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Heights in the Negev is an innovative program for promoting leadership and excellence among Arab-Bedouin beginning teachers (BTs). The program was designed to meet the needs of teachers during their induction period, to enhance their leadership skills and to help achieve change in the Bedouin education system. The intervention is based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2017), which highlights the role of the psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy in promoting autonomous motivation and optimal functioning. The article presents a qualitative case study that followed three cycles of the program during its first four years. The participants were 35 BTs (11 men, 24 women) and nine school principals. Semi-structured interviews, observations, and feedback questionnaires were used as research tools. Data analysis revealed that participants' motivation to choose a teaching career was mostly autonomous, and that they experienced need-support both in the program's workshops and at their schools, where organizational intervention took place. Participants demonstrated an autonomy-supportive leadership style, for example by leading educational initiatives for the school and the community and were positioned as influential figures in their schools. According to school principals, the teachers demonstrated proactive leadership, active engagement in school activity, and autonomous motivation, taken together as teaching excellence. The research shows that BTs can be leaders despite their struggles. It also shows how change can be generated in an authoritative and centralized education system such as the Bedouin-Arab one.

Non-profit organisations (NPOs) have increased in numbers and importance, providing support, services and advocacy. However, who non-profits actually represent is still an open question. To provide an empirical basis for scrutinising how the representational roles of autism advocacy NPOs change (or not) as they develop, in this article we focus on the case of Alut – the Israeli national association for autism. Drawing on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews conducted in 2015–17 with members, service recipients and office holders, our findings demonstrate the important role of the founders’ culture in setting the NPO’s agenda – in Alut’s case, service provision prioritising ‘low-functioning’ autistic people. The role of the founders’ culture is further highlighted in the context of organisational gaps between the association’s actual agenda and its espoused messages regarding collective representation and advocacy. We conclude by discussing the contributions of the findings to debates on NPOs’ development and the maintenance of stability through representational styles.