University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses July 2017 Factors that Shape Arab American College Student Identity Abdul Rahman F. Jaradat University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Adult and Continuing Education and Teaching Commons, Counselor Education Commons, Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Education Policy Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, Social Work Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons, and the Student Counseling and Personnel Services Commons Recommended Citation Jaradat, Abdul Rahman F., "Factors that Shape Arab American College Student Identity" (2017). Doctoral Dissertations. 1018. https://doi.org/10.7275/9994831.0 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1018 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FACTORS THAT SHAPE ARAB AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENT IDENTITY A Dissertation Presented by ABDUL RAHMAN F. JARADAT Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY MAY 2017 College of Education Social Justice Education © Copyright by Abdul Rahman F. Jaradat 2017 All Rights Reserved FACTORS THAT SHAPE ARAB AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENT IDENTITY A Dissertation Presented By ABDUL RAHMAN F. JARADAT Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________________________________ Maurianne Adams, Chair ______________________________________________________ Ximena Zúñiga, Member ______________________________________________________ Mary Wilson, Member _________________________________ Joseph B. Berger, Senior Associate Dean College of Education ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My dream to have a doctorate degree is finally coming true. My journey to fulfill this dream has been a long one, but it is becoming real, which means that I have not been alone in it. As I am finishing writing this joyful, tiring, and important piece, the support that I have received to get here has been rare and unprecedented. Let me start by saying a very deep thank you to my mentor, teacher, and dissertation advisor, Dr. Maurianne Adams, who believed in me. Without her support, encouragement, and patience I would not be here. She is one of the best scholars that I have ever met and one of the most thoughtful and thorough human beings whom I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Thank you, Maurianne, for being there for me and for guiding me in my search of a topic and pushing me when I delayed turning in a section for your review. You have been retired for a while but have never stopped being a great inspiration to me. You opened your home to me when you no longer had an office and you gave me the same time, energy, and passion one would expect from a novice professor. I am indebted to you for the rest of my life. To my committee member, Dr. Ximena Zúñiga, thank you for understanding that hope is what brings humanity together. It is just a matter of a little more work and a little more patience. I have tremendously enjoyed the course I took with you, and it was the first time ever that one of my professors told me that they believed in me and in my ability to conduct research. You told me to never stop researching and looking for the truth. Thank you for all your hard work to bring people together, and thank you for accepting to serve on my dissertation committee. iv I am grateful to Dr. Mary Wilson for all that you have done for me, not only as a doctoral student regarding the support and help that I received form you but also for your life work on the history of the Middle East and on Arab identity. You never waver on what you believe in. I am thankful to you for being a committee member and a mentor. You are always there for me when I have a question or need direction. The young men and women in my study who gave me the time, the energy and the encouragement to write about Arab Americans and their identity. You all inspired me when you shared yourselves, your stories, and your experiences. You have given me hope that one day all the stereotypes about Arab Americans will end and the shadow of fear and injustice that follows all of us as “assumed suspects” will vanish. I would be remiss if I did not thank Dr. Ben Levy. Your encouragement and support over the years have been so much appreciated. I know you are happy to see me reach this goal. To Dr. Elaine Whitlock, thank you for agreeing to edit my final draft on such a short notice. I appreciate your meticulous work. To the souls of my parents, I know that you are proud now that your youngest son has finished his doctoral degree. I always knew that you both would have completed your doctorate degrees if given the opportunity because of the many ways in life you encouraged me to persevere and your many anecdotes that I have leaned on throughout this writing process. Dad and Mom—Yaba and Yamma1—I wish you were here with me celebrating my success. You raised me to love education, and you encouraged me to pursue my dreams, no matter how unattainable they initially seem. When you were forced out of Haifa in 1948, you did not have any money or resources left, but you kept going despite your deep struggles in the 1950s. You lost your land and your business, but 1 Yaba is an Arabic word that means father. Yamma is an Arabic name that means mother or mom. 2 Intifada means uprising. In December of 1987, the Palestinian people in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and v you never lost hope. You invested in keeping my older brothers in school and in raising them to help and support each other. All of my siblings helped me to be where I am now. Rest assured, Yaba and Yamma, my older siblings helped me tremendously and without them all, I would not be here today. I should name the late Ablah, Mohammed, Abderraouf, and Yusra as well as Zahriyyeh, Yousef, Sufian, Hiyam, Mariam, Jamal, and Abdellatif. You never asked me whether or not I needed help but rather what was it I needed and how much I needed, especially Yousef and Sufian. All my sisters helped raise me and supported me when our mother got sick during my early years and when we lost her when she was still young. You have all been there for me. I dedicate part of this dissertation to my parents and to my siblings. I love you all very much. To my beloved Sariy and Nurah—my mother used to tell me that I was the sight of her eyes, and now I say the same to you both. Part of this dissertation is dedicated to you because I know how proud you are now that I have finished my doctorate. I love you so much, beyond what words can express. There are no words to thank my life partner, the love of my life and the mother of our children, Sariy and Nurah. Your unconditional love and support are beyond description. Hind, you were the main support for me during the writing process, whether by proofreading and editing my work, picking up resources for me from the library or even checking on a page number in a resource. All of your help was invaluable. I know that sometimes it was hard to live among piles of books and articles and watch me go through writer’s block, but you never wavered in your support and encouragement. You have always believed in me, and I know how happy you are now to see this chapter of my life come to fruition. I dedicate part of this dissertation to you. vi I would also like to thank every one of my friends, colleagues, and family members who encouraged and supported me during this journey. And to little Yousef, you have given me hope for the future generations with your love, warmth, intelligence, and infectious smile. This dissertation is for you and your generation of Arab Americans. vii ABSTRACT FACTORS THAT SHAPE ARAB AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENT IDENTITY MAY 2017 ABDUL RAHMAN F. JARADAT, B.A., AN-NAJAH NATIONAL UNIVERSITY M.Ed., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Emerita Maurianne Adams Arab American identity has not yet received the research attention and scholarship that it deserves. In this dissertation, I have qualitatively studied the narratives of young Arab American college students and recent graduates. The research questions that I explored include what makes them Arab Americans, and what are the factors that help them identify as such. By focusing on Arab Americans and their identity factors, I have presented the narratives of those women and men who self-identify as Arab American and quoted their accounts of how they navigate this under-valued, misunderstood, and stereotyped identity. I have used ethnic and racial identity models, such as Cross (1971) and Wijeyesinghe (1992, 2001, 2012) to note the factors that are salient in Arab American identity as described through in-depth interviews and focus groups with 11 Arab American young women and men. The dissertation concludes with a model that presents the factors that shaped Arab American identity for these subjects and the interrelationships among those factors.