The Influence of Educational Figures on the Identity Formation of Boarding School Graduates Who Emigrated From Ethiopia

This study examines the impact of educational figures on the identity formation of youth of Ethiopian origin during their studies in Israeli educational boarding schools. The research attempts to investigate through the students’ eyes, the significant aspects of the teachers and of the educational institutional framework that have influenced them, regarding the shaping of their own personality and identity.

Hence, this study focuses on the graduates of boarding schools of Ethiopian descent who immigrated to Israel during the years 1984 and 1991 - men and women 26 years and older. Fourteen interviews based on qualitative interviews structured as a biography interview (theme-focused).

The interviews were analyze according to `Gross’ content analysis procedure (Gross, 1995(. The analysis of the interviews reveals four features of this system as very important to their identity formation. Such as "the "holistic education". This sub-chapter has also explored six characteristics of the educational figures such as "love /giving" and "counseling and instruction". The next chapter examined six identity outcomes (identity capital) that they have acquired at the boarding school, from their point of view, such as "strength" and "independence".

These findings reinforce the importance of the study concerning the significance of teachers and pedagogical institutes on the identity formation of adolescents. In addition, the educational boarding school as a place where adolescents of Ethiopian descent could cope with the experience of immigration and the processes of identity formation occurring during this age. Although, some of the participants suggested that this framework is not suitable to everyone and that in some cases it had disadvantages, in the family relationship for instance. This study raises questions that are important in the field of education and possible implications that I will present in detail in the lecture.