Arab Education System In Israel Research Articles

Participative decision-making in the Arab educational system in Israel: The implications for teachers’ organizational commitment and school violence

Principals indirectly impact the achievement of school goals and the development and improvement of the school. Drawing upon Role Theory, this study proposes to examine the direct and indirect relationship (through organizational commitment) between participative decision-making and school violence in the Arab educational system in Israel. The data were collected through a questionnaire returned by a two-stage cluster random sampling of 350 teachers randomly chosen from 70 elementary Israeli Arab schools. Data were collected from three sources: self-reporting (teachers and students) and non-self-reporting to minimize measure error. The structural equation modeling and bootstrap results highlighted the positive implications of participative decision-making on teachers’ organizational commitment in the Israeli Arab education system. The findings also showed teachers’ organizational commitment was correlated to school violence. That is, teachers’ organizational commitment fully mediates the relationship between participative decision-making and school violence. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

School Violence in the Israeli Arab Educational System: Investigating the Implications of Paternalistic Leadership and teachers’ Job Satisfaction

ABSTRACT School violence is a growing issue that adversely affects learning, academic achievement, and student growth. Drawing upon the heuristic model of school violence proposed by the study proposes to examine the direct and indirect relationship (through teacher satisfaction) between paternalistic leadership (PL) and school violence in the Arab educational system in Israel. The data were collected through a questionnaire returned by a two-stage clusters random sampling of 350 teachers randomly chosen from 70 elementary Israeli Arab schools. Data were collected from three sources: self-reporting (teachers and students) and non-self-reporting to minimize measure error. The Structural Equation Modelling and bootstrap results highlighted that paternalistic leadership was not correlated to teachers’ satisfaction but directly correlated to school violence. The findings also showed positive relationships of teachers’ job satisfaction and lessening school violence levels. Implications for theory and practise are discussed.

Quality of work life, cultural values, and Islamic work ethics: The case of the Arab education system in Israel

The study focuses on quality of work life (QWL), Islamic work ethics (IWE), and cultural values among employees in a complex organization, with a case study of Arab high-school teachers in the education system in Israel. The sample consisted of 1245 employees. To establish a reliable model of QWL, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were utilized, resulting in six dimensions. A reliable model of IWE was also established, consisting of two dimensions. Employees reported average QWL levels, high IWE levels, low power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, and a tendency toward collectivism and femininity. This study demonstrates a positive relationship between QWL dimensions and IWE, with certain cultural values—such as collectivism and uncertainty avoidance—moderating this relationship.

Teacher well-being and organizational citizenship behavior in Arab educational system in Israel: The implications of teacher collective involvement in decision making and organizational commitment.

A gradual transition from a collectivist to a more individualist identity has been noted in the Arab minority with implications for teachers' well-being and organizational citizenship behavior. This study builds on the Job Demands-Control model to investigate the mediating role of teacher organizational commitment in the relationship between the teacher collective involvement in decision making to teacher well-being and organizational citizenship behavior. Data were collected from a sample of 350 teachers randomly chosen in the Arab educational system in Israel. Structural equation modeling (using the AMOS 21.0 program) was used to test the proposed relationships. The results indicate both a direct and indirect relationships (through the mediating role of teacher organizational commitment) of teacher collective involvement in decision making on teachers' well-being and organizational citizenship behavior. The model which tested both direct and indirect relationships (through organizational commitment) between collective involvement in decision making and teachers' organizational citizenship behavior, and well-being, showed good fit indices (χ² = 62.60; χ²/df = 2.50; CFI = .947, TLI = .905, IFI = .949; RMSEA = .066). Specifically, the bootstrapping analysis reaffirmed the mediating role of organizational commitment between collective involvement in decision making and well-being (β = -.04, p < .001) and organizational citizenship behavior (β = .11, p < .001). Implications for theory and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The differences in the implications of participative decision-making and paternalistic leadership for teachers' perceived stress in the education system of the Israeli Arab minority

