Negev Bedouin and Higher Education: At the Crossroads of a Community in Transition

This author analyzes the extent to which higher education serves as a tool of empowerment for the Negev Bedouin in Israel. Drawing on relevant literature and qualitative data from in-depth interviews with Bedouin students and academics, the author demonstrates how state control over the Bedouin forms a major barrier towards social change. Furthermore, the author shows how traditional values that characterized the Bedouin???s former nomadic lifestyle persist in their current permanent settlements, and prevent them from developing a sense of communal cohesion that is crucial for the empowerment of the community. These two inextricably entwined factors block collective solutions. Therefore, the first step towards social change for the Bedouin community depends on suitable preparatory education aimed at the creating a sense of Bedouin identity.