ח׳יר–עבאס, רנדה

Teacher Training in the Arab Sector in Israel – the Story of The Arab Academic College of Education In Israel, Haifa

This paper presents a concrete case of a teacher education program planned and executed by an ethnic minority. The main goal of this program is to integrate pedagogical and professional aspects of teacher education with the unique characteristics of a teacher education college serving the Arab community in Israel. In other words, the college strives to maintain its uniqueness and simultaneously provide students an opportunity for full integration in the majority, Israeli, society. The research portrays striving for integration without giving up special characteristics. It seems that for teacher education in multicultural societies, the best way to serve both individuals and communities of minorities living in a dominant culture is to integrate both the unique and the general in the preparation of teachers.

Published

Ilaiyan, S., Toren, Z., & Abbas, R. (2017). Teacher training in the Arab sector in Israel – The story of the Arab Academic College of Education in Israel, Haifa. In. M. Ben-Peretz & S. Feiman-Nemser (Eds.), The role of ideology and political movements in designing teacher education programs (pp. 37-48).  Lanham, MD Rowman & Littlefield with the MOFET institute.

״We Don׳t Talk About That Here״ – Teachers, Religion, Public Elementary Schools and the Embodiment of Silence, a National United States and Israel Study

Globally religious diversity is on the rise yet the place of religion in public schools is often heatedly debated. The study examined the experiences of fifth graders regarding religion in public schools in the United States and Israel. The juxtaposition of diverse countries and school settings opens the dialogue to examine how children and their teachers perceive the impact of religion while in school. The findings suggest that the impact of minority status, school curriculum, and the political and geographical contexts of schools impact the ways that religion is conceptualized in public elementary schools. In addition, the uniqueness between religions and teacher views concerning the place of religion in public schools should be explored further.

Published

Keller, T., Camardese., A., & Abbas, R. (2017). ״We don’t talk about that here״ – teachers, religion, public elementary schools and the embodiment of silence, a national United States and Israel study. Journal of Childhood and Religion, 7, 1-41.
DOI https//mosaic.messiah.edu/edu_ed/27/

Primary Teachers’ Use of Communicative Strategies for Linguistically Diverse Learners – A Cross-Cultural Case Study

The purpose of the study was to investigate the use of communicative strategies employed by two primary grade teachers whose students’ home language differed from the language of instruction. The communicative strategies examined included verbal, gestural, and other visual modes of interaction within classroom discourse to promote student learning. One school we studied was in Northern Israel and one was in New Jersey in the US. In Israel, the teacher taught using formal Modern Standard Arabic while the children were familiar only with Spoken Arabic. In New Jersey, the teacher taught using English while the students were largely from Spanish-speaking homes. Neither teacher had special training in working with diverse language learners. Findings generated two major categories of communicative strategies utilized by both teachers Concretization of abstract concepts and Situational Language Use. The significance of The study is that it addresses the need identified by practitioners and researchers worldwide for improved literacy and mathematics teaching and learning for diverse.

Published

Mongillo, G., Feola, D., Kaplan, R., Vaknin-Nusbaum, V., & Abbas, R. (2019). Primary teachers’ use of communicative strategies for linguistically diverse learners – A cross-cultural case study. The Language and Literacy Spectrum, 29(1/5).
Doi https//digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/lls/vol29/iss1/5

How Do School-Based Ceremonies Contribute to Adolescents’ Identity Design? A Case Study in Two Druze High Schools

This article discusses the contribution of school-based ceremonies in two Israeli Druze schools to shaping identity and deepening the sense of citizenship among Druze students. The Druze have a unique position in Israel as opposed to other Arabic-speaking Israelis, serving in the army and generally maintaining high levels of patriotism. State ceremonies, especially the memorial ceremonies of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), have gradually come to occupy a central place in the Israeli education system since 1948. The memorial ceremonies combine the cognitive and emotional dimensions. The historical information conveyed through them is combined with feelings of bereavement and loss and with stories of heroism and sacrifice. The study found that great emphasis is placed on these activities in the two Druze schools studied and that they strengthen the students’ Druze Israeli identity and sense of civic pride and responsibility, together with their unique Druze identity.

Published

Abbas-Khair, R. (2020). How do school-based ceremonies contribute to adolescents’ identity design? A case study in two Druze high schools. Citizenship Teaching and Learning, 15(3), 323-340.
DOI https//doi.org/10.1386/ctl_00037_1

Is there Indeed a Commitment in Trainee Teachers of Israel’s Arab Sector to Education for Multiculturalism?

This research discusses the instruction of multiculturalism in Arab-Israeli teacher training colleges and seeks to discover whether its trainees are committed to educate for multiculturalism. It is a pioneering project as it inquiries how Arab students at departments of teacher education in Israeli Colleges learn about multiculturalism. On the theoretical level, the study contributes to the understanding of multicultural research. On the practical level, it provides help in preparing students as multiculturally tolerant teachers equipped with the tools needed for educating for pluralism and social tolerance.

Published

Khair-Abbas, R., & Ilaiyan, S. (2021). Is there indeed a commitment in trainee teachers of Israel’s Arab sector to education for multiculturalism? Intercultural Education, 32(3), 311-325. DOI https//doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2021.1882943

Motivation And Attitudes Of Israeli – Druze School Children Toward L2 Hebrew Compared To Modern Standard Arabic

The study examines the extent to which sociohistorical and political contexts influence the language attitudes of Israeli-Druze students to Hebrew as L2 and to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in Arabic-speaking schools. It is a pioneer explorative research study that compares students’ attitudes toward diglossia and L2. Using the Foreign Languages Attitudes and Goals Survey (FLAGS), the attitudes of second, fifth, and ninth graders in two different Druze schools were assessed. The results indicate a positive attitude towards L2 Hebrew, not only for instrumental purposes but also for integration into Israel’s multicultural society. The positive attitude to L2 Hebrew is greater in older students, while the attitude to MSA becomes more negative among older students. Their low motivation to learn cultural heritage MSA may contribute to an understanding of how to teach it better or differently, as well as how to encourage future generations to learn it.

Published

Khair-Abbas, R., & Vaknin-Nusbaum, V. (2021). Motivation and attitudes of Israeli-Druze school children toward L2 Hebrew compared to modern standard Arabic. Pragmatics and Society, 12(4), 591-611.
DOI https//doi.org/10.1075/ps.18056.abb

Real Time Experience of Participants in Higher Education During the Coronavirus – A Case Study

This case study explored the real-time experience of participants in the Arab Academic College for Education in Haifa, Israel, during the coronavirus pandemic. Nineteen in-depth interviews were conducted with management, administrative staff, faculty and students. Participants’ stories reveal that feelings stress and isolation gave way to new learning and self-discovery, a new relationship with time, and the creation of new knowledge on the personal and institutional levels. Strong, coordinated leadership, combined with legal and financial security, facilitated the transition to on-line learning and allowed then college to emerge from the crisis successfully. Implications are drawn for dealing with future crises.

Published

Khair-Abbas, R.; Abu Hanna, E., Zoabi, Kh., Marey-Sarwan, I,. & Abu Ahmad, H. (2021). Real time experience of participants in higher education during the coronavirus – a case study. Curriculum and Teaching, 36(1), 51-70. DOI https//doi.org/10.7459/ct/36.1.05