Education Under Occupation

Education in East Jerusalem gives a voice to the residents of East Jerusalem, addressing educational issues and revealing implicit layers in Israeli policy and attitude affecting the education system. In this close examination of school life under occupation, the book presents criticism of the system from within, and calls for teachers to prioritize pupils’ needs. Uncovering a complex daily reality experienced in schools by principals, teachers and pupils, this book presents new findings, focusing on system-internal properties which manifest the macro effects inside the microsystem. The author draws on field studies and content analysis to show a need for educational action and suggest ample room for improvement. This study reveals that there is a significant relationship between the failures of the education system in East Jerusalem and the strategies implemented by the state, and outlines the responsibilities of the state. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and postgraduate students in the fields of educational policy, sociology of education, and Middle East studies.

This book address media and education in the context of Palestine and Israel. They provide insights and provocative analysis of the status quo in education, including language teaching, educational policy and research, media representations and reporting in Middle East and U.S. and different models of dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis.

"In this book, the author critically analyzes the ongoing and wide-ranging effects of colonialism and globalization on the poor, especially on those living in the "Third World." The author's overarching argument is that colonization was not merely about the conquest of foreign lands, but it was also about the ideological monitoring of the colonized's mind, often maintained through western hegemonic texts and institutional apparatus, such as schools and churches. Analyzing and situating colonialism in the context of western neo-liberal policy of occupation and economic, political, and ideological dominations, the author thus demonstrates how, through schools and the mass corporate media, neocolonized and occupied subjects have been mis-educated to internalize and reproduce old western values, beliefs, and norms at the expense of their own."--Publisher

Focusing on the post war reconstruction of the education systems in Japan and Germany under U.S. military occupation after World War II, this book offers a comparative historical investigation of education reform policies in these two war ravaged and ideologically compromised countries. While in Japan large-scale reforms were undertaken swiftly after the end of the war, the U.S. zone in Germany maintained most of the traditional aspects of the German education system. Why did Japan so readily accept ideas and values developed in the allied countries while Germany resisted? Masako Shibata explores this question, arguing that the role of the university and the pattern of elite formation, which can be traced back to the period of the formation of Meiji Japan and the Kaiserreich, created the conditions for differing reactions from educational leaders in each country; this had a decisive impact on the proposed reforms. By examining these reactions through a sociological, cultural, and historical frame, an explanation emerges. Japan and Germany under the U.S. Occupation will prove to be a valuable resource both to scholars of history and education reform.

This book tells the remarkable story of Bierzeit University, one of Palestine's foremost educational institutions. When Dr. Gabi Baramki co-founded Birzeit's first degree program in 1972, he was determined to create a Palestinian national university despite Israel 's occupation. Democracy and tolerance would be among its mandatory subjects. The West Bank institution quickly became a beacon of learning, open to the best students irrespective of income. It continues to produce scholars, administrators, leaders and confident, idealistic young people. The cost of achieving this has been shocking. Israel first tried to break the university through forced closures. Since its establishment as a university, staff and students have been detained, often without trial, throughout the period even during the 15 times of closure. Israeli soldiers have stormed the university, shooting unarmed students. Dr. Baramki has been dragged from his home at night, beaten and arrested. As Vice-Chancellor, he has been liaising with Israeli prisons and comforting bereaved Palestinian parents. This memoir should be required reading for anyone concerned about the right to learn.

Confronting the Occupation is a study of work, education, political-national resistance, family, and community relations in a Palestinian refugee camp under conditions of Israeli military occupation. It is based on extended field research carried out by an Israeli sociologist-anthropologist in Dheisheh camp, south of Bethlehem, between 1992 and 1996. Emphasis is placed on how men and women, families, and the local refugee community confront the occupation regime as they seek livelihoods, invest in the education of younger generations, and mount a political and often militant struggle. In the process, men lose their jobs in the Israeli labor market, women, old and young, enter the workforce, university graduates are compelled to migrate to the Gulf, and political cadres challenge harsh prison circumstances by establishing their own comprehensive counterorder. While directed against the occupation, patterns of coping and resistance adopted by Dheishehians introduced tensions and conflicts into family life, furthering the transformation of gender and generational relationships.

The chapters in this book address media and education in the context of Palestine and Israel. They provide insights and provocative analysis of the status quo in education, including language teaching, educational policy and research, media representations and reporting in Middle East and U.S. and different models of dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis.

This book is intended to be a catalyst for provoking broader interest in the development requirements of the Palestinian education sector. It is designed to be a concise and accessible primer for general readers exploring the subject or region and who might be persuaded to pursue their specialism further in this area. A central theme is how the 'situation' (as Palestinians like to call the occupation) is lived as student or university professor, rather than how it is recorded through various official or journalistic media. Where feasible, content is preserved as 'live' dialogue (interviews and testimonies) to capture the nuances of its original presentation, allowing experience to speak for itself.