Passing as hybrid: Arab-Palestinian teachers in Jewish schools

Abstract

In this paper I examine how Arab-Palestinians who teach Arabic in Jewish schools appropriate performative identity strategies through passing as hybrid to gain inclusion into the schools. The paradox is that although these teachers are recruited specifically because they are Arabs, they are expected by teachers and students to conceal their Arabness. I argue that because of the ethno-national bright boundaries in Israel, which do not encourage integration but hybridization into roles defined by the state, Arabs cannot and mostly do not want to pass as Israeli-Jews but as good Arabs who do not reside beyond the binarism Jew/Arab but are in-betweens.

Yes, We Can! Palestinian-Israeli Teachers in Jewish-Israeli Schools

“…The teachers in this study have a strong sense that they are successful not only as “ambassadors of good will” (Fragman, 2008) but also in truly influencing the perceptions of all of the stakeholders at the schools where they work. Contrary to our findings, Brosh (2013) and Sion (2014) findings were negative and pessimistic, as they found that Palestinian teachers were not fully accepted by students, parents, or colleagues. Two arguments can explain this contrast.…”

“…Brosh’s (2013) findings indicated that Palestinian teachers teaching spoken Arabic in Hebrew secular schools lack a cultural understanding of their students and that they find it difficult, even impossible, to effectively communicate their knowledge. Sion (2014) examined how Palestinian teachers appropriated performative identity strategies by passing as cultural hybrids to gain acceptance in the schools. Despite their efforts, she underlines that the teachers were not fully accepted by students, parents, or colleagues.…”

Swedish surnames, British accents: passing among post-Soviet migrants in Helsinki

“…Yet passing requires considerable efforts and performative changes in behaviour, speech, accent and dress (Sion 2014;Wara and Munkejord 2018). It is not the same as becoming, and may always end in failure (Ahmed 1999).…”

(Ad)dressing belonging in a contested space: Embodied spatial practices of Palestinian and Israeli women in Jerusalem

“…'Passing' can be defined as the ability of a member of a disenfranchised group to render 'invisible' those traits that oppress them culturally and institutionally (Sion, 2014). 'Passing' is how one conceals information about oneself to preserve, sustain, and encourage others' predisposed assumptions about one's identity (Spradlin, 1998).…”

“…It is not about claiming a place or an identity: it is an act of moving away from oneself that can be understood as a form of hybridity (Ahmed, 1999). Hybridity can be characterized as the outcome of intercultural encounters and the multiple life modes involved in inhabiting liminal spaces (Sion, 2014). The multiple ambivalent identities in these spaces are seen as emerging from the complex relations of inclusion and exclusion, translation, imitation, and ongoing negotiations of becoming (Shoshana, 2011).…”