Arab teacher educators and the moral work of teaching in Israel

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study explores how 14 Arab teacher educators perceive the moral preparation of teachers for Arab schools in Israel. The first theme highlights the contingent (institutional) factors that influence and may restrain the teacher educators’ mission of moral preparation. It highlights the importance of an organisational culture that supports student teachers’ learning to provide moral education, of empowering and unsilencing of student teachers, and of promoting morally oriented reflective practice in students’ clinical experiences. The second theme illustrates the teacher educators’ psychological assumptions about morality as represented by the possibilities and constraints of role modelling in preparing moral teachers. The third theme addresses the teacher educators’ socio-educational (universal, counter-hegemonic, and liberal) assumptions about the moral purposes of schooling. These assumptions are influenced by the asymmetrical structure of Arab-Jewish power relationships, as well as by the transitional status of Arab society in Israel.

KEYWORDS:

• The moral work of teaching
• Arabs
• Israel
• moral education
• teacher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Statement

This study received ethical approval according to the Israeli academic system.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Najwan Saada

Najwan Saada is an associate lecturer in the faculty of education at Al-Qasemi Academy and Beit Berl College of education in Israel. His research focuses on citizenship, values, and religious (Islamic) education and education for social justice for religious and national minorities in western and Muslim-majority societies. Najwan’s research has been published in Theory and Research in Social Education, Teaching and Teacher education, Citizenship Teaching and Learning, British Journal of Religious Education, and British Educational Research Journal. Najwan has an account on Research Gate and he can be reached on [email protected].