The Unit for Diversity and Inclusion offers the university’s academic units and staff a wide variety of tools, services and resources in order to ensure academic success and maximization of potential for all diversity populations in routine as well as periods of security tensions. As we face the horrors of war, we invite those of hour teaching staff members who are capable of doing so to join us in an attempt to prepare ourself for the war’s aftermath – to the day our students will arrive on campus, some with physical and mental scars, some grieving, all deserving optimal conditions. Against the background of the diverse groups and identities that comprise our student body, we must pay particular attention to the fact that Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, will once again share the same corridors, classrooms, labs, and offices. It is our responsibility to create and maintain a safe, dignifying and tolerant space for them.
In order to achieve this, we need your active commitment and engagement as staff members, before they arrive, and all the more so as soon as your first lesson begins. We are here to support and accompany you, and to provide you with a wide variety of tools and resources.
Teaching in a heterogeneous classroom during and after security tensions (together with the Teaching and Learning Unit (TLU), aChord, and Gender Equity)
Workshops
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Teaching in the Shadow of War – Dr. Udi Tsemach (Pedagogical Officer at the Diversity Unit and TLU). This workshop provides pedagogical tools with focus on three major questions: (1) How to start the year and what to say in the first lesson? (2) What scenarios may occur in the classroom and should they be dealt with? (3) How does returning to school support the students’ resilience? The workshop is accompanied by a pedagogical process – the participants formulate an outline for coping with teaching challenges. The workshop facilitator will consolidate the recommendations and send them to the participants and to the heads of the department/unit after the workshop.
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Restarting Your Learning – Dr. Udi Tsemach. The anxiety and difficult emotions we experience make it difficult to resume teaching. Teaching and learning at the university require concentration, dedication and higher-order thinking. Stress and anxiety affect our cognitive skills and ability to learn effectively. The objective of this workshop is to provide lecturers with practical teaching tools to enable students to get back in mental and cognitive “shape”.
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Sensitive Courses – Teaching in Wartime Dr. Udi Tsemach
Sensitive courses are those that are relevant to the Hamas-Israel war. These courses address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, relations between groups within Israel, coping with trauma, and broader sociocultural issues with direct or indirect bearing on the war. Such courses require particular sensitivity and are complex to teach at all times, but the events of October 7, 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza raise new difficulties. Some students in the classroom have been directly impacted by the war: they have experienced it firsthand, lost relatives and friends, or have loved ones in Hamas captivity.
The workshop “Sensitive Courses at Wartime” offers space for joint thinking by members of the academic staff about how to manage such courses. In the workshop, we will present the various considerations and aspects that can help us make complex pedagogical decisions, as well as recommended best practices. The workshop participants will benefit from the following: (1) Discussion of challenges, aspects and considerations in teaching sensitive courses at wartime; (2) Pedagogy of sensitive courses – best practices; (3) Brain storming and joint reflection. -
Wartime teaching in a diverse campus – Dr. Adar Cohen – This workshop provides pedagogical tools for wartime teaching. It focuses on conceptualizing the challenges involved and helps lecturers decide on their own approach upon entering the classroom – should they “start” a conversation about the situation in class (reaching out, ignoring), and what (political or emotional) issue should they focus on. The workshop also provides practical recommendations for conducting classroom dialogue.
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Between partnership and conflict – Dr. Tammy Rubel Lifschitz – The workshop deals with the interrelations between the individual experience, the sociopolitical context and events in class, and addresses courses dealing with socio-politically sensitive contents. The workshop will present principles and tools for maintaining clarity, emotional availability for studying, and constructive conflict management, in both on-campus and remote learning.
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The containing classroom: Orientation and teaching in a diverse classroom – aChord Center – This is a practical workshop for academic staff designed to support the lecturer’s conduct in the classroom and on campus during this crisis, relying on social-psychological knowledge. The workshop offers recommendations and tools for conducting dialogue in class, for giving voice and facilitating expression while restraining inappropriate statements. These tools are suitable for lecturers of various disciplines.
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Imperceptible biases – Gender, diversity and excellence at the Hebrew University: Where do we stand, where are we heading? Dr. Tammy Rubel Lifschitz and Dr. Yael Ben David – A dedicated workshop for staff members serving in screening and search committees, as well as in staff development and appointment committees. It is designed to present to the committee members recent findings on gender and other biases and practices that impede the advancement of women and minority members. It will also present recent studies on the effectiveness of ways to increase gender and other diversity to ensure excellence. Based on all these and on the experience of the participants, we will discuss barriers relevant to the Hebrew University and various ways of overcoming them.
- Individual consulting
- peer learning
- ongoing support
- Translating materials into Arabic (syllabi, major assignments, disciplinary terminology)
- Adding interdisciplinary courses on democracy, moral virtues and values
Contact Persons
Dr. Udi Tsemach, Pedagogy, Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Diversity Unit & TLU: ehud.tsemach@mail.huji.ac.il
Lina Shlodi, coordinator, diversity.programs@mail.huji.ac.il