The Faculty of Education at Haifa University is characterized by a unique combination of three aspects: intellectual and research excellence, a warm and welcoming environment and a deep sense of accountability as well as of contribution to society as a whole and to the educational system in particular. These aspects are manifested in the curricula offered by the Faculty and its departments, in the profound and intriguing research of the Faculty staff and in many practical projects that the Faculty members and various bodies within it are engaged with.

Faculty of Education was founded (in the School of Education) along with the establishment of the University in 1963. In fact, the idea for establishing a university institute in Haifa, which became a university later on, was based on the need to train academic teachers of a high level who would teach in high schools. Upon the establishment of the School of Education, it was comprised of three departments for a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in the fields of Curriculum Planning and Management, Special Education, and Educational Counseling, and approximately 200 students attended it. The head of the first school was Moshe Rinot, who had previously served as Head of the Educational Department in the city of Haifa (view the list of the heads of the School of Education throughout its history below). The School of Education became a faculty in 1995 as a manifestation of the prominent position that Haifa University attributes to educational concerns. Today, the Faculty of Education is one of the 6 faculties of Haifa University and is the only faculty of education in Israel. Approximately 1600 female and male students attend the Faculty, half of them are advanced studies students (MA and PhD), about 500 are BA students and 300 are teaching certificate students in the various disciplines.

Following a significant reform, the Faculty now consists of six departments, four of which include BA studies: The Department of Learning, Instruction and Teaching, the Department of Counseling and Human Development, the Department of Special Education, and the Department of Learning Disabilities; two of the departments include only MA and PhD studies: The Department of Leadership and Policy Making in Education, and the Department of Mathematics Education.

The Faculty is the largest of all schools of education in Israel, with approximately 55 senior academic staff members, 9 emeritus senior academic staff members, and 100 junior academic staff members.

The Faculty of Education offers various fields of studies that provide professional education such as Special Education, teaching varied disciplines, Educational Counseling, Curriculum Planning, Art Therapy and School Administration, as well as studies that do not necessarily revolve around a particular profession, such as educational policy, education and human development or the philosophy of education.

The Faculty includes approximately 25 research laboratories, research centers, cathedrals and institutes where varied studies are being conducted, in addition to research activities, teaching and field practices. Being a multidisciplinary faculty, one that assembles researchers from various disciplines including humanities, social studies, and exact sciences, the topics of the research are extremely varied and include different qualitative and quantitative methods. MA and PhD students are partners to many of the studies.

Three of the Faculty members have won the Israel Prize of Education: Prof. Dina Pitelson (OBM), Prof. Gabi Solomon, and Prof. Miriam Ben-Peretz. A detailed account of the studies for which they received the prize can be found on the Faculty site.

The importance that the Faculty attributes to the connection with the field and its development is articulated by the activity of the different units within the Faculty. Apart from various research projects related to evaluating the educational field and contributing to it, the Department of Continuing Education Programs, founded with the establishment of the School of Education, organizes activities, workshops and varied courses aimed at training and nurturing educational counselors, special education teachers, principals, and non-formal educators. Approximately 800 students attend these activities each year. In addition, the DSU, an institute for diagnosing and supporting learning disabled students with the help of a high standard professional mechanism, operates in the Faculty, as does a computer unit and laboratories for teaching, where innovative equipment of technological accessories for supporting teaching can be found.

In addition, the two national centers for teaching Mathematics in elementary and post-primary education operate in the Faculty, where ongoing activities for assisting and training Mathematics teachers across the nation are held.

The Faculty also offers a tapestry of first-line researchers from both the field of basic studies and that of applicable studies, teaching with personal attention and involvement in the educational field and the community.

Prof. Lily Orland-Bara, Dean.