Education for what and for whom? Dilemmas for the “state” of play in Palestine

• In Event: Remapping State/Education Relations in the Context of North-South Epistemologies

Proposal

The question of the relationship between education and the state is a particularly convoluted and complex one in the context of Palestine. Delivered by multiple state or state-like bodies, who approach education’s mandate and function in Palestinian society in different ways, the result is an education system that is both emblematic of and constitutive of the cultural political economy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ritesh Shah explores these dynamics, to highlight the limitation of dominant conceptions of the state and the narrow possibilities it holds to explain the current conflict over statehood in the region, and the role/function of education within such societies. In doing so, he also highlights the limitations of approaching questions of the state from a methodologically nationalist viewpoint when examining Palestine—specifically, how education’s role in capital accumulation, identity-formation (or destruction), social cohesion, and political sovereignty is defined, shaped and contested at various scales and actors, rendering the notion of unitary states deeply problematic.

Author

• Ritesh Shah, University of Auckland