Immigrant and Veteran Teachers of the 1948 Generation: As Socialization Agents of the New State

Among Israel's socialization agents during its first years were teachers who were sent off everywhere where there were children of compulsory school age. The majority of the teachers teaching in the periphery lacked pedagogical training. They were recruited by the Ministry of Education owing to the shortage of teachers in the wake of the mass immigration. Among them were immigrant teachers, who were struggling to integrate into the society, and young teachers of the 1948 generation, including novice teachers and soldier teachers. These two groups were expected not merely to teach, but also to fulfill various specialist functions in their contact with their pupils' families, struggling with problems typical of immigrants. This article examines their biographical profile affecting their activity and indicates that teaching in the periphery empowered the young teachers, while enabling the immigrant teachers to join the middle class of veteran Israelis within a relatively short time.