A “life of optimism” in curriculum, teaching, and teacher education: the legacy of Miriam Ben-Peretz

Abstract

In 2020, Miriam Ben-Peretz, the Israel Scholar of 2006 and a member of the U.S. National Academy (in addition to being a recipient of Israel’s EMET Prize for Research in Education and an American Educational Research Association Fellow) passed away. Ben-Peretz, whose life patterned Israel’s contested history (including its wars), was equally well known worldwide and at home. This intellectual biography captures her career trajectory, her abridged academic family tree, her research interests, and how her scholarship spread at home and abroad. Her knowledge creations: curriculum making, curriculum potential and curriculum encounters, are spotlighted. Her longstanding relationship with, and support of MOFET (Institute for Research and Curriculum Development in Teacher Education), which was founded Israel’s Ministry of Education, formed a seedbed for her knowledge utilization, knowledge mediation, and knowledge dissemination. Ben-Peretz’s career illuminates how she, as a pioneering female and founding citizen of Israel, made headway so that others, could follow in her footsteps. How to live optimistically, despite encountering barriers that would break others, is the legacy that Miriam Ben-Peretz left.