Legitimacy Boundaries in Crisis: Online Learning Adoption in Ultra-Orthodox Schools During COVID-19

The restrictions imposed on the citizens of Israel with the outbreak of COVID-19 forced educational institutions to adopt online channels for distance learning. The ultra-Orthodox society, bound by its suspicious and disapproving approach to the use of media, especially among teenagers and children, had to deal with the new circumstances and decide its course of action to resolve this conflict. The present study investigates whether, and to what extent, online channels were used in ultra-Orthodox educational institutions in their various subsections, and what were parents’ and teachers’ considerations, attitudes, and perceptions regarding the adoption of online learning in either COVID-19 or in any future similar emergencies. The article combines quantitative and qualitative methods based on a survey among a representative sample of parents of primary school-aged children (N=395) and semi-structured interviews (N=45) with parents and teachers in ultra-Orthodox schools. The results show that 14% of all parents in the sample use Zoom for distance learning. Furthermore, significant differences were found between the different sub-currents, with the Chabad stream being the most popular (94%), followed at a large margin by the Sephardic public (15%), Lithuanian (13%), and Hasidic (4%). Differences were also found between the sub-currents in terms of parents’ willingness to use online learning channels in the future, and correlations were found between parents’ level of conservatism/modernism, learners’ gender identity, their age and willingness to use online learning channels. However, almost none of the participants saw this period as an opportunity for pedagogical development related to the potential of studies in the online spaces, but as a limitation that requires coping and necessary adaptation to minimize the damage.