‘Not ours’: Palestinian Arab students’ perceptions of the campus ethnonational climate in Israeli higher education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Rooted in the campus racial climate framework by Hurtado and colleagues (1998) and utilising a qualitative-led mixed methods approach, this study explored the perceptions of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel (PAI) who are undergraduate students of their campus ethnonational climates. Focus groups (n = 19) were conducted, followed by an online survey (n = 453). The results show that PAI students perceive their campuses as foreign and often exclusionary, leading them to expend a great deal of time and energy negotiating the terms of their presence on campus. PAI students respond to the negative campus climate by forming pockets of belonging, asserting their identities and giving back to their home communities. Campuses were described as highly segregated with little contact between ethnonational groups, yet a desire to connect was strongly expressed. Variations across types of HE institutions as well as implications for practice and research are explored in the paper.