Janette Habashi

Palestinian Children Crafting National Identity

This study examines the formulation of national identity in Palestinian children by exploring their understanding of its paradoxes. Twelve Palestinian children were interviewed from cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank. The children express the multiple dimensions of national identity in terms of self and other; however these expressions are fragmented in nature. Furthermore, the findings indicate that national identity highlights children as geopolitical agents, rather than separate entities defined by time.

Child Geopolitical Agency: A Mixed Methods Case Study.

This study examines the geopolitical agency of Palestinian children. Mixed methodology was used to identify the etiologies contributing to processes of political socialization. Both qualitative and qualitative methods are equally distributed throughout this research. Focus groups and interviews with 12 Palestinian children, aged 10 to 13 years, living in refugee camps, villages, and cities in the West Bank were used to develop a survey instrument. The survey was administrated to 1% of the students attending school, Grades 5 to 7, in the West Bank, Palestine. The use of mixed methodology revealed the interconnectedness of formal and informal political socialization that produces the geopolitical agency of Palestinian children. Findings elaborated on the processes and the relationships used to describe childrens geopolitical agency.

Children's agency and Islam: unexpected paths to solidarity

This ethnographic study analyzes the experiences of Palestinian childrens agency of religion and its manifestation in religion as resistance while it is fighting the globalized hegemony. Childrens agency of religion as resistance is cultivated within the debate of Islamist movements and the evolution of Palestinian national identity while it serves as a call for global solidarity. It is this creative construct of agency of religion that transcends borders and distinguishes itself from the old generation method of resistance. The differences between generations on this construct, as described by childrens agency and their ability to transform, is constructed by particular meanings of Islamist symbols and rejects the assumption that childrens roles are defined. The agency of religion as resistance evolves as the role of religion in national discourse is deliberated in secularism and sectarianism.

Language of political socialization: language of resistance

This paper discusses the notion of language as resistance for Palestinian children living in the West Bank. Drawing from the global/local language discourse, children constructed meaning of language that echoed the Palestinian political environment. The study examines the Palestinian childrens language usage and language meaning as a method of political resistance, resilience and reworking. Childrens conceptualization of language meaning emerged from discussion of the diversity of naming and strategies of resistance. Data for the study was drawn from the interviews of 12 Palestinian children (six females and six males) 11–13 years of age from cities, villages, and refugee camps in the West Bank.

Constitutional Analysis: A Proclamation of Children's Right to Protection, Provision, and Participation

The study of childrens images as delineated in constitutional documents highlights the historical transitions that have occurred within and among countries, as manifested in the Convention of the Rights of the Child. As such, content analysis was administered to examine constitutional and amendment documents of 179 nation-states listed and recognized by the United Nations Development Programme in the Human Developmental Index. This analysis produced quantitative and qualitative data in which it described the ranking of each country and its postulation toward childrens protection, provision and participation as outlined by CRC. The findings provide greater understanding of the nation-state posture towards children as active rights bearers.

Rethinking global north onto-epistemologies in childhood studies

For some time, critical scholars in childhood studies have been reconceptualizing the field (Bloch, 2013). Developmentally appropriate practices and notions of terms like quality have been deconstructed to expose how they normalize childhood/s and create inequities in early education and care (Burman, 1994; Dahlberg et al., 2007). While critical scholarship has problematized dominant childhood discourses, theorizing has largely come from global north scholars (Pérez and Saavedra, in press). Although concern for social justice is at the core of global north critical research and pedagogy, as a field, we must consider how global south onto-epistemologies, especially those of women of color and Indigenous peoples, have been left out, ignored, and even appropriated within critical scholarship. We contemplate whether this is one reason why efforts to make a dramatic and critical shift in the priorities of childhood studies have not made the advances we have hoped for. As global south scholars and editors of this Special Issue, we and the contributors make an important call for rethinking our reliance on global north perspectives. By centering global south ontoepistemologies in childhood studies, we aim to open a dialogue that prompts a rethinking of global north dominance in the field.

Children Writers: Methodology of the Rights-Based Approach

The paper examines the rights-based approach utilized in research with children. This approach aims to encourage children’s participation in every stage of the research process (planning, monitoring, evaluating, and writing up the results) on issues that impact their lives. The rights-based framework is more inclusive than the traditional approach that limits children’s participation to the data collection segment of the study. The traditional approach of research excludes children’s perspectives in the research agenda and therefore the implementation of the findings in social policy. Alternatively, this paper discusses the Palestinian journaling project as a prototype of transformation utilizing the rights-based approach whereby children create possibility for ownership over the agenda and the process of research. These concepts could transform child research participants from co-researchers to writers, as well as highlight the possibilities of including children at the conceptual stage of the research process.

