Arab Education in Israel: Lessons From Positive Learning Experiences of Palestinian-Israelis

Abstract

This empirical study investigates positive learning experiences of 250 Palestinian-Israeli high school graduates who were formerly pupils in Israeli Arab schools. It addresses how they perceived and now describe such experiences in a questionnaire. The study inquires as to what characterizes these positive learning experiences and under which conditions they occurred. The research reveals, using a qualitative analysis of the questionnaire responses, that 70% of all of the positive learning experiences reported occurred within the school and were primarily related to the personalities and professionalism of teachers. Using these results, the study then asks how such positive learning experiences can have long-term, sometimes ethical, implications upon the personality formation or future behaviour of the respondents and might lead to positive change within Arab schooling and educational process in Israel.

Notes

¹As Al-Haj has shown (1995a, 1995b, 2003), despite a dramatic increase in the percentage of academically trained Palestinian citizens of Israel, most are unable to successfully compete with their Jewish counterparts on the labor market. Palestinian Arab Israelis are barred from numerous positions in the manufacturing sector because they require previous military service or military clearance (e.g., in the aviation industry, high-tech companies, etc.), and Arabs are considered a security risk. Against this background, many Arab professionals turn to the teaching profession, even if it does not necessarily reflect their main professional interest.

²Two students who participated in the study were aged 47 and 50.

³On the differences between male and female narratives regarding learning experiences, please see Alayan and Yair (2010).

⁴Many respondents commented that they were able to remember more negative than positive experiences. This tendency would appear to concur with the results of a study by D. Kobobi (1978), which found that traumatic experiences are easier to remember.

⁵All accounts quoted here have been translated by the author from the original Arabic.

⁶The questionnaire did not stipulate whether the students should recount positive learning experiences from specific contexts (e.g., school, family, local community center, etc.). It is therefore interesting that 70% of respondents associated the concept of learning with the school without prompting. For reasons of scope, this article only addresses the experiences that occurred within the setting of the school.

⁷ Al-Haj (2003) has commented that, ultimately, educating Arab Israeli pupils along such lines serves the interests of the Israeli state by preventing the emergence of an Arab minority capable of critical and independent thought and thus of effectively fighting continuous economic and political marginalization. This shows that the differences between the educational achievements of Arab and Jewish students in Israel are not only caused by political issues but also by pedagogy, educational methods, cultural values, etc.