Ayman K. Agbaria

Two states for three peoples: the ‘Palestinian-Israeli’ in the Future Vision Documents of the Palestinians in Israel

Abstract This article focuses on the Vision Documents of the Arab civil society organizations in Israel as an act of citizenship and an expression of the politics of contention used by the Palestinians in Israel. We argue that these documents challenge both the political inclusiveness of the identity of Israel as a ‘Jewish and democratic’ state, and the political continuity of collective identity of the Palestinian people. With these documents, the Arab civil society organizations reclaim responsibility over their political future by clinging to the Israeli citizenship framework, but at the same time attempt to change its nature from within, by re-associating the Palestinians in Israel with the core issues of the stumbling peace process, especially in regard to the ‘Right of Return’. The paper contends that for the Palestinians in Israel, the national and the civic frameworks do not circulate in separate orbits, but constitute and reframe each other.

The ‘right’ education in Israel: segregation, religious ethnonationalism, and depoliticized professionalism

ABSTRACT This paper underlines three foundations upon which the current condition of the Israeli education system is predicated. These are: (a) the separation between Palestinians and Jews in the Israeli education system and isolating both from any significant contact; (b) endorsing a strong ethno-religious ethos and narratives that widen the chasm between the Jewish ‘us’ and the Palestinian ‘them’; and (c) shaping education for the Palestinians in Israel as a highly standardized and de-contextualized endeavor that excludes ideology and politics, which are seen as irrelevant to good professionalism, while substantiating and thickening the ideological education in the Jewish education system in line with the right political agenda . In doing so, this paper contextualizes these foundations in the recent developments of Israeli politics. Particularly, the paper associates these foundations with the rise of the extreme right politics in Israel, arguing that these, taken together, serve the state’s efforts to continue preserving its excluding ethnocentric political regime and controlling the Arab Palestinian education in Israel under conditions of subordination and inequality.

Arab Civil Society and Education in Israel: The Arab Pedagogical Council as a Contentious Performance to Achieve National Recognition.

Focusing on recent developments in the field of education, this article grapples with the educational activism of Arab civil society in Israel. Specifically, it presents a case study of a recent initiative to establish an independent Arab Pedagogical Council (APC). I argue that this initiative, although controversial and challenging to the very definition of Israel as both a Jewish nation-state and a democracy, should be considered to be an act of citizenship, rather than a sign of radicalization and separatism. The initiative to establish the APC is a political and ethical act, through which Arab civil society organizations and activists in Israel constitute themselves as independent political actors, citizens, and claimants of rights, entitlements, and responsibilities for the quality of life and future of the Palestinians in Israel.

The Case of Palestinian Civil Society in Israel: Islam, Civil Society, and Educational Activism.

This article examines the educational activism of two Arab civil organizations in Israel: the Follow-Up Committee on Arab Education (FUCAE) and the Eqraa Association (Eqraa). On the one hand, it explores the possibilities and limitations of the involvement of the FUCAE in the state’s Arab education system, as a secular organization that is heavily engaged in the contentious identity politics of the Arab minority in Israel. On the other hand, it reflects on the competing yet complementary roles played by Eqraa vis-à-vis the state in the field of education, as a faith-based organization that has been operating its own independent successful initiatives in education. More specifically, this article compares the goals, strategies, activities, and sources of funding of these two organizations, thus providing insights on the role of civil society organizations, either secular or religious, on Palestinian identity formation and political mobilization in Israel. Additionally, it clarifies the meaning and characteristics of Islamic entrepreneurship and activism in education.

Neo-Liberalism and Practices of Selection in Arab Education in Israel: Between Control and Empowerment

Similar to other national contexts, in Israel since the 1980s we have witnessed the emergence of neo-liberal policies in education. However, very little attention has been given to the ways in which they affect the school level and even less attention has been given to the impact of these policy changes on Arab schools in Israel. This article offers a micro-politic policy analysis of the ways in which neo-liberal discourses and practices of selection are being interpreted and acted upon in one Arab high school in Israel as a unique example of minority education. It also examines the interplay between these policy changes and other discursive fields within which Arab schools operate, such as its marginalisation. In light of neo-liberal discursive shifts in education policy in Israel, this article revisits the control-empowerment explanation of the position of the Arab education system in Israel.

