Educational Research for Policy and Practice 2: 237–256, 2003. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Professing Informal Education Zvi Bekerman and Diana Silberman Keller School of Education, Melton Center Hebrew University Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905 Israel E-mail: mszviman@mscc.huji.ac.il Abstract Informal Education has developed, like many other professions from daily and oral practices in traditional societies into institutionalized and written practices in modern and postmodern societies through two main processes. The first is the definition of Informal Education as an occupation requiring professional and academic training. The second is the occupational and professional differentiation within the realm of Education that created specializations in practices. This paper seeks to examine these two processes through an analysis of the following three dimensions that contribute to the forging of the professional and personal identities of those involved in Informal Education. (1) Academic Training Programs for Informal Educators; (2) Institutional Professional Definitions of Roles; and (3) Professional/Occupational Self Images of Informal Educators. Our description and analysis will relate to the Israeli arena. We believe that many of the characteristics of the development of Informal Education in Israel have parallels in other societies, and our presentation thus seeks to expand knowledge and promote dialogue and critical discussion on the development and institutionalization of the field of Informal Education in general. Key Words: informal education, life long education, professions, semiotics and education, anthropology and education, educational training Introduction While teachers’ professional performance and training have been amongst the most important and debated themes in scholarly discourse on Education in the last five decades, little has been said, researched, or written about informal educators. Informal Education has not yet been identified as having generated a clear – cut professional or occupational field (Banks, 2001; Tyler, 2001). While having a considerable presence in the practical field, Informal Education is significantly absent from the theoretical one (Martin, 1987; Beckerman and Silberman–Keller, 2003). This may be due to the marginal place of Informal Education in the market ∗ The names of the authors appear in alphabetical order.