Skip to main content

Insights from Israel: Dr. Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum and Dr. Randa Abbas share Experience from Teaching

Share on:

Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016

This semester, Dr. Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum and Dr. Randa Abbas visited Westminster to share their insights from their teaching experiences and research in Israel with education and psychology students.

Abbas, Westminster’s 2013 Thomases Family Endowment visiting scholar who co-taught in the education and psychology departments, and Vaknin-Nusbaum currently teach at Western Galilee College, Akko, Israel.

Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum shared the results of her current research project involving 2nd grade Arab children who receive tutoring from her Western Galilee College students. Abbas shared her research related to multicultural education and gender stereotypes.

Both educators also compared and contrasted the curriculum in Jewish, Arab and Muslim schools versus American schools.

Vaknin-Nusbaum and Abbas first visited Westminster College in September 2011 during the third Bridges International Faculty Workshop: Forging American-Israeli Academic Collaborations. This international college articulation agreement has resulted in various publications and conference presentations for Westminster College and Western Galilee College faculty, including:

  • The article, "Integrating IWB use in Western PA K-12 schools districts: The professional development connection” in Journal of Interactive Learning Research by Dr. Yehuda Peled, Western Galilee College in Akko, Israel, Dr. Mandy Medvin, professor of psychology, and Dr. Linda Domanski, professor of education.
  • The article, “We Don’t Talk About that Here”: Teachers, Religion, Public Elementary Schools and the Embodiment of Silence a Binational United States and Israel Study” submitted to Theory and Research in Social Education by Dr. Amy Camardese, Dr. Tina Keller, and Dr. Randa Abbas.
  • The conference presentation, “Continuity and Change in Americans’ Perception of Arab Women in the Middle East” by Dr. Sherri Pataki and Dr. Randa Abbas.
  • The upcoming November 2016 chapter, “Photos as Bridges into Hidden Literacy Lives,” by Dr. Charlene Klassen Endrizzi, professor of literacy education, and editors, Richard Meyers and Kathryn Whitmore, Routledge.

For more information about education at Westminster, contact Camardese at (724) 946-7183 or visit the Education Page.