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THE EVOLUTION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A NATIONAL CURRICULUM UNDER CONDITIONS OF RESISTANCE: THE CASE OF THE PALESTINIANS (1970–82)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2018

Philipp O. Amour Open the ORCID record for Philipp O. Amour [Opens in a new window]
Philipp O. Amour*
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Philipp O. Amour is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations, Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey; e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Can a nation mobilizing for an extended armed conflict also construct and implement a national educational curriculum? This article explores the complex and crucial case of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as it sought to develop a national curriculum while in exile in Lebanon during the 1970s, prior to the inception of the Palestinian National Authority. Based on previously unexamined primary sources from PLO archives, I show how the PLO accomplished a high level of curriculum maturity despite considerable contextual and institutional challenges. The PLO mainstream embraced this curriculum as a political instrument of anticolonial and postdiasporic education suitable for regenerating a sense of community, fostering nation building, and increasing the PLO's political legitimacy. However, as can be expected in a colonial or diasporic setting, the process of educational transition remained uneven, fragile, and dependent on the PLO leadership's ability to navigate conflicts and negotiate arrangements with colonial power, host states, and international organizations.

Keywords

anticolonial educationcurriculumnation buildingPalestinianspostdiasporic education
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 87 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

NOTES

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37 Rubenberg, “The Civilian Infrastructure,” 54–78.

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40 My research demonstrates such processes: Philipp O. Amour, Die Bildung des palästinensischen Quasistaates und die Transformation der Gesellschaft 1948–1982 (Phd diss., Univiversity of Fribourg, 2010); Amour, “Palästinensische Bildungspolitik im Exil (1948–1982): Kulturgeschichtliche Aspekte,” in Kriegsnarrative in Geschichtslehrmitteln: Brennpunkte nationaler Diskurse, ed. Furrer, Markus and Messmer, Kurt (Schwalbach/Ts: Wochenschau-Verlag, 2009), 201–19Google Scholar.

41 Tahlil al-Manahij al-Ijtimaʿiyya fi al-Urdun wa-Lubnan wa-Suriya (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 1972), 1–56; Bashshur, Najlaʾ Nusayr, al-Qadiya al-Filastiniyya wa-l-Wihda al-ʿArabiyya fi Manahij at-Taʿlim fi al-Urdun wa-Suriya wa-Lubnan (Beirut: PLO Research Centre, 1978)Google Scholar.

42 Qura, Nazih, Taʿlim al-Filastiniyyun: al-Waqiʿ wa-l-Mushkilat (Beirut: PLO Research Centre, 1975), 98, 104–12Google Scholar.

43 Hamid, Rashid, “What Is the PLO?,” Journal of Palestine Studies 4 (1975): 107CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “al-Muʿlim al-Filastini wa-Masʾuliyat al-Taʿlim al-Thawri” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 8 October 1973), 2–3.

44 “Khitat Aʿmal al-Qism” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 4 March 1975), 1–3. Both Najlaʾ Nusayr Bashshur and Jabir Sulayman (contributors to the educational materials) have confirmed in interviews the development and implementation of such school materials.

45 “Mashruʿ Maddat al-Taʿbiʾa al-Siyasiyya li-l-Jil al-Jadid (min fiha ʿUmria 12–5)” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 30 November 1974), 1–11; “Malahiq” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 30 November 1974), 1–11.

46 “Khitat Qism al-Takhtit al-Tarbawi” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 8 November 1947), 5; “Taqim Aʿmal al-Qism li-l-ʿAm 1975 wa-Khitat al-Qism li-l-ʿAm 1976” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 10 January 1976), 9.

47 “Maddat Filastin” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 2 March 1975), 1–23.

48 “Mahadir Ijtimaʿ al-Lajna al-ʿIlmiyya / al-Qism al-Tarbawi” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 11 December 1974), 2.

