine parental choice amongst the…

International schools and schools offering curricula and qualifications that are not those designed and delivered by the state are increasingly common in many countries. They offer parents an alternative to national schools and the normative education they deliver. This article compares five research exercises conducted in Switzerland, Japan,…

The article reviews the distinctive components of school reputation and exposes various determinants that shape this reputation among parents. Some 21 Israeli parents participated in semi-structured interviews during 2009-2010 in which they were asked about their interpretations of school reputation and its determinants. Research data demonstrates…

Building on fieldwork conducted in the West Bank settlement Beit-El, this article analyses the generational divide between first- and second-generation settlers in terms of their values and practices, against the backdrop of the new realities created by economic restructuring in Israel. It argues that the investments that settler parents made in…

It is difficult to make a clear impact statement about charter schools. Much of the available research is equivocal, and many important questions related to the impact of charter schools remain unanswered. Researchers have primarily examined four general topics with respect to the impact of charter schools; (1) Do charter schools raise student…