1 This paper presents three studies investigating the personal and professional development of female Arab leaders in Israel, mainly in the national education system, over the past 15 years. Our knowledge about this population is still scant. Only in the last decade have women become a significant factor in the Arab education system. In our studies, we seek to hear the women’s personal stories and to understand these stories as representing Arab women’s struggle to achieve positions of leadership (Hertz-Lazarowitz & Shapira, 2005; Shapira, Arar, & Azaiza, 2010, 2011). This takes into account presumptions concerning human society known as “relational psychology” (Gilligan, Spencer, Weinberg, & Bertsch, 2004, p.157), a theoretical paradigm developed to study the self in relation to others, particularly among women (Lewis & Bernstein, 1996).

2 There is a central debate among scholars regarding methods for analyzing narrative identity creation, depending on whether it is expressed through “big” or “small” stories. Bamberg (2007, 2010) challenges over-emphasis in biographical research via long life narratives (Bamberg & Georgakopoulou, 2008; Georgakopoulou, 2007). “Small” stories, in contrast, are intentionally focused and brief. They recount everyday, perhaps even seemingly trivial, incidents which relate to a specific situation, and which are used to illustrate an aspect of identity (Bamberg, 2010; Bamberg & Georgakopoulou, 2008; Freeman, 2011; Schachter, 2010).

3 Since our studies relate to “small” stories, we chose the qualitative and narrative Listening Guide method. This article begins with a description of the evolution of narrative research and the Listening Guide, and how it is used in the current research on Arab women leaders in Israel’s education system. We then present a review of our three studies, and how the Listening Guide is used to interpret the narrative stories of Arab female leaders in Israel.

4 The use of stories for the study of social reality became prevalent by the early 20^th century in the fields of history, anthropology, and psychology. Later, biographical methods were marginalized and a positivist paradigm became dominant in the social sciences (Tuval-Mashiach & Spector-Mersel, 2010). Interest in narrative research was revived in the 1970s, thanks to the struggle of previously ignored and silenced social groups to make their voices heard. A new interpretive approach began to crystallize, and representation of “reality” changed to presentation of perceptions about an investigated social phenomenon, through stories, interpretations of stories, and theories that guide the interpretation.

5 Narrative research based on in-depth interviews transforms the relationship between interviewee and interviewer to one of speaker and listener. This is a conceptual shift from a traditional question-and-answer format to one in which interviewees express their stories in their own voices, and the researcher actively listens (Chase, 2005). This approach to listening raises certain questions relating to the “voice”: who is speaking to whom? Which stories does the narrator tell concerning her relationships, and in what socio-cultural context?

6 With these questions in mind, researchers Brown and Gilligan (1992) created the Listening Guide in cooperation with colleagues. It is associated with the psychology of culture and anthropology. They describe it as a method of “psychological analysis that draws on voice, resonance, and relationship as ports of entry into the human psyche” (Gilligan, Spencer, Weinberg, & Bertsch, 2004, p. 157). Each person has a distinct voice or manner of communication that transforms her inner world from something unheard and unseen into something heard and seen.

7 The Listening Guide is a framework through which they reviewed transcribed interviews multiple times, focusing each time on another aspect of the narrator’s life (Gilligan et al., 2004). These are called “listenings” rather than “readings” because listening necessitates active participation by both the narrator and the listener (p. 159). The multiple listenings reveal the multiplicity of voices and faces found in stories and provide “ways into the complexity of voices and relationships” (p. 26). While this method is universally applicable, it is associated with feminist research and takes into consideration how the predominant social reality in which power belongs to men is expressed in the relationships that affect girls’ and women’s lives (Brown & Gilligan, 1992). It is based on the assumption that the silencing of women and girls is an inseparable part of human culture, and so in order to uncover the meaning of their words it is necessary to search for irregular reading techniques.

8 The Listening Guide offers “a pathway into relationship rather than a fixed framework for interpretation” (Brown & Gilligan, 1992, p. 22). The authors suggest that the way “into relationship with another is through the avenue of voice and we have built into our method the space for a woman or girl to speak in her own voice” (p. 22). As described by Gilligan et al. (2004), the Listening Guide is the product of dissatisfaction with the previously accepted norms of qualitative data analysis, which did not enable use of multiple sets of coding for the same text, and therefore reduced the inner complexity of mental processes to fixed categories.

9 Previous research using the Listening Guide focused on individuals’ relationships and connections. Additionally, this method stems from psychoanalytic theories derived from the clinical methods developed by pioneers such as Freud (1962) and Bruner (1987). The Listening Guide has been used by many researchers interested in the human mind and relationships, particularly those who wish to elucidate an individual’s many voices through multiple readings of transcribed research findings (Gilligan et al., 2004, p. 158).

10 Although the Listening Guide has generally been applied to psychological studies, we chose this tool as the most suitable to examine the socio-cultural aspects of the lives of female Arab leaders in Israeli society. Conventional research and data analysis methods are too restricted to properly conceptualize the empowerment processes intertwined within the personal, social and professional lives of these female leaders in a changing society (Coleman, 2011; Crawford, 2009).

11 The choice of a narrative genre was based on the assumption that through their stories the women give meaning to their life events as they perceive them, revealing a picture of their world (Mishler, 1995; Polkinghorne, 1988). Through the telling of their narratives people are able to organize the “tale” of their lives into an organized whole and to grant each event its position and meaning according to order of importance (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998; Mishler, 1986; Ochberg, 1994; Polkinghorne, 1988). A holistic picture emerges from the story that describes the individual’s development within the various systems of her life. Analysis of these stories (Chase, 2005; Gilligan et al., 2004; Mishler, 1995) facilitates the formation of a rich and wide perception, explaining the studied phenomenon in depth (Stake, 2005). The introduction of new information on the lives and work of women through narrative study has undermined previous definitions, and continues to influence and alter the basic foundations of educational discourse (Casey, 1997). What binds all these threads together is researchers’ interest in the ways that people provide understanding and meaning through language.

12 Brown and Gilligan (1992) describe four types of listening for stories obtained from their interviews: (1) listening to the tale, the skeleton of the story that maintains its spirit and the main content of the events as they were expressed in the interview; (2) listening to the narrator’s perception of “self”; (3) listening to the ways in which the individual talks about her relationships; and (4) listening to the way in which the individual experiences herself as part of her social and cultural settings.

13 This method is suitable for research concerning an individual’s life span because it permits the narrator to illuminate her life as a comprehensive whole. The use of the method enables identification of empowering events dispersed within women’s biographies, personal development in their social context, and professional development as expressed in their life stories (Arar, Shapira, Azaiza, & Hertz-Lazarowitz, 2013).

14 The phenomenon of female leaders in education only gained wide recognition in the social sciences in the second half of the 20^th century. Several studies of women leaders in which researchers used an active listening approach found that, when freed from a classic question and answer interview format, the women did not differentiate between stories about their work and stories of inequality and discrimination (Chase, 2005; Coleman, 2011; Crawford, 2009). Despite their growing participation in the workforce, women still face social and institutional barriers and challenges to achieving leadership positions (Coleman, 2011; Shakeshaft, 1989). Reviews of research on this subject identify general themes that concern women educational leaders, such as relational leadership, spiritual leadership, social justice, and learning-based leadership (Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2011; Klein et al., 1985). Case studies of women in educational leadership roles found their individual career paths were influenced by their experiences with their families, in school and in college (Hall, 1996).

15 Various studies throughout the world have discussed the different aspects of women’s leadership and women’s role as managers. Blackmore (1998) critiques the politics of educational policy which stalled programs aimed at increasing gender equity in school administrations. It has been found that women tend to exhibit a more inclusive and democratic style of leadership, and that this may run counter to prevailing norms so they find they must adopt a more “masculine” style of leadership (Blackmore, 1998; Embry, Padgett, & Caldwell, 2008; Mertz & McNeely, 1998; Oplatka, 2001). Minority women, such as Aboriginals in Australia and New Zealand, face extra hurdles. They may be expected to have solutions for long-entrenched problems in their communities, and feel they must “walk in two worlds” to succeed professionally (Fitzgerald, 2006).

16 In the last decade there have been studies on women in managerial roles in developing countries. Women in Ghana and Tanzania anticipated discouragement, particularly from male colleagues (Akuamoah-Boateng et al., 2003). In Ethiopia, state and religious indoctrination hold women back from sustaining their own discourse and independent agendas for professional achievement (Biseswar, 2008). Women in Turkey have made few inroads into educational leadership as they don’t fit expected norms (Celikten, 2005).

17 Arab society in Israel is similar in many ways to other developing societies in that it identifies largely with traditional values, including gender roles (Aburabia-Queder & Oplatka, 2008; Hertz-Lazarowitz & Shapira, 2005; Khattab & Ibrahim, 2006).

18 At the end of 2013, the Arab population in Israel, according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (2014), numbered 1,694,000 individuals, representing the country’s largest minority (20.7% of the country’s population). The Arab minority lives mostly in localities separate from the Jewish majority, or in one of the multi-ethnic cities. The Israeli public school system consists of an Arab language sector and a Hebrew language sector. Most Muslim, Christian and Druze Arabicspeaking students attend Arab language schools. Nevertheless, there is almost daily contact between the two populations through work, trade, and education (Arar & Shapira, 2012).

19 The Arab population is heterogeneous, with various cultures, ideologies, regional differences, religions, tribes, clans, and social strata represented (Totry, 2008). Each of the main religious sectors of the Arab national minority (Muslim, Christian, and Druze) are influenced by internal processes of modernization, external processes relating to their contact with Jewish society, the Jewish-Arab conflict, and the status of the particular religious group within the community. A historic overview testifies to a gradual increase in the number of Arab citizens studying in higher education and an improvement in the status of Arab women (Al-Haj, 2003). Increased acquisition of higher education among Arab women has led to the “feminization” of the Arab teaching profession and a few women have attained managerial positions in the education system (Addi-Raccah, 2006; Shapira & Hertz-Lazarowitz, 2009) and in other areas, especially welfare services.

20 Nevertheless, they still are far less represented than women are in Israeli-Jewish society. In 2001, women constituted 19% of elementary school principals in the public Arab language sector and approximately 8% of Arab high school principals (Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 2002). By 2012, they constituted 33% of all principals in Arabic schools. In contrast the proportion of women principals in the Hebrew language (predominantly Jewish) school system in 2012 was 67% (Balas, Givoli, Haiman, & Ofarim, 2012).

21 Studies of women in the Israeli-Arab education system indicate that promotion of women to managerial positions involves many difficulties (Aburabia-Queder, 2006; Addi-Raccah & Ayalon, 2002; Khattab & Ibrahim, 2006; Shapira, Arar, & Azaiza, 2010, 2011). Women’s ability to improve their status at work is restricted by cultural norms, which protect the patriarchal social structure and which stipulate that women should work and live in their local family and community environment (Abu-Baker, 2008; Sa’ar, 2011). Women who have been appointed as school principals are still the exception, though they are equally or even better qualified than their male colleagues (Arar & Mustafa, 2011; Shapira, 2006; Shapira & Hertz-Lazarowitz, 2009).

22 There is a lack of research on the personal and professional growth of Arab women managers and their management style in the socio-political context of Arab society in Israel. This gap in knowledge motivated us to investigate the life stories of female teachers and principals in the Arab education system in Israel.

23 The current article covers application of the Listening Guide to three studies of professional Arab women in Israel. The first study, conducted as part of the first author’s research towards an MA thesis in education, collected the stories of ten Muslim women who led changes in Arab schools (Hertz-Lazarowitz & Shapira, 2005). The second and third studies are part of a larger research project conducted from 2008-2012, investigating 22 female Arab managers working in public systems: 18 managers in the education system and four working in the welfare system. The purpose of these studies was to provide an opportunity for the voices of Arab women leaders to be heard, to describe their world as part of a traditional society and culture, and to enrich our knowledge concerning the lives of women in this population (Arar & Shapira, 2012; Arar et al., 2013; Shapira, Arar, & Azaiza, 2011). These life stories contain retrospective viewpoints on the development of these women, clarifying the ways in which they developed personally and professionally, and how they can serve as models for other women and girls.

26 At the end of the 1990s, stories of ten women leaders—eight teachers and two principals in the Arabic language education system in northern Israel—were collected and analyzed (Hertz-Lazarowitz & Shapira, 2005). The research tool was open-ended interview. Participants were asked to talk about the families in which they grew up, their married lives, and the professional aspects of their lives.

27 We employed four listenings in each interview, adapted as fitting the needs of our research. We tried to maintain loyalty to the original tool, which originated from the field of psychology, but as we progressed, we found that we avoided psychological analysis of the findings and replaced it with analysis that responded to our interest in the socio-cultural aspects.

28 The first reading of the transcripts focused on the stories as they were told without any interpretation. In the second reading, we listened to the “self” expressed in the interviewee’s perception of her family context, both in her marital relations and in her family of origin. In the third reading, we listened to the way the interviewees experienced various relationships and how they perceived the influence of those relationships on their personal and professional lives. In the fourth reading, we attempted to understand the ways the interviewees experienced themselves as part of their social, cultural, and professional contexts.

29 In the current article, we choose to present only second reading: “Biographical profile of women leaders,” which covers the interviewees’ status in their family of origin. For more details on biographical profiles of the participants see Shapira (1999) or Hertz-Lazarowitz and Shapira (2005).

34 This study was the product of cooperation between two Israeli researchers: a Jewish woman and a Muslim-Arab man, who conducted indepth interviews with female managers living in different geographical regions of Israel. Interviews were conducted in the first language of the researcher and the subjects (Hebrew and Arabic). The Arab interview texts were later translated into Hebrew. The interviews yielded detailed information about the lives of the women managers and their relationships with their nuclear and extended families, with the teaching staff in their workplaces and with the leaders of their communities. The data collected by the two researchers produced a richer and more complete picture of the phenomena studied than could have been obtained by either researcher alone. This collaboration broadened the observations of the interviewees and allowed two viewpoints of the data obtained.

35 Seven female school principals participated in the original research, which was based on three readings. The first reading focused on the interviewee’s family background. The second reading, presented below, related to political and social aspects of the woman's appointment to a managerial role (Shapira, Arar, & Azaiza, 2011). The third reading describes the ways in which female principals were perceived in their social and professional contexts.

41 The research explored the phenomenon of transition from modern to traditional dress, especially head coverings, among Muslim Arab principals in Israel. Ten Arab-Muslim women managers participated in the study (Arar et al., 2013). Eight were employed in education and two in the welfare system. Some interviews were divided into two parts, the second of which related to the women’s personal and religious identities. In other cases two separate interviews were held, with the second devoted entirely to the issues of individual identity and religiosity.

42 The Listening Guide lent itself well to the analysis of the interview transcripts on the social and professional aspects of this issue. The texts obtained from the interviews underwent four readings: (1) transition to traditional dress: personal decision or social pressure; (2) traditional dress in public spheres; (3) traditional dress from the intercultural aspect: reactions from Jewish colleagues; (4) the meaning of traditional dress and identity perception.

43 Here we present stories from the second reading of interviews with four Muslim female principals: Salima, Wardi, Suheir and Ibtesam (fictional names are used).

50 Unlike studies that focus on the professional aspect of female leaders in educational systems (Grogan & Brunner, 2005; Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2011; Oplatka & Tako, 2009; Oplatka & Tamir, 2009; Shakeshaft, 1989), our analysis using the Listening Guide method provides a holistic picture of the women’s relationship with their family and community in their particular cultural context as an inseparable part of the professional aspect of their lives (Arar et al., 2013; Arar & Shapira, 2016; Shapira, Arar, & Azaiza, 2010, 2011).

51 As narrative researchers, we aspire to transform the researcher-interviewee relationship into a listener-narrator relationship (Chase, 2005). This transition broadens the framework of our interaction with the interviewees, with active listening throughout the interpretation process. As distinct from the use of the Listening Guide in narrative psychological studies (Brown & Gilligan, 1992; Gilligan et al., 2004; Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach & Zilber, 1998), when used as a tool for our research, the Listening Guide is not used to decipher the human mind. It allows explanation of the women’s relationships with their families and communities. The multiplicity of voices produced a comprehensive picture of their society and culture as it relates to these women.

52 The contribution of the current article stems from its ability to provide the reader/researcher with a tool for use in future studies of women’s worlds and facilitates listening to their voices, as they are expressed in the different spheres of their lives (Coleman, 2011; Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2011). Analysis of life stories according to the Listening Guide can tell us much about the construction of the personal, social and professional lives of women leaders in education, the way in which their life stories are translated and galvanized into reality-altering action and activity—in this particular case, in the Arab education system and society in Israel.