THE IMPACT OF INFORMAL EDUCATION IN IDENTITY FORMATION, EMPOWERMENT, AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AMONG DRUZE STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ISRAEL: A SOCIO-POLITICAL QUALITATIVE STUDY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v13i7.6860Keywords:
informal education, Druze students, identity formation, empowerment, personal development, minority education, higher education, IsraelAbstract
This qualitative article explores how Druze students in Israel experience informal education as a learning environment for identity construction, empowerment and personal growth in a unique socio-political setting. While much has been written about the Druze as a minority group in Israel and specifically about their citizenship, their military service, and their formal and higher education, there is a paucity of research regarding informal education and the learning environments that Druze students experience. Utilizing a combination of Experiential Learning Theory, Social Identity Theory and Empowerment Theory, and integrating the empirical research on youth participation, and minority higher education (Dana, 2003; Firro, 1999; Halabi, 2023; Court & Abbas, 2010; Seginer & Halabi-Kheir, 1998), this qualitative article draws on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with Druze participants from a variety of informal learning environments, including, formal and informal youth movements, community centers, leadership programs, academic preparatory frameworks, and volunteering projects– including medical and emergency volunteering, cyber programs, and other non-formal and informal learning frameworks and initiatives. Utilizing a process of reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022; Byrne, 2022), four core themes were identified that encapsulated the ways in which the participants experienced informal learning: first, informal education as a site of belonging and identity work; second, informal education as empowerment and voice; third, informal education as personal development and acquisition of life skills; and fourth, informal education as a site of critical awareness and civic participation. The findings of this article indicate that for the Druze students in this study, informal education functioned as more than an add-on to formal education; rather, it provided a range of flexible, dialogical, and experiential sites through which participants were able to negotiate and work through a range of competing identities, as well as to increase their sense of self-efficacy, and to gain the social and cultural capital that would enable them to take on a range of different roles – both within the Druze community and within wider Israeli society at large.References
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