GOAL DISPLACEMENT IN THE EDUCATION OF ETHNIC MINORITIES

Boarding schools are among the social agents that have been assigned
the task of coping with the problem of social integration in Israel
during the last decade. They are expected to do this by socializing
youth from low SES background (mostly from Middle Eastern and North
African Jewish ethnic groups) into the mainstream of Israeli culture,
and providing them with an adequate training that will equalize their
opportunities for social mobility with those of mainstream Israeli
youth (Eisikovits and Beker 1985; Report of the Prime Minister's
Committee on Children and Youth in Distress 1973). In line with these
national goals, boarding school principals and other staff members
declare their commitment to advancing their students socially and
academically so as to prepare them to compete for a higher social
status than that of their parents (Arieli, Kashti, and Shlasky 1983).

However, closer observation in several such schools indicates that
various processes that take place there obstruct the attainment of
both the instrumental and expressive goals, which are superseded by
organizational and personal needs for survival. Much, or most, of the
energy is directed toward controlling the junior staff and the
students (e.g., Aviram 1981).

Interpretive case studies conducted separately in three boarding
schools show recurring similarities and interaction patterns, and
Glaser and Strauss's grounded theory (1967) seems to offer a prospect
of developing a substantive grounded theory concerning the phenomenon
of boarding schools for disadvantaged youth.[1]This study is an
initial attempt in that direction.

The following narrative will introduce the reader to the social world
of one boarding school studied in a participative observation case
study carried out over more than a year (Aviram 1981). Selected
processes impinging on goal attainment will be described and
interpreted. Immediate outcomes of these processes will be discussed
and long-range consequences in terms of mobility aspirations and
social mobility will be considered. Prior to that, however, an
introductory acquaintance with the setting is in order.

"Roots" is located in the outskirts of a middle-sized Israeli town.[2]
It was established at the end of World War II in order to serve as a
home for refugee children from Europe. However, it has meanwhile
changed its type of population. Since the late 1950s it has catered
mostly to students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. It is now
a four-year agricultural and vocational secondary co-ed school with
300 14- to 18-year-old students

Like most boarding schools in Israel, Roots contains the following
formal subsystems. First, the subsystem that operates the teaching:
Its structure resembling that of a day school, it is directed by a
headmaster and staffed by teachers. Second, the subsystem that clears
with the students' living arrangements, their extra-curricular
education and their social education (the residential subsystem): It
is headed by a subsystem coordinator and staffed by madrichim
(housefathers) and housemothers. Third, the subsystem for farm
management and for the training and employment of the students at work
(the occupational subsystem): It is staffed by vocational and
agricultural instructors. Fourth, the counseling subsystem, which is
staffed by social workers and/or educational counselors. At the head
of the boarding school is the principal who, together with the heads
of the subsystems, acts as the school's formal executive.

In line with the social expectations of the education subsystem, most
actors in Roots emphasize the role of the schooling sector in
preparing disadvantaged students for social mobility. Moreover, staff
members believe the institution is supposed to "develop students'
personalities," to educate the youth to become "loyal Israeli citizens
. . . loving the country and not wishing to emigrate." In reality,
other things happen.

Three interrelated widespread phenomena emerged during the observation
in Roots. The first was the staff members' constant preoccupation with
definition and characterization of the student population. The second
was an appearance of constant busyness and stress. Third was a
pervasive pattern of discipline and control, exercised by each echelon
over its subordinates.

DEFINITION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE STUDENTS

It is common knowledge in Roots that their students are
disadvantaged--"99.9 percent of the students are Teunei Tipuah," says
Yaron, the principal. Moreover, student background is always described
in derogatory terms: Avocational teacher confides to the observer that
the students come from "broken families, prostitute mothers and
fathers connected with the underworld." A madrich described the
pupils' families similarly: "Alcoholic fathers, with chronic diseases
and some cases of drugs." Shekel, the vocational track coordinator, is
sure that out of the 280 inmates, 140 would have been doomed to a life
of crime had they not been in Roots. Many similar definitions of
character were expressed to the observer. The following account is
typical. In the teachers' lounge between lessons, Erella, a female
teacher, tells Mania, the coordinator of the girls' vocational track,
of her difficulties teaching in the secretarial class:

Erella: Who said they have to learn? Maybe they have to be here just
to keep them off the street! Manners and good conduct--that's all you
can do with them.

Mania: Then it's not for me . . . (elaborates on the girls' learning
difficulties) The math teacher says they cannot apply what they learn
in one lesson to the next.

