Abstract:

Contemporary discourses on diversity and inclusion in higher education emphasize widening participation; however, for students from minoritized linguistic and cultural communities, access alone does not ensure equitable inclusion. This study examines how linguistic hierarchies shape who is heard, whose knowledge is recognized, and who experiences genuine belonging, focusing on Arab first-year students in Israeli higher education — a national minority navigating structural inequalities, political marginalization, and complex linguistic dynamics. Hebrew functions as a symbolic marker of academic legitimacy, while Arabic, accorded "special status" since 2018, remains largely marginal. Increased numerical representation has not translated into belonging, with students reporting invisibility and exclusion at interpersonal and institutional levels.

This study challenges deficit-based models by positioning linguistic resilience — the capacity to engage, persist, and develop agency in a second-language academic environment — as a social justice concern. Drawing on multidimensional resilience theories (Luthar et al., 2000; Masten, 2001; Ungar, 2008), resilience is conceptualized as dynamic and context-dependent, shaped by cultural recognition, support access, and meaningful participation. For Arab students, linguistic resilience mediates academic success, social belonging, and identity negotiation in Hebrew-dominant spaces.

We employed a mixed-methods design with 251 Arab first-year students across Israeli universities and colleges, using validated measures of linguistic resilience, social belonging, and academic resilience. Twenty students participated in Bridges to Academia, a ten-week intervention strengthening linguistic confidence, social connectedness, and academic self-regulation, complemented by semi-structured interviews and weekly reflective journals.

Quantitative analyses revealed strong associations between linguistic resilience and social (r=0.58, p<.001) and academic resilience (r=0.47, p<.001). Hierarchical regression identified linguistic resilience as the strongest academic resilience predictor (β=.38, p<.001), explaining 25% of variance. ANCOVA analyses confirmed significant intervention effects on all three dimensions.

Qualitative findings revealed that students without support internalized linguistic difficulties as personal inadequacy, experienced prolonged "survival mode," and felt "present but invisible." Intervention participants reported reduced anxiety, rapid metacognitive development, peer support networks, and identity shifts from deficit-based to agentic. Key themes included normalizing challenges, recognition of Arabic identity, and mastering academia's "unwritten rules."

This study contributes theoretically by positioning linguistic resilience as an organizing factor in broader adaptation processes; for social justice, by exposing how linguistic hierarchies reproduce inequality; and for practice, by demonstrating that early multidimensional interventions combining proactive support, peer community building, and bilingualism-as-asset effectively strengthen resilience across dimensions. Genuinely inclusive higher education requires moving beyond numerical representation to critically examine power relations embedded in language, recognition, and belonging.

Keywords:

Belonging and academic identity, Linguistic resilience, Equity and inclusion in higher education.