Role Conflict and the Dilemma of Palestinian Teachers in Israel

This paper explores the dynamics of conflicting role expectations among Palestinian teachers in Israel while focusing on the ways by which these expectations are generated and shaped by the broader sociopolitical context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on the educational system. Following a brief review of the historical background and the changing role patterns among Palestinian teachers in general, the paper focuses on Palestinian education in Israel and the role of Palestinian teachers within it. The central argument is that the Israeli authorities have been systematically using formal education and the teachers' role in order to repress national identity and awareness among Palestinian students. Data from interviews with Palestinian student activists about the contribution of the formal education to their national identity is used to illustrate the dilemmas and challenges experienced by their teachers.     

Education for national identity: Arab schools principals and teachers dilemmas and coping strategies

Abstract

This article discusses strategies used by Arab principals and teachers in Israel to cope with dilemmas involved in education for national identity stemming from conflict between two national narratives. While the Israeli Ministry of Education expects the Arab education system to educate students according to the Jewish State’s values, Palestinian Arab society expects its schools to educate its children according to Palestinian Arab national-cultural values. A qualitative research employed a semi-structured interview to elicit views on this issue from 7 principals and 14 teachers in the Arab education system in Israel. The findings indicate a conflictual reality. Interviewees expressed fear, humiliation and affront when required to obey Ministry of Education instructions in contradiction to attitudes prevalent in their society. They therefore developed coping strategies to foster students’ national identity without disrupting the necessary balance; primarily the construction of a covert learning program through manipulations in the official overt learning program. This study contributes to our understanding of minority education in a reality of conflict between the state and its national minority.     

Israeli teachers make sense of global citizenship education in a divided society- religion,marginalisation and economic globalisation

ABSTRACT

Global citizenship education (GCE) has recently been promoted by national education systems and supranational organisations as a means for facilitating social cohesion and peace education. We examined the perceptions of GCE held by teachers from the three main education sectors in Israel: secular-Jewish, religious-Jewish, and Palestinian Arab, and found stark differences in the way teachers from each sector interpreted the term. For marginalised groups (Palestinian Arab), GCE is seen as offering a way of securing a sense of belonging to a global society. For already well-resourced social groups (Jewish secular), GCE is viewed as a way of promoting global futures. Meanwhile, for the Jewish religious minority in Israel, GCE is seen as a threat to national identity and religious values. Our findings cast doubt on the unifying potential of GCE, and we conclude by calling upon scholars and policymakers to examine unique obstacles facing GCE in their various contexts.     

Gender and higher education in different national spaces: Female Palestinian students attending Israeli and Jordanian universities

This study examines the higher education experience among Palestinian Arab females in two national spaces and seeks to determine whether studying at an Arab institution of higher learning in a nearby Arab country can alleviate the emotional and economic difficulties that affect Palestinian women at Israeli universities. What can institutions of higher learning in Israel learn or derive from the proposed model to relieve the alienation and exclusion that their female Palestinian students experience? The study will compare two geographically distinct groups of women students. The first is a group of Palestinian women who attend university in Jordan, while the second consists of Palestinian women of Bedouin origin from southern Israel who study in the Jewish Israeli cultural space. The study seeks to shed light on the experience of Muslim students in Western and Muslim universities.     

The ‘right’ education in Israel: segregation,religious ethnonationalism,and depoliticized professionalism

This paper underlines three foundations upon which the current condition of the Israeli education system is predicated. These are: (a) the separation between Palestinians and Jews in the Israeli education system and isolating both from any significant contact; (b) endorsing a strong ethno-religious ethos and narratives that widen the chasm between the Jewish ‘us’ and the Palestinian ‘them’; and (c) shaping education for the Palestinians in Israel as a highly standardized and de-contextualized endeavor that excludes ideology and politics, which are seen as irrelevant to good professionalism, while substantiating and thickening the ideological education in the Jewish education system in line with the right political agenda . In doing so, this paper contextualizes these foundations in the recent developments of Israeli politics. Particularly, the paper associates these foundations with the rise of the extreme right politics in Israel, arguing that these, taken together, serve the state’s efforts to continue preserving its excluding ethnocentric political regime and controlling the Arab Palestinian education in Israel under conditions of subordination and inequality.     

DEFEATING THE ENEMY WITHIN: EXPLORING THE LINK BETWEEN HOLOCAUST EDUCATION AND THE ARAB/ISRAELI CONFLICT

This paper exposes the sources of anti‐Jewish education in Zionist thought and praxis by examining an unsuccessful attempt to educate for sensitivity to the suffering of the others in Israel. I argue that by conceiving the “Jew” as the ultimate victim of human history, and instrumentalizing Holocaust memory in the service of Israeli ethnocentrism, this form of education conflicts with central themes of Jewish tradition and leads to violent oppression of the Palestinian “other.” This double violence, to Jewish authenticity and the Palestinian “other,” can only be overcome by a reassessment of the transcendent dimension required for a geniune radical education.     

