This article investigates the way in which disadvantaged minority social workers’ professional excellence is encouraged, drawing data from an analysis of primary documents and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 Palestinian welfare bureau managers in Israel. It finds that the Jewish voluntary sector is the sole player encouraging Palestinian minority social workers’ excellence, but its encouragement maintains the status quo regime, politicisation and alienation, and pushes towards neoliberalism. Most of the Palestinian welfare bureaus consciously prefer to avoid encouraging social workers’ excellence to avoid confrontation with the central government in the form of the Israeli Welfare Ministry. A small group of welfare bureaus sufficed with indirect encouragement, enlisting non-governmental organisations for the task because of the paucity of resources. A small number of bureaus that granted excellence certificates and a token gift applied three considerations. Excellence awards constituted a method for coping with the challenges facing Palestinian minority social work.
Ali-Saleh, D.N., Boehm, A. and Boehm-Tabib, E. (2022) Political involvement of social workers in majority and minority groups: comparison of Palestinian-Israelis and Jewish-Israelis, The British Journal of Social Work, 52(2): 909–27, doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcab078.
Allassad Alhuzail, N. and Mahajne, I. (2021) Social work in a conflict context: challenges facing social workers with indigenous inhabitants of unrecognised villages in Israel, International Journal of Social Welfare, 30(1): 97–105, doi: 10.1111/ijsw.12427.
Allassad-Alhuzail, N. and Mahajne, I. (forthcoming) ‘The sane voice in an insane situation’: the perspective of Arab social workers regarding the Arab–Jewish conflict, British Journal of Social Work, doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcad047.
Ben Horin, Y. (2009) Cultivating excellence, Eureka, 28, 1–8 (in Hebrew).
Ben Peretz, M. (2020) Excellence and social equality: can they go together?, in Y. Harpaz and E. Horowitz (eds) Education at the Crossroads: Brainstorming on the Future of Education in Israel, Tel Aviv: Dvir, pp 301–309 (in Hebrew).
Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2): 77–101, doi: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Dushnik, L. (2011) Data analysis in qualitative research: a proposal for four guiding principles, Research Trails, 17: 137–43 (in Hebrew).
Fisher, Y. (2007) Excellence in education: the theoretical model and its application, Studies in the Administration and Organization of Education, 29, 31–53 (in Hebrew).
Freund, E., Zriker, E. and Abu-Younes, F. (2018) Social workers in social services departments in the Arab sector – commitment to political leadership or professional leadership – dilemmas, difficulties, and challenges, Society and Welfare, 58(1): 23–52 (in Hebrew).
Ghanem, A. and Mustafa, M. (2018) Palestinians in Israel: The Politics of Faith after Oslo, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gladwell, M. (2009 [2008]) The Excellent Ones: What Constitutes Success S. Ripin (trans) Israel: Kinneret, Zmora Dvir Publishing (in Hebrew).
Hadad-Haj Yahya, N., Khlaile, M., Rodensky, A. and Fargeon, B. (2021) The Yearbook of the Arab Society in Israel, Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute (in Hebrew).
Horowitz, E. (2016) Excellence and the Israeli Character, Modiin: The Trump Foundation, https://trump.org.il/(in Hebrew).
Kasher, A. (2003) On excellence – in education, too, Al Hagovah, 2(48): 51–48 (in Hebrew).
Knesset Israel (2016) Session 109 of the 10th Knesset Proceedings, 1 March, Jerusalem: Nevo, www.nevo.co.il/law_html/law140/20_109.htm(in Hebrew).
Lincoln, Y. and Guba, E. (1985) Naturalistic Inquiry, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Lincoln, Y., Lynham, S. and Guba, E. (2011) Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions and emerging confluences, revisited, in N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, London: Sage Publications, pp 97–128.
Mahajne, I. (2018) The development of social services for the Palestinian minority under Israeli state policies 1948–2017, in M. Mustafa (ed) 70 Years of Nakbah, Haifa: Mada al-Carmel – Arab Center for Applied Social Research, pp 98–116.
Mahajne, I. (2019) Development of social work in Arab society in Israel from the British Mandate to the end of the military regime, in J. Gal and R. Holer (eds) Justice Instead of Charity: Chapters in the Development of Social Work in Israel, Be’er Sheva: Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Ben Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, pp 244–20 (in Hebrew).
