Idit Fast
Biographic Data
| ID | 377595 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Idit Fast |
| GIVEN NAMES | Idit |
| FAMILY NAME | Fast |
| SIGNATURE | FAST I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7037-1857 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Opting in or opting out? Dilemmas for parents and administrators addressing racial inequality in urban schools
Standardized testing has long been criticized for reproducing racial inequalities, leading many scholars and advocates to view accountability and racial equity as fundamentally at odds. Yet schools pursuing racial equity may interpret the role of testing in markedly different ways. This article examines how school communities navigate the contested relationship between standardized testing and racial equity. Drawing on two years of ethnographic f…
Challenges to inclusive teaching during war
Diagnosing and treating parents: A New Perspective on Teacher-Parent Relationships
Racialized Decoupling and Race-Neutral School Integration Policies From the Implementers’ Perspective
Today’s school integration policies in the United States are often “race neutral.” Scholarship on these race-neutral school integration policies finds they do not change the racial and ethnic composition of schools or do so under very specific conditions. Yet, we know relatively little about the mechanisms explaining these outcomes. Building on 2 years of qualitative data collection in two public elementary schools in a New York City implementing…
‘I wonder if it mattered that they were Arab’: Using teacher-parent simulations to develop teachers’ sociopolitical discourse
We studied how clinical simulations can support teachers’ discourse on sociopolitical issues, specifically in teacher–parent relationships. We examined a video-recorded peer discussion in which Israeli-Jewish teachers discussed a simulation of a conflict with an Israeli-Arab mother. Using a situative professional learning framework and linguistic-ethnographic microanalysis, we explored the teacher discourse and its evolution. Teachers were offere…
It Was Kind of a Paradigm Shift”: Challenging White Space in a Gentrifying School
Purpose: This study examined challenges to gentrifying schools as white spaces, exploring the efforts of administrators and parents to create an equitable school environment during the initial years of the Diversity in Admissions policy. Methods: In qualitative fieldwork conducted over 2 years at City, a Title I public school in New York City, I observed school leadership meetings and events and interviewed key stakeholders, including school admi…
Mechanisms of Exclusion: Group Homogenization and Deficit Thinking in Integrated Schools
School integration and inclusion are important for educational equity, yet inclusionary educational policies often end up being exclusionary in practices. In this article I contribute to our understanding of school level mechanism underlying this process. I draw on 2 years of data collection in a progressive culturally responsive school implementing a voluntary students assignment policy to increase the share of low-income students of color in th…
Administering New Anti-Bullying Law: The Organizational Field and School Variation During Initial Implementation
A 2011 New Jersey anti-bullying law required school personnel to make nuanced determinations about student violations, take on multiple new roles, and assume a high administrative burden. We examine how the state’s middle schools responded to the law during a period when standards for implementation among schools were unclear. We observe substantial variation between schools in their implementation approach and we identify two sources of this var…
How Symbolic Boundaries Shape the Experience of Social Exclusion: A Case Comparison of Arab Palestinian Citizens and Ethiopian Jews in Israel
Symbolic boundaries, understood as the conceptual distinctions used to demarcate in-groups and out-groups, are fundamental to social inequality. While we know a great deal about how groups and individuals construct and contest symbolic boundaries along lines of class, race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality, less attention is given to (a) national belonging as a component of symbolic boundaries distinct from citizenship and (b) comparing how d…
Understanding Educational Policy Formation: The Case of School Violence Policies in Israel
This study explores mechanisms underlying processes of educational policy formation. Previous studies have given much attention to processes of diffusion when accounting for educational policy formation. Less account has been given to the day-to-day institutional dynamics through which educational policies develop and change. Building on extensive governmental archival data, complemented with interviews and media analysis, I study the development…
How Symbolic Boundaries Shape the Experience of Social Exclusion: A Case Comparison of Arab Palestinian Citizens and Ethiopian Jews in Israel
Symbolic boundaries, understood as the conceptual distinctions used to demarcate in-groups and out-groups, are fundamental to social inequality. While we know a great deal about how groups and individuals construct and contest symbolic boundaries along lines of class, race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality, less attention is given to (a) national belonging as a component of symbolic boundaries distinct from citizenship and (b) comparing how d…
Administering New Anti-Bullying Law: The Organizational Field and School Variation During Initial Implementation
A 2011 New Jersey anti-bullying law required school personnel to make nuanced determinations about student violations, take on multiple new roles, and assume a high administrative burden. We examine how the state’s middle schools responded to the law during a period when standards for implementation among schools were unclear. We observe substantial variation between schools in their implementation approach and we identify two sources of this var…
