Faisal Azaiza

Into the Future: Towards Bilingual Education in Israel.

This article presents a manifesto to discuss how bilingual - Hebrew-Arabic - education can work for Israel, challenging its reality and changing it. It presents the new comprehensive programme for bilingual education initiated and operated by the Jewish-Arab Centre at the University of Haifa, discussing it in the light of both theory and practice. This article consists of three parts. The first part outlines the Israeli educational system, describes its curriculum and refers to attempts to set up bilingual schools and projects in Israel. The second part reviews some theoretical aspects of bilingual education and offers new perspectives for analysing it. The last part deals with the new programme for bilingual education in Israel, examines its meaning and goals, and discusses possible models for promoting the programme.

Factors associated with low screening for breast cancer in the Palestinian Authority: relations of availability, environmental barriers, and cancer-related fatalism.

The current study was conducted to assess screening behaviors in relation to cultural and environmental barriers among Palestinian women in the West Bank.

Increasing Breast Examinations Among Arab Women Using a Tailored Culture-Based Intervention

This study aimed to assess outcomes of a culture-specific intervention devised to reduce barriers to breast cancer screening among Arab women in Israel. Women in intervention (n = 42) and control (n = 24) groups answered breast examination performance and Arab culture–specific barriers and health beliefs questionnaires at pre- and postintervention. Women in the study group received tailored telephone intervention between the 2 interviews. Although the study and control groups did not differ in rate of attending clinical examinations and mammography at pre-intervention, at post-intervention, almost 48% of the intervention group and 12.5% of the control group scheduled or attended a clinical examination, and 38.5% of women in the intervention group and 21.4% of the control group attended or scheduled a mammography. Of the cultural barriers, a significant group x time effect was found for the cultural barriers of exposure, social barriers, and self-uneasiness with body, with a higher decrease in the intervention group. Of the health beliefs, a group x time effect was found for perceived vulnerability and perceived barriers to clinical examination and mammography, which significantly decreased in the intervention group, but not in the control group. The preliminary results showed that the culture-based intervention was effective in reducing barriers and increasing the rate of breast cancer examinations.

Death and dying anxiety among elderly Arab Muslims in Israel.

Death and dying anxiety were examined among elderly Arab Muslims in Israel. A total of 145 people aged 60 and over were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire. Nursing home residents reported higher death anxiety than others; women and uneducated participants reported greater levels of fear of death and dying than others. There were no differences based on religiosity. Death anxiety was related to gender and education for elderly living in the community, but social support and self-esteem were additional correlates for those living in nursing homes. The results of this study indicate that fostering a sense that one has a supportive social and familial network is important in decreasing death and dying anxiety among elderly Arab people. It would also be beneficial to provide information and knowledge that might relieve some of the anxiety they experience.

They Didn't Consider Me and No-One Even Took Me into Account: Female School Principals in the Arab Education System in Israel.

The study of women’s management and leadership in education has become a central research topic and the copious work published in many countries encompasses various issues relating to gender and educational leadership. The study of female school principals from the Arab minority in Israel has only recently begun. This is a minority that lives mostly in separate settlements, distinguished from the majority Jewish population by their lifestyle and culture, in a society that can be described as developing. In-depth interviews were conducted with the seven female school principals, from different socio-cultural backgrounds, who had successfully climbed the professional ladder to senior positions in the Arab education system in Israel. Data-analysis addressed three areas: biographical background; the social and political aspects of the women’s nomination to principalship; and the social and professional acceptance of the women as principals. Findings indicated that women principals contribute significantly to the development of Arab schools. As women in senior roles, the majority faces resistance; a change of societal norms and willingness to accept women’s leadership would enable many more women to fill public roles and to contribute to their society’s progress.