Mahajne, I. (2022a) Arab social workers’ burnout in welfare bureaus: expressions, reasons, implications and coping-mechanisms, The British Journal of Social Work, 52(7): 4223–41, doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcac016.
Mahajne, I. (2022b) Minority social workers permanently leaving the profession: extent, motivations and implications, Critical and Radical Social Work, doi: 10.1332/204986022X16634304075954.
Mahajne, I. (2023) Not on the agenda: investigatory notes on the institutionalised marginalisation of Arabs within the Israeli Social Workers’ Union, Critical and Radical Social Work, 11(1): 63–78, doi: 10.1332/204986021X16557350524258.
Mahajne, I. (forthcoming[a]) Minority group local government mayors and their relations with welfare bureau social workers, International Social Work, doi: 10.1177/00208728221150899.
Mahajne, I. (forthcoming[b]) Regrets among social workers in welfare bureaus: different types and coping mechanisms, European Journal of Social Work, doi: 10.1080/13691457.2022.2154321.
Mahajne, I. and Allassad Alhuzail, N. (2022) Culturally competent social work in Arab–Palestinian locality welfare bureaus in Israel: is it possible?, The British Journal of Social Work, 52(6): 3366–84, doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcab241.
Mahajne, I. and Bar-On, A. (2021) Coming of age? On the professionalisation of social work in Israeli-Arab society in the new millennium, Critical and Radical Social Work, 9(2): 237–52, doi: 10.1332/204986020X16031174884015.
Mahajne, I. and Bar-On, A. (2022) Social work’s development in the indigenous Arab minority society in Israel at the turn of the millennium (1996–2006), European Journal of Social Work, doi: 10.1080/13691457.2022.2044290.
Mahajne, I. and Meler, T. (2022) Retraining in social work for Arab academic women: motivation and integration into the field, Affilia, 37(2): 300–19, doi: 10.1177/08861099211057.
Mahajne, I., Khatib, A. and Bar-On, A. (2021a) Development of Palestinian social work in Israel: the formative years (1968–1982), Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 48(1): 109–35, https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol48/iss1/5.
Mahajne, I., Allassad Alhuzail, N. and Bar-on, A. (2021b) Arab Muslim social workers between the Sharia and Western interventions and their coping mechanisms, Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 40(4): 459–74, doi: 10.1080/15426432.2021.1924099.
Mahajne, I., Allassad Alhuzail, N. and Bar-On, A. (2022a) Challenges facing social work in the indigenous Arab minority in Israel: voices from the field, The British Journal of Social Work, 52(2): 816–32, doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcab069.
Mahajne, I., Allassad Alhuzail, N. and Bar-On, A. (2022b) The professionalization of social work in Israel’s Arab society, International Social Work, 65(4): 746–60, doi: 10.1177/0020872820959363.
Mehudar, Y. (2014) Why do you need ‘outstanding employees’? The ‘outstanding employee’ competition is a small and humiliating award and a nightmare for employees, Globes, 23 November, www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1000988189(in Hebrew).
Nevo, Y. (2016) Some thoughts on excellence!, It’s Time for Education Magazine, 26 December, www.edunow.org.il/article/3426(in Hebrew).
Perakyal, A. and Ruusuvuori, J. (2011) Analyzing talk and text, in N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, London: Sage Publications, pp 529–44.
Ricoeur, P. (1981) What is a text? Explanation and understanding, in J.B. Thompson (ed) Hermeneutics and the Human Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 145–64.
Rogowski, S. (2010) Social Work: The Rise and Fall of a Profession, Bristol: Policy Press.
Rossite, A. (2008) Professional Excellence: Beyond Technical Competence, New Jersey, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
United Nations Human Rights Office (2018) Report of the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Statelessness: A Minority, Geneva: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N18/231/96/PDF/N1823196.pdf?OpenElement.
United Nations Refugee Agency (2022) National, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, Geneva: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://emergency.unhcr.org/entry/44031/ethnic-religious-and-linguistic-minorities-and-indigenous-peoples.
Weisbrod, B.A. (1988) The Nonprofit Economy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
May 2022 onwards | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 205 | 205 | 34 |
Full Text Views | 69 | 69 | 10 |
PDF Downloads | 134 | 134 | 20 |
Institutional librarians can find more information about free trials here