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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 340

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

From ‘national’ to ‘economic’: Academic institutions for language-minority students - the case of Nazareth Academic Institute, Israel

Authors: Yitzhaki, Dafna (2); Amit, Aviv (1)
Submitted by: Amit, Aviv (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

At the moment, eight universities operate in Israel and over fifty colleges and academic institutions. Apart from four teacher training colleges, all Israeli higher education institutions operate in Hebrew – both as the medium of instruction and as the language of administration. Recently, in 2010, a new Academic Institute was established in Israel's biggest Arab city, Nazareth, in which at least for the time being all students are Arabs. The idea to establish an institution for higher education catering specifically for Arabic speaking students was first proposed in the early 1980's. It is only now, some thirty years later that this idea is being realized. Why hasn't such an institute been established before? What made it possible now? What are the linguistic characteristics of this institute and what are the implications of that?

The fact that such an institute hasn't been established before is a reflection of a Laissez-faire policy that kept the monopoly of Hebrew as the language of teaching (Spolsky & Shohamy 1999). The discourse surrounding the establishment of an Arab institute for higher education was up until recently heavily rooted in a national rights discourse which was not tolerated among majority decision makers and even accelerated the already hostile attitude towards national demands of the Arab society (Al-Haj 1995). Recently, a very strong economic factor has entered the scene in the form of Israel's acceptance to the OECD (Council for Higher Education 2009). This event has shifted the focus to economic interests of both the Arab community and of the general Israeli market and is a major element, we believe, in providing institutional support to the college for the very first time.

In this paper, we will investigate the manner in which the new discourse of globalization and knowledge economy (Slaughter & Rhoades 2004) is emerging in Israel. Then, we will try to find the most adequate linguistic 'formula' to be established in such an institution considering the interplay between Arabic, Hebrew and English. Finally, we will provide evidence of how the globalizing process of knowledge economy is playing in favor of the Academic Institute of Nazareth by evaluating the costs and benefits of introducing a new language policy that integrates Arabic as well.

References

Al-Haj, M. (1995), Education, empowerment, and control: the case of the Arabs in Israel. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Council for Higher Education (2009). "The Galilee, Israel: Self-Evaluation Report", OECD Reviews of Higher Education in Regional and City Development, IMHE. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/2/16/44345452.pdf

Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic capitalism and the new economy: Markets, state, and higher education. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press.

Spolsky, B., & Shohamy, E. (1999), The Languages of Israel - policy, ideology, and practice. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.