罗斯柴尔德家族对现代锡安主义运动的影响

在现代锡安主义运动和以色列国形成的过程中,欧洲的罗斯柴尔德家族扮演了重要的角色。自19世纪中后期开始,罗斯柴尔德家族就以其鲜为人知的金钱财富为后盾,通过其在西欧国家获得的特殊身份和政治影响力,从政治、经济、文化和军事等多个层面切实地影响着巴勒斯坦的现代化进程并推动了锡安主义运动向着更加积极有利的方向发展。但是,从犹太人历史发展的整体进程来看,罗斯柴尔德家族的影响并不是决定性的,起决定性作用的依然是犹太民族主义者引领的现代锡安主义运动的发展。     

A plea for improved education about ‘the Other' in Israel and Palestine

This study outlines the current and recent ‘state of play’ in Israeli and Palestinian schools concerning the education of students about ‘the Other’. This is seen to be far from satisfactory. An examination of the complexities involved in learning about ‘the Other’ and of education programmes in other countries that have been afflicted by internal conflict show the need for a properly developed peace education programme to be developed in Israel and Palestine if real peace in the region is to be promoted.     

The case of Palestinian civil society in Israel: Islam,civil society,and educational activism

This article examines the educational activism of two Arab civil organizations in Israel: the Follow-Up Committee on Arab Education (FUCAE) and the Eqraa Association (Eqraa). On the one hand, it explores the possibilities and limitations of the involvement of the FUCAE in the state’s Arab education system, as a secular organization that is heavily engaged in the contentious identity politics of the Arab minority in Israel. On the other hand, it reflects on the competing yet complementary roles played by Eqraa vis-à-vis the state in the field of education, as a faith-based organization that has been operating its own independent successful initiatives in education. More specifically, this article compares the goals, strategies, activities, and sources of funding of these two organizations, thus providing insights on the role of civil society organizations, either secular or religious, on Palestinian identity formation and political mobilization in Israel. Additionally, it clarifies the meaning and characteristics of Islamic entrepreneurship and activism in education.     

Civic and Citizenship Education in Israel

As distinguished from the formal, political science-oriented citizenship curriculum studied exclusively in secondary schools, civic education-learning develops throughout the young-mature citizen's life in Israel. The analysis of the role and learning of two primary civic myths--'Israel is a Jewish and a democratic state' and 'Israelis are Jews'--demonstrates how this learning takes place through 'formations' of hegemony such as the family, the media, civic militarism as well as through schools' statist and social curricula. Successes of civic education enable the civic myths to be vibrant, gestalt worlds of meaning for Jewish Israelis, and sites of resistance for ultra-orthodox Jewish as well as Palestinian citizens of Israel. On the other hand, as an ethnocracy, democracy in civic Israel is not a meaningful world of value but rather a means to manage political processes. Therefore, the Israel case study is insightful for understanding the limitations of civic and citizenship education that seeks to advance democratic-oriented values such as human rights, liberty, justice, tolerance, civility, coexistence, pluralism and an alternative concept of Israel as a civil society.     

“It enables me to realise my fantasies regarding the practicum”: A preliminary study of an academia–school partnership in Israel

Models of collaboration between teacher training institutions and Professional Development Schools have become commonplace in general teacher education. These partnerships are less well documented when it comes to special education teacher training, and are particularly scarce with regard to models of collaboration with special education schools. This article presents an exploratory study of a 10-year-old partnership between a special education department at a Teacher Training College in Israel and a special school for children with developmental disabilities. The partnership is analysed utilising criteria that characterise successful Professional Development Schools. Strengths and weaknesses of the model are discussed and recommendations for future directions and research are presented.     

The excluded citizenship identity: Palestinian/Arab Israeli young people negotiating their political identities

This paper explores the ways in which Arab/Palestinian high school students in Israel negotiate their civic and national identities. The paper draws upon qualitative data that included semi‐structured interviews and focus groups with 20 students in an Arab Muslim high school. It focuses on the ways in which they make sense of the notion of citizenship and negotiate their position as Arab/Palestinian Muslim citizens in a Jewish state. The paper attempts to go beyond common conceptualisations of political identities of the Arab/Palestinian minority in Israel. It suggests that Arab/Palestinian students are aware of the politics of citizenship in Israel and draw upon different discourses of citizenship and meanings of inclusion in defining their belongings.     

