Palestinian English Teachers in the Occupied Territories: Music, Moral Responsibility, and Socio-Emotional Challenges and Resiliency

• In Event: Criticality, Resistance, and Moral Responsibility in Bilingual and English Language Education

Abstract

Set in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, this study highlights eight Palestinian English language and literacy teachers as they navigate their ethical and educational responsibilities. In describing the omnipresent challenges associated with being a teacher (or indeed, simply being) in the Occupied West Bank of Palestine, each of the participants made reference-- either directly or indirectly-- to the construct of existence itself as resistance, a theme well familiar within Palestine, and in a range of other contexts, as well. Focusing on how they leveraged music and the arts in their instruction, a primary construct that emerged is the Palestinian Arabic term الصمود (Alsumood), meaning steadfastness, with each participant giving voice to notions of resistance, layered with vivid notions moral responsibility.

Authors

• Anwar Hussein -Abdel Razeq, Birzeit University

• Thuy Tu, George Mason University

• Shelley Wong, George Mason University

• Anita Bright, Portland State University