“You’re Representing a Movement Larger Than Yourself”: Counter-Storytelling and Solidarity-Building in the Teaching of Palestine

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 7:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Refusal, Care, and Justice: Educators Challenging Structures in Teaching

Abstract

This paper presents the counter-story of Haia, a Muslim woman and first-year high school English teacher, who taught about Palestine through a solidarity-building approach. Drawing on Critical Race Theory and pedagogies of solidarity, we explore how Haia’s sociopolitical identity and justice commitments informed her teaching and the resistance she experienced for her work from students, parents, and administrators. Using ethnographic observations and interviews, we construct a narrative that illustrates the risks and possibilities of teaching about Palestine in U.S. schools. This study challenges dominant discourses of neutrality, highlights the labor of justice-oriented teachers, and expands understandings of solidarity in curriculum. This paper contributes to scholarship on counter-storytelling, educational justice, and the role of teacher identity in confronting settler colonialism.

Authors

• Rubén A. González, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Haia Z Haidari, The Ohio State University