The education system in the Gaza Strip (Palestine) was under the control of the Ottoman Empire (1815–1917) and the British Mandate (1917–1948) and administered by Egypt (1948–1967) and the Israeli government (1967–1993). Since 1993, according to the Oslo Agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the education system has been under the Palestinian Authority (PA). However, the PA has no power over who can enter or exit Gaza by land or by sea. Kindergarten (KG) to Grade 12 education in Gaza faces numerous challenges compounded and exacerbated by the devastating impact of the Israeli blockade and military attacks on Gaza since 2006 when HAMAS was democratically elected. The effect of the Israeli siege and wars on Gaza are manifested in substantial damage in educational facilities, lack of safety for students, teachers, and administrators, and increased emotional and psychological trauma. These factors have led to a drop in students’ motivation and achievement, and an increase in school push-out (dropout) rates. The Israeli blockade resulted in a shortage of educational resources and supplies. Further, the Israeli blockade limited Gazan educators’ ability to participate in international conventions and study visits, and their ability to cooperate and coordinate with the PA Ministry of Education in the West Bank. The K-12 education system in Gaza is composed of two stages: Basic stage (Grades 1–10) and secondary stage (Grades 11–12). There are three types of schools serving students: (a) government public schools, (b) United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools, and (c) private schools. There are external challenges that face education in general; challenges that face the KG sector in particular; and challenges specific to Grades 1–12 education. Some of these challenges include improving the quality of the education system, flexibility and the ability to adapt to change, developing effective teachers’ preparation and training programs, critical shortage of funds to cover education expenditures, the political situation in Palestine and the rift between Gaza and the West Bank ruling authorities, lack of effective coordination between the Gazan Ministry of Education and UNRWA, and overcrowding. KG to Grade 12 education in Gaza faces numerous challenges compounded and exacerbated by the devastating impact of the Israeli blockade and military attacks on Gaza.
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History and Impact of Israeli Siege and Attacks on Education in Gaza, Palestine
Anwar Hussein, Shelley Wong, and Anita Bright
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Early Jesuit Visions of Education
Rosa Bruno-Jofré and Ana Jofre
Founded by Ignacio de Loyola, the Society of Jesus was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 and suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773. The Jesuits’ vision of education, which was transformative and student centered, thus showing awareness of the rise of individuality, was framed by The Spiritual Exercises (1548), Chapter IV of their Constitutions (1558), and, especially, the Ratio Studiorum (1599). Their conception of education integrated humanism and medieval scholasticism, embraced Aristotelian conceptions, and adopted the theology of Thomas Aquinas. It intersected humanism and confessionalization. A major aim was to prepare a male Catholic leadership for the new order of things; hence, the emphasis was on the creation of colleges and also universities. Funding of their colleges and universities often led to questionable practices such as slavery. Their educational work was framed by a developing geopolitical context of coloniality, and the ministry followed colonization and trade involving the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe, generating powerful networks and embodying a form of globalism with precursory transnational characteristics. The Jesuits often acted as cultural brokers and interlocutors with local cultures. See interactive map.
There was an interplay between the Jesuits’ educational work and their research in math and areas of science with the contextual intellectual and political configurations of emerging ideas and discoveries, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries, and they tried a degree of articulation with new ideas. The 17th century witnessed the dispute of the Jesuits with the Jansenists around human freedom and divine grace, as well as the decline of scholasticism and Aristotelianism, but also a spiritual renewal that opened the Church to the needs of the people, resulting in basic education for poor children as a response to the Reformation, while the 18th century brought a scientific and philosophical movement. Within the patriarchal setting of the Church, there was a realization that women were needed outside the cloister in the educational enterprise. The 18th-century scenario was not easy for the Jesuits, who could not articulate their thinking within new emerging configurations of political and intellectual ideas as they had done in the 16th century. Interaction with location, the historicity of experience, and the Jesuits’ search for knowledge and the role the schools played in the formation of thinkers of modernity give reasons, among others, to decenter the analysis of the Society. See concept map of contexts.
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Pedagogical Renewal and Teacher Training in Spain in the Early 20th Century
Jordi Garcia Farrero and Àngel Pascual Martín
What type of institutions prevailed in teacher training in Europe during the first decades of the 20th century? What was the reception of the German, French, or English models in Spain? What type of dialogue did Spanish teachers establish with the Escuela Nueva movement? What pedagogical elements were adopted to configure a new type of teacher, accounting for the different situations of the time? There is no doubt that teacher training, throughout the period mentioned, became one of the main educational and political issues. Teachers were among the fundamental actors, together with the pupils and the contents to be transmitted; the aim was that educational practices typical of the pedagogical renewal movement would take place in schools. Thus, a generation of innovative teachers had the opportunity, thanks to a scholarship from the Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas (1907–1939), to attend different teacher training colleges in Europe. This is fundamental for understanding the creation of the Escuela de Estudios Superiores del Magisterio (1909–1932) and, of course, the Plan Profesional of the Republican government (1932–1939). In short, the main innovations coming from the European movements of pedagogical renewal in the field of teacher training are those related to the incorporation of a non-encyclopedic general culture and pedagogical training, either theoretical, as in the history of education courses, or practical, by learning a wide range of new teaching methods.
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English Education in the United States
Ashley Boyd
English Education, broadly defined, is the study of the teaching and learning of