Change and Preservation in Life Stories of Bedouin Students

Abstract

This paper deals with the life stories of one specific group—Bedouin students in a teachers' education college, and investigates the reason for their success where others have failed. The Bedouin students are a minority and have studied in an educational system suffering a high drop out rate from school. Nevertheless, they managed to overcome many hardships and gain entrance to a college. The article claims that these students' ability to strike a balance between preservation of the culture from which they come, and a selective adoption of Western culture, is the key to their success. Life stories of five students were analyzed. Life stories were used because they are a powerful method for revealing covert personal and cultural assumptions of the narrators. Based on these stories, the paper will present a description of these students, the place of their family, their life as a traditional minority society within a Western majority, and the place of education in their lives. We believe that understanding the success of these students can enlighten us regarding Bedouin students in particular and minority students in general. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs060179