Negotiating professional and place identities on the margins: Druze teachers in a contested rural landscape

This article explores how Druze teachers in the rural Golan Heights negotiate professional identity through relationships with place, community, and cultural belonging. Drawing on thematic analysis of interviews with fifteen high school teachers, the study examines professional identity amid geographical marginality, sociocultural expectations, and geopolitical tension. Findings reveal tensions between attachment and constraint, as teachers express strong community ties while navigating geographical isolation, limited opportunities, and political sensitivities. Druze cultural norms and locally embedded knowledge shape professional judgment through relationships with students and families, community responsibilities, and the navigation of sensitive situations. Drawing on métis, bricolage, and terroir, the article conceptualises locally embedded knowledge as a resource for context-sensitive professional judgment. By extending these concepts beyond place-responsive pedagogy to relational and community practices, the study highlights the interplay between professional and place-based identities and contributes to scholarship on rural education, teacher identity, and the cultural politics of education.