‘Betraying Our Educational Mission': Power, Resistance, and Agency in Israeli-Sponsored Training for East Jerusalem Teachers

• In Event: Power as Resource, Tool, and Constraint: Examining Power in Educational Organizations

Abstract

This study examines how educational administrators and teachers navigate the implementation of authoritarian policies that conflict with their professional values through the case of a Hebrew University certification program for Palestinian Teachers in East Jerusalem. We ask 1) how do program administrators understand their role, 2) what motivations do Palestinian teachers express for participating in an Israeli state-sponsored civics program, and 3) how does the policy environment shape these administrators’ and teachers’ curricular and pedagogical decisions? This research explores how leaders tasked with implementing anti-democratic mandates can reimagine policy implementation to serve marginalized communities.

Our inquiry centers on a belief in the power educators wield–even in the most contested spaces (Ball, 2024). These dynamics are salient in our East Jerusalem study site. Israel's Five Year Plan (FYP) for East Jerusalem aims to expand Israeli curriculum programs in areas previously using Palestinian National Authority materials (International Crisis Group, 2019). The Hebrew University certification program is a product of the FYP and was designed to credential East Jerusalem teachers whose Palestinian Authority-issued qualifications are unrecognized by the Israeli Ministry of Education. We use critical policy analysis (Diem et al., 2022, Apple, 2019) to study the certification program and its enabling policies.

Our primary data includes semi-structured interviews with 22 program graduates and 4 administrators and anonymous questionnaires. We contextualize this data by analyzing documents from government ministries, the Jerusalem municipality, and Hebrew University program.

Findings reveal a dynamic wherein administrators chose strategic compliance over outright rejection of the policy. Rather than abandoning teachers they understood to need support, program leaders created curricula and hired staff based on educator needs rather than state priorities. Still, they made these decisions while satisfying the official requirements necessary to secure funding and issue state credentials to teachers. This approach enabled administrators to further their educational mission of teacher empowerment while operating within an authoritarian policy framework they personally opposed. These actions suggest that staff sought to re-shape policy to serve marginalized teachers and their students.

Similarly, Palestinian teachers participated in the program with instrumental, rather than ideological, concerns. Their primary driver for program participation was to access better employment opportunities and higher salaries. Secondarily, teachers cited the program as valuable because it provided them with the content and pedagogical knowledge needed to support their students in passing matriculation exams.

The study illuminates how educational leaders facing authoritarian mandates can exercise power through strategic implementation rather than outright resistance or passive compliance. The unique form of resistance we capture operates from within the system rather than against it. The study has significance beyond the East Jerusalem context, offering insights for administrators and organizations facing pressure to implement policies that conflict with their values and democratic principles.

Authors

• Emily N. Reich, University of California - Berkeley

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