Getting in Step: Accountability,accreditation and the standardization of teacher education in the United States

The background to the 'standards movement' in education in the United States is explained. It is argued that it has had a negative impact on teacher education and teacher education accreditation. An illustrative example is provided from a recent accreditation review of the application of an overly narrow understanding of standards and of legitimate evidence, and a possible alternative and more responsive and responsible view of assessment is suggested. The value of standards as guidelines for improving practice in teacher education is not questioned. Rather we aim to cast light upon what we see as their troubling reduction to templates under the often unrecognized influence of market assumptions about teaching and learning.     

De-arabization of the bedouin: A study of an inevitable failure

This paper offers an assessment of the efforts to de-Arabize the Bedouin Arab youth of the Negev. We show that despite the extensive efforts to achieve this goal, they have become pronouncedly alienated from the State of Israel, and are increasingly perceiving themselves as an integral part of Israel’s Palestinian Arab national minority. The findings of our research illustrate the futility of the policy to de-Arabize the Bedouin and to instill in them the unfounded belief that they are full and equal citizens of the State of Israel. We argue that the failure of the policy in this regard is inevitable primarily for the following reason: Israel’s national identity is constructed in a manner that leaves no room for Arab culture and heritage and this identity provided the legitimization for discriminatory policies against the Bedouin, as well as against other Arab groups. Thus, the shift toward Palestinian national and cultural identity found among Bedouin youth, can be partly explained as a result of their growing awareness of this political reality and their decreasing readiness to accept it. But then again, this shift is nothing but another manifestation, albeit a sobering one at that, of the challenge facing Zionist ideology since the pre-state era, more than 50 years ago. To put it succinctly, the challenge is this: if Israel aspires to be judged as a liberal democracy and to ensure its legitimacy and political stability, it must make significant changes in its basic governing principles. It must either incorporate the culture and collective aspirations of its Arab citizens within the national identity, and/or allow them some form of political autonomy.     

Bedouin special-education teachers as agents of social change

This study probes the career motives of minority special-education teachers in the Bedouin Arab society of southern Israel. The results, obtained via in-depth interviews of teachers, show that the teachers aspire to become agents of social change in three spheres: In the external sphere, they aim for professional autonomy and independence within the Israeli Arab education system. The internal sphere includes a moral-awareness aspect of their society’s view of special education. The personal sphere includes a practical aspect, in which the teachers wish to upgrade their professional qualifications in order to cope better with challenges that they face in the field.