The telling of peace education : narratives of peace educators in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Telling of Peace Education documents the narratives of five peace educators who use dialogical interactions among their students to create a culture of peace within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The overall intentions of these peace educators are to promote critical thinking, dialogue and to empower their students to make decisions for themselves. I use narrative inquiry to examine deeper understandings of people-to-people engagement of peace education at the community level. As such, I present the narratives that represent the experiences of the peace educators I interviewed for this research. In addition, my field notes document my own narrative as the researcher, traveling back and forth between Bethlehem and Jerusalem to conduct the interviews. My intention for conducting this narrative research is to learn: (a) What stories can peace educators tell us about their efforts in the context of Palestine and Israel? (b) How do they implement peace education programs in their communities? (c) What are their fears, hopes, and aspirations? (d) What challenges do they face in the development and delivery of peace education? I include a literature review of peace education in polarized societies, followed by perspectives in critical pedagogy, which frame this study. Also in the thesis, I outline historical aspects of the conflict, crucial to understanding the existing conflict, and in the end, improving relations between Palestinians and Israelis. Finally, I provide a literature review of youth involvement in political violence in the Middle East in which I analyze the ideology of political Islam and its impact on youth. In addition to presenting the full narratives of the peace educators, I discuss several themes that emerged across the interviews which include self and other, occupier and occupied, the impact of suicide missions on the Israeli public, reconstructing of textbooks and support for a two-state solution. I further postulate dichotomized relationships between the two highly polarized nations, as well as analyze how peace educators challenge this current conflict situation in ways that shape/transform the recognition of the other in light of the existence of the separation wall, and Israel’s “no return policy.”Education, Faculty ofGraduat