Proceedings of The 7th World Conference on Social Sciences
Year: 2024
DOI:
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On the Way to Academia: Choosing the Teaching Profession as a Dream Come True Amidst Social Challenges and Pedagogical Dilemmas in the Lives of Arab-Bedouin Students in Israel
Dr. Aref Abu-gweder
ABSTRACT:
In recent decades, there has been an increase in the number of young Bedouin men and women in southern Israel choosing the teaching profession and enrolling in higher education institutions. This choice stems from the constraints of the Israeli labor market, which offers limited options for economic integration for the Arab minority. The teaching profession guarantees quick and immediate placement after graduation. Additionally, socio-cultural constraints in the Bedouin community view the teaching profession as an effective combination of work and raising a family (Abu-Gweder, 2022). Moreover, the rapid transition from formal to academic studies was made without sufficient time to consider their suitability for the teaching profession, unlike their Jewish colleagues who are exempt from military service. Thus, many questions arise concerning the complex and lengthy process of building the professional identity of Bedouin teaching staff (Abu-Gweder, 2024). This study seeks to examine the dilemmas and challenges faced by Bedouin teachers studying in a multicultural college in southern Israel. The college provides a first meeting between populations that share the same geographical space but study in separate settings. The participant group included 30 Bedouin teachers, comprising 14 men and 16 women, in their third year of the teacher training program for the elementary school sector in the Bedouin community. Data was collected through a narrative questionnaire, in which participants were asked to present their lives as a book and write meaningful stories. The data analysis combined content analysis and positioning analysis in the discourse. The findings highlighted the challenges related to the Bedouin education system, the transition from school to academia, and the period of academic studies. The study participants exhibited different coping patterns between the sexes, with women showing more active coping and learning from their experiences.
keywords: Bedouin community in the Negev, Bedouin students, professional identity, dilemmas and difficulties, multiculturalism, discourse analysis