The Educational Institutions and Pedagogical Approaches

This chapter discusses the processes of active reception, implementation, and indigenization in Ottoman Palestine’s modern Jewish and Hebrew education system. The modern educational institutions in Ottoman Palestine transitioned from a place of study to a place designated for education, similar to the process in other societies. This process first led to the transfer of various architectural models from Europe and their relocation to construct modern schools in Palestine. The actors and networks that built the first modern schools carried out the transfer of models. The growth of modern schools designed for children of different ages––promoted transfer processes and adaptation and assimilation processes that embodied the schools’ visions and goals. Five main types of modern schools developed, and their construction style was almost identical to that of the networks’ schools in areas outside Palestine. Modern schools’ curricula and teaching methods were transferred through three stages of lending and borrowing. The first was active reception, the second was implementation, and the third was indigenization. A fascinating case study of this process is the teaching of Hebrew using the natural method. One could argue that the indigenization stage was employed when the teaching instruction became known in Hebrew historiography as "Hebrew in Hebrew."