2020-Present: President, The MOFET National Institute for Research and Development in Education
The MOFET National Institute for Research and Development in Education was established in 1983 as a globally unique R&D institution with the goal of leading change in teacher training and improving education systems. We are a globally unique institution operating to influence multi-level education systems and to advance system-wide changes.
MOFET National Institute for Research and Development in Education is a central multicultural hub connecting institutions and agencies across the education field, including academic institutions for teacher education and for educational research, local and national governmental entities led by the Ministry of Education, and social/NGO organizations. Specializing in applied research and policy evaluation for the education system, MOFET works to identify 21st-century educational challenges and design long-term strategic frameworks grounded in educational research and development.
2017-Present: Editor-in-Chief – Journal of Educational Administration (JEA)
The Journal of Educational Administration, founded in 1963, was the first international refereed journal in the field of educational leadership and management. As the oldest and most respected leading international journal in the field of educational leadership and management, JEA has sought to publish research on educational administration conducted across diverse political, economic and socio-cultural contexts. Indeed, publications featured in JEA have both anticipated and traced the evolution of educational administration into a global field of research and practice.
2018-2020: Chair, AERA Organizational Theory Special Interest Group
The purpose of the Organizational Theory Special Interest Group (SIG) is to advance scholarly inquiry into conceptualizations of educational organizations by promoting the use and development of organizational theory in the context of educational research and practice.
2017-2020: Member, the University’s Highest Academic Council.
2016-2020: Chair, Board of Directors at theInstitute for the Advancement of Teaching, Learning and Social Integration in Education (Bar-Ilan University). I also serve as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Center for Science Education.
2010-2014: Vice Director/Associate Dean, School of Education, Serving in this role for Israel’s largest academic school of education (more than 2000 students).
2010-2014: Head, Teacher Education Department, the largest department in Israel, including 16 divisions of teacher education in various discipline areas, as well as the internship and professional development tracks. Altogether, the Teacher Education Department serves about 850 students. During my term, the curriculum underwent revision to adhere to the national reform in teacher education. To this end, I led the faculty in collaborative analysis, evaluation, and revision of both curriculum and pedagogy, reviewing syllabi and class evaluations as well as recruiting new faculty members.
Under my responsibility was the development of our Education Simulation Center, the first such center to be constructed in Israel’s higher education. Simulating authentic case studies in a uniquely designed technological center enhances both teachers’ and administrators’ ability to overcome complex situations in school settings. Development of this technological simulation center was in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
In addition, I served as head of the David and Fela Shapell Holocaust Educators Initiative. I led the development and implementation of this program, which provides a unique framework for training future teachers in a variety of aspects of Holocaust education. As a son of Holocaust survivors, I was privileged to develop the first and only higher education program in Israel to train prospective teachers in teaching the Holocaust.
2008-2013: Head, the Urban Principal Preparation Program, comprising an extremely diverse population studying together in a cohort group. Inasmuch as leadership programs around the world have been criticized for failing to effectively develop prospective principals’ leadership capacities, I led a thorough revision and reorganization of this program, which was successfully approved by the Ministry of Education. To develop an innovative leadership program that forges strong connections between theory, research, and practice, I collaborated actively with faculty members, students, and policy-makers.
*** I also serve as committee member and academic and professional advisor in numerous Ministry of Education projects. For example, I served on the steering committee of an innovative national program for the Ministry of Education entitled Leveraging Learning: The Contribution of Learning from Successes to the Development of School Learning. Serving on the board of this national program and assuming consultant and researcher roles in both Jewish and Arab schools have elucidated for me the imperative to break down boundaries between the academic and practitioner communities. Engaging in cooperative outreach ventures with superintendents, administrators, and teachers illuminated the need to consider multiple perspectives in a multicultural environment. My research based on this national program appeared in Teachers College Record. Knowledge gained from this national program was disseminated and implemented in other schools nationwide. Moreover, I served as academic advisor in an effort to develop a national educational research and development federation, within the Department of Research, Development, Experiments, and Initiatives in the Ministry of Education.