PurposeStudies have shown that teachers' perceptions and expectations of their working environment shape their perceived stress. The present study draws upon implicit leadership theory and builds on the job demands-control (JD-C) model to investigate whether there are differences in the implications of participative decision-making and paternalistic leadership for teachers' perceived stress in the Israeli Arab education system.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through validated questionnaires returned by a two-stage cluster random sampling of 350 teachers randomly chosen from 70 Israeli Arab elementary schools. Paternalistic leadership and participative decision-making were considered as group-level variables to lower the risk of common method variance. The proposed model was tested through hierarchical regression analysis. Finally, to test the hypothesis that paternalistic leadership and participative decision-making standardized beta weights were statistically significantly different from each other, their corresponding 95% confidence intervals were estimated via bias corrected bootstrap (1000 re-samples).FindingsThe findings indicated differences in the levels of the principal's paternalistic leadership and participative decision-making as perceived by the Israeli Arab teachers. Also, the results indicated that participative decision-making was negatively correlated with teachers' perceived stress beyond the influence of paternalistic leadership.Originality/valueExamining teachers' working conditions and resources can be important since they affect teachers' perceived stress, which may in turn affects school results in the Arab education system in Israel. This study can contribute to the development of training programs for teachers to improve and adapt principals' leadership practices to the sociocultural context of the Arab education system in Israel.

Ethical dilemmas facing female teachers in the Arab education system in Israel

Arab society in Israel is a minority in the process of change. Teachers are at the heart of these processes as agents of progress, education, and integration, while belonging at the same time to a traditional, religious, and patriarchal society that seeks to preserve its identity. The purpose of this study was to examine the ethical dilemmas that Arab teachers in Israel face in teaching students in Arab schools and to understand what considerations and values guide them in making ethical decisions and how they act on them. We interviewed 15 teachers who teach in Arab schools. The findings of the study show that four categories related to ethical dilemmas characterize the work of teachers: an ethics of fairness versus an ethics of care, the neoliberal concept of ethics versus a professional ethics, a cultural ethics versus a professional ethics, and a professional ethics versus an ethics of care. Teachers adopted five key strategies to address these dilemmas: equal treatment, customized teaching, compromise and appeasement, extra effort on the part of the teacher, and collaboration. This research contributes to the growing literature on ethics and education and adds a unique perspective that addresses the ethical dilemmas of teachers in traditional and conservative societies. The findings of the study suggest that the professional ethics of Arab teachers, who in Israel belong to an ethnic minority, should be strengthened.

Principal–teacher gender (dis)similarity as a moderator in the relationship between paternalistic leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour in the Arab minority in Israel

Relying on the similarity attraction paradigm and self-categorisation theories, the current study examines how principal–teacher gender (dis)similarity affects the emergence of paternalistic leadership and the influences of such leadership on teachers’ organisational citizenship behaviour in the Arab minority in Israel. Data were collected from a sample of 180 randomly selected teachers and their principals from elementary schools in the Arab education system in Israel (180 dyads). MANCOVA, ANCOVA, hierarchical regression analyses and structural equation modelling were used to test the proposed relationships. The results of the overall model indicated that principal–teacher gender dissimilarity affected the emergence of paternalistic leadership and its influences on teachers’ organisational citizenship behaviour. Specifically, in the case of principal–teacher gender dissimilarity, paternalistic leadership contributed to improving organisational citizenship behaviour. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Physical Learning Environment and Learning Functioning among Students from the Point of View of Teachers in the Arab Education System in Israel

This study examines the influence of the physical learning environment on students' performance, as perceived by teachers in elementary schools in the Arab education system in Israel, which function within a reality of exclusion and ongoing discrimination. Studies point to the importance of the design of the physical learning environment and its significant influence on students' functioning in several areas: emotional, cognitive, social, and aesthetic. The physical learning environment has a significant influence, both on the feelings of students and teachers, and on the way students function in various fields. Teachers can influence a variety of components in the school's physical learning environment to promote meaningful learning and create an environment that empowers learning, independent thinking, creativity, and self-learning and encourages personal growth and social involvement. This study is a correlational study administered among 200 Arab teachers from elementary schools. Teachers answered a questionnaire examining the relationship between the physical learning environment and the learner's functioning.. In order to test the hypotheses, we used the SSPS statistical analysis program. The main results indicate that the physical learning environment affects the students' performance in the following areas: emotional, cognitive and emotional. Details of findings relating to teachers' personality variables will be reported in the article. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Arab Pre-service Teachers’ Perspectives on the Role of ICT in Learning and beyond School

