Between collaboration and conflict: the exploration of micropolitical processes during reform enactment in an Arab junior high school in Israel

ABSTRACT

This article discusses a qualitative case study that investigated the micropolitical processes inside an Arab junior high school in Israel during the enactment of the New Horizon reform. Our analysis focuses on how the school’s educational staff interprets and translates the reform into practice, how their professional identities have developed along this process and on the role of their background as members of the Arab-Palestinian community. We found the principal and teachers draw on both collaborative and conflict-promoting strategies to defend their interests. The study demonstrated the importance of micropolitical considerations and local contexts for macropolitical reforms.

KEYWORDS:

• Education and minorities
• new professionalism
• educator identity
• Arab education in Israel
• neoliberal education reform
• micropolitics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Meitzav examinations are conducted annually across elementary and junior high schools across Israel, assessing pupils and pupils’, teachers’, and principals’ perceptions about performance and the school environment.