49 This intention/policy was mentioned in the following sources: “Khita Tarbawiyya Shamila li-l-Mujtamaʿ al–Filastini” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 8 September 1975), 1–6; “ʾPLO- Tahsin wa-Tatwir al-Taʿlim fi Madaris al-Wikala (fi Suriya)” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, September 1975), 1–17; “Mulahazat Awaliyya hawl al-Wadʿ al-Taʿlimi fi Madaris Wakalat al-Ghawth fi Suriya” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 26 November 1975), 1–5.

50 For related and supplementary insight into Palestinian education in Kuwait, see al-Hasan, Bilal, al-Filastiniyyun fi al-Kuwayt: Bahth Ihsaʾi (Beirut: PLO Research Center, 1974)Google Scholar; “Palestinians in Kuwait: Educational Attainments and Institutions” (Beirut: Team International–Engineering and Management Consultants, January 1983); “Taʿlim Abnaʾ Filastin fi al-Kuwayt” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 12 May 1976); Farah, Tawfic E., “Political Socialization of Palestinian Children in Kuwait,” Journal of Palestine Studies 6 (1977): 90–102CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ghabra, Shafeeq N., Palestinians in Kuwait: The Family and the Politics of Survival (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1987)Google Scholar; Zelkovitz, “A Paradise Lost?”

51 “Taʿlim al-Filastiniyyun fi Suriya” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 1988), 1–19; “Taqrir hawl Muʿaskar al-Ashbal fi Dimashq” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 25 June 1975).

52 “Waqiʿ al-Tifl al-Filastini” (Cairo: Arab League, October 1978), 6; “Taqrir ʿan Madrasat Isʿad al-Tufula fi Suq al-Gharb” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 21 March 1973), 3.

53 Falsafat at-Tarbiya li-l-Shaʿb al-ʿArabi al-Filastini (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 1972), 3–12.

54 Ibid., 5–9.

55 Hudson, “Developments and Setbacks,” 77; Rubenberg, “The Civilian Infrastructure,” 60–61; Sayigh, Yezid, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 125–26Google Scholar.

56 Qasim ʿAyna, interviews with the author, Beirut, 19 March, 4 April, and 6 June 2007.

57 Zuraik, Qustantin, Maʿna al-Nakba (Beirut: Khayat, 1948), 82–93Google Scholar; Musa al-ʿAlami, ʿIbrat Filastin (Beirut, 1948), 3–8, 12–20, 22–25, 30–33, 44–89.

58 Falsafat al-Tarbiya, 3–4.

59 Faysal Darraj, “Hal Yanjah al-Filastiniyyun fi Kitabat Tarikhihim?,” al-Hayat, 5 January 2005.

60 Falsafat al-Tarbiya, 3–12. My analysis of the Falsafa in this regard is different from Mueller, “The Educational Philosophy and Curriculum,” 345–62.

61 Falsafat al-Tarbiya, 3–12.

62 Ibid., 4–5.

63 Mohamad, Hussam, “PLO Strategy: From Total Liberation to Coexistence,” Palestine-Israel Journal 4 (1997)Google Scholar, accessed 15 August 2018, http://www.pij.org/details.php?id=481.

64 Falsafat al-Tarbiya, 4–5.

65 Mueller, “The Educational Philosophy and Curriculum,” 345–62.

66 Falsafat al-Tarbiya, 9–12.

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68 See, e.g., Baumgarten, “The Three Faces/Phases,” 31–37; Amour, “Palestinian Politics in Transition,” 137–54.

69 Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State, 342–55.

70 Nabil Shaʿth, head of the PLO Planning Centre between 1971 and 1976/77, and the Dar al-Fata al-ʿArabi, interview with the author, Ramallah, 31 August 2007.

71 For theoretical insight, see Foster and Crawford, What Shall We Tell the Children?, 4.

72 “Mashruʿ Maddat al-Taʿbiʾa al-Siyasiyya li-l-Jil al–Jadid,” 1–11; “Malahiq,” 1–11.

73 Jabir Sulayman, interviews with the author, Beirut, 26 March, 13 April, 25 April, and 6 June 2007.

74 “Mashruʿ Maddat al-Taʿbiʾa al-Siyasiyya li-l-Jil al-Jadid,” 1–11; “Malahiq,” 1–11.

