Internal and external factors shaping educational beliefs of high school teachers of “sacred” subjects to girls

This research investigated pedagogical beliefs of teachers of “sacred” school subjects, curricular topics that the school community deems culturally valued, unassailable and inviolate. Two hundred and fifty-five teachers of girls only who taught sacred or secular subjects in Jewish modern religious high schools responded to questionnaires focusing on the discipline, on students and their learning and on the teacher role and 15 were interviewed. Results reflected systematic differences between teachers of sacred and secular subjects caused by multiple factors, some internal and some external to the underlying discipline. Variation among different sacred subjects was contingent mainly on external factors.