Yaffa: a school of their choice?

Abstract

This article is a product of in-depth research in Yaffa, The Arab Democratic School that was carried out in 2004/05, as part of a study on alternative Arab education in Israel. Its aim, beyond telling the story of Yaffa, is to explicate the motivations that underlay this initiative, and to examine parental choice amongst the disadvantaged. We ask how the Arabs' parental choice is affected by their (marginalised) social location, by how far they are from the dominant culture, and by their (in)capacity to make a difference. Apparently, to make a choice is a multidimensional act, reflecting the Palestinian citizens' resistance to their marginalisation and unwillingness to be subjugated through non-democratic educational perceptions. Their positionality resonates in Yaffa, as an act of intervention, and their search for an alternative reality where democratic education is not and cannot be separated from the Palestinian citizens' need to imagine themselves as Arabs.

Active representative bureaucracy, homogeneous organizational context, and deviation from official policy among street‐level bureaucrats

“…While Israeli law declares that all citizens have equal rights, Jews constitute the majority in the country. The Arab-Palestinian minority suffers from discrimination and social marginalization (Levy & Massalha, 2010). This division is evident in the Arab education system, which is controlled by the Education Ministry (Abu-Saad, 2006), for there is a gap between the national narratives of the majority and the minority (Makkawi, 2002).…”

The price of religiosity: Enticing young Haredi men into secular academic studies

“…The empirical economic literature rarely addressed the interaction between educational decisions and social factors. In contrast, the sociological literature demonstrates a strong correlation between educational choices and social and family background, including “significant others” (Sewell et al, 1970), social class (Breen and Goldthorpe, 1997; Levy and Massalha, 2010), family income (Becker and Hecken, 2009; Hofferth et al, 1998), cultural capital (De Graaf et al, 2000), and parents’ education (Behrman, 1997; Chevalier et al, 2010; Dryler, 1998). These studies indicate that the choice of children from higher social classes is more ambitious than that of children from lower social classes, even when ability is controlled (Jackson et al, 2007), and find strong positive causal relationship between parents’ and children’s education.…”

Equality and inclusion of the Palestinian minority in mixed Israeli schools: A case study of Jaffa's Weizman School

“…Ever since the State Educational Act defined and institutionalized 'Arab education' in 1953, ethnically segregated schools have been tightly controlled at both the ideological and political levels (Levy and Massalha, 2010). Far from a unified network, the Israeli school system is subdivided into four groups: state Jewish schools; state Arab schools; state religious schools; and private schools.…”

“…The educational problem in Jaffa Levy and Massalha (2010) investigated issues in Jaffa related to the education of the Palestinians. Specifically, they studied how much the educational choices of Palestinian families are influenced by three main factors: their marginalized social position; how far they are from the dominant culture; and their inability to make a difference.…”