When Shortage Coexists With Surplus of Teachers: The Case of Arab Teachers in Israel

This article explores the nexus between pre-service teacher education polices and the supply and demand of minority teachers. It problematizes the recent reports on teacher shortages in Israel, which tend to focus on the shortage of Jewish teachers while dealing with the surplus of Arab teachers only tangentially. Specifically, this article examines how teacher education policy in Israel generates a surplus supply of Arab teachers through 3 mechanisms: (a) the disregard for the cultural needs of Arab teachers and their exclusion from policymaking circles; (b) the Ministry of Educations budgeting criteria, which entice colleges to enroll more Arab students, especially when the enrollment of Jewish students is in decline; and (c) the admission policies of teacher education colleges, which contribute to the overrepresentation of Arab students in these colleges and allow the enrollment of students above the quota approved annually by the Ministry of Education.

To nail a pudding: metaphorical analysis of the social studies education discourse community on globalization

Despite the abundance of studies on globalization in educational research, globalization is often approached as a monolithic and standardized concept. Focusing on the social studies education in the USA, this study explores how the various metaphors through which globalization is framed embrace particular perspectives on how to conceive and educate about globalization. Specifically, this study discusses seven conceptual metaphors: the global as a place, time, container, spectacle, person, threat, and as a force of nature. In doing so, it illustrates how globalization is predominately rendered as an inclusive structure, a disembedded process, and as a permanent threat. The different metaphors, this paper argues, fulfill a twofold role. First, they define a domain of their own, the global domain, creating a distinctive global viewpoint on human agency and social change. Second, these metaphors also release a political imagination structured around particular expectations of what exactly the global means and does.

Debating globalization in social studies education: approaching globalization historically and discursively

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dominant positions in the debates on globalization in American social studies education. Specifically, the paper illustrates that, first, globalization is conceived of as more of an unprecedented new age and less of a historical development. Second, it is conceived of as more of a natural process and less as an ideological project. All in all, this paper argues that globalization should be approached as a historic and discursive condition in the field of social studies education. To do so, educators should include more skeptical perspectives and critical voices about globalization. Also, they need to approach the vocabulary used to frame globalization discursively, rather than as an objective fact. The paper contends that the different positions taken in the debates on globalization are part and parcel of the social imaginary of globalization. The paper has ramifications not only for American social studies education but also for related subjects such as civics and citizenship education elsewhere.

Navigating Israeli citizenship: how do Arab-Palestinian teachers civicize their pupils?

ABSTRACT This study examines citizenship education in Israel from the point of view of Arab teachers, as they rework and negotiate the content and boundaries of their Israeli citizenship. Specifically, the paper studies how teachers of citizenship education in Arab high schools in Israel perceive their sociopolitical reality, how they respond to it in their classrooms, and how they conceptualize Israeli citizenship for their pupils. In doing so, the paper ponders the pedagogical strategies and emphases of these teachers, as they mediate the citizenship education curriculum, with its heavy emphasis on the ethno-national character of Israel, to their Arab pupils.

Engaging Critically with Religious Authority in Islamic Education

Over the past few years an increasing number of studies have attempted to examine the question of religious authority vis-a-vis developments in Europe’s Muslim communities. However, given the purported weakness of institutionalized religious authorities in Islam, these studies concentrate on specific types of religious actors and institutions, particularly on imams. While this actor-centered approach, which often equates authority with leadership, has been proven valuable, one wonders whether a more resolutely discursive perspective might also be productive, particularly in education. However, the literature on the nexus between religious authority and education is limited and unexplored. This chapter addresses this lacuna by examining the place of religious authority in Islamic education, focusing on how it is rendered as a school subject in the confessional teaching of Islam. It poses the following questions: How is religious authority constructed in Islamic education settings by teachers and through resources? What types of religious authority exist? On what bases is their authoritativeness predicated? How are debates among religious authorities framed? How does educational discourse on religious authority contribute to intellectual rigidness? Accordingly, this chapter is organized in three parts. The first defines “religious authority” and explores its relevance to education in general and to confessional religious education in particular, and how religious authorities in the Sunni tradition have been accommodated in Islamic education, arguing that these authorities are embraced with little deliberation with regard to requirements, characteristics, and responsibilities. Moreover, little attention is given to how they have been debated and changed throughout the history of Islam. The second part grabbles with ‘intellectual rigidness’ as both a manifestation of exaggeration in religious opinions (ghulū) and an inevitable reflection of the presence of religious authorities in Islamic education. It reveals how intellectual rigidness is established by approaching religious authority in ahistoric and non-discursive ways, highlighting how intellectual rigidness is inherently linked to the value of obedience (tā‘ah) and the epistemological constraints placed on innovation (tajdīd) and disagreement (ikhtilāf). The third part presents concluding thoughts on how to approach the idea of “correct religion” (al-dīn al-haqq), which functions as a type of morality that many religious authorities follow. It also suggests pedagogies that offer methods for engaging critically with Muslim religious authorities in Islamic education, while grounding these pedagogies in Sunni theology.