This study explores the role of education providers in formal and informal settings in the
West Bank in developing ideas and practices of citizenship and global citizenship among
young Palestinians. While there has been extensive research on citizenship and global
citizenship education in global North settings, less attention has been paid to it outside these
contexts. This has reinforced the conflation of global citizenship with affluence and mobility,
and ignored diverse struggles for citizenship and education, which do not conform to
established models and understandings. The case of Palestine provides a unique lens on
citizenship education, given its struggle for statehood and the challenges occupation presents
to everyday survival. It is important that approaches and struggles for global citizenship in
such a context are not written out of explorations of education for citizenship and global
citizenship. Rather, paying attention to them reveals assumptions in the ways citizenship and
global citizenship are conceptualised, as well in the ways experiences in conflict settings are
often parochialised in scholarship and policy making.
This paper takes as it starting point, the Palestinian Ministry of Education’s statement on
education and core citizen values. This statement is conceptualised in terms of its particular
openness to difference in the context of threats to Palestinian identity and security. The paper
then explores the mediation and translation of these practices amongst schools and informal
education providers. This provides an opportunity to explore the different ways notions of
citizenship are constructed through education, and how these connect to efforts to articulate
visions and practices of sustainable development in Palestine. The paper draws on qualitative
data collected with state officials, schools and civil society organisations, as well as analysis
of policy and curricula documentation. It argues that there is a need to be more attentive to
the multiple economies of education for citizenship and global citizenship in conflict settings,
and to be attentive to the multiple languages and expressions of global citizenship that exist
beyond the global North.
The overarching questions that direct this study are:
1- What are the core citizenship values that the Palestinian Ministry of Education is looking
to develop in young Palestinians?
2- How are these core citizenship values translated into practice in schools and informal
settings?
To gain more understandings and meanings of citizenship and global citizenship education
and its practices among young Palestinians, a qualitative approach is implemented using the
following data tools:
- Content analysis of policy documents and teachers’ lesson plans
- Teachers, and policy officials’ interviews are to help in identifying core citizenship and
global citizenship values.
- School visits and classroom observations to help view the process through which those
citizenship and global citizenship values are translated into practice.

Conference Title

COMPARATIVE & INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SOCIETY

Conference Country

United States of America

Conference Date

April 14, 2019 - April 18, 2019

Conference Sponsor

COMPARATIVE & INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SOCIETY

Additional Info

Conference Website