This study was necessitated by the paucity of the data on the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in the Arab education system in Israel. The study was conducted as a cross-sectional survey among novice students from the three Arab teacher training colleges. The aim of the survey was to examine whether students’ perceptions reflect the skills associated with the concepts of digital competence and higher order thinking skills (HOTS). Data were collected through the closed-item and mixed-item questionnaires. Open-ended items had also the purpose to examine participants’ reasoning skills. The results of the pilot showed good internal reliability for a closed-item questionnaire (α < 0.72) and for a mixed-item one (α < 0.76). Both quantitative and qualitative results suggested that the majority of participants understood the relevance of ICT to their learning and other areas of life and demonstrated safe and responsible use of ICT. The findings suggested that participants were less skilled in the areas of independent learning, teamwork, and developing creativity through digital tools. The results of this survey gathered baseline information for further investigations intended to examine pre-service teachers’ digital competence and develop intervention measures.

Personality Traits and Thinking Styles: A Case Study of Arab Teachers as Members of a Minority in Israel

This exploratory study examines the connection between personality traits and thinking styles among Arab teachers, as members of a minority, in the Arab education system in Israel. Teachers play a critical role in developing their students’ skills, as well as their perspectives, conceptions, and personality traits. Teachers’ own personality traits and thinking styles play an important role and are reflected in their professional performance as educators. The Arab minority in Israel is undergoing rapid processes of change on the social, economic, political, and cultural levels, and its members live in a society considered a modern one (with clear traditional characteristics). Nevertheless, no studies have been carried out which examine the relationship between personality traits and thinking styles among minority teachers in the Arab school system in Israel. In light of this, there is great importance in examining this subject and investigating the connections between personality traits and thinking styles among Arab teachers in the Arab education system in Israel. A total of 205 Arab teachers participated in this study. Descriptive statistics and calculation of the Pearson correlation coefficient were used through the statistical analysis program SPSS. The research findings show a positive relationship between personality traits and thinking styles among teachers.

Understanding The Educational Administrator’s Role in a Turbulent Ethnic Education System

ABSTRACT This study examined the performance of superintendents and leaders of the Arab education system in Israel in reducing achievement gaps and promoting curricula that empower and advance students. In-depth interviews were conducted with school governance officials in an attempt to address these key issues: (1) The steps administrators in the Arab education system take to reduce underachievement and empower change agents during crises; (2) Arab school superintendents’ and local government education officers’ assessment of government policies as empowering or disempowering; (3) The extent to which superintendents believe that cultural change is required within existing administrative structures before they can empower school communities to become societal innovators for equity, peace, and renewal. The findings were analyzed according to themes and categories, and examined through the lens of the Turbulence Theory. Results revealed that Arab educational leaders strive to reduce achievement gaps by increasing the curriculum’s relevance to the school community, and balancing the community’s demands for quality education with technocratic policy demands by the Ministry of Education. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

The Arab Educational System in Israel: Challenges and Changes

Diala Abu-Oksa Eid, The Arab Educational System in Israel: Challenges and Changes [Arabski system szkolnictwa w Izraelu – wyzwania i zmiany]. Studia Edukacyjne nr 56, 2020, Poznań 2020, pp. 435-448. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 1233-6688. DOI: 10.14746/se.2020.56.24While the Arab minority in Israel has suffered greatly from war events and political definition of the state, its education system has experienced rapid development since the state’s establishment until today. The partial improvement in the level of education of Arab children and youth is evident in qualitative and quantitative indices, as well as in the level of infrastructure of the Arab education system. Nevertheless, socio-economic gaps between Arab and Jewish children and youth continue to exist, and it is apparent that the rate of improvement does not keep pace with the growing needs of Arab society in the field of education. In the last decade, the government has adopted a series of five-year plans for the socio-economic development of Arab minority. However, there is a significant gap between Arab education and Hebrew education in important indicators, such as financial investment per pupil, infrastructure (buildings and classrooms), educational frameworks outside the school hours, and the rate of entitlement to matriculation.At the beginning of the eighth decade of the State of Israel, the real challenge of the Arab education system in Israel is not necessarily quantitative, but qualitative. The more formal and informal educational programs in the Arab educational system will be adapted to the culture of the children and youth integrated into it, the more Arab society will be able to realize its human potential.