75 Rubin, Barry, Revolution until Victory? The Politics and History of the PLO (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994), 43–48Google Scholar.

76 See, e.g., Al Husseini, “UNRWA and the Refugees,” 15–16.

77 On the civil war in Lebanon, including its motives, setting, and reactions, see Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State, 358–423.

78 Qasim ʿAyna, interviews with the author, Beirut, 19 March, 4 April, and 6 June 2007.

79 Najlaʾ Nusayr Bashshur, former researcher at the PLO Planning Centre and contributor to the curriculum, interviews with the author, Beirut, 12 April, 26 April, and 8 June 2007; “al-Khitta al-Marhaliyya li-Aʿmal al-Qism” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 16 February 1977), 1; “Khittat Lajnat Falsafat al-Tarbiya” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 8 August 1975), 1–4.

80 Jabir Sulayman, interviews with the author, Beirut, 26 March, 13 April, 25 April, and 6 June 2007; Qasim ʿAyna, interviews with the author, Beirut, 19 March, 4 April, and 6 June 2007.

81 “Tawsiyat al-Lajna al-Tarbawiyya Allati Aqraha al-Majlis al-Watani al-Filastini fi Dawrathi al-Thalitha ʿAshar (Adhar 1977)” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 1977), 1–3.

82 Jabir Sulayman, interviews with the author, Beirut, 26 March, 13 April, 25 April, and 6 June 2007; ʿAdnan ʿAbd al-Rahim, interview with the author, Damascus, 2 October 2007; Qasim ʿAyna, interviews with the author, Beirut, 19 March, 4 April, and 6 June 2007; Najlaʾ Nusayr Bashshur, interviews with the author, Beirut, 12 April, 26 April, and 8 June 2007.

83 “Taqarir ʿan Nashat wa-Mashariʿ Qism al-Takhtit al-Tarbawi wa-l-Ijtimaʿi” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 11 February 1974); “Mashruʿ Maddat al-Taʿbiʾa al-Siyasiyya li-l-Jil al-Jadid,” 1–11; “Malahiq,” 1–11.

84 Najlaʾ Nusayr Bashshur, interviews with the author, Beirut, 12 April, 26 April, and 8 June 2007.

85 “Khitat ʿAmal al-Qism,” 6–7; Najlaʾ Nusayr Bashshur, interviews with the author, Beirut, 12 April, 26 April, and 8 June 2007; Qasim ʿAyna, interviews with the author, Beirut, 19 March, 4 April, and 6 June 2007; Jabir Sulayman, interviews with the author, Beirut, 26 March, 13 April, 25 April, and 6 June 2007.

86 ʿAdnan ʿAbd ar-Rahim, interview with the author, Damascus, 2 October 2007.

87 “Khitat ʿAmal al-Qism,” 5; “Khitat Qism al-Takhtit al-Tarbawi,” 4; Nabil Shaʿth, interview the author, Ramallah, 31 August 2007.

88 Jabir Sulayman, interviews with the author, Beirut, 26 March, 13 April, 25 April, and 6 June 2007.

89 Amour, “Field Research in the Middle East.”

90 “Filastin Qadiya Wataniyya” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 12 August 1977), 1–85.

91 Ibid., 27, 12, 36, 28, 55, 60.

92 Ibid., 9, 39.

93 Garfinkle, Adam M., “On the Origin, Meaning, Use and Abuse of a Phrase,” Middle Eastern Studies 27 (1991): 540CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

94 See, e.g., Porat, Dina, “Forging Zionist Identity Prior to 1948: Against Which Counter-Identity?,” in Israeli and Palestinian Narratives of Conflict: History's Double Helix, ed. Rotberg, Robert I. (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2006), 50–51Google Scholar.

95 “Al-Wihda al-Thaniya: Filastin Qadiya Taharruriyya” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, n.d.), 1–151.

