
Educating Palestine, through the story of education and the teaching of history in Mandate Palestine, reframes our understanding of the Palestinian and Zionist national movements. It argues that Palestinian and Hebrew pedagogy could only be truly understood through an analysis of the conscious or unconscious dialogue between them. The conflict over Palestine, the study shows, shaped the way Arabs and Zionists thought, taught, and wrote about their past. British rule over Palestine promised the Jews a national home, but had no viable policy towards the Palestinians and established an education system that lacked a sustainable collective ethos. Nevertheless, Palestinian educators were able to produce a national pedagogy that knew how to work with the British and simultaneously promoted an ideology of progress and independence that challenged colonial rule.
How did the competing national movements of Mandate Palestine utilize education and history curricula to shape their respective identities and political objectives? Yoni Furas, a scholar of Middle Eastern history, examines the intersection of pedagogy and nationalism during the British Mandate. By analyzing archival materials and educational texts, Furas argues that the Palestinian and Zionist national movements were not isolated entities but were engaged in a constant, often unconscious, dialogue that defined their historical narratives. The work posits that the British colonial administration's lack of a coherent educational policy inadvertently created a space where these national movements could contest the meaning of the past to secure their futures.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars in the field of Middle Eastern history recognize this work as a significant contribution to understanding the intellectual foundations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the meticulous use of primary sources to support the author's arguments.
Page Count:
336
Publication Date:
2020-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0192598376
ISBN-13:
9780192598370
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