National Visual Symbols In Jewish High School Websites In Israel

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1 Book of Selected Readings International Visual Literacy Association, P National Visual Symbols In Jewish High School Websites In Israel Dr. Edna Barromi Perlman Abstract The aim of this study is to raise the level of awareness regarding the use of national and ideological visual symbols in school websites in Israel and to encourage a critical and responsible approach to these practices. T he use of Websites has become ubiquitous in educational institutions in the past ten years. Photographs are employed in Websites in various platforms and are conducive to the functions and administrative needs of the schools. Websites are used to promote national and ideological values, by means introducing photographs and symbols on the home page and picture gallery. School websites are intended for functional pedagogical and administrative uses of the school community and serve as means of communication between the various branches and audiences of the website. They can also serve as a means of conveying and consolidating values in the community of viewers. In many websites of secular and religious Jewish schools in Israel, the construction of the communal identity of the school involves the use of national symbols, which are used to inculcate Jewish national values to the pupils. School websites in Jewish mainstream schools and in particular in religious schools incorporate national symbols on the home page; i.e. images of soldiers and flags and the use of the blue and white colors of the flag. Photographs of students in uniform during Pre Military Youth for Youth (Gadna) are also common in websites. Thus, the communal identity of the school works in alliance with the Jewish Israeli national identity, supported by practices and texts. Pupils viewing the photographs, logos and symbols on school websites are not in a position to create an analytical apparatus or "an adaptive restructuring of cognitive/perceptual frameworks" (Messaris, 1994) as they would do in the case of language and text (p. 27), they nor are they educated to do so by the school itself. They pick up cues and signs and interpret them based on everyday vernacular of visual language and apply this approach to images of peers and of school staff in their websites, perceiving the photographs to be truthful representations of reality and the symbols as presenting a unifying truth. The authenticity of the photographs is not questioned in this platform, as is the case when viewing other forms of media. This form of perception and acceptance by the viewers originates in the historical, social and cultural public concept that photographs are conveyers of truths. The community at large perceives the photographs as truthful representations of school activities and of social codes at large. These truths, regarding our society and our place in society, are associated and affected by prevailing norms and conventions. According to Shapiro (1988), the truths we perceive in the photographs are also "reconciled with the social order" by the viewers (p.128). The first stage the viewers go through is recognizing the social order represented in the photographs and the next stage is identifying it and endorsing it. This process involves fraternizing with the content of the photographs and with the images displayed in the websites, be it pupils, classroom work, products, etc. According to Barthes (1984) photographs can awaken thought when the meaning suggests something different from the literal one. In the case of viewing photographs in a website, under the auspices of an educational institution, the coding and decoding process carried out by the viewers does not encourage a critical reading, but rather a form of identification with the objects and messages. Since the images correlate with their literal meanings and with the schools' agendas, the visual communication process becomes immediate, untutored, intuitive, and unquestioned. The combination of these elements enables the websites to serve as tools that can create uniform interpretations which generate a collective identity for the school, to the extent that they create collective traditions and memories. The websites are not supervised by any exterior body, which allows the website managers freedom in their actions. Many schools use design templates that are hosted by the school servers. These templates are meant to offer the website managers the basic applications for a school website. The contents and the choice of photographs in the picture gallery, the texts and the links are unsupervised and in some cases are managed by the pupils themselves. Thus, one can find different pages using visual signs and symbols, which are in fact overt and covert messages. The presentation of photographs and symbols presenting Jewish Israeli national identity in the websites reproduces dominant forms of social discourse, that enforce existing power systems and forms of authority. According to Foucault (cited in Tagg, 1988) each society has its own regime of truth and "its general politics of truth". Photographs serve as a reflection of society s truths, simultaneously benefiting from the public s tacit acceptance of the

