To Be a Teacher, a Wife and Mother, and a Zionist Culture Creator in the Pre-State Era

Abstract

Following earlier studies on progressive education, nation building, and women teachers’ history, this article examines the lives of four women during the period of the Yishuv who cultivated professional identities while also raising families. All four strove to educate students according to their own pedagogical visions despite a lack of appropriate educational means. The four women teachers faced the challenge and created educational tools based on artistic tendencies, such as dancing, composing poems, and writing prose and poetry. By doing so, they formed a basis for a new Hebrew heritage. Their artistic activities served as a source of innovative pedagogy and received public approval for their contributions to the nation-building enterprise. Professional status empowered them to create a model for career-minded women whose society presented them with a choice between motherhood and professional fulfillment.