Power, Surveillance, and Resistance: Palestinian Teachers and the Israeli Civics Curriculum in East Jerusalem

• In Event: Teaching and Learning in a Time of Turmoil, Polarization, and Trauma

Abstract

This study examines the experiences of Palestinian teachers in East Jerusalem implementing the Israeli Ministry of Education's civics curriculum. We investigate how teachers navigate the contradictions inherent in teaching citizenship to non-citizens. Understanding teachers as street-level bureaucrats (Lipsky, 1980) and drawing on Foucault's concept of power as a creative force (1980), we analyze data from interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires with teachers trained at Hebrew University. Our findings reveal strategies of resistance and adaptation employed by teachers facing surveillance and disconnects between the curriculum and students' lived realities. Conducted during the 2024 Israel-Gaza war, this research provides insights into education under occupation and conflict, contributing to literature on education in contested spaces and documenting both oppression and resistance.

Authors

• Emily N. Reich, University of California - Berkeley

• Samira Alayan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and David Yellin College of Education