96 “Al-Wihda al-Rabiʿa: al-Nidal al-ʿArabi al-Filastini hata 1947” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 27 August 1975), 2.

97 Ibid., 6, 2, 1–88.

98 Ibid., 11–18.

99 Ibid., 18–88.

100 “Harakat al-Shaykh ʿIz al-Din al-Qasam” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 1975), 1–85. For complementary perspectives on the Palestinian memory of the Qasam movement, see Swedenburg, Ted, Memories of Revolt: The 1936–1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past (Fayetteville, Ark.: University of Arkansas Press, 2003), 1–2Google Scholar, 7–8, 10, 18, 78, 145, 171, 201.

101 See Patterson, Molly and Monroe, Kristen Renwick, “Narrative in Political Science,” Annual Review of Political Science 1 (1998): 315–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Amour, “Palästinensische Bildungspolitik,” 201–19.

102 “Al-Wihda al-Thaniya,” 1–151.

103 Khalidi, Palestinian Identity; Muslih, Muhammad Y., The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Gelvin, James L., The Israel–Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War, 3rd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014)Google Scholar; Kimmerling and Migdal, The Palestinian People, 3–37; Lewis, Bernard, Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice (New York: Norton, 1987), 164–91Google Scholar.

104 “Al-Nidal al-Filastini (1965–1973)” (Beirut: PLO Planning Centre, 8 September 1975), 1–2.

105 Vavrus and Bartlett, Critical Approaches to Comparative Education, 1–18; Buckland, ed., Reshaping the Future, 34–35.

106 These insights draw as well on Sefa Dei, George J., “Introduction: Mapping the Terrain - Towards a New Politics of Resistance,” in Anti-Colonialism and Education: The Politics of Resistance, ed. Sefa Dei, George J. and Kempf, Arlo (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2006), 1–12Google Scholar.

107 See, e.g., Munir Fasheh, Review of Education, Repression and Liberation: Palestinians, by Sarah Graham-Brown, MERIP Reports 136/137 (1985): 52.

108 On Caribbean states and poor resourcing, see Hickling-Hudson, Anne, “‘Post Marxist’ Discourse and the Rethinking of Third World Education Reform,” in Third World Education: Quality and Equality, ed. Welch, Anthony R. (New York: Garland Publishing, 2000), 180–81Google Scholar.

109 Mendenhall, Mary, “The Relief- Development Transition: Sustainability and Educational Support in Post-Conflict Settings,” in Critical Approaches to Comparative Education: Vertical Case Studies from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, ed. Vavrus, Frances Katherine and Bartlett, Lesley (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 181–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

110 Tawil, Sobhi and Harley, Alexandra, eds., Education, Conflict and Social Cohesion (Paris: UNESCO, International Bureau of Education, 2004)Google Scholar.

111 For the background and context of the war, see, e.g., Sahliyeh, Emile F., The PLO after the Lebanon War (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1986), 3–22Google Scholar.

112 Tawil and Harley, Education, Conflict and Social Cohesion, 14–28; Michael Arlow, “Citizenship Education in a Divided Society: The Case of Northern Ireland,” in Education, Conflict and Social Cohesion, 255–313; and Lal Perera, Swarna Wijetunge, and A.S. Balasooriya, “Education Reform and Political Violence in Sri Lanka,” in Education, Conflict and Social Cohesion, 375–433.

113 Selim, Mohamed E., “The Survival of a Nonstate Actor: The Foreign Policy of the Palestine Liberation Organization,” in The Foreign Policies of Arab States, ed. Korany, Bahgat and Dessouki, Ali E. Hillal (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1984), 209Google Scholar.

114 “Waqiʿ al-Tifl al-Filastini,” 6; “Taqrir ʿan Madrasat Isʿad at-Tufula fi Suq al-Gharb,” 3.

115 See al-Hasan, al-Filastiniyyun fi al-Kuwayt; “Palestinians in Kuwait: Educational Attainments and Instituions”; “Taʿlim Abnaʾ Filastin fi al-Kuwayt”; Farah, “Political Socialization of Palestinian Children in Kuwait”; Ghabra, Palestinians in Kuwait; and Zelkovitz, “A Paradise Lost?.”

