Abstract
Heating-Up the Aspirations of Israeli Arab Youth:
Toward a New Model of the Production of Minority Aspirations
Abstract
An empirical study of the aspirations of Israeli Arab high school students shows that in comparison with the low educational and occupational attainments of their predecessors, Israeli Arab high school students hold unrealistic, highly optimistic views regarding their future educational and occupational destinations, irrespective of their social origins. These findings contradict extant sociological perspectives, which view the gap between aspirations and destinations as improbable, and to the extent that this gap exists, as an expression of naiveté, ignorance or non-rationality. The puzzling gaps between aspirations and destinations among Israeli Arab adolescents led to a new model of the production of minority aspirations. This model suggests that high aspirations among minority youth are produced by converging expectations of local community leaders, school personnel and parents, who actively heat up future aspirations amongst young cohorts. The paper concludes with proposals for comparative studies of minority aspirations in different societies.
Translated title of the contribution | Heating-Up the Aspirations of Israeli Arab Youth: Toward a New Model of the Production of Minority Aspirations |
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Original language | English |
Title of host publication | Inequality Across Societies: Families, Schools and Persisting Stratification |
Editors | Bruce Fuller, Emily Hannum, David Baker, Regina Werum |
Publisher | Amsterdam:Elsevier |
Pages | 201 - 224 |
Number of pages | 24 |
Volume | 14 |
ISBN (Print) | 0762310618 |
Publication status | Published - 2003 |
Bibliographical note
Other: The book is included in series: Research in the Sociology of EducationStructured keywords
- SPAIS Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship