Swimming against the tide: challenges facing alternative education schools in Palestinian-Arab society in Israel

Abstract

Alternative education schools are a relatively recent phenomenon in the Palestinian-Arab society in Israel. They have been established in response to the growing dissatisfaction with the education provided by the state in mainstream schools. While previous research has sufficiently detailed their characteristics, there is little research on the challenges that face Palestinian-Arab alternative schools in Israel. The findings in this article are a synthesis of data gathered over three years and are drawn from interviews with key school stakeholders and observations of staff training sessions. Key external and internal challenges are identified and discussed. The article concludes by addressing the implications of the challenges for the future of alternative education in Palestinian-Arab society in Israel.

Keywords:

• Alternative education
• Palestinian-Arab society in Israel
• mainstream education
• Israeli education system

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wissam Magadley

Dr Wissam Magadley is a senior lecturer of Psychology at Alqasemi College of Education, Israel. His research interests include alternative education in Palestinian-Arab society in Israel, creativity and innovation, and teachers' emotional regulation and well-being.

Muhammad Amara

Prof Muhamad Amara is a full professor of Linguistics at the Academic College of Beit Berl, Israel. His academic interests include language education, language policy, sociolinguistics, bilingual education, language and politics, linguistic landscape, and collective identities. His recent publications include: Language, identity and conflict (Routledge, 2018); My language is my identity: Towards a comprehensive language policy to meet the challenges of Arabic in Israel (Dar-Al-Huda and Dar Al-Fiker, 2020).