Educating Palestine: Teaching and Learning History under the Mandate

by Yoni Furas

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192598370
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	04/17/2020
Series:	Oxford Historical Monographs
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Yoni Furas is a scholar of modern Middle Eastern and Palestinian history, interested in the history of late Ottoman and mandate Palestine, the sociology of Arab knowledge, and cultural aspects of the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. He received his DPhil from Oxford University in 2015 and served as a Thomas Arthur Arnold Fellow at Tel-Aviv University, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Truman Institute at Hebrew University.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Reframing the Pedagogical Map
2. Roots of Educational Segregation
3. Peeking Over the Fence
4. Writing History
5. We the Semites: Reading Ancient History in Mandate Palestine
6. Teaching History
7. A Coalition of Good Will: History Introduction in Secondary Education
8. Learning History
Conclusion
Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

"Educating Palestine constitutes an important contribution not only to the field of history of education, but also to the history of the IsraeliâPalestinian conflict. It is an impressive work of historical scholarship that deals with the underpinnings of a painful conflict in a novel and eye-opening way. This work is a worthy read for anyone interested in the region, and should receive considerable scholarly attention." — Yotam Ronen, Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BritishColumbia, Canada, Journal of the History of Education Society

"[…] this is an innovative and meticulous book that advances the history of the Mandate, of its inhabitants, and of education in the twentieth century. It will prove an essential resource for scholars and students of education, the Mandate for Palestine, Jewish and Middle Eastern history." — Hilary Falb Kalisman, Bustan: The Middle East Book Review

"With worthy bravery, Furas took on an ambitious mission. Unlike former scholars' approaches [...] Furas chose to study the field of education in both communities and compare the two. [...] A major contribution is the new light it sheds on the Arab education system in the country during the Mandate, well beyond the instruction of history... Furas' analysis [...] is grounded in theories from fields such as sociology, philosophy of knowledge, pedagogy, education administration, teaching and learning, from which he draws and enriches the discourse about them. In this sense as well, his work is scholarship at its best..." — Ami Ayalon, ha-Mizrah ha-Hadash [Translated to English from Hebrew]

"...this book is empirically dense and will appeal mostly to specialists. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." — P. Rowe, CHOICE

"Based on a diverse array of sources and enlivened with descriptions of teachers' lives and excerpts from students' writings, the monograph fills a major gap in scholarship on the Mandate period and provides a new perspective on the conflict. [...] I highly recommend this monograph for those interested in colonialism, education, nationalist movements, the Mandate period, and Palestine-Israel." — Elizabeth Brownson, Journal of Social History

From the Publisher