Educators and educational leaders who work in Jewish serving organizations and participated in a professional development opportunity in 2023 that was supported by the Jim Joseph Foundation. Those include programs offered by: Birthright Israel, Foundation for Jewish Camp, Hillel International, M²: Institute for Experiential Jewish Education, Jewish New Teacher Project, Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Leading Edge, Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, Repair the World, Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, SVARA, The iCenter, The Jewish Education Project, UpStart, and The Wexner Foundation.

This project is funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation.

If you agree to participate in this study, you will be contacted via email (then by phone, if we cannot reach you). The email will contain a link to a gift card and the survey link to complete. We ask that you complete each 10-20 minute survey in a timely manner. Each year, the total anticipated time is approximately 40 minutes.

The surveys will include questions about the following:

◾ Your personal identity (for example: age and gender identity)

◾ Your professional profile (for example: stage of your career and current role)

◾ Your workplace (for example: the type and size of the organization you work for)

◾ Your dispositions (for example: attitude towards professional development and career commitment)

◾ Professional development experience (for example: who offered the professional development and what was the time commitment)

◾ Other influences in your life (for example: supervisors and current events)

◾ Outcomes of participation in professional development (for example: changes in knowledge, attitudes, or behavior)

Yes! You will receive a gift card with each survey link. Each year, participants will receive $80 in appreciation of their time.

Possible benefits of the study include the opportunity to reflect on and develop insight into your personal and professional growth. This may have significant future implications for what and how professional development is offered. We cannot guarantee or promise that you will receive any benefits from this project.

The anticipated benefits to the field are:

◾ Uncovering what educators and leaders gain from professional development, and how those gains vary across different contexts.

◾ Revealing what leads some educators and leaders to regularly participate in professional development while others do not.

◾ Indicating where there are gaps in the professional development marketplace, and where educators and leaders’ learning needs are not being met.

◾ Capturing the career advancement trajectories of educators, and how and why some move on to leadership positions and others do not.

It is not expected that you will be exposed to any physical risk or psychological distress by participating in this project, beyond the feelings that may be aroused when reflecting on your personal and professional experience.

In the unlikely event that your participation results in distress, the contact information for the researchers involved have also been provided. Feel free to contact them at any time. Should anxiety or distress occur at any stage, participants are advised to withdraw from participating in the project. Participants will not incur any risk from withdrawing from the study.

All information gathered from participants will be kept securely. Electronic data will be password protected and stored on a secure server. None of the electronic files will include any identifying information. Only the research staff directly linked with the project will have access to the data. In any publication, information will be provided in such a way that you cannot be identified. As a result, no one person’s data will be presented to the Jim Joseph Foundation or any other organization with identifiable information. Nor will any identifiable information be revealed or disclosed in the reporting of results.

You can contact the research team via email at allison@gelsresearch.org. You can also use the form below.