Erella: A problem of Teunei Tipuah, they cannot infer from case X to
case Y . . . What they learned in 'reading comprehension' they won't
know by the time they come to you.

Mania: Most of the work in such classes has to be done in workshop
lessons. It's impossible to achieve anything in a frontal lesson.

Two other female teachers join in the conversation.

Teacher A: Their application competence. . .

Teacher B: Their problem of application is also from one subject to
another.

The conversation is cut short by the noisy entrance of some male
teachers.

Along with the low characteristics attributed to the students, and
perhaps because of this, the expectations for academic performance
decline. The syndrome of self-fulfilling prophecy becomes apparent. It
is not surprising that mutual distrust evolves. Staff members show
little trust in students and vice versa. Students are not taken in by
staff euphemisms:

Mania (Coordinator of girls' vocational track): We moved some students
up to the "secretarial" class and moved some down to the
"clerical. "

Yaron: Why not "we transferred"?

Mania: The girls say we cannot set and who is high. them up and they
know who is low

BUSYNESS AND STRESS

The posture of staff members, whenever seen or heard, is one of
nonstop engagement in work accompanied by feelings of stress in the
face of the never-ending tasks and few rewarding successes. A madrich,
who seems to experience a role conflict, expresses his despair:

I don't really know what to do first. I don't even know if I can do
everything that people want me to do. The kids want me to be
their representative and friend. The big shots here want me to
be a policeman. The teachers want me to see to it that the
students do their homework. The housemothers want me to give
them a hand in keeping the dormitories clean and tidy. This is
all mission impossible.

This multitude of requirements may explain, at least partly, the
tremendous turnover of madrichim. Eight out of nine madrichim in Roots
were new and only one of them planned to continue.

When encountered on the outdoor premises hurrying and looking tense,
Gamliel, the coordinator of the residential subsystem, relates to the
observer: "We're short of madrichim, such a difficult year I cannot
recall. No sooner do you solve one problem than two others crop up."

DlSCIPLINE AND CONTROL

Along with the phenomena considered above, and perhaps in part due to
them, a pattern evolves whereby lower-status actors are kept under
strict control by their superordinates. Numerous examples of this are
available, but because of limited space, only a few will be introduced
in this article. Teachers report being requested by Yisrael, the
headmaster, to keep several nonfunctioning students in the class as
long as they do not disrupt the lesson, and if they do, to refer them
to him for punishment. Thus the academic level of many subjects
declined, as the observer remarks in his notes. An English teacher
frustratedly says: "The reason for them being here is not schooling
but the residential sub-system. There they succeed."

Do they?

Madrichim in Roots realize that what really counts is keeping the
students disciplined. If this is done, senior staff will not pay any
special attention to them. It seems also that the role expectation of
madrichim in Roots is to assist students in matters that concern their
basic needs: food, sleep, clothing, and cleanliness. They are less
successful in helping the students in social and cultural matters. A
madrich complains: "We don't give them education in values, such as
preparing for the Sabbath, for example. We don't deal with what they
should do, but with what they mustn't do."

In sum, madrichim, who might be expected to fill an important role, in
loco parentis, turn into strict enforcers of discipline. Thus the
expressive goals set for the residential sector are replaced by
organizational objectives such as "keeping law and order" and by
personal needs to survive in the system. A goal-displacement process
emerges in the schooling system as well. The practice of making
discipline the top priority is far removed from the aims of education
as expressed to the observer by Yisrael at the commencement of the
academic year:

I express the aims of education in Roots using the tenet: "Man should
always worship God in private and in public," interpreting it
as: man--namely, personality development, self-fulfillment and
aspiring for spiritual integrity; worship God--namely, man's
attitude to his God, to the absolute values; in private and in
public--that is, man's honest behavior in society, fulfilling
his duties and obligations.

In the course of the year, facing many difficulties and frustrations
he, too, shifted to emphasizing maintenance and control activities.

Gamliel is perceived by the "madrichim" as champion of the "iron fist"
attitude toward deviance and as the "most powerful" figure in Roots.
Responding to the question: "Who is the dominant figure? " one of them
said: "One and only one, Gamliel . . . Most madrichim feel that way.
You can settle anything with Yaron, but if Gamliel decides otherwise,
otherwise it will be." Gamliel's informal superior status in the
system is reflected in his interaction with the staff of other
subsystems. He allows students to skip class, instructs a teacher to
admit a late student, and so on. The teachers may be annoyed by this
interference but they comply. The primacy of the maintenance goals
becomes even more apparent in view of the Following anecdote:

Simon, a madrich who had been evaluated as incompetent for educational
work soon after starting, was not fired. Some of his colleagues
attributed it to his diligence in disciplining students. (He
was very successful in "hunting" smokers, etc.)

