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Article

Open Access

Female Principals in the Israeli Arab Society: Between Social Conventions and Self-fulfillment Career

Author(s)

Husein Saris

Full-Text PDF Download XML 4091 Views

DOI:10.17265/1548-6591/2017.02.005

Affiliation(s)

West University of Timisora, Timisora, Romania

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there is an increase in the number of Arab women reaching principal position. This increase is a result of various reasons, among which stands out the wish of Arab women in Israel to challenge traditional values and improve their social status. This study examines strategies used by them to deal with the pressure and workload associated with the principal’s role, and cope with unique social and cultural values of the traditional Arab society regarding gender role division. This study used qualitative method based on personal interviews conducted with 10 Arab female principals from diverse backgrounds. The Arab female principals developed certain strategies enabling them to cope with the difficulties of the role which are mostly work overload and pressure, along with the need to overcome traditional social conventions by adopting modern life pattern of new role division within the family, more balance and support, alongside equal division between work and home, good communication, and right time management. The main conclusion is that female Arab principals must cope with higher load due to fact that they live in a traditional society expecting the women to keep house along with the vast workload of principal’s role today.

KEYWORDS

principal, school management, education, women, Arab society

Cite this paper

Journal of US-China Public Administration, February 2017, Vol. 14, No. 2, 100-113

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