הערכת תכנית אקדמיזציה למורות חרדיות: חסמים, עוצמות ושאיפות

This research deals with female Orthodox students from the Chabad community. Chabad women were permitted to access higher education within a teacher education program especially designed to adhere to the normative constraints imposed on women in their religious community. The current study gives these women a voice and allows them to convey, from their own perspective, the actual and potential strengths of their tradition and of the academic program in which they are enrolled, as well as acknowledge the significant people who motivated and empowered them to succeed. The analysis of individual focused interviews indicates that parents, spouses, and religious leaders played a dominant role in these women ׳s decisions to pursue their studies. Many of them were highly motivated to earn a degree and dreamed of pursuing advanced studies. Higher education was also a means of casting off poverty and achieving financial security. This study concludes that in order to increase access to higher education, it is necessary not only to adapt the structural and organizational components of the academic program to the cultural constraints imposed on these women, but also to convince their significant others of the importance of higher education for women.