The Ministry of Education – Civic Education and Shared Living Unit: The Adam Institute’s collaboration with the Civic Education Shared Living Unit goes back a number of years, in various forms. As part of the Joint Project initiative, the Adam Institute received support to hold encounters between junior and high school students. Six online lessons were uploaded to the Ministry of Education’s website.
Israeli Hope in Education – A joint initiative of the President of Israel and the Lautman Foundation: The Adam Institute is a partner organization in this initiative. During the 2016-17 school year, Adam Institute staff participated in the President’s annual conference and presented programs on the freedom of expression and combatting racism.
The Bible Lands Museum: For over a decade, the Adam Institute and the museum’s Education Department have been cooperating on various education projects within the framework of The Image of Abraham program. As in previous years, this year the museum staff (guides and educators) participated in a training and received guidance for facilitating encounters between Jewish and Arab elementary school students. The training addressed a number of topics, including becoming personally and culturally acquainted; exploring how both cultures can be given equal space during activities; helping guides prepare to facilitate; co-facilitation and teamwork in general, while making equality visible; improving inter-staff communication; and setting expectations and work methods with the art guides. A debriefing session was held at the end of the year, in which many of the experienced guides felt that they were now able to contribute to the development of new content and methodologies within the museum’s education department.
The Museum of Islamic Art: The museum and Adam Institute have been closely working together since 2015. The activities include training the museum staff to facilitate student encounters, seminars, and museum tours, in order to introduce the city’s junior and high school students to democratic concepts, tolerance, multi-culturalism, and acceptance of the “other.” The seminars were structured in collaboration with the Van Leer Institute, and they comprise three parts: A relevant lecture at Van Leer that delves deeper into any aspect of the curriculum; a processing workshop and discussion; a tour of the Museum Islamic Art. This year the museum’s Jewish-Arab staff received in-depth training for facilitating encounters. The training included experiential workshops, theoretical knowledge, and discussions about the goals of bringing together youngsters at the museum. The training’s topics included: becoming personally and culturally acquainted; human and civil rights; multi-culturalism; methods and activities for the encounter. The training was a success; the museum guides were engaged and interested in the diverse content. The staff also facilitated successful student encounters and preparatory meetings for Adam Institute encounters, as part of the Ministry of Education’s Joint Project initiative.
The Kibbutzim College, Tel Aviv: As in previous years, the Adam Institute was a partner in planning and running a day-long seminar for the creative education students. The theme of the seminar, which marked Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day, focused on the freedom of expression and educating against incitement and racism. The students received the In the Path of Dialogue booklet, so that they could implement the program in their classrooms.
The National Union of Israeli University Students – In the Path of Dialogue training: This was the second year that the Adam Institute has trained Jewish and Arab university students to facilitate workshops from In the Path of Dialogue. In 2016-17 four groups of Jewish and Arab students underwent trainings, which were conducted in Carmiel, Beersheba, and Tel Aviv, before facilitating the workshops in junior high schools near their homes. This training program was a success, and participants expressed satisfaction with its content and methodologies.
