דור ראשון של סטודנטים פלסטינים ירושלמים בהשכלה הגבוהה בישראל: מניעים והשלכות להשתלבותם בתוכנית להוראת השפה העברית באוניברסיטה העברית

Abstract

The objective of this qualitative study is to elucidate the underlying factors
motivating Palestinian-Jerusalemite students to enrol in the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, especially in the specialized program “Hebrew for Arabic Speakers”.
This enrolment goes against the historical resistance to the incorporation of the
Hebrew language within Jerusalem-based Palestinian educational frameworks.
Accordingly, this study aims to comprehend the incentives behind this enrolment
and the role that this new generation of Palestinian-Jerusalemite scholars plays in
the Israeli academic landscape. More specifically, it investigates the scholastic
experiences of these Palestinian-Jerusalemite scholars at the Hebrew University
and examines their strategies for negotiating various academic and political
challenges. Data was collected from 16 semi-structured interviews and 25 openended questionnaires completed by the students enrolled in the aforementioned
program. The findings reveal that the program has emerged as a preferable avenue
for these students, serving as a mechanism for both personal and professional
empowerment within the Palestinian community in Jerusalem. Since the act of studying in a geopolitically divided city equates to a form of temporal migration
for the attainment of higher education, the study shows how the Israeli academic
milieu allows these minority students to reconfigure their personal and
professional identities by helping to create hybrid identity characterized by cultural
adaptability, further facilitating the students’ ability to traverse disparate cultural
milieus for educational purposes while simultaneously preserving their unique
cultural identity. Hence, this study complements the existing literature on the
integration of minority populations in higher education settings.