This evidence is congruent with expectations transmitted by Yaron, and
especially Gamliel, during many of the residential subsystem staff
meetings.

Simon's case is not exceptional. Compliance with those expectations is
widespread, and the more diligent disciplinarians gain Gamliel's
favor.

Few staff members dispute the punishment policy of the residential
subsystem. "I am opposed to sending troublemakers home. When he comes
back after a week or two it is hard to get him to settle down," says
Shalom, a vocational teacher. This disagreement with institutional
policy is heard very rarely and only in semiprivate settings. A
control -deviance syndrome is the name of the game, anti the following
memo addressed to the students is a strong indication of that
syndrome.

To: The student population

Shalom,

Recently, some serious infringements of discipline have taken place in
our institution.

a. The students Danny Abutbul, Ya'acov Hamami and Menashe Ballulu were
caught smoking cigarettes. Danny was suspended for 4 days and
his parents were summoned. The parents of Ya'acov and of
Menashe were also summoned. The three may be expelled from
"Roots," if they repeat that behavior. Also, their allowances
for the next two weeks are withheld.

b. The students Malciyahu Shalom and Shlomo Edri were caught in the

act of playing cards for money, a disgraceful new practice here.
Malciyahu has been suspended for 10 days and will then become a
day student. Shlomo Edri--a letter containing a strict warning
was sent to his parents. On top of that, their allowances for
the next two weeks are withheld.

c. The students Moshe Shitrit and Shmuel Katzav used inappropriate
words towards staff and inmates. Because of our respect for the
paper we shall not write the disgraceful expressions.
Considering their negative behavior lately, they have been
suspended for 4 days and will not be allowed back before a
member of each family visits us.

For your information!

Please improve your behavior for the good of us all.

--Gamliel.

In the course of the school year it became clear that students perform
well in activities perceived as relevant to their occupational future.
Girls worked to the satisfaction of the house mothers in cleaning the
dormitories, as well as in the kitchen and dining room, and other
service and maintenance tasks. They also tried hard and performed well
in some of the vocational courses, just as boys did in their
vocational classes. This is completely different from what was
observed in the academic courses (sciences, humanities, languages,
etc.). Indeed, teachers complained that most students lost interest in
grades and did not care about the matriculation certificate. Failing
to attain the certificate is, in Israel, a barrier to gaining higher
education and most well-paid jobs. Students, like staff, are
preoccupied with survival in the system. Mobility aspirations are not
at the top of their agenda.

Similar patterns of goal displacement were observed in two other
boarding schools that are different from Roots in many ways, but do
socialize minority students. One of them is a residential setting with
a comprehensive school in a community composed of several
neighborhoods--some affluent, others poor (Kashti and Sagi 1986).The
other setting is an army unit whose mission is to bring disadvantaged
youth up to the literacy standards required for service in the army,
and to socialize them into the army (Kashti and Ben-Zvi 1987). This
would have turned into a voluminous paper had I tried to report the
relevant field observations. However, the outcomes for inmates' self
image, academic achievement, and mobility aspirations seem to be
similar to those in Roots.[3]

This evidence adds credence to the conclusion, albeit still tentative,
that the intention to improve social functioning and academic
achievement of minority students by removing them from their original
communities and primary groups, and placing them in powerful
environments is obstructed, among other things, by social processes
occurring in these settings. Rather than contributing to mobility and
equalization in Israeli society, boarding schools populated by
students from ethnic minorities seem to function as part of the
education system at large, strengthening the social system's tendency
to reproduce itself, a tendency observed in other societies, as well
(e.g., Bowles 1976).

In addition, it may suggest to some the conflicting duties and roles
of the teacher in a conventionally staffed school, especially a school
in which pupils are members of ethnic or racial minority groups and
subcultures pervasive in pluralistic societies such as the United
States, evidently Israel, Great Britain, and others.

POSTSCRIPT: METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

In this study, descriptions and generalizations of a phenomenological
participant observation case study (Aviram 1981) in a boarding school
were suggested as preliminary evidence in generating a "substantive
grounded theory" (Glaser and Strauss 1967) concerning boarding schools
populated by students from ethnic minority groups (generally referred
to as "Teunei Tipuah").

