ABSTRACT
This chapter examines parental socialization goals and practices in the Bedouin-Arab communities in the Naqab from a contextual-historical perspective. The Bedouin-Arab community in the Naqab is an indigenous population within the Arab Palestinian minority in Israel, with a unique lifestyle and historical, social, and political background. In a study, 33 Bedouin mothers for one year, using a mixed methods research approach, including interviews and closed-ended "socialization goals" questionnaires to inquire about their parenting practices, as well as observing and videotaping them in their daily interactions with their children. Bedouin mothers are aware of the benefits of a technological urban society and realize that formal education is the main key to such a life. Bedouin education is jeopardized not, as so many wish to argue, because of traditional cultural mindsets, due to the purposeful neglect and unequal treatment of Arabs in Israel in general and of the Bedouin in particular.
