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

Hoda Samih Halabi

Abstract


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.

Keywords


informal education; Druze students; identity formation; empowerment; personal development; minority education; higher education; Israel

Full Text:

PDF

References


Amer, A., & Davidovitch, N. (2020). The case of Druze society and its integration in higher education in Israel. International Education Studies, 13(8), 68-79. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v13n8p68

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. SAGE. Retrieved from https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/thematic-analysis/book248481

Brinkmann, S., & kvale, S. (2015). Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing (3rd ed.). SAGE. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zcAbnwEACAAJ&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false

Byrne, D. (2022). A worked example of Braun and Clarke's approach to reflexive thematic analysis. Quality & Quantity, 56, 1391-1412. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01182-y

Corney, T. (2024). Youth work as social pedagogy. Child & Youth Services, 45(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2023.2218081

Court, D., & Abbas, R. (2010). The role of Druze high schools in Israel in shaping students' identity and citizenship. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 5(2), 145-162. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746197910370725

Dana, N. (2003). The Druze in the Middle East: Their faith, leadership, identity and status. Sussex Academic Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/The_Druze_in_the_Middle_East.html?id=NXxtAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

Eraut, M. (2004). Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in Continuing Education, 26(2), 247–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/158037042000225245

Ferrer-Fons, M., Rovira-Martinez, M., & Soler-i-Marti, R. (2022). Youth empowerment through arts education: A case study of a non-formal education arts centre in Barcelona. Social Inclusion, 10(2), 85-94. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v10i2.4923

Fine, M., & Torrey, M. E. (2021). Essentials of critical participatory action research. American Psychological Association. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Essentials_of_Critical_Participatory_Act.html?id=ZggxzgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Firro, K. (1999). The Druzes in the Jewish state: A brief history (Vol. 64). Brill.‏ Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/The_Druzes_in_the_Jewish_State.html?id=owhg2R8Ndy8C&redir_esc=y

Halabi, R. (2023). Palestinian students in an Israeli-Hebrew University: obstacles and challenges. Higher Education, 86(3), 661-673.‏ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00920-x

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235701029_Experiential_Learning_Experience_As_The_Source_Of_Learning_And_Development

Mao, K., Ferguson, S., Magarian, J., & Olechowski, A. (2023). 'Just a little bit on the outside for the whole time': Social belonging confidence and the persistence of machine learning and artificial intelligence students. https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--42325

Naghshbandi, M., Ferguson, S., & Olechowski, A. (2024). Social capital and persistence in computer science of Google's Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI) students. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.13910

Nash, A., Kennedy, H., Abraczinskas, M., Suleiman, A. B., & Ozer, E. J. (2024). Examining the intersection of sociopolitical development and transformative social and emotional learning outcomes: An integrated approach in youth participatory action research. Youth, vol 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/youth4020046

Ozer, E. J., Abraczinskas, M., Suleiman, A. B., Kennedy, H., & Nash, A. (2024). Youth-led participatory action research and developmental science: Intersections and innovations. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, vol. 6. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-010923-100158

Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research & evaluation methods (4th ed.). SAGE. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Qualitative_Research_Evaluation_Methods.html?id=FjBw2oi8El4C&redir_esc=y

Saldana, J. (2021). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (4th ed.). SAGE. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/The_Coding_Manual_for_Qualitative_Resear.html?id=RwcVEAAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

Seginer, R., & Halabi-Kheir, M. (1998). Adolescent passage to adulthood: Future orientation among Israeli Druze, Arab, and Jewish youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 27(5), 577–595. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0147-1767(98)00010-8

Sewell Jr, W. H. (1992). Introduction: Narratives and social identities. Social Science History, 16(3), 479-488.‏ https://doi.org/10.2307/1171392

Shams, D. (2024). 'You don't have to be educated to help your child': Parental involvement among Druze students from the Golan Heights in Israeli higher education. Higher Education Quarterly, 78. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12525

Swayd, S. S. (2006). Historical dictionary of the Druzes. Scarecrow Press. https://doi.org/10.5040/9798216412458

Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (2nd ed., pp. 7-24). Nelson-Hall. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.4324/9780203505984-16

UNESCO. (2021). Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education. UNESCO. Retrieved from https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/reimagining-our-futures-together-new-social-contract-education

Weissblai, E. (2016). The Druze education system and integration in higher education. Knesset Research and Information Center.

Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006

Zimmerman, M. A. (1995). Psychological empowerment: Issues and illustrations. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(5), 581-599. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02506983

Zimmerman, M. A. (2000). Empowerment theory: Psychological, organizational and community levels of analysis. In J. Rappaport & E. Seidman (Eds.), Handbook of community psychology (pp. 43-63). Springer. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-03855-002




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v13i7.6860

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2026 Hoda Samih Halabi

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright © 2015-2026. European Journal of Education Studies (ISSN 2501 - 1111) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All authors who send their manuscripts to this journal and whose articles are published on this journal retain full copyright of their articles. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).