E-mail: sigal_a@oranim.ac.il

Dr. Sigal Achituv is the director of the Early Childhood Education Graduate Program in Oranim Academic College. She is a graduate of the first post-doctoral program at the MOFET Institute and teaches in Oranim Academic College in the early childhood education (ECE) first degree and master's degree departments. Her courses deal with a variety of topics related to Israeli ECE, for example: Israel's Educational Policy in ECE. Her studies deal with Israeli ECE educators' identity concerning changes that are taking place in ECE in Israel and around the world.

Between 1995-2013 Sigal served as a Supervisor of State Kindergarten teachers in the Ministry of Education of Israel. She was in charge of 150 kindergarten teachers in nine different authorities in the Northern Region of Israel, including towns, small towns, local councils and regional councils.

The job comprised the following major responsibilities:

1. The pedagogical development and advancement of the kindergarten teachers by the organization of a series of professional courses and workshops, some of which she presented, and others by the provision of ongoing guidance of professional staff within the kindergarten.

2. The instruction, guidance and evaluation of student kindergarten teachers during their first year of work. 

3. The promotion of special educational initiatives, for example ‘green kindergartens’ run as self-sustaining units, and experimental kindergartens.

4. The development of programs providing educational continuity between the pre-kindergarten and the kindergarten frameworks, and between the kindergarten and the primary (or junior) school frameworks.

5. The responsibility for locating children with special needs in the kindergarten, and making decisions regarding the educational placing of the children within the kindergarten or in the alternative educational frameworks.

6. The absorption of immigrant children from Ethiopia within the kindergarten, by interaction with the absorption centers, the local authorities and the Ministry of Education.

7. Ongoing contact and interaction with the local authorities regarding the daily functioning of the kindergartens, by cooperation between several factors including the psychological service, the welfare and health services, and the various benevolent funds that contribute towards the enrichment of the kindergarten educational system, especially in the local authorities of lower socio-economic status. 

Since 2018 Sigal is editing a book together with a colleague named: The Case of Early Childhood Jewish Education: American and Israeli Perspectives on Multiculturalism, Constructivism and Gender. The book seeks to explore the fundamental questions of what is the meaning of early childhood Jewish education in the context of some of today’s burning societal and moral issues. This book represents the on-going fruits of collaboration of a group of American and Israeli researchers who have worked together since 2010 under the name of the International Research Group on Jewish Education in the Early Years. The group was originally organized as a partnership between The Center for Jewish Education at the University of Haifa and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute from 2010-2013 and has continued since under the auspices of the University of Haifa. Some of the group’s collaborative projects have included a publish article on teacher attitudes towards inclusion in the early childhood Jewish classroom, a research workshop, and multiple presentations at international conferences.