Partnerships between special and mainstream schools

Mainstreaming and inclusion of students with special educational needs in regular education, challenge traditional concepts and common practices. Traditionally, special education has been a parallel yet separate educational system. Even though there is almost universal agreement on the goals of inclusion and mainstreaming, special education schools have proved to be resilient and still exist in many countries. One approach to promoting the goal of inclusion is the establishment of collaborative partnerships between special and mainstream schools. This paper will discuss models of such partnerships based on a literature review and visits to partner special and mainstream schools in Israel. Positive elements of these partnerships as well as challenges involved are presented.     

艰难曲折的巴以和谈

巴以和谈是当今国际社会热点中的难点问题.巴勒斯坦问题形成的历史复杂性以及和谈进程中各种有利的、不利的因素决定了巴以和平的前景道路曲折,前途光明.     

简析巴以矛盾及美以关系

巴勒斯坦阿拉伯人同以色列犹太人的矛盾是中东问题的核心；巴以矛盾持续不断原因有三：历史上有纠葛；分治决议严重不公，且未得到全面有效落实；美国长期偏袒以色列，助长了以色列对阿拉伯人的欺负与侵略，从而加深了两个民族的仇视。美以保持特殊密友关系是各种因素的决定的。     

Universities and National Development: an introduction

Volume 23 (1) of this journal was a special issue on Education and Development guest-edited by Fred Lazin (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel), Samuel Aroni (University of California at Los Angeles, USA) and Yehuda Gradus (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel). The guest editors comment in this article on the issues which arise from the papers they selected for inclusion in the special issue. In developing countries higher education has to face the problems associated with nation-building and the drive towards fast economic growth; in more developed countries there is the challenge implicit in the social and economic changes necessarily associated with the transition to post-industrial societies. Further comments are made on each of the articles in the special issue.     

Yaffa: a school of their choice?

This article is a product of in‐depth research in Yaffa, The Arab Democratic School that was carried out in 2004/05, as part of a study on alternative Arab education in Israel. Its aim, beyond telling the story of Yaffa, is to explicate the motivations that underlay this initiative, and to examine parental choice amongst the disadvantaged. We ask how the Arabs’ parental choice is affected by their (marginalised) social location, by how far they are from the dominant culture, and by their (in)capacity to make a difference. Apparently, to make a choice is a multidimensional act, reflecting the Palestinian citizens’ resistance to their marginalisation and unwillingness to be subjugated through non‐democratic educational perceptions. Their positionality resonates in Yaffa, as an act of intervention, and their search for an alternative reality where democratic education is not and cannot be separated from the Palestinian citizens’ need to imagine themselves as Arabs.     

Higher education for Palestinian Muslim female students in Israel and Jordan: migration and identity formation

The article investigates the migration of Palestinian Muslim women, citizens of Israel, to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem or to Jordanian universities for academic studies, and the influence of this migration on their norms, behavior and identity. Narrative interviews were conducted with Palestinian Muslim women graduates: eight from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and eight from Jordanian universities. Findings revealed that the women’s migration from their home communities to academic campuses involves issues of affiliation and identity; studies in Jordan constitute temporary cyclic emigration between two safe spaces, while studies in Jerusalem often involve alienation and foreignness. In both cases, higher education is a powerful force shaking up women’s lives. Following graduation, Hebrew University graduates remain in Jerusalem’s environs and migration to Jerusalem may become permanent. Higher education enables these women to engage with and confront identity issues, empowering them to reconsider their value and belief systems and relations with others.     

北京市特殊儿童学前家庭教育状况调查报告

特殊儿童的学前教育对于个人成长和社会发展都具有十分重要的意义。但事实上 ,只有极少数的特殊儿童学前有机会在特殊教育机构中受到教育 ,绝大多数的学前特殊儿童只能呆在家中。本研究对北京市 6 8名特殊儿童的学前家庭教育状况进行调查 ,并对其中 2 2名儿童的家长做了深入的访谈。研究发现特殊儿童学前家庭教育的一些基本特点 :特殊儿童的问题发现较晚 ;特殊儿童接受学前专业机构教育人数少 ;获得社会的支持较少 ;特殊儿童家长对早期教育的重要性认识不够 ;缺乏专业人士的指导。最后 ,我们从家庭和社会两方面作了分析 ,并提出了相应的建议     

Peace and Human Rights Education in the Middle East: Comparing Jewish and Palestinian Experiences

The Washington agreement of 1993 gave a new impetus to attempts by Palestinian and Israeli leaders to find a peaceful solution to their differences. The author asks to what extent this process has been accompanied by peace/human rights education programmes for Israeli and Palestinian children. While such programmes exist, they are very limited and have so far made little impact in reversing the long educational legacy of mutual distrust and hostility, which the article examines in detail. Furthermore, the continuing conflicts between the two communities make peace/human rights education difficult. However, despite the enormous obstacles, the author concludes that the efforts of peace/human rights educators are not wasted.