Region, Locality Characteristics, High School Tracking and Equality in Access to Educational Credentials: the case of Palestinian Arab communities in Israel

Abstract

A limited number of studies attempted to account for regional and community-level variables in exploring the mediating mechanisms conditioning the structure of educational opportunities. As a result, contextual dynamics of social stratification remain largely obscure. The aim of the present paper is to examine the relative effects of regional, locality (community level) and high school variables on access opportunities of Palestinian Arab high school pupils in Israel to educational credentials. The analysis is based on the aggregate data of 46 Arab localities. Findings reveal that while high school tracking patterns are affected by high school variables at community level (such as average allocation of teaching-time per class and gender enrolment ratios), access to educational credentials (high school matriculation certificates) is determined by community-level SES and the locality's geographic location (region). The implications of these findings for the broader study of issues related to equality in educational opportunities are discussed.

The effects of high school context and interpersonal factors on students? educational expectations: a multi-level model

“…Residentially, the Palestinians are highly segregated from the Jewish population, living mainly in segregated localities in three geocultural areas: Galilee, the Triangle and the Negev, with only 10% living in mixed cities like Haifa and Jaffa (Lewin-Epstein & Semyonov, 1994;Mazawi, 1998). This residential segregation has resulted in educational segregation.…”

Segregation, ethnic labour market and the occupational expectations of Palestinian students in Israel

“…This could be due to the better educational and occupational opportunities and the higher socio-economic status of the localities inhabited by non-Muslims, especially Christians (Mazawi 1996). The effect of vocational education and the effect of Druze ϫ LLM and Christian ϫ LLM support this explanation.…”

Within and beyond citizenship: alternative educational initiatives in the Arab society in Israel

“…In fact, the state has remained as reluctant as it was in the 1970s to grant the Arab community educational autonomy and room for manoeuvre in terms of either infrastructure or content (e.g. Al-Haj 1995, Levy 2005, Abu-Saad 2006, Mazawi 1998. Instead, new methods of control are being implanted, and, as a recent report indicated, the conditions of the Arab schools are still lagging far behind the Jewish ones (Ministry of Education 2005).…”