2 credibility and truthfulness of visual imagery. Photography is considered by Kracauer (1980) an "ideal means of reproducing and penetrating nature without any distortions" (p.248). This applies in particular to photographs of children, who seem untainted by society s control systems and are considered free of any external influences of power and control. These notions serve as a contextual background under which the websites function. Assuming that any image on the website is accepted as "that which is", it is instructive to examine which images are actually chosen for the websites, for the home page, for the picture galleries and for the school logo. As discussed in other research I conducted (Barromi Perlman, 2007), in any photograph taken by anyone, there always lays a statement. No photograph is random; there is always a level of intention, and the photographs are never created in a void. The decisive moment in which the photograph is taken, the choice of frame, cropping, angle and distance from object, are always linked to a choice made by the photographer. In this light, historical photographs and present-day photographs of educational processes and institutions should be examined, in order to understand the messages, the text and subtexts presented in the photograph. Historically, photographs of educational institutions were created for the purpose of conveying messages to society and to particular audiences regarding those institutions and their activities. The phenomenon of creating images that correlated with distinct ideologies and educational goals began in the 20th century and can be found in photographs taken in schools in the U.S. Indian boarding schools, portraying Native American Indians and black pupils in a vocational school in Virginia. Figure 1 The Carlisle Indian Industrial School The male pupils in Figure 2 are acquiring a vocational education as brick layers, which will eventually position them as working- class citizens. The photograph contains an inner tension between the rigid way the pupils are posed and the actual setting, which is informal and active. The rigidity of the photograph might have been a result of the lighting conditions or a the desire to mold the pupils into form, acceptable to the white audience. Schools In Israel The Israeli Board of Education demands that schools inculcate national values in their curriculum. The websites support these actions, by presenting visual symbols of Zionism and Jewish nationalism in the websites. The images presented in websites, in the home page and in picture galleries, reflect the consensus of Jewish society and work hand-in-hand with the process of teaching national Israeli values. In mainstream schools, the prevailing national symbols are the Israeli flag, the Star of David, images of students engaged in pre-military activities, in army uniform during target practice, holding guns and other visual material are commonly found in high school websites. The bottom photographs show images of high school pupils in the eleventh grade engaging in pre- military training. In the photographs they are shown wearing army uniform in an army base and during target practice. The atmosphere and attitude are positive and conducive with the goal of the training. Figure 3. Gadna, Pre- Military Training For Youth, (2009). Used with permission of I. Perlman. In the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (Figure 1), the Native American students went through a rapid process of learning and adopting Anglo culture. The photograph presents them dressed in school uniform, overshadowed by a massive white building. The pupils are presented as a mass, and there is no focus on the individual child. Figure 2 Hampton Normal And Agricultural Institute. Students In A Bricklaying Class, 1899.

3 Figure 4. Gadna, Pre -Military Training For Youth, Target Practice (2009). Used with permission of I.Perlman. National values, such as Zionism, "love of the homeland", "love of the nation'" and militarism, have become intrinsic parts of the identity of the educational institutions and are displayed as such in school websites by means of photographs, videos and other visual forms, alongside scholastic and academic achievements. The display of this material is carried out routinely in most school websites, and reflects the national curriculum of secular and religious schools in Israel. The school system in Israel embraces national values and takes pride in them. It allots time regularly to instill these values amongst its pupils and uses school websites as a means to promote their national involvement and raise the popularity of the schools. National ceremonies, those taken place in visits to concentration camps in Poland or Memorial Day ceremonies held in schools, with the participation of the pupils, are inserted in the picture galleries of the home page of the websites, in various forms. The images appear as part of the design of the home page embedded in the logo, or accessed by link. Most schools present photographs of graduates who have died either in battle while serving in the Israeli Defense Force or as casualties of suicide bombers. There is usually a picture gallery linked to this label, including information about the deceased. This page is most often, accessed by link from the home page and might include symbols such as the sign of the IDF logo or a memorial candle. Figure 5. Logo Of The Reali School In Haifa (stating: Your contribution, our future. A sample of a symbol on home page of school website, encouraging pupils to volunteer and contribute to national needs). Discussion Websites can present a different face, one which is visually inclusive of different populations, sensitive to different factions and populations attending schools in Israel consisting of secular Jews, various Jewish religious sectors, such as Arab Palestinian pupils (Muslims and Christians), children of foreign workers (from the Philippines, South America, Thailand, Nepal, Kenya, Nigeria, etc) and non-jewish immigrants who live in Israel under the Law of Return. Such is the case in the bilingual schools and in the Hand in- Hand schools. The images in their websites present the Arab and Jewish children learning, playing and interacting in school. These are websites that present a different face for the public. It is important to encourage teachers and users in general to develop a critical view of these images. This education demands of the creators of the images and of the viewers to become critical viewers, to engage with the content of the websites. It is necessary to look at photographs in websites as to whether they reproduce dominant forces of discourse prevailing in Israeli society, evade them altogether, or possibly create alternative discourses. Do they help circulate the existing systems of power and authority by means of representations of educational traditions, thus perpetuating conflicts and rifts in society? Critical analysis is necessary and can be achieved by the audience of the websites. By raising the level of their awareness from an intuitive one to a learned one, by teaching tools of literacy in the visual world, the viewers will be able to decode the messages, to disconnect them from their aura of truthful representations of society and of life, into what they really are, conveyers of intentional ideology. References Barthes, R. (1984) Camera lucida: Reflections on photography, London: Flamingo Press, p 27-8 Barromi Perlman, E. (2007) Researching forms of Photographic representation of biological of Families in kibbutzim in Israel between : Family Snaps on Kibbutz- Do they exist? (Doctoral dissertation) University of Sussex. UK, p 55. Kracauer, S. (1980) The Rhetoric of the image, in Trachtenberg, A. (Ed) Classic essays on photography (p ) New Haven, Conn: Leete s Island Books. Messaris P. (1994) Visual "literacy": Image, mind and reality. Summertown, Oxford: Westview, p. 27. Shapiro, M. J. (1988) The politics of representation Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. p.128. Tagg, J. (1988) The burden of presentation: Essays on photographs and histories. London, UK: Macmillan Press, p. 172.

4 The Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Retrieved from: Industrial_School Hampton University. Retrieved from The Hebrew Reali School in Haifa. Retrieved from

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