The Normalization of Youth Political Agency

Youth in general and youth in specific who are living in politically unstable, war-like areas are acutely aware of the local and global situations regarding the conflict. It is clear in reading the narratives of Palestinian youth that they are not passive recipients of the top-down model of political socialization. Given that youth agency is in fact active of their own perspective, it is imperative to discuss the fact that even though they are growing up and living in an area that is being occupied, they are still able to experience daily life with its complexity and (im)possibilities just like any other youth. Such “normality” is constructed according to their local/global discourse and youth agency interaction and intersectionality. Palestinian children’s and youth’s experiences have some similar interactions as other individuals not living in a conflicted area. A 12-year-old female Palestinian youth from a refugee camp wrote, “We took our midterm certifications; I felt so happy because I got high marks, then I went home and when my mother saw my marks she felt happy and wished for me continued success.” Another participant, a 12-year-old male from a city, wrote about worries at school, “I was so stressed because I am awaiting the results of the exam to see if I passed, I tried to calm down but it was in vain.” While the political situation of the Occupied Palestine Territories and the living reality of youth is one of political conflict, it is clear that this reality does not negate the everyday living experience and the right to live in stability within unstable circumstances.

Limitations of the Educational Structure in Political Socialization

While unstructured educational systems are pervasive in all aspects of daily life, this chapter will concentrate on structured educational systems because they are an important influential factor on children’s and youth’s political socialization; however, it is imperative to note that this concentration on structured education does not negate the importance of unstructured education; in fact, both are intertwined and affect children’s and youth’s socialization. For example, impacts made by schools, and/or civic education programs, typically spearhead the structured educational systems. On the other hand, unstructured education in schools such as dialogue among peers also impacts children’s and youth’s political socialization. One 14-year-old male journal study participant from a village mentioned, “I’m in ninth grade [and] a member of the daily school podcasting. I talked about Saddam’s execution and if you are with or against it, the land day, occasions and feasts, massacres, the external conditions, political and internal conditions.” This podcast takes place in a school setting; however, this participant makes it clear that the dialogue and discussion come directly from him rather than the school authority. To understand this interaction of youth political socialization, this chapter analyzes the structured educational systems, civic curricula, and programs to engage youth in the community.

Introduction to Palestinian Youth Journaling Project

The world is puzzled by youth’s ability to transform geopolitics and their everyday lives and connect with each other regardless of borders, nationalities, or religions. Youth have the capacity to influence government stability, growth, and their community’s future. It is youth and their political agency that alter values, perspectives, and interactions within and between communities. Therefore, it is not surprising that youth energy is always a concern, as government is constantly on the move to control or shape their values and ensure their compliancy to the system; hence, such attempts are not always successful. In fact, such efforts tend to lack insight about youth agency while being mainstreamed with a narrow focus that creates disconnect between their political reality, resources, and agency, leading to government instabilities, movements, and activism. Youth are forging social, economic, and political “movements” to alter the current state of the stagnated and exclusive political structure. Global or local citizenship and community engagement programs are no substitute to capture or reflect an understanding of youth political agency. To appreciate youth political agency, governments, political structures, and regimes have to provide alternative views about engaging youth within the political process. The strategy of continuing to assume that the top-down, adult-directed model of political socialization is not conducive to truly understanding children’s and youth’s political socialization, as this methodology negates to include a plethora of facets impacting political development. While the top-down model is seen as a somewhat universal model of human development and used around the globe, the argument can be made that children and youth are affected by much more than those factors in the top-down model; for example, peer-to-peer interaction is a huge component of children’s and youth’s political socialization. Furthermore, a universal paradigm to socialization is faulty, particularly when looking at societies that are at the center of conflict. Children and youth living in conflicted or war-torn areas do not always have the same liberties of participating in the structural political system (such as growing up to be able to vote in a democratically held election). Hence, it is shortsighted to assume change in youth programs should be exclusive to non-democratic countries and by default pretend youth political agency in democratic governments, in this case Western countries, is enacted. It is naive to serve or promote such perspectives, as youth around the globe are subjected and subjugated within similar neoliberal ideological apparatuses that simply cannot be followed, but with different conditions and limitations that deny agency and resistance to change. Given these structural constraints, research should capture the meaning, processes, and potential of youth political agency and pave the way to restructure the adult-directed (or top-down) model of political socialization.