gaza teaches back
TRANSCRIPT
Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State
CESE, University of Glasgow, 1st June 2016
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) through the Translating Cultures Programme
[grant reference AH/L006936/1]
Gaza teaches back
Maria Grazia [email protected]
(PhD researcher, School of Education, University of Glasgow)
Overview
- Research context
- Research aim & questions
- Methodology
- From Glasgow to Gaza
- Education under pain and pressure
- Education as the practice of freedom: hope and
cultural resistance
Research context
- Post-colonial studies: Orientalism and the Question of Palestine (Said, Khalidi)
- Critical applied linguistics: language resistance; appropriation of English and of English
pedagogy as a creation of counter-narratives (Canagarajah,
Pennycook, Holliday, Phillipson)
- Capability approach (Sen, Nussbaum)
Capability approach in language education (Crosbie)
- Critical pedagogy (Freire, hooks)
Research questions/aim
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) through the Translating Cultures Programme
[grant reference AH/L006936/1]
To explore how a grounded framework can be co-constructed
for language education in contexts of occupation, pain and
pressure.
Auxiliary questions (?):
1) What are the goals and values of foreign language education in
the context of occupation of the Gaza Strip, Palestine?
2) Which capabilities for language education in context of
occupation can be identified? How can they be nurtured?
3) How does the context of siege influence the teaching-learning
process?
4) How can ‘Art of Resistance’ be used in English language
teaching as a localized, creative, and critical approach to language
education?
Methodology
- (Online) Critical Participatory Action Research: a
practice changing practice and changing practice
architectures (Kemmis and McTaggart, 2014)
- Online Teacher Training Course: ‘Using the Art of
Resistance in English language teaching’, 8 workshops
with 13 graduated pre-service English teachers from
the Islamic University of Gaza
From Glasgow to Gaza
The main challenge was the connection; when it broke down, it made us frustrated and unable to communicate which waste time.
Other challenges: faces, spaces
I think that Skype was a good tool during the lesson because i felt that Grazia with us as a real teacher we can see and hear her. I felt that she is standing between us and she knew all of us and call every girl with its name(A., evaluation form)
Education under pain and pressure: lifesaving
After several wars on Gaza, students were about to lose their hopes or smile […] teachers can simply ask their students to talk about their own experiences, for example to let them talk about their family loss as a result of the wars. (Y. essay)
Engaged pedagogy (hooks)
Loss as inseparable from what remains (Milner)
Photo credit: Gift from S.A.
“Be Happy”Be happy
While we were answering our first final exam in 2008,
Frightening bombs have started, and begun a terrible fate.
Everyone thought of the other, but in this fog, how they can see
Some of the students fainted and others set on their knees
Some went to their homes running
To reach their families, they thought hopefully
We did not know where to go
It was all of a sudden
We did not know what to do
All of us were frightened
How come the children face all these problems?
No one in the world can stand all these bombings!
What mood left for us to feel? What is our expression?
What would it be rather than sadness and depression.
S.A.
[Pause]. S: so for homework you will write a poem about your feelings during the war..
F: Ok, Miss.. But which war?[laugh]
S: [laugh] Oh Any! You can choose, 2008, 2012, 2014… [Laugh]
F: [laugh] Ok, I take 2012!
M: No.. I wanted 2012. [giggle]
Values and goals of (Language) Education
So, in Gaza, everything is different, even the definition of the term ‘success’ is unique. According to the Gazan dictionary, Success can be defined as planting seeds in a sterile tree, then it could bring ripe fruits. Success means to plant hope in a land of despair and frustration. (A.W., written assignment).
Critical Hope (Freire)
Photo credit: Gift from A.Y.
Beyond competences and skills (Barnett)
Education as the practice of freedom: hope and cultural resistance
We resisted the occupation by starting
the course and completing it, even
though you were not able to reach
Gaza because of the siege the
occupation imposing. (Y., evaluation
form)
The course has been the gate of
liberty and freedom in a peaceful
path. It has been the outstanding
real course that broke the borders
and obstacles.
(N., evaluation form)
Conclusions: who teaches what to whom?
“Gaza teaches back”
Teachers should teach their students that they should use their hard circumstances and the suffering as a challenge instead of playing the role of being a victim.
Yes all the Palestinians are victims especially young children but we should not give up; we must challenge the hardship we live. Teachers should remind their students that yes we have electricity cuts that sometimes exceed 12 hours a day; yet the light of the candles is enough to sit the whole night on your desk just to finish your assignments.
They also should remind that hundreds of children lost their moms and dads in the last war; yet they are going on in their lives, they study, work hard, and get the highest marks.
In this regard, I would like to quote Ziadah’s wonderful lines from her poem ‘We teach life, sir’ “We teach life, sir, we Palestinians teach life after they occupied the last sky. We teach life after they have built their settlements and Apartheid walls; after the skies we teach life, Sir.” (Y., reflective journal)
Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law
and the State
Thank you for your attention!
شكرا!
Maria Grazia [email protected]
(PhD researcher, University of Glasgow)