Palestinian Elementary School Curriculum as an Instrument for Liberation and Consolidation of National Identity: A Critical Freirean Study Based on Teachers’ Perspectives in the Gaza Strip

Abstract

This study explores the role of the Palestinian curriculum at the elementary stage in providing an instrument for liberation and in promoting the Palestinian national identity. The thesis is based on the perspectives of Palestinian teachers of all the subjects which undergo formal assessment in the Gaza Strip. In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with 11 teachers to form the basis for the analysis and the conclusions. The study takes from Paulo Freire's critical theory of education a theoretical framework, where the data collected are analysed in light of Freire's theory. Through thematic content analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) of the collected data through online interviews with the sample of teachers, three interconnected themes are generated concerning the participants' views on the curriculum as an instrument for liberation and for promoting the Palestinian national identity. The three themes are: ambivalence between the content and the common spirit; negative neutrality: key to preserving oppression; and hierarchical bureaucracy: "I'm just a commanded slave!". While the current study problematises the Palestinian curriculum of the elementary stage for being neutral about the oppressive nature of the reality the Palestinian generations have been living due to the occupation, the findings confirm the curriculum's clear deficiency in addressing the challenges the Palestinians face. Based on the findings, the lack of education about the history of Palestine and the detachment of the content of the curriculum diminishes the students' awareness of their national identity. Furthermore, it confines the role of school education at the elementary stage in enhancing and refining the students' perceptions of their oppressive reality, which undermine the Palestinian emancipatory aspirations