Gender, school leadership and teachers’ motivations

PurposeThe research investigates perceptions of teachers in the Arab education system in Israel concerning the effect of their principal’s leadership and gender on their motivation. Relying on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as an analytic tool to understand the Arab school, the purpose of this paper is to answer the following research questions: first, how do the teachers perceive the leadership style and gender of their principal and what influence do these perceptions have on their motivation? Second, what are the influences of the different dimensions of culture described by Hofstede on the teachers’ motivation?Design/methodology/approachTo answer these questions, 18 teachers from different schools in the Arab education system (10 female and 8 male) were interviewed.FindingsThe research revealed three themes which describe the teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ leadership styles with consideration of the principals’ gender: the principals’ involvement and sharing of school operations and decision making with the teachers; the extent of autonomy given to teachers; and establishment of principal–teacher relationships.Originality/valueThe paper concludes with implications of these leadership styles for teachers’ motivation for work, and suggestions are given to improve Arab principals’ practices and thus to enhance teachers’ motivation.

“Between a child who wants to tell and an adult who does not want to hear”. Arts Therapists’ Dilemmas in the Application of Arts Therapy with Children from Arab Society Who Suffered Abuse

Amani Mussa, “Between a child who wants to tell and an adult who does not want to hear”. Arts Therapists’ Dilemmas in the Application of Arts Therapy with Children from Arab Society Who Suffered Abuse. Interdisciplinary Contexts of Special Pedagogy, no. 25, Poznań 2019. Pp. 373-401. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-391X. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/ikps.2019.25.16.&#x0D; The Arab education system in Israel together with the ethics and legal regulations are found to indicate reports of maltreated and sexually abused children. The problem of viewed in this paper is connected with the reporting of children who had experienced maltreatment and sexual abuse. The article aspires to present the work and dilemmas of art therapists using arts therapy when working within educational and therapeutic frameworks in Israeli Arab society. Today, the field of arts therapy in the Arab society is in its initial stages in contrast to the seniority this field has gained in the Jewish society and more traditional therapies such as psychology and psychotherapy. In the Arab society, mental therapy is uncommon. The field of therapy as a whole is undeveloped and conducted secretly largely due to shame, stigma and prejudices associating mental therapy with mental illnesses or disorders (Masarwa &amp; Bruno, 2018). Until recently, arts therapy has not been practiced at all in Israeli in the Arab society. In comparison to psychological treatment, arts therapy carries an extra value because of its non-verbal work methodology, and enables can the client to make projection and reduction of social and personal objections in face of the therapeutic process. In recent years, implementation of this field of knowledge has gained momentum in therapeutic frameworks in general and at schools in particular, slowly becoming an integral part of the education system. However, this field is still in its early stages and it is oriented towards special education students and those with special needs (Nachum, 2007; Moriah, 2000).

From hierarchical leadership to a mark of distributed leadership by whole school inquiry in partnership with Higher Education Institutions: comparing the Arab education in Israel with the education system in England

ABSTRACT This paper presents a comparative analysis of two high schools, one in the Arab Education system in Israel and the other in the English Education system in Europe. The comparative analysis focuses on two principals’ perspectives of how they led their schools, in partnership with the authors from Higher Education Institutions, by implementing a distinctive mark of distributed leadership by an whole school inquiry led inter-cultural change. The change facilitated knowledge exchange, mobilisation, and dissemination activities that empowered staff and young people to become societal innovators for equity and renewal which raised student outcomes between – 17% and 27% The research reveals that shared aims, themes and methods through a distinctive mark of distributed leadership by whole school inquiry develops new inter-cultural understandings and builds respect, trust, and local research priorities and practices in communities of diverse race, ethnicity, cultural, religious, and citizen or refugee status. Members of diverse communities were able to hold each other to account, and became more autonomous in their plans for the future in a context of gaps in status in both contexts.

