Voices From Palestinian English Teachers
Interviews with English educators in the West Bank
JALT 2017, Tsukuba
Presenter: Eric Gondree
Overview:
Background: Why?
teachers’ perspectives and
experiences?
Background: West Bank
(CIA World Factbook, 2017)
Palestinian Education:
“…emerged against a backdrop of chronic crisis” (Nicolai, 2007)
“…continues to be significantly compromised by the presence of checkpoints, the Barrier, military and armed group activities and entry into schools, settler-related incidents, increasing detention of students and lack of infrastructure” (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2016)
Palestinian Education:
Palestinian Education:
Participating Institutions
Interview Methodology:
Interview Methodology:
Analysis:
First Theme: Student Motivation
Motivation?
Students are not motivated... Many students, actually, just- they come to university because they have to. Again, there is no future. Employment future, specifically. So you find only five percent interested [sic] students in all the classes. Regardless if they are major classes or university requirements. Um, girls are more motivated, generally, than boys. Um, and- I would say that this has to do with the- the- situation that we are living- living in here. No horizons, actually. Students are not- into the- you know, learning by themselves. We don't have this culture at all...
Motivation? Talking to Students
Um, I talk to them. Okay? I tell them that you- it's important that- it’s important that you know those language skills. You- it's important to learn them because English is an important language. You have to- if you- if you have to move on forward in life, if- if you're going to get a scholarship outside of the country, you're gonna use English. So it's good to know English, okay? So it's- it’s a must nowadays, so it’s important…
Motivation? Making it Enjoyable
You know- teaching is a responsibility- and you should feel it. You should touch it. You should sense it and there should be a kind of intimacy to it and to your students. You should feel that they are part of you and you are part of them. You should feel things that make them happy and do much [sic] of them. And you should also guess or expect things that make them annoyed and avoid all these things. I feel it, all the time… [an] enjoyable experience.
Motivation? Build a Bridge�of Trust
Second Theme: Study Skills
for freshmen
for more tuition-paying students
Study Skills
Okay, the biggest challenge is probably- I think it's the students, some of them are not responsible enough. They are- they did not outgrow the high school period. Uh, they- some of them have the mentality that they are- the mentality that they are still in high school. Okay? They need to be more responsible and they need to realize that college education is optional- uh, it's not- it's not compulsory. It's not mandatory like high school. So you choose to come to college so you have to work harder and you have to live to that challenge.
Study Skills: Need for Support
They- they need- they need support in- uh, basically, I would say, um- in- in- in learning- skills. Learning skills… but let me talk about pedagogy. Okay, a lot of students actually, they- they lack the- skill to learn by themselves… Self-directed learning.
Third Theme: Security/Safety
Security/Safety
Normally, you know, we are living under Israeli occupation and we have too many disruption [sic]. Sometimes we start a normal semester. All of a sudden, things change as a result of Israeli closures and Israeli curfews and Israeli restrictions on movement from one city to another, from one place to another. So, in fact, the Israelis are creating too many obstacles for us. And this would prevent us from going ahead with the teaching process as smoothly as we want... Some students come from Jerusalem and, you know, there is a permanent checkpoint near Qalandiya which prevents them sometimes from coming to university, okay? The Isra- the Isra- the Israeli occupation is a… is a major problem in our lives- in our educational lives.
Security/Safety
I teach in H2 [east Hebron] and there- there is, you know, the Israeli occupation and it's really important for them [students] to speak English there. Because sometimes, because of the misunderstanding with- with the soldiers, some catastrophes happen. So, for example, if the soldier asks them to stop in Hebrew and they didn't understand this... so, you know, about the Israeli soldier, he will suspect them. After that, they- he might, just shoot them because he's afraid of them.
Security/Safety
Well, our students- the students' culture, for example, at the beginning of last year, they- they participated in activities against the blockades of- the Israeli blockades of certain roads. And when is- there is- we do have some- some of our students were killed by Israelis so they compose- or they make an important part of the culture of our university. And their names are- are remembered, they are celebrated and, so this is part of our identi- [sic] that we are proud of and we emphasize as a university.
Bir Zeit U. Student Demonstration, March 7, 2017
Conclusion:
teachers in March, 2017 at two universities and one private language school…
References:
Brock, C. & Levers, L. Z. (Eds). Aspects of Education in the Middle East and North Africa. Symposium Books. 185 – 208.
Thank you for attending
http://eric.gondree.com
Appendix 1: Question List