Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

“I made it”: Israeli‐Palestinian women principals as leaders

“I made it”: Israeli‐Palestinian women principals as leaders Purpose – This study aims to analyze the construction of the meaning of leadership by two Arab women school principals in Israel who are “pavers of the way”. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews in which the women exposed their life stories were subjected to discourse analysis in light of a three‐layered functional approach and leadership theories. The study investigated: characteristics of the leadership development of two Arab women principals and expressions of leadership at different life stages. Findings – Analysis showed that these women have strong motivation, and from an early age dared to swim against the stream, achieving their goals with family support after serious battles. As the first women principals in their communities, they continued to develop, under pressure to prove their ability as leaders in Arab patriarchal society. Research limitations/implications – This is a qualitative study with a non‐representative sample, providing rich insights into the lives of two Arab women principals. Practical implications – This study shows that life stories can serve as tools to diagnose future leaders and their specific patterns of behavior. Originality/value – Analysis of figurative positioning that was manifested consistently in these women's narratives provides new understanding regarding women's leadership in patriarchal societies, indicating that childhood experiences of leadership exposed in personal stories can serve as predictors for narrators' adult leadership patterns. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues Emerald Publishing

“I made it”: Israeli‐Palestinian women principals as leaders

Download PDF
16 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/i-made-it-israeli-palestinian-women-principals-as-leaders-YepnNMNrdd
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1753-7983
DOI
10.1108/17537981011089604
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to analyze the construction of the meaning of leadership by two Arab women school principals in Israel who are “pavers of the way”. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews in which the women exposed their life stories were subjected to discourse analysis in light of a three‐layered functional approach and leadership theories. The study investigated: characteristics of the leadership development of two Arab women principals and expressions of leadership at different life stages. Findings – Analysis showed that these women have strong motivation, and from an early age dared to swim against the stream, achieving their goals with family support after serious battles. As the first women principals in their communities, they continued to develop, under pressure to prove their ability as leaders in Arab patriarchal society. Research limitations/implications – This is a qualitative study with a non‐representative sample, providing rich insights into the lives of two Arab women principals. Practical implications – This study shows that life stories can serve as tools to diagnose future leaders and their specific patterns of behavior. Originality/value – Analysis of figurative positioning that was manifested consistently in these women's narratives provides new understanding regarding women's leadership in patriarchal societies, indicating that childhood experiences of leadership exposed in personal stories can serve as predictors for narrators' adult leadership patterns.

Journal

Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues – Emerald Publishing

Published: Nov 9, 2010

Keywords: Narratives; Leadership; Women; Principals; Israel; Palestine

References

  • ‘Career women’ or ‘Working women’? Change versus stability for young Palestinian women in Israel, Part 2
    Abu‐Baker, K.
  • The power of femininity – exploring the gender and ethnic experiences of Muslim women who accessed supervisory roles in a Bedouin society
    Abu‐Rabia‐Queder, S.; Oplatka, I.
  • Identity and gender in cultural transitions: returning home from higher education as ‘internal immigration’ among Bedouin and Druze women in Israel
    Abu‐Rabia‐Queder, S.; Weiner‐Levy, N.
  • Women in the Israeli educational system
    Addi‐Raccah, A.
  • Psychological barriers to female leadership: motivational gravity in Ghana and Tanzania
    Akuamoah‐Boateng, R.; Bolitho, F.H.; Carr, S.C.; Chidgey, J.E.; O'Reilly, B.; Philips, R.; Purccel, I.P.; Rugimbana, R.O.
  • Higher education and occupations among Arab women in Israel
    Arar, K.; Mustafa, M.
  • Leadership Development in Balance
    Avolio, B.J.
  • Locally and culturally constructing otherness
    Bamberg, M.
  • Troubling women: feminism, leadership and educational change
    Blackmore, J.
  • Women Leading School Systems
    Brunner, C.; Grogan, M.
  • A perspective on women principals in Turkey
    Celikten, M.
  • Statistical Abstract of Israel 2008
    Central Bureau of Statistics
  • Degrees granted by universities according to degree, population group, origin, sex and age
    Central Bureau of Statistics
  • Women into educational leadership and management: international differences
    Cubillo, L.; Brown, M.
  • Transformational, transactional, and laissez‐faire leadership styles: a meta‐analysis comparing men and women
    Eagly, H.; Johannsen‐Schmidt, M.; Van Engen, M.
  • Can leaders step outside of the gender box? An examination of leadership and gender stereotypes
    Embry, A.; Padgett, M.Y.; Caldwell, C.B.
  • Walking between two worlds: indigenous women and educational leadership
    Fitzgerald, T.
  • Detailed and succinct self‐portraits of addicts in broadcast stories
    Green, D.; Kupferberg, I.
  • From the individual interview to the interview society
    Gubrium, J.F.; Holstein, J.A.
  • Leaders and Leadership in Education
    Gunter, H.M.
  • Muslim women's life stories: building leadership
    Hertz‐Lazarowitz, R.; Shapira, T.
  • Men's bargaining with patriarchy: the case of primaries within the Hamulla in Palestinian Arab communities in Israel
    Herzog, H.; Yahya‐Younis, T.
  • Womanpower
    Hijab, N.
  • Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience
    Hughes, R.L.; Ginnet, R.C.; Gordon, J.C.
  • Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East
  • Finding Herself: Pathways to Identity Development in Women
    Josselson, R.
  • Why are there so few Palestinian women in principalship position?
    Khattab, N.; Ibrahim, J.
  • Figurative positioning in hotline stories
    Kupferberg, I.; Green, D.; Gilat, I.
  • Contexts of Metaphor
    Leezenberg, M.
  • Narrative Research: Reading, Analysis, and Interpretation
    Lieblich, A.; Tuval‐Mashiach, R.; Zilber, T.
  • School Leadership that Works
    Marzano, R.; Waters, T.; McNulty, B.
  • Hearing their voices: building a career development model for women in engineering
    Newhouse‐Martin, L.P.
  • Women in educational administration within developing countries
    Oplatka, I.
  • Telling the American Story: A Structural and Cultural Analysis of Conversational Storytelling
    Polanyi, L.
  • The building blocks of leader development: a psychological conceptual framework
    Popper, M.; Mayseless, O.
  • The visionary leader
    Sashkin, M.A.
  • The struggle to create a more gender‐inclusive profession
    Shakeshaft, C.
  • Women, work, and Islam in Arab societies
    Sidani, Y.
  • Critical discourse analysis
    Van Dijk, T.A.