Similar observation in two other comparable settings was used for
examining the generalizability of the theory. The emerging theory was
unfolded in this article in the "running theoretical discussional
form" (Glaser and Strauss, 1967, 31).

Stated briefly, the substantive grounded theory emerging in this study
argues that in boarding schools educating youth who are "Teunei
Tipuah," organizational goals (otherwise known as maintenance goals)
tend to replace declared instrumental and expressive goals, a process
that obstructs the mission attributed to such schools as agents for
social mobility. Some of the categories emerging are disciplining
minority students, stressful job environment, survival mechanisms,
goal displacement, and so on. This seems to bear the seeds of a solid
and comprehensive substantive grounded theory, which is very important
in Israel given the large proportion of youth living at boarding
schools (Kashti and Arieli 1976). One may even fancy the idea of
generating a "formal grounded theory." This might be an important
contribution toward bridging between micro- and macro-research and
theory. To reach that point, however, there is still a long way to go,
and more substantive grounded research has to be done.

APPENDIX

A Glossary of Hebrew Terms and Participants' Names

a. Terms:

Madrich [instructor, guide]--A house father in the residential
subsystem (plural Madrichim).

"Teunei Tipuah"--Disadvantaged youth, defined by several criteria such
as parents' income, parents' level of education, and ethnic origin. In
everyday discourse the term designates low-achieving children, mostly
from ethnic minority groups.

b. Names:[2]

Gamliel--Coordinator (director) of the residential sector.

Malachi--A ninth-grade group madrich.

Mania--Coordinator of girls' vocational track.

Roots--The boarding school described.

Shalom--A vocational teacher.

Shekel--Coordinator of boys' vocational track.

Simon--An eleventh-grade group madrich.

Yaron--The principal.

Yisrael--Coordinator of the schooling sector.

NOTES

[1.] The term disadvantaged (in Hebrew, Teunei Tipuah) indicates in
Israel a composite of socioeconomic attributes such as low
family income, low parent education, and so on, and refers
mostly to youth from urban slums, development towns and other
poor settlements. The vast majority of these students belong to
the North African and Asian Jewish ethnic groups.

[2.] All names are fictitious.

[3.] To do justice to the educational staff in the schools observed,
it should be noted that most of them are very devoted and
sacrifice a great deal in their endeavor to do their job
properly.

REFERENCES

Arieli, M., Y. Kashli, S. Shlasky. 1983. Living at school. Tel-Aviv:
Ramot.

Aviram, O. 1981. Educational activity and survival arrangements:
Aspects of the world of staff at a residential school (in Hebrew).
Unpublished master's thesis, Tel Aviv University.

Bowles, S. 1976. "Unequal education and the reproduction of social
division of labor." In Schooling and Capitalism, ed. R. Dale, G.
Esland, and M. MacDonald, 32-41.1 and on: RKR

Eisikovits, Z., and J. Beker, eds. 1985. Residential group care in
community context: Insights from the Israeli experience. New York:
Haworth.

Glaser, B. G., and A. L. Strauss. 1967. The discovery of grounded
theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldin.

Kashti, Y., and M. Arieli. 1976. Introduction: The boarding school as
a social organization. In Residenhol settings: Socialization in
powerful environments (in Hebrew), ed. Y. Kashti and M. Arieli, 9-34.
Tel Aviv: Daga

Kashti, Y., and 11. Ben-Zvi. 1987. Role patterns and their realization
in the staff of an army educational unit (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: TAU
School of Education, Sociology of Education and Community Unit.

Kashti, Y., and Y. Sagi. 1986. Observations in a residential
comprehensive school (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: TAU School of Education,
Sociology of Education and Community Unit.

Report of the Prime Minister's Committee on Children and Youth in
Distress (in Hebrew). 1973. Jerusalem: Prime Minister's Office.

~~~~~~~~

By OVADIA AVIRAM, Haifa University
_________________

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Source: Urban Education, Apr90, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p14, 11p.
Item Number: 9606203981

Title: Goal displacement in the education of ethnic minorities.
Subject(s): MINORITIES -- Education -- Israel
Source: Urban Education, Apr90, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p14, 11p
Author(s): Aviram, Ovadia
Abstract: Focuses on goal displacement in the education of ethnic
minorities in the Israel. Social integration; Boarding schools as a
social agent; Definition and characterization of the students.
AN: 9606203981
ISSN: 0042-0859
Full Text Word Count: 3220
Database: Academic Search Premier