Breaking the glass ceiling

Fadia Nasser-Abu Alhija (Ph.D. ’97)

• Degree program: Research, evaluation measurement, and statistics
• Current position: Dean of the School of Education, Department of Education Policy and Administration, Tel Aviv University
• Lives in: Tel Aviv, Israel

When Fadia Nasser-Abu Alhija (Ph.D. ’97) started her academic journey as an undergraduate student at Tel Aviv University, she faced two major challenges: mastering a new language and acclimating to a new culture.

Growing up in Tira, Israel, Nasser-Abu Alhija spoke Arabic at home, so learning how to read, write, and engage with professors and students in Hebrew were challenges she faced in addition to school work and research. Despite the language barrier, her hard work and determination to succeed resulted in a bachelor’s degree in general sciences (mathematics, biology, and chemistry), launching her groundbreaking career in education.

For seven years, Nasser-Abu Alhija taught math and biology at Tira High School before returning to Tel Aviv University to receive her master’s degree in educational research methodologies, measurement, and evaluation. While there, she studied the effects of sex, test anxiety, and item sequence on test performance. Her passion for measurement and evaluation eventually led her to the University of Georgia’s Mary Frances Early College of Education, where she completed her doctoral degree in research, evaluation measurement, and statistics.

Today, Nasser-Abu Alhija credits much of her professional expertise to Jeri Benson and Joseph Wisenbaker, both retired professors in the College who served as her doctoral supervisors at UGA. While there, she began researching the methodology of measurement and evaluation achievement, addressing several educational aspects, such as student achievement in mathematics and computer science, as well as teacher education, and teaching in higher education.

After graduating from UGA, Nasser-Abu Alhija returned to Israel to teach at Beit Berl College before joining the faculty at Tel Aviv University, where she became the first Israeli Arab woman to be appointed an associate professor at an Israeli research university. She continued to break barriers when she was appointed to full professor and later named dean of the School of Education at Tel Aviv University.

Currently, Nasser-Abu Alhija is a member of a research group investigating curiosity and the role it plays in inquiry and learning. She continues to lend her expertise to the UGA College of Education, having served as a consultant with professor Allan Cohen in the Department of Educational Psychology on a joint research project with the University of Kentucky aimed at helping students with disabilities connect math with real-life situations.

All of the experiences she gained as a high school teacher, as a graduate student in a foreign country, and as an Arab woman working at an Israeli university, inform the way she approaches her work, not only as a researcher, but as a mentor and educator of students.

“I was trained as a high school mathematics teacher, which helped me develop teaching skills that proved suitable for teaching in higher education,” says Nasser-Abu Alhija. “I always reflect on my teaching and try to be attentive to student teaching evaluations and feedback, making the required changes and updates in learning materials and instruction methods. Since I teach statistics and evaluation to students in education, I use my experience to provide students with relevant examples from the education domain, using my research data as practice data sets.”

Like all faculty around the world, Nasser-Abu Alhija began teaching online via Zoom when the pandemic hit last year. While using new technology poses a small challenge, adapting teaching to an online platform poses an even bigger challenge, she says. To motivate her students and preserve their learning well-being, Nasser-Abu Alhija adjusted her learning materials to make them more hands-on and interactive.

By combining practice breaks, videos, and demonstrations along with short lectures and using digital tools like Whiteboard, Kahoot, and Padlet, she can keep students focused on the lesson. As with all challenges in her life, Nasser-Abu Alhija learned, adapted, and persevered, treating the pandemic much like how she treated her educational journey.

“I feel great satisfaction from my accomplishments, and the challenging career pathway that led to them proved to be worthy” she says. “My accomplishments also mean that if you truly follow your aspirations, you will fulfill them. It is a message to all females, especially those who belong to the Arab community in Israel, to which I belong, that the sky is the limit and the glass ceiling is breakable.”