Gender and higher education in different national spaces: Female Palestinian students attending Israeli and Jordanian universities

Abstract

This study examines the higher education experience among Palestinian Arab females in two national spaces and seeks to determine whether studying at an Arab institution of higher learning in a nearby Arab country can alleviate the emotional and economic difficulties that affect Palestinian women at Israeli universities. What can institutions of higher learning in Israel learn or derive from the proposed model to relieve the alienation and exclusion that their female Palestinian students experience? The study will compare two geographically distinct groups of women students. The first is a group of Palestinian women who attend university in Jordan, while the second consists of Palestinian women of Bedouin origin from southern Israel who study in the Jewish Israeli cultural space. The study seeks to shed light on the experience of Muslim students in Western and Muslim universities.

Keywords:

• higher education
• Jordan
• Israel
• gender
• Palestinian students
• national space

Notes

1. The expression ‘Western’ does not refer to any generalization or simplification of the Western world, nor to the dichotomy between ‘Western’ and ‘Arab,’ but rather refers to a hegemony that is non‐Muslim in its values and norms regarding Muslim minorities. The studies cited relate primarily to universities in the United Kingdom or North America and the term ‘Western’ was applied for the sake of brevity.

2. At present, several Israeli institutions, such as Ben‐Gurion University of the Negev, operate special preparatory programs to encourage Bedouin women students to take up medical and paramedical studies. Ben‐Gurion University also maintains an advisor for Arab student affairs and a coordinator for the study of Bedouin society whose job is to provide academic and financial assistance to Muslim women students beginning studies. This outreach trend is still in its infancy and is not in effect at most other universities in Israel.

3. The studies were conducted separately by each researcher, using the same methodological approach, interview procedure and analysis.

4. While this is an explorative qualitative research study, its purpose is to illuminate the topic and not to generalize and all results refer to the case presented only (see Patton 2002).

5. According to Iranian law, a man and women caught together in public will be arrested and must prove that there are family ties between them