Female school principals in Arab communities

Abstract

This article describes Arab women's choice of the teaching profession, their advancement to management positions, and their function as school principals in Arab Israeli society, which itself is in transition from a traditional to a modern society. We examined this process as it relates to the theoretical concepts of private and public spheres in the context of gender. The article is based on 22 in-depth interviews, from which it seems that Arab women's choice of the teaching profession was mostly a default, which allowed them to solve the dilemma between their desire for self-realization and society's demands upon them as women. It also teaches about the path forged by women school principals from the closed, traditional family sphere to the open and modern public sphere, which was previously open only to men. Their promotion to management positions drove them to be leaders of teams and educational processes, in addition to being social leaders in their communities.