Actors and Networks

Actor-network theory analyses are specific methodologies used to study transnational phenomena in education. Since networks do not respect national boundaries, network approaches tend to blur those boundaries more emphatically than others do. Three networks operated in Ottoman Palestine that represented large Jewish communities in Western Europe, which believed in disseminating progress through their cultures and the increasing power of thinking in their languages: the English network, AJA., the French AIU, and the German Hilfsverein network. These networks adopted the humanistic educational approach while transferring the curriculum with which they were familiar. Alongside these networks, other actors were active like Edmond Rothschild and the JCA network, which funded rural education in rural communities—adopting and transferring the norms of mass education by granting elementary education to all the children living in the rural communities they supported. An additional transnational network was the Hovevei Zion network which began in the 1880s. This network served as a meeting point for the informal transfer of information to advance the formation of a national Jewish society, emphasizing the Hebrew language and culture. Its leading teachers composed textbooks and guidebooks based on modern pedagogy they encountered during their European studies.