Emotional reactions of Arab lay persons to a person with Alzheimer's disease

Aims: To assess emotional reactions of Israeli Arab people to persons with Alzheimers Disease (AD) and assess the associations of perceptions of threat of AD, personal experience with AD and socio-demographic characteristics with emotional reactions to persons with AD. Method: A total of 170 Israeli Arab adults, aged 40–85, were interviewed in person by the vignette methodology for their emotional reactions to people with AD, an issue not yet studied in this population. Their perceptions of dangerousness of persons with AD to themselves and to others, familiarity with the disease and perceptions of personal threat were also probed. Results: Four dimensions of emotional reactions to a person with AD emerged: anxiety, aggressiveness, prosocial reactions and rejection. More positive than negative emotions were expressed. Levels of education and religiosity, and perceived dangerousness of the person with AD to others, were the main factors associated with emotional reactions. Conclusions: Culturally based educational programs should be developed to increase knowledge and reduce negative reactions, thus increasing the wellbeing of AD sufferers and their families.

Being within or being between? The cultural context of Arab women's experience of coping with breast cancer in Israel

Coping with cancer is affected by cultural norms, beliefs, and perceptions. To date, only a few studies have examined how Arab women cope with breast cancer and how the illness affects their lives. We aimed to study how Arab women perceive and ascribe meaning to their illness and its personal, familial, and social implications and to examine their coping strategies within the religious and traditional cultural context.

A new bilingual education in the conflict-ridden Israeli reality: language practices

Under the Israeli language education policy, the mother tongue is learned first for several years, followed by a second language (English for Jews, Hebrew for Arabs) and then a third language (English for Arabs, Arabic/French for Jews). This type of limited bilingualism seems to suit the Israeli reality in the context of the Israeli–Arab conflict, the definition and perception of Israel as a Jewish–Zionist state and the complex Jewish–Arab relations within Israel. In 1997, the Hand in Hand Center for Jewish–Arab Education in Israel initiated a new model of Hebrew–Arabic bilingual education in Israel, assuming that direct contact between Arab and Jewish pupils would bring about far-reaching changes in the conflict-ridden Israeli society. Currently, three schools have adopted the new model. Several studies of the new model have provided rich information, mainly about educational, cultural and national issues. However, no systematic study has focused on the implementation of bilingual education in the schools; less emphasis has been placed on actual language practices in the classroom and the school environment in relation to ideology and policy. This article attempts to investigate and document the interaction between Hebrew and Arabic in a location which conceptually places both languages on equal footing.

Effectiveness of Help Lines Among Sociopolitical Minorities: A View From Both Sides of the Line

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 3-year help line project as an alternative modality of help among the Arab population living in Israel. Specifically, the authors examined the perception and experience of help among both users and service providers. The research sample consisted of 131 callers and 15 volunteers. Questionnaire items included the reason for and timing of the call, the degree of help received, and the extent of improvement in the problem. Findings show a significant improvement in the severity of the problem following the help line conversation. In addition, a significant majority of the callers reported that they would use the service again in the future and would recommend it to others.

Developing and testing an instrument for identifying culture-specific barriers to breast cancer screening in Israeli Arab women.

Aims. To develop and assess an instrument for studying culture-specific barriers to performing examinations for early detection of breast cancer. Methods. A three-step design: (a) content analysis of five focus groups (n=51); (b) constructing and initial testing of the Arab culture-specific barriers (ACSB) instrument in a pilot study (n=79); (c) testing for validity and reliability of the revised ACSB instrument (n=300, of these 200 Muslim and 100 Christian, mean age 48). Construct validity was examined using factor analysis. Performance of screenings (mammography and clinical and self breast examination) was used to test criterion validity by logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve; convergent validity was tested by the barriers subscale of the health beliefs questionnaire. Internal consistency reliability was tested by Cronbachs alpha coefficients. Results. Factor analysis revealed five subscales: social barriers, exposure barriers, environmental barriers, uneasiness with own body, and traditional beliefs concerning cancer. The factors accounted for 54.6% of cumulative variance. Twelve items not meeting item-scale criteria were removed, resulting in a 21-item instrument. Convergent validity was confirmed for all subscales except traditional beliefs. ACSB mean score explained between 0.79 (95% CI .72–.86) and 0.85 (95% CI .79–.94) of the area under the ROC curve of the screening procedures. Internal consistency of the subscales ranged from 0.76 to 0.90. Conclusions. The study showed initial satisfactory reliability of the ACSB. Validity was approved for social barriers, exposure barriers, environmental barriers and uneasiness with own body subscales, and only partially for traditional beliefs. Further examination of the instrument with different populations of Arab women is needed.