Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Educational Development journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev The “social soldier” and the mission to “retrieve the lost honor”: An ideal image of the desired graduate of an Israeli general pre-military academy Ayman Agbaria ⁎ , Zach Shmueli Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Israel ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Pre-military academy Military education Militarism Hegemony Republican citizenship ABSTRACT This article examines the desired image of the graduate of one secular Israeli pre-military academy. Drawing on a qualitative case study based on in-depth interviews with staff, students, and graduates, it outlines the academy’s vision of the desired graduate, its internal educational processes and situates the academy’s educational dis- course in the context of the civic-military relations in Israel. The major findings show how the secular academy under study creates a new ideal of a social soldier in opposition to the ideal of the religious soldier, promoted by the religious-Zionist academies which are the secular academies’ ideological and political rival. The data further describe how the academy seeks to contribute to the army’s community life and values as well as in Israeli society, by creating special tracks in the army, wherein groups of graduates can continue their military service together. A central finding is the redefinition of Jewish identity as secular, cultural and national as opposed to religious Judaism that is promoted by the religious Zionist academies. The article concludes that these findings reflect broader hegemonic transformations in Israel such as the increasing dominance of the religious right, which the secular elites seek to counter and by reclaiming their former influence. 1. Introduction The Israeli education system and the Israeli army are two arenas wherein the McWorld meets that Jihad (Barber, 1996). In both systems, the forces of convergence in the global economy, politics and culture are entwined with forces of divergence in the local traditions, religions, and communities. As both accommodate interrelated global-local policy trends and interwoven universal-particularistic values (Ben-Ari, 2018; Yemini et al., 2014), one can describe the two systems as ‘glocal’ (Ritzer, 2003). In the two systems, policies and practices reflect not only Israel’s struggles with its minorities and its neighboring countries, but also with its own future and past, vision and tradition. That said, this article examines as special site located at the nexus between the Israeli education system and the Israeli army: The pre- military academics. These academies are considered as both military and educational institutions, and as such they are jointly financed by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Education (Israel Knesset, 2017, p. 2). In Israel, while conscription to military service is com- pulsory for all Israelis who turn 18 (except the exempted populations of the ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs), the enrollment in a pre-military academy is completely voluntary. This academy’s target audience is mainly high school graduates and new immigrants, who are permitted to postpone their military service for one year in order to join the academy. The average duration of studies in an academy is about 10 months. Specifically, this article presents qualitative data from a case study of a pre-military academy, focusing on the desired image of its gradu- ates. The study’s goal is to understand the role of general academies, particularly those that define themselves as secular, in the struggle between different socio-political camps in Israel over cultural hege- mony. Specifically, the study examines the academy’s educational ac- tivities in an attempt to clarify the academy’s central ideals, to provide insights into how it mediates approaches to militarism, civic life, and Judaism, and how it tries to shape the identity of their graduates as future soldiers and citizens. 2. Theoretical and contextual background 2.1. Israeli army and society in global dynamics Giddens (1990) asserts that globalization “is a process of uneven development that fragments as it coordinates. . . The outcome is not necessarily, or even usually, a generalized set of changes acting in a uniform direction, but consists in mutually opposed tendencies” (pp. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2019.02.002 Received 13 September 2018; Received in revised form 1 February 2019; Accepted 9 February 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Leadership and Policy in Education, Faculty of Education, Science and Education Building, Room 503, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, 31905, Israel. E-mail address: aagbaria@edu.haifa.ac.il (A. Agbaria). International Journal of Educational Development 66 (2019) 88–95 0738-0593/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T