School as a place of violence and hope: Tensions of education for children and families in post-intifada Palestine
Introduction
Despite over five decades of protracted political violence, education remains a priority for most Palestinians (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), 2013). In a 2003 survey, 60% of Palestinian youth (ages 10–24) indicated that education was their first priority, and at over 90%, the literacy rate for Palestinians is generally high for the region (The World Bank and the Bisan Center for Research and Development, 2006). Compared to other education systems in the region and the world, school enrollment in Palestine1 is relatively high, with gross enrollment rates above 90% for both males and females. School can offer protection and structure to Palestinian children living in political violence. Yet school may also be a place of multiple forms of violence. Even if efforts are made to make accessing and attending school safe, students may encounter physical violence from the Israeli military or Israeli settlers on their journeys to and from school, thereby restricting children's access to education. Within school itself, there may be physical violence from peers or corporal punishment from teachers. Despite these challenges, the act of accessing the place of school can be a form of resistance, with education providing Palestinian children with a foundation for a positive future.
Framed by Relph's (1976) conceptualization of place as consisting of physical setting, activity, and meaning, this paper weighs school as a place of both violence and hope, thereby uncovering tensions in place for Palestinian children and their families. Whereas most studies on schooling in emergency settings use the lens of students and teachers, this study views the place of school from the perspective of families and communities, thus widening the scope of how education develops and changes within the context of political violence. This paper represents data from a larger doctoral research project exploring the concept and meaning of place for Palestinian children and families. The research was organized around four different settings: home, school, neighborhood community, and nation-state. This paper specifically focuses on school. By tackling the theoretical concept of place, the research uncovers how and to what extent the occupation and political violence affects Palestinian children and families’ relationship with school and how education protects or does not protect children and families. The paper will first provide the historical background of education in Palestine, a theoretical framework of school as a place, and an overview of the research methodology. Then, turning to the data, the paper will describe the inherent tensions of school as a place of both violence and hope.
Section snippets
Palestinian education under occupation
Prior to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which began in 1967, Palestinian education in the 1950s and 1960s was subject to Jordanian (in the West Bank) and Egyptian (in Gaza) policies (Abu-Duhou, 1996). During this time, the government education system suffered from deterioration in quality (Affouneh, 2007) and did not reflect Palestinian culture, values, or knowledge (Alzaroo and Hunt, 2003). When the occupation began in 1967, the Israeli military took full control over education in
Theorizing the place of school
Over the past several decades, multiple theorists have attempted to unpack the diverse and complex meanings of place. One such theorist is Canadian geographer Relph (1976) whose influential work on the phenomenology of place and placelessness conceptualized place as theoretically organized around three basic elements: physical setting, activities, and meaning. As a physical setting, place can be a geographic center, site, or location (Relph, 1976) that provides the basic components for living.
Methodology
This paper represents a segment of a larger research project exploring the concept and meaning of different places (e.g., home, school, neighborhood community, and nation-state) for Palestinian children and families. The research methodology took a qualitative approach—specifically rapid ethnography (Handwerker, 2001, Mignone et al., 2009, Millen, 2000) for data collection and grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006) for data analysis—which were used to effectively answer the overarching research
Violence resulting from the Israel military
Family interviews detailed encounters with Israeli police or soldiers who harass children on their way to or from school. While showing me her drawing, 10-year-old Farida explained: “[The map is] me on my way to school… There are jeish (army) jeeps and they throw tear gas” (H13). Nine-year-old Mabrouka and her eight-year-old brother, Ismail, similarly described how they were harassed by the military on the way to school in Hebron:
Mabrouka: My school is on the road. They come to focus something
Education as hope for the future
Despite continued political and economic instability in Palestine, interviews with Palestinian families revealed the value of education for Palestinians. Ten-year-old Mourad and his family were evicted from their home in East Jerusalem two years ago and have since lived in two other neighborhoods. When I asked him what place he liked more, he answered that his favorite place was his original neighborhood, because it is where he could easily access school. His explanation revolved around the
Conclusion
This paper focused on Palestinian children and families’ experiences with place of school as a physical setting, site for activity, and place of meaning. For children and families in this study, school represents a physical setting where children engage in the activities of learning, playing, and socializing, and ultimately symbolizes hope for a positive individual and collective future. Yet, Using Relph's (1976) place-based framework revealed that families’ understandings of school as a place
Acknowledgements
This research was funded through the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) program administered by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Centre for Research on Children and Families (CRCF) at McGill University. I am grateful to all those who assisted with the research on which this paper is based, especially the children and families who opened up their homes and hearts to me and my research team. I would also like to thank Myriam Denov, Julie Norman, Lysanne
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