This paper is concerned with educational-social movements' making and unmaking of educational ethos during national emergency. Based on an ethnographic study of educational social action during a national emergency, the paper considers how educational-social movements deal with existing educational inequalities and the possibility that their actions during emergency can further social transformation. This paper brings together three temporal lenses – an anthropological understanding of emergency as a mode of eventfulness(Anderson, 2017), a topological perspective on education and (in)equality, and the conceptualization of vectors and events in the temporality of social movements. How do social imaginaries of past and present accomplishments and failings of educational-social movements shape their educational praxis within the time-space of emergency? In what ways can this praxis offer possibilities for hopeful transformation of past inequalities alongside a transformative pathway out of emergency? Alternatively, are these aspirations to transformation too much to hope for?

Our study focuses on the social-educational activism of the graduate-movements of Israeli youth movements following the events of October 7 and the internal displacement of over a hundred thousand civilians. The government was slow to provide basic educational services; civic organizations stepped up to fill the void, notably, the graduate-movements. These graduate-movements constitute educational-social movements formed by nonformal educators, former members of Zionist youth movements, who are attempting to revitalize the pioneering ethos of the early socialist-Zionist movements through educational projects that stimulate social change and advance democracy, equality, social justice, and Zionist values. At displacement centers, they organized and operated nonformal youth activities, early childhood centers, schools, and neighborhood leadership groups. Though these graduate-movements have a history of educational activism in emergency in the wake of war across Europe (Huss, Ben Asher, Shahar, et al., 2021; Huss, Ben Asher, Walden, et al., 2021), national emergency at home was complicated by internal issues of inequality particularly between kibbutzim and development towns, such as educational gaps, access to nonformal educational frameworks, distribution of resources and organizational capacities.

We adopt a conceptualization of emergency as a mode of eventfulness, organized around four temporalities – exceptionalness from ordinary life, a sense of urgency to action to forestall foreseen harm of an unknown but impending future, a time-limited interval in which action is imperative, and a hope that correct action can make a difference (Anderson, 2017). Emergency indicates threat to something considered socially or historically valuable and uncertainty concerning how and if action in the present can bring about a future that is improvement on the past (Brun, 2016; Samimian-Darash, 2022). Considering specifically the role of education in emergency, we focus topologically on the ways that educational activism in emergency morphs the shape of educational governance and practice (Decuypere et al., 2022). The topological perspective directs attention to how educational practice elicits continuity and change, reformation of relations between educators and communities, and specific space-time practices that link past, present, and future educational aims. To provide nuance of the multiple temporalities at work in making and remaking educational practice and governance (Lingard & Thompson, 2017), we focus on educational-social movements. We take up Gillian's view of social movements as actors in the creation of events and his suggestion to analyze vectors – the social behavior and discourse of movements over a particular timescape – as a means for understanding the socio-political conditions and trends at work in a larger context (Gillan, 2020). In other words, the focus on educational-social movements in emergency allows us to trace how their particular educational ethos, tied as it is to a larger national ethos, morphs and reforms in the context of emergency and to ponder its possible unfoldings into the unknown future.

The paper is based on an ethnographic case study of one displacement center in Israel. The displacement center is located geographically in a complex of resort hotels which are currently allocated as temporary housing for several communities –three kibbutzim and families from a major development town. Two major graduate-movements have been active in the center since immediately following October 7. The study is an ethnographic-based interview study, which combines interviews with activists involved in a wide range of educational initiatives and observation of relevant activities. The study aims to apply the close attention of ethnography and the analysis of information in cultural context to data that is largely, but not exclusively narrative (Golden & Erdreich, 2017). Interviews are aimed to capture both generational distribution amongst activists and diversity of educational activism. To date, twenty-five interviews have been conducted with activists from age 17-50, working with kibbutzim and development towns or both, involved in establishing educational frameworks or daily maintenance, with early education to elderly populations. Observations included participation in youth activities, neighborhood leadership meetings, a group for the elderly, staff meetings, and an organizational strategic planning seminar. The study is ongoing.

This paper shows that educational-social movements can actively shape the event of emergency into a space-time for the playing out of vectors of educational change. Our findings describe how the graduate-movements strived to create an equal distribution of educational frameworks despite inequalities in socio-economic status and organization of different communities. While displacement de-bordered the kibbutz/development town divide, educational interactions in the displacement center re-inscribed borders, forcing movement educators to reshape educational aims and methods, particularly: socialist-Zionist content and nonformal methods. The former was too specific for emergency time-space; the latter was ineffective with populations unfamiliar with these methods. Analysis shows that emergency created a space-time that distilled educational praxis of the movements to what we identify as two basic forms: 'being there' and 'being together'. 'Being there' is an educational philosophy opposed to education as a temporary influence, achievement- or task-oriented, and encouraging individuation; rather it applauds consistent connection based in attention to basic needs, as a basis for encouragement of self-defined desires alongside sociability. 'Being together' is an educational practice of bringing together diverse populations to live in shared society. 'Being there' and 'being together' reflect an educational ethos based in the assumption that everyday relationships shape the fabric of social life and can potentially contribute to the reorganization of inequalities and the distribution of social resources (Hall, 2019). While these practices reflect movement ideology, they were made possible by the situation of war and displacement, which both brought together populations usually held separate geographically and posed common tasks of repair and common questions about the uncertain future. Within emergency, they offered an educational praxis that attended to larger socio-political vectors of educational ethos - combatting inequality and increasing resilience – while proposing a radical alternative to the emphasis of neoliberal education on individual needs, risks, and achievements.

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