In recent years, Israeli society has faced a succession of social, political, and security crises that have reshaped the conditions under which Arab and Jewish youth grow up and the spaces in which they are socialized. Against this backdrop, non-formal education has increasingly been called upon to provide community support, civic continuity, and a sense of belonging. This paper examines what recent crisis responses reveal about the capacities, public role, and structural limits of non-formal education in Israel. Focusing on the period 2020-2026, it presents a qualitative research review based on a cross-source analysis of empirical studies, policy documents, organizational reports, and semi-structured interviews with key actors in the field. The materials were analysed through thematic coding to identify recurring patterns in how non-formal education responded to crisis, what educational, civic, and community functions it fulfilled, and where its limits became visible. The review shows that non-formal education can serve as an important crisis-responsive social and civic infrastructure, particularly in sustaining belonging, continuity, and local initiative under disrupted conditions. At the same time, its role is uneven and constrained by resource dependence, state regulation, and institutional arrangements. The paper makes a twofold contribution: it reconceptualizes non-formal education as a crisis-responsive civic infrastructure, and it shows that the field’s effectiveness in times of crisis is shaped not only by organizational action, but by the wider policy and structural conditions in which it operates.

Authors:
Yaron Girsh, Mandel School for Educational Leadership, Israel

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Posted by James Alexander Gordon

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00

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