116 de Santisteban, Agustín Velloso, “Palestinian Education: A National Curriculum against All Odds,” International Journal of Educational Development 22 (2002): 147Google Scholar.

117 Buckland, Reshaping the Future, 13–28.

118 Buckland, Reshaping the Future; Hassanpour, Amir, “The Pen and the Sword: Literacy, Education and Revolution in Kurdistan,” in Knowledge, Culture, and Power: International Perspectives on Literacy as Policy and Practice, ed. Freebody, Peter and Welch, Anthony R. (Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993), 36–56Google Scholar.

119 Hickling-Hudson, “‘Post Marxist’ Discourse and the Rethinking of Third World Education Reform,” 180–81.

120 World Bank, Education in Sierra Leone: Present Challenges, Future Opportunities (Washington, D.C: World Bank, 2006), 1–14Google Scholar.

121 Qasim ʿAyna, interviews with the author, Beirut,19 March, 4 April, and 6 June 2007. For example, the tight budget prevented other employees from participating in completing the Maddat Filastin: “Khittat Lajnat Falsafat al-Tarbiya,” 3–4. Financial challenges are mentioned in the autobiography of the head of the PLO Education Department: Naji, Fi al-Khaymat al-Ukhra, 274, 370.

122 Zajda, Daun, and Saha, Nation-Building, Identity, and Citizenship Education; Vavrus and Bartlett, Critical Approaches to Comparative Education; Buckland, Reshaping the Future; Tawil and Harley, Education, Conflict and Social Cohesion.

123 I owe these insights to Anis Sayigh, general director of the PLO Research Centre from 1969 to 1977, interview with the author, Beirut, 17, 26 February, 6, 13, 28 March, 22 May, and 19 June 2007; Amour, “Palästinensische Bildungspolitik.”

124 Jabir Sulayman, interviews with the author, Beirut, 26 March, 13 April, 25 April, and 6 June 2007.

125 See, e.g., Cobban Helena, “The Dilemma of the PLO,” Merip Reports 13 (1983): 4.

126 See, e.g., Tawil and Harley, Education, Conflict and Social Cohesion, 14–28.

127 See, e.g., ibid.

128 In the records of the Department of Educational and Social Planning, there are many complaints about the lack of cooperation of many PLO institutions. For example, see “Taqiim Aʿmal al-Qism li-l-ʿAm 1975 wa-Khitat al-Qism li-l-ʿAm 1976.”

129 Parker, Sara and Standing, Kay, “The Impact of Conflict on Schooling in Nepal,” in Education, Conflict and Reconciliation: International Perspectives, ed. Leach, Fiona and Dunne, Máiréad (Oxford: Peter Lang AG, 2007), 51–64Google Scholar; Tawil and Harley, Education, Conflict and Social Cohesion, 15–28; Philip Stabback, “Curriculum Development, Diversity and Division in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” in Education, Conflict and Social Cohesion, 37–84.

130 See also Velloso de Santisteban, “Palestinian Education,” 147.

131 Ahmed-Fararjeh, Hisham, ed., Ibrahim Abu-Lughod: Resistance, Exile and Return: Conversations with Hisham Ahmed-Fararjeh (Ramallah: Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies [IALIIS], Birzeit University, 2003), 125–27Google Scholar. The similarities between the ideas and objectives of the Falsafa and those of the “Comprehensive Plan for the Development of the national Curriculum” (Ramallah: Curriculum Development Center, 1996) are remarkable. The latter was cowritten by Abu-Lughod. On these similarities, see Brown, Nathan J., Palestinian Politics after the Oslo Accords: Resuming Arab Palestine (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2003), 211Google Scholar.

132 For similarities with regard to the post-1995 national curriculum, see Van Dyke and Randall, “Educational Reform in Post-Accord Palestine,” 17–32; Brown, Palestinian Politics after the Oslo Accords, 201–31.