TITLE:
Developing Excellence Leadership and Autonomous Motivation among Beginning Teachers in the Arab-Bedouin Community in Israel: A Self Determination Theory-Based Intervention Program
AUTHORS:
Haya Kaplan, Huwaida Alatawna-Alhuashla, Bosmat Bar-Nadav, Khaled Al-Said
KEYWORDS:
Excellence, Leadership, Autonomous Motivation, Bedouin Beginning Teachers, Self-Determination Theory
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.11 No.3,
September
16,
2022
ABSTRACT: Heights in the Negev is an innovative program for promoting leadership
and excellence among Arab-Bedouin beginning teachers (BTs). The program was
designed to meet the needs of teachers during their induction period, to
enhance their leadership skills and to help achieve change in the Bedouin
education system. The intervention is based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Ryan &
Deci, 2017), which highlights the role of
the psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy in promoting
autonomous motivation and optimal functioning. The article presents a
qualitative case study that followed three cycles of the program during its
first four years. The participants were 35 BTs (11 men, 24 women) and nine
school principals. Semi-structured interviews,
observations, and feedback questionnaires were used as research tools. Data
analysis revealed that participants’ motivation to choose a teaching career was
mostly autonomous, and that they experienced need-support both in the program’s
workshops and at their schools, where organizational intervention took place.
Participants demonstrated an autonomy-supportive leadership style, for example
by leading educational initiatives for the school and the community and were
positioned as influential figures in their schools. According to school
principals, the teachers demonstrated proactive leadership, active engagement in school activity, and autonomous motivation, taken
together as teaching excellence. The research shows that BTs can be
leaders despite their struggles. It also shows how change can be generated in
an authoritative and centralized education system such as the Bedouin-Arab one.