Sindiana is a unique project, the first of its kind in Israel. It is a collaborative initiative of the Society for Advancement of Education, Jerusalem, a group of social entrepreneurs, and educators from the Arab community, together with Givat Haviva and the Menashe Regional Council.
The youth village’s educational model, which includes a school, educational residence, and agricultural farm, offers youth a framework combining optimal learning conditions, a personal and group package including informal education, and significant agricultural work and study.
Arab society in Israel currently lacks opportunities for informal education that provide youth with a significant and complementary educational and social experience.
The development and establishment of an educational framework for youth from Arab society took place as a means of training and cultivating a cadre of young social leaders who will be involved in and influence society.
Sindiana was born of this vision and is based upon the principles of multi-culturalism, pluralism, and civil and social equality.
It is a holistic educational framework, offering a welcoming environment for students’ personal development and empowerment of their scholastic and social abilities, cultivation of activist leadership based upon the roots of Arab culture and young people’s circles of belonging, and exposure to the world at large.
The youth village is located at Givat Haviva, and comprises a junior-high and high school, and an educational residence. Over 400 boys and girls currently study at Sindiana.
The Three Central Foundations of the Arab Youth Village for Young Leadership
The youth village is based on three foundations: academic and social excellence, culture and identity, and leadership. It offers a significant ethical-educational framework to train and develop a cadre of young and influential social leaders.
The campus serves youth from Arab society who have academic and leadership potential and a desire to develop, dream, influence and achieve socially, morally, and academically.
The campus constitutes an educational center that cultivates values among youth to help them realize their academic and social potential, leadership, and identity in order to open new avenues for academic, vocational, and social success.
In addition to scholastic excellence, the school emphasizes informal education and social activity, belonging, identity, culture, and social involvement.
The holistic educational experience taking place at the youth village provides fertile ground for youth with academic capability and a desire to invest and progress to actualize their inherent scholastic and social potential.
Educational Principles
The youth village for young leadership was established in the spirit of the following principles:
1. Holistic approach – providing a broad and comprehensive response to students, educational staff, the community, and the region.
Providing a variety of educational opportunities and social responses for different circles. Connections between formal education and informal activity (classes, enrichment, field trips, and interpersonal encounters) centered around familiarization with Arab culture and heritage, and with Arab society in Israel, with all its perspectives and challenges.
2. Setting goals and meeting them – cultivating the desire to perform at the highest level possible in every field: academic, social, and community.
3. Leadership – development of leadership abilities, strengthening a sense of responsibility and involvement, developing the ability to influence, and solidifying the image of a desirable leader. Special activities in both formal education and afternoon frameworks.
4. Social involvement – education towards active involvement and work, strengthening the sense of responsibility and social initiative, education towards activism and enhancing social awareness.
5. Arab identity and culture – work on defining personal and collective identity, developing a sense of belonging, familiarity, learning and going deeply into Arab and Islamic culture and tradition.
This includes strengthening Arabic language skills at individual, group, and community levels and dealing with tradition versus modernization. Special emphasis will be placed upon development in the fields of music and art, particularly in the junior-high school.
6. Multiculturalism and pluralism – deepening familiarity with and study of other cultures and languages, various ethnic groups and sectors within Israeli society and worldwide to broaden horizons and gain exposure to a range of opinions and critiques.
7. An environment for study and development – leaving the private and familiar space for the sake of development, learning, and exploration. Learning outside the classroom, active study in students’ villages and home towns, and a well-kept and technological learning environment within the school.
8. Encouraging a sense of ability – dealing with difficult challenges, a sense of independence, self-worth, seeing oneself as having the ability to influence.
9. Critical thinking – developing abilities and receiving tools, asking questions and casting doubt, deep ethical clarification that stems from familiarization and study, reading about local and global current affairs in a number of fields and analyzing them. Exposure to a variety of opinions, exploration, and taking a stance.
10. Pedagogic innovation – an innovative school that implements 21st-century teaching practices (PBL). The school will operate a number of integrated programs in research skills and project-related learning. The processes of exploration will take place outside the classroom as well, in home towns, research institutes, and advanced industrial factories.
In some of the classes, we will use computerized methods of teaching for the entire student body and for group work. Additionally, in one or two subjects, we will use “reverse teaching.”
Some alternative evaluative processes will be used. Instead of exams, we will work with the portfolio method and building visual products. In subjects that are verbal and oriented to communication, we will try out “students teaching students” frameworks.
The pedagogic and administrative staff of the youth village is actively involved in establishing and leading the way in innovative management of the school and residence.
Sindiana telephone: 04-6809842
Facebook: السنديانة
