Education Policy Studies

This study centers on the experiences of students and religious study faculty in the high school division of ―CDS, ‖ a successful Kindergarten through Twelfth grade Jewish day school that defines itself as a ―community ‖ institution. The school affirms a high-profile commitment to including ―the widest spectrum of Jewish practice and belief ‖ in its recruiting materials. While the student body comprises individuals who are diverse in their affiliations and beliefs, the school employs a religious studies faculty that overwhelmingly draws from the most theologically conservative subset of the larger community. Almost none of these instructors share the same orientation with respect to religious practice, beliefs or general cultural frames of reference as the students they educate. Nonetheless, the school‘s administrative leaders claim a high degree of success at creating an embracing community, where individual differences are honored and respected. The purpose of this study was to examine and critically evaluate this claim. By employing a range of classical ethnographic research strategies, including participant observation and individual interviews, this study explores the following question: How does a culturally heterogeneous group o