In order to overcome the time limit I scheduled my research between the third week of September and the fourth week of October 2001. I made myself available within a

few hours from the time I got a telephone call from each headmaster and arrived at their schools when there were enough classes that could participate in my research.

The Jewish high holidays that took place during 3 weeks of this period of time enabled me to share my time between the Jewish and the Arab schools; choosing the first weeks of the new school year minimized the objection of the headmasters to what they defined as: “wasting the learning time of the pupils”.

II. The need to choose large schools. I had to choose the Zeitlin religious school: it is the only mixed-sex school with single-sex classes in Tel Aviv, and since I live in Tel Aviv that was the only school of its kind where I could arrive in a short notice. Being an old friend of the school ex-headmistress and maintaining professional connections with the physics teacher who was in charge of the school schedule facilitated my access to the Zeitlin school.

Access to the Alliance school was much more difficult. It took long weeks before the headmistress was willing to meet me, and she did agree to do so only after reading my book (Zorman & David, 2000). After getting her primary acceptance I still had to arrange the time with the two teachers in charge of the schedule: the one of the junior-high school and the other – of the high school. Since it was the beginning of the year and the school did not have a permanent substitute teacher for each subject taught I agreed to serve as a substitute teacher within half an hour after getting a telephone call from the school. During these classes I conducted my study

Both headmasters of the El-Razi and the Hadige schools are outstanding graduates of the Israeli higher education system, and they both taking great pain because of the escalation of relationships between Arabs and Jews. Thus, the research I conducted in their schools served their aim of education to co-existence and they were glad that the Israeli Ministry of Education would have results from the Arab sector regarding mathematical education. As a result they were treating me as if I was doing them a favor rather than the other way round. Each visit to their schools became a social event during which long conversations with many of the teachers were taking part.

III. Access to Um el-Fachm, where both the Arab schools are located, was the least of my difficulties. I have many personal friends in this village, and it seemed that the whole Um El-Fachm population recognizes the car that drives me there. Muslims would never let anybody harm their visitors, so I felt safer there than in Tel Aviv… In fact – during one of my visit at the Hadige school I left my bag at the school gate and came back to pick it after an hour. The bag was waiting for me at the headmasters’

office, with nothing missing from my purse that was inside…

8.3.3. Filling the questionnaires

The students have filled the questionnaires during a special class aimed for a discussion about future aspirations regarding mathematics. I was present in all classes

during all the time of filling the questionnaires. In the Arab classes a teacher was always present as well. In Zeitlin a teacher was present in most classes; in Alliance I functioned as a substitute for a missing teacher. When the teacher was present we entered the classroom together; the teacher told the students that as they had agreed to participate that was the time for it. I introduced myself, and spoke about five minutes about the mathematics problem in the Israeli school and about girls and mathematics.

I also spoke about authorized studies, and the other schools that participated in the study. I answered some questions and promised to answer all other ones after the questionnaires were returned.

When the teacher was present she or he helped me answering the students’

questions during the time the students filled the questionnaires. The variety in the filling duration was very large: while some pupils completed this assignment in 10 minutes, there were a few that did not finish in 50. I let the pupils who returned the questionnaires do homework, study for exams, or read. I also asked each pupil that returned the questionnaire if she or he would like to solve a mathematical riddle. Most students did; many were quite enthusiastic about it.

After all students handed me the filled questionnaires I answered more of their questions about the questionnaires, e.g. who wrote it, did boys and girls had the same questionnaires, etc., and about their potential academic future. Many of the students – both males and females – were quite ignorant as to the necessity of learning high-level mathematics as a condition for studying certain professions. In three out of the four schools the staff was cooperative and thanked me for consulting the pupils.

8.3.4. “Just making sure”: From the filled questionnaires to the filed data

I checked each returned questionnaire if the gender of the pupil returning it was in accordance with the “F” or “M” written on it. In every mixed-sex class I made two piles on the table: one for the M’s and one for the F’s. In addition I checked all returned questionnaires to make sure the students filled all pages. Mostly this procedure assured the re-filling of the missing answers, but in a few cases the student refused to complete the unfilled questionnaire. Thus I managed to “lose” only 16 out of the initial 824 questionnaires.

The filled questionnaires of each class were collected in a large manila enveloped, sealed, and the class-number along with the school name were written on

it. I put the sealed envelopes in a locked closet at the headmaster’s office of each school until the end of the learning day, and took them immediately afterwards to my home.

I opened an SPSS file for each class as soon as I got back home. This was aimed to minimize mistakes, such as a missing page in the questionnaire or questionnaires that were not filled properly or completely. Such mistakes could not be corrected later, when I did not come to the school any more. The combining of all files was done after I finished collecting all questionnaires and coding the separate file.

Chapter 9: