The Cultural Context of “ Musaraya” Talk

1. The Cultural Context of “Musaraya” Talk Kaye College of Higher Education, Be’er Sheva and York St John University, York Joint Consultation on ‘Revisiting Multiculturalism in Educational and Social Contexts’ June 2nd -6th 2013 Dr. Omar Mizel

2. Musayara • Musayara, the subject of this talk, is a very complex topic, that is sometimes hard to comprehend. It is greatly dependent on the specific context • In order to understand it one must be very familiar with Islamic and Arab culture. • The use of Musayara includes all the domains that necessitate communications.

3. Arab Society in Israel The Arab ethnic minority lives separate from Jewish communities, except for 6% in mixed cities. The Arabs are distinguished from majority Jews by religion, language, lifestyle and cultural norms. Within the Arab-speaking minority are many ethnic groups: Moslems, Christians, Druze, all influenced by and reacting differently to trends of modernization and contact with the majority Jewish Western culture.

4. The Arab Education System in Israel Israel maintains separate education systems for Jews and Arabs. Arabic is the language of instruction in Arab school; Hebrew is taught as second language from mid-elementary years. Almost all school funding is from the Israeli government. Education is compulsory until 10th grade.

5. Research • Researchers : Concern with identifying divergent discourse strategies and their paralinguistic features. • Folk-linguistic term – accompanying one's interlocutor in conversation: points to a cultural ethos aimed at the promotion and maintenance of social harmony and traditional patterns of social interaction. • Differences promote miscommunications, (negative) stereotypes, political consequences

6. Musayara To return to the subject of Musayara: What is Musayara? • Translated literally from Arabic as "to accommodate and go along with". • Rather than speaking directly to a topic, language is enriched, elaborated and long-winded. • A question that in Western culture would generally be answered with a "yes" or "no" will typically be answered in great detail and using a great deal of repetition.

8. Musayara as a Cultural Mode Musaraya as a Cultural Mode • Musaraya means to accommodate a partner in dialogue out of consideration for his social standing and wishes, i.e., it invokes sensitivity to the other. • Its roots are in Islam and also in social patterns of early traditional societies.

9. Musayara as a Cultural Mode (cont) • Musayara is a communication style used in interaction in many organizations. Its goals are to: • Serve as a social language that maintains harmonious interpersonal interactions. It should avoid interruptions as they indicate a lack of deference towards the interrupted speaker (Greifat & Katriel, 1989). • Displace importance of personal resources, e.g., money, time, effort, social standing. • Be used as a code of courtesy and civility in order to protect the ego in dialogue with others.

10. The Language of Musayara • Accords great respect to dialogue partner(s) . • Forbids cutting off or cutting short conversations. • Embellishes language with many repetitions, genteel nuances, and extreme emphasis on graciousness.

11. The Language of Musayara The language of Musayara differs from that of typical Western communication.

12. Musayara continued In the Arabic language there are many concepts similar to Musayara, each used in slightly different nuanced situations, For example: • Mujamala – manners and courtesy • Mudarah – used to lure the unbeliever to Islam • Taqiyya – used primarily by minority Druze and Shia population when approaching the rulers • Mudahanah – literally: to camouflage one’s true intentions

13. Four general types of musāyara • Musayara of respect • Musayara of magnanimity • Political Musayara • Musayara of conciliation

14. Musāyara in Action Musāyara-talk utilizes two formats: 1. “Linguistic restraint” : never interrupting, never changing the topic, always avoiding confrontation or challenge, 2) “Linguistic aggrandizement”, or effusiveness: adhering strictly to specific rules of conversational etiquette, Conversational effusiveness uses exaggeration and dramatization, repetition, an almost fawning politeness, and sometimes addressing the other in an especially intimate way. These interchanges usually require allocating a large block of time, attention and focus to the conversation while engaging in circuitous, indirect speech. (Greifat & Katriel, 1989)

15. Types of Musayara

16. Musayara in School Musayara is appropriate within the school setting because it is useful in mollifying tensions and is normative within the larger social context.

17. The Cultural Context of Musayara in Arab Schools in Israel Musāyara is used within the school setting in Arab communities by • Teachers towards pupils • Principals towards teachers • All school staff towards parents, • Students towards teachers and parents • In the Bedouin community - by all members of the tribe towards the sheikh. • To understand the importance of the use of Musāyara within the school, some basic background about the Israeli, and specifically the Arab-Israeli, educational system is needed.

18. Using Musayara in Education

20. Summary • Seeks to contain tensions between personal and socio-political needs and considerations. Musayara is a very common method of communication in Arab society. It is intended to advance processes, to maintain harmony in society and to solve conflicts. • It is the opposite of the “dugri” type of speech. • It is interesting that Musayara has entered schools, and is used as a very important style of administration, alongside western management theories. • Many school principals prefer it to the management theories they studied in western academic institutions.

21. Summary (cont) • It is most important for educational institutions in western societies, that have large Islamic and Arab populations, to familiarize themselves with the concept of Musayara, and integrate it permanently in their policies and in introducing reforms in the education system. • Musayara is dependent on the context, on the text and on the sub-text, and most notable on the sub-text.