The vision underlying the master’s degree program in Humanities is to develop a teaching staff with a broad humanistic education, which is necessary for understanding people and their world. With this foundation, they will be able to initiate and lead creative school projects and to plan and develop integrative curricula and study materials in the humanities. Such projects enrich school studies, making them a meaningful experience. This master’s degree program responds to the current demand, in the education system and in society in general, for development of integrative humanistic fields.

The master’s degree program in Humanities is based on the humanistic subjects that are taught in schools. It empowers and enriches them by means of intensive and multifaceted teaching on the one hand, and by combining knowledge from different disciplines and identifying the interfaces among them, on the other hand. At the same time the program imparts methods of multidisciplinary teaching of humanistic disciplines for different groups, diverse learning environments and changing educational objectives. In all these, it uses the rich and diverse mosaic of the humanities.

The program is based on two main components:

1. The discipline: The program includes courses in a wide range of humanistic fields, to expand previous disciplinary knowledge, create interdisciplinary relationships and contexts and add new areas of knowledge. The main fields of the program are history, literature, Bible, philosophy and language, and there are also courses that integrate knowledge from the social sciences, such as sociology, anthropology and political science. The connection between multidisciplinary study of the humanities and social science research is fruitful and intriguing, adding significantly to understanding the humanities.

2. Education: The program teaches new practical knowledge in the fields of multidisciplinary curriculum development, development of multidisciplinary methodologies and teaching methods and leading unique school projects in the area of the humanities and social sciences.

These two components are reflected in the program by an offering of theoretical courses in the philosophy, sociology and methodology of education alongside courses that focus on practice and research.

Aims

1. The primary objective of the master’s program in Humanities is to provide a graduate course of study for teachers and educators who want to expand their intellectual horizons and further their academic education in the humanities.

2. The program provides its graduates with opportunities for professional advancement by training them in:

• coordination and leadership of school projects in interdisciplinary studies in the humanities;
• guidance and supervision of study planning, curriculum development and assessment in the humanities;
• development of a unique professional field of multidisciplinary teaching and curriculum planning; and
• multidisciplinary writing and creation of curricula, study materials and textbooks.