Education as a Weapon: Palestinian English Teachers Strive for Freedom, Empowerment, and Equality

• In Event: Race, Coloniality, and Occupation: Interrogating Dominant Logics and Conceptualizing Emancipatory Possibilities

Abstract

This paper offers a window into K-12 Palestinian English Teachers’ challenges in teaching under occupation. Through multimodal discourse analysis, a transnational, multilingual research team connected their experiences in the U.S., Vietnam, and Palestine with the experiences of the Palestinian teachers, who demonstrated multiple ways to prepare their students for the realities of the 21st century. Teachers leveraged education as a weapon (التعليم كسلاح) by working to disrupt systematic economic, political, and social inequality. Despite inhumane and arduous circumstances under which the teachers live and work, they demonstrated deep caring for their students, collective moral responsibility and determination to inspire and prepare their students to thrive.

Authors

• Thuy Tu, George Mason University

• Anita Bright, Portland State University

• Anwar Hussein -Abdel Razeq, Birzeit University

• Shelley Wong, George Mason University