Third Cohort of Army Officers Joins IDF Educational Leadership Development Program

Sixteen officers from the Education Corps and other units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), ranking from captain to colonel, have begun their studies at the Mandel Leadership Institute.  

The IDF Educational Leadership Development Program is a unique program designed to enhance the professional identity of IDF officers and commanders, especially education officers, and their conception of their positions. The program helps infuse content into the role of ‘commander as educator’ and furthers the development of the professional status of education in the IDF. Underlying the program are concepts of vision and practice, educational identity and social sensitivity, and various aspects of the army, education, and Israeli society.

The aim of this unique program, established by The Mandel Leadership Institute in cooperation with the IDF Education Corps in 2005, is to promote and mould the professional identity of officers and commanders as educators. In light of revelations made during the Second Lebanon War, several fundamental issues will also be addressed by the program.
Identity-related issues are at the heart of the program, which meets one day a week throughout an entire academic year. Participants confront four dimensions of identity: their identity as Jews, as Israelis, as IDF commanders, and as educators. 

Throughout the program, teams of fellows will be required to develop programs addressing ethical and organizational aspects of the fundamental problems dealt with by the IDF and its education system. These include draft evasion, conscientious objection, lack of motivation to serve among various sectors in Israeli society, the role and involvement of the IDF in national tasks, and the significance of opening up all IDF units to women.
 
The program is headed by Dr. Motti Shalem, who has been an Education officer for many years, and previously headed The School for Holocaust Studies at Yad-Vashem.