Prophets and Profits

Managerialism and the restructuring of Jewish schools in South Africa In a compelling blend of narrative history and social analysis, Prophets and Profits contributes to the global literature on educational change by analysing the impact of both managerialism and religious extremism on the restructuring of Jewish community schools in Johannesburg. A landmark study in South Africa, this work is also of international interest because it brings together two divergent yet connected tendencies in current educational transformation. These are the neo-liberal ideologies of the market, manifesting in the application of managerial approaches to school management, and the resurgence of ethnic and religious communities in search of identity. This paradox of globalisation is extremely topical and gains added interest when set against the extraordinary story of transformation in South Africa. Prophets and Profits is an empirically detailed and theoretically and politically interesting analysis of ideological, institutional, and interpersonal dynamics and relations involved in a religious school that is undergoing a profound process of restructuringThis is a well done case study of a topic whose importance extends beyond the borders of South Africa and beyond the borders of the particular religious school she has studied. - Michael Apple, John Bascon Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Foreword by Judge Dennis Davis

1. Introduction Jewish education at the crossroads
2. A birds-eye view
3. Globalisation, managerialism and communities
4. The global and local contexts
5. The cost of saving the Jewish community schools
6. The McDavid Schools for Jewish Education
7. Coercion, consent and contradictions
8. Explaining change

Abbreviations
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Dr Chaya Herman is a senior lecturer in the Department of Educational Management and Policy Studies at the University of Pretoria. She holds degrees from the Universities of Tel Aviv, the Witwatersrand and Pretoria, taught at Jewish community schools for a number of years and served on the South African Board of Jewish Education from 1993 to 2001.