Dr. Zvi Bekerman

Faculty Member

Dr. Zvi Bekerman teaches anthropology of education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s school of education and at its Melton Centre for Jewish Education. His main research interests involve the study of cultural, ethnic and national identity, including identity processes and negotiation during intercultural encounters and in formal/informal learning contexts. He is also interested in how ideas and concepts such as culture and identity intersect with such issues as social justice, inter-cultural education, peace education and civics education. Since 1999, with the support of the Ford, Spencer and Bernard Van Leer Foundations, Bekerman has been conducting a long-term ethnographic research project in the integrated bilingual Palestinian-Jewish schools in Israel. He has published many academic articles in his field of research, as well as several books, including: Teaching Contested Narratives: Identity, Memory and Reconciliation in Peace Education and Beyond (Cambridge University Press, 2012), The International Handbook of Migration, Minorities and Education: Understanding Cultural and Social Differences in Processes of Learning (Springer, 2014), and The Promise of Integrated Multicultural and Bilingual Education (Oxford University Press, 2016). At the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, Bekerman teaches a course in ethnographical analysis which equips fellows with ethnographic tools for observing and interpreting what happens in schools.