Lifeworlds and Change in Palestinian Education

Bill Williamson is Sociologist and Emeritus Professor of Continuing Education, Durham University, UK.

“Williamson’s book on Palestinian education is published while Palestinians in historic Palestine and in diasporas are experiencing a second Nakba. The ramifications of the Israeli war on Gaza will be felt in the whole region and beyond. The book based to a large extent on Palestinian testimonies contains much that is relevant to the Palestinian struggle for liberty and justice. The book argues convincingly that democratizing education is necessary for the future of Palestine, the region, and the Western World.”Jamil Hilal is a well-known Palestinian sociologist. He has taught sociology in British universities (Durham and London University College) and Dar al Salam University and has been a senior research fellow at Oxford University and at a number of Palestinian research and academic institutions, including Birzeit University.“This brave and powerful book on education in Palestine masterfully articulates the need for change in education in the 'West' on Palestine as much as educational change in Palestine itself. Williamson compellingly asserts the necessity for historical contextualisation and critical thinking - a 'decolonization of the mind of the colonized as well as of the colonizers.' Drawing on original accounts from teachers, researchers and civil society actors in Palestine, this book will no doubt become a seminal work in the field.”Dina Kiwan, Professor of Comparative Education, University of Birmingham, UK and Author of ‘Academic Freedom and the Transnational Production of Knowledge’ (2024)."Bill Williamson has produced an erudite, thoughtful and wide-raging study of education in Palestine. The book is guided by a universalist belief that educational change should be the result of change in the social environment in which it takes place. Nowhere is this view more apt than in the case of Palestine, a territory occupied by a state that is estranged from the history, culture and society of the indigenous Arab people it rules. Setting Palestinian education in its political and cultural context makes this an unusual and important analysis. It is a rich resource for researchers, and should be essential reading for educators and the wider public alike." Ghada Karmi is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK. She has previously held a number of roles including Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, where she led a major project on Israel-Palestinian reconciliation.

• IntroductionChapter 1: Contexts of change in Palestinian educationChapter 2: Education: the past in the presentChapter 3: Childhood in PalestineChapter 4: Children encounter educationChapter 5: Attitudes, ideology and possibilities in Palestinian vocational educationChapter 6: Civil society and learning in PalestineChapter 7: Higher education in PalestineChapter 8: A new future for education in Palestine?Afterword