Organizational citizenship behavior in the Arab education system in Israel: personal factors vs. intra-organizational factors

ABSTRACT The study examines the effects of personal factors (gender, marital status, education and seniority) and intra-organizational factors (transformational leadership, job satisfaction and trust in supervisor) on Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) in the Arab education system in Israel. This is a quantitative study, based on questionnaires given to 211 teachers in the Arab education system in Israel. The results show a positive relationship between gender and OCB. A positive relationship was found between all intra-organizational factors and OCB. In addition, it was found that intra-organizational factors contribute more to explain OCB than personal factors do. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Leadership style, occupational perception and organizational citizenship behavior in the Arab education system in Israel

PurposeThe field of educational systems has witnessed an increase in studies of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as it contributes to the effectiveness and success of schools and achieving their objectives and goals. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between principals’ leadership style, occupational perceptions and OCB.Design/methodology/approachThe research hypothesis holds that the leadership style (transformational or transactional) have a direct and indirect effect on OCB (through occupation perception). These hypotheses have been tested on data collected from 620 Arab Israeli teachers.FindingsThe results reveal that: transformational and transactional leadership have no direct effect on OCB, an indirect effect of occupational perception on the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB, occupational perception did not mediate the effect between transactional leadership and OCB.Originality/valueThe results of the study contribute to the understanding of the way leadership style and OCB interact in schools, and the importance of teachers’ occupational perception in explaining this relationship. Future research should further investigate the teachers’ occupational perceptions and its effect on their performance as little research has been conducted to date.

Trust among teachers and educational counsellors in the Arab education system

This research investigated the perceptions of trust expressed by teachers and educational counsellors in the Arab education system in Israel, and aimed to answer the following questions: (1) How do the teachers and counsellors perceive the concept of ‘trust in schools’? (2) How is trust expressed in practice in the school? (3) Which factors are seen as assisting the formation of trust, or inhibiting the development of trust in school? To answer these questions, we interviewed five female educational counsellors and twenty teachers (ten men and ten women) from different schools in the Arab education system. The research revealed four foundations for the creation of trust in the schools: substantive autonomy that helps to foster teachers’ leadership; the school decision-making mechanism; an organizational culture that promotes egalitarian and just team work; and expression of gratitude and admiration. The paper concludes with implications for trust building in schools.

Linking school-based management and school effectiveness: The influence of self-based management, motivation and effectiveness in the Arab education system in Israel

Using a sample of 300 Arab teachers in Israel, we developed a model to analyze how school-based management directly and indirectly (through motivation) affects school effectiveness. The results show that there is a positive relationship between all dimensions of self-management (decision-making, resource and personnel management, availability of resources, and organizational structure) and school effectiveness. In addition, the results show full mediation between resource management, personnel and organizational structure, and school effectiveness through motivation. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications as well as directions for future research are presented.

Thinking Styles among the Arab-Minority Teachers in the Arab Education System in Israel

This study examined the thinking styles prevalent among Arab teachers, given their status as members of a minority, in the Arab education system in Israel. Examination of thinking styles very important for predicting a person's behavior in different situations, and teachers’ thinking styles predict some of their professional behavior when at work in school. The teaching profession demands certain personal characteristics, skills, and a wide professional knowledge base together with appropriate thinking and perceptions and thinking styles are considered to be an important aspect of the teacher’s work. A central aspect of a person’s personality is their thinking style and another, parallel aspect, is their characteristics. Each of the two have their unique contribution and defining structure. A person’s thinking style is influenced by culture and social characteristics and different cultures and societies are characterized by different thinking styles. As members of a national minority in Israel, the thinking styles of Arab teachers have not been previously studied, despite the fact that Arab society is undergoing rapid change in the social, economic, political, cultural, and familial spheres and despite the fact that thinking styles of teachers have an important impact on their day-to-day work in school. It is therefore important to study this subject and to examine the prevalent thinking styles among Arab teachers given their status as a minority in the education system in Israel. The study was conducted among 185 Arab teachers who answered a questionnaire about thinking styles. Their responses were analyzed using the SPSS statistic software. The principle findings showed that the most prevalent thinking styles were Type 2 (executive, local, conservative, and oligarchic) and Type 3 (monarchic, anarchic, internal, and external). The least prevalent was Type 1 (legislative, judicial, global, liberal, and hierarchic).