Understanding Educational Policy Formation: The Case of School Violence Policies in Israel
This study explores mechanisms underlying processes of educational policy formation. Previous studies have given much attention to processes of diffusion when accounting for educational policy formation. Less account has been given to the day-to-day institutional dynamics through which educational policies develop and change. Building on extensive governmental archival data, complemented with interviews and media analysis, I study the development…
It Was Kind of a Paradigm Shift”: Challenging White Space in a Gentrifying School
Purpose: This study examined challenges to gentrifying schools as white spaces, exploring the efforts of administrators and parents to create an equitable school environment during the initial years of the Diversity in Admissions policy. Methods: In qualitative fieldwork conducted over 2 years at City, a Title I public school in New York City, I observed school leadership meetings and events and interviewed key stakeholders, including school admi…
How Symbolic Boundaries Shape the Experience of Social Exclusion: A Case Comparison of Arab Palestinian Citizens and Ethiopian Jews in Israel
Symbolic boundaries, understood as the conceptual distinctions used to demarcate in-groups and out-groups, are fundamental to social inequality. While we know a great deal about how groups and individuals construct and contest symbolic boundaries along lines of class, race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality, less attention is given to (a) national belonging as a component of symbolic boundaries distinct from citizenship and (b) comparing how d…
Understanding Educational Policy Formation: The Case of School Violence Policies in Israel
This study explores mechanisms underlying processes of educational policy formation. Previous studies have given much attention to processes of diffusion when accounting for educational policy formation. Less account has been given to the day-to-day institutional dynamics through which educational policies develop and change. Building on extensive governmental archival data, complemented with interviews and media analysis, I study the development…
Administering New Anti-Bullying Law: The Organizational Field and School Variation During Initial Implementation
A 2011 New Jersey anti-bullying law required school personnel to make nuanced determinations about student violations, take on multiple new roles, and assume a high administrative burden. We examine how the state’s middle schools responded to the law during a period when standards for implementation among schools were unclear. We observe substantial variation between schools in their implementation approach and we identify two sources of this var…
Mechanisms of Exclusion: Group Homogenization and Deficit Thinking in Integrated Schools
School integration and inclusion are important for educational equity, yet inclusionary educational policies often end up being exclusionary in practices. In this article I contribute to our understanding of school level mechanism underlying this process. I draw on 2 years of data collection in a progressive culturally responsive school implementing a voluntary students assignment policy to increase the share of low-income students of color in th…
Racialized Decoupling and Race-Neutral School Integration Policies From the Implementers’ Perspective
Today’s school integration policies in the United States are often “race neutral.” Scholarship on these race-neutral school integration policies finds they do not change the racial and ethnic composition of schools or do so under very specific conditions. Yet, we know relatively little about the mechanisms explaining these outcomes. Building on 2 years of qualitative data collection in two public elementary schools in a New York City implementing…
‘I wonder if it mattered that they were Arab’: Using teacher-parent simulations to develop teachers’ sociopolitical discourse
We studied how clinical simulations can support teachers’ discourse on sociopolitical issues, specifically in teacher–parent relationships. We examined a video-recorded peer discussion in which Israeli-Jewish teachers discussed a simulation of a conflict with an Israeli-Arab mother. Using a situative professional learning framework and linguistic-ethnographic microanalysis, we explored the teacher discourse and its evolution. Teachers were offere…
It Was Kind of a Paradigm Shift”: Challenging White Space in a Gentrifying School
Purpose: This study examined challenges to gentrifying schools as white spaces, exploring the efforts of administrators and parents to create an equitable school environment during the initial years of the Diversity in Admissions policy. Methods: In qualitative fieldwork conducted over 2 years at City, a Title I public school in New York City, I observed school leadership meetings and events and interviewed key stakeholders, including school admi…
Opting in or opting out? Dilemmas for parents and administrators addressing racial inequality in urban schools
Standardized testing has long been criticized for reproducing racial inequalities, leading many scholars and advocates to view accountability and racial equity as fundamentally at odds. Yet schools pursuing racial equity may interpret the role of testing in markedly different ways. This article examines how school communities navigate the contested relationship between standardized testing and racial equity. Drawing on two years of ethnographic f…
Challenges to inclusive teaching during war
Diagnosing and treating parents: A New Perspective on Teacher-Parent Relationships
Sociology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Parental Involvement in Education (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Critical Race Theory in Education (3 works) · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms (3 works) · Pedagogy (3 works)