Stereotyping in a Traditional Society and its Implications for School Psychologist Referral Patterns: The Case of the Negev Bedouin

Abstract

The present report describes the psycho-educational services referral pattern in the school system serving both a permanent Bedouin town A and its vicinity in Israel’s Negev desert. The subjects of the study were students in the school system in A between the years 1997 to 2002 (with additional data from 2004). The total number of referrals to school psychologists, referrals according to the tribe membership of the referred and individual tribe base-rates in the school population are discussed along with the traditional, collectivist and hierarchical society concepts. It is observed that despite the X tribe’s lower percentages in the school population (8 percent of the total 2,694 students) the tribe’s members are over-represented among the referrals to psychological interventions (13.3 percent of 346). In addition, they are the most referred group in absolute terms. The existence and the use of stereotypes among the asli and the fellaheen Bedouin are reported. The implication for the rates of psychological intervention and psychological evaluations for the consistency of special education classes as well as for the perpetuation of social differences among the tribes are discussed. The data are supplemented by a Bedouin informer’s report about the marital options for males and females of various tribes and by a close relatives marriages report acquired from the pre-/post-natal care government station.