Between Two Languages: Student-Teachers Teach Jewish Content

This study focuses on the utilization of different Jewish languages by student-teachers in a two year teacher education program. The study examined the Jewish language used by these students while teaching Jewish content, making the distinction between their personal Jewish language and the cultural Jewish language of the program, which they were expected to use. We found a definite change in the languages used by them: although they seemed, at first, to adopt the cultural Jewish language of the curriculum, they quickly reverted to their personal Jewish language, which, in most cases, was the traditional one. By so doing they actually created a new version of the original program. We conclude that the idea of educating teachers to lead a significant social cultural change involves an inner struggle between the teachers' personal language and that of the program, that may be more difficult to win than was initially expected. This study examines the role of student-teachers' personal Jewish language in their teaching of Jewish content and the relationship that develops between their personal Jewish language and that of the Jewish content they teach.