Tool 4: Create a Relationship-Centered Pedagogy
Relationship-Centered Pedagogy is an educational approach that focuses on building positive relationships between students and educators. In DRJC language this relationship is built using the medium of primary Jewish texts through chavruta study. Through these positive relationships, we enable students to feel seen and heard and give them a sense of belonging. Thus, they are empowered to share their perspectives on Jewish texts. The main aspect of RCP is active listening and reflective practice on the part of the educator that is built into all of the learning.
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Deborah Niederman, RJE has worked in variety of roles in Jewish educational leadership over three decades. She currently serves as the Director of Education at Temple Shalom of Dallas (a role which she inauspiciously started in April 2020) This is the fourth congregations as Director of Education and is one of the authors of the CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life curriculum core developed by the URJ Department of Lifelong Jewish Learning. She served as the Associate Director of the Leadership Institute for the Union for Reform Judaism and previously served as a Regional Educator and Congregational Consultant at the URJ. She worked for HUC-JIR as the Coordinator of Career Services and Alumni Relations for the Schools of Education creating a variety of supports for students as they searched for their first job and new alumni as they entered the field of Jewish education. For over 20 year she served on the board of the Association of Reform Jewish Educators and is a past president of that organization.
She received her Bachelor of Arts in Judaic Studies and Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. In 1993 she earned a Masters in Jewish Education from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, in 1995 she received the title Reform Jewish Educator and in 2018 an honorary doctorate in religious education. Debbie moved to Dallas (her 9th state) in 2004. She raised her children Molly and Sammy there and lives with her husband, Rabbi Andrew Paley and their cat Boaz.
Temple Shalom, Dallas is a place for meaningful worship, meaningful learning, and meaningful gathering. Our temple welcomes the beautiful diversity of families and individuals as we journey together seeking to enrich our lives through the three historic aspects of synagogue life – a house of prayer for meaningful worship, a house of study for meaningful learning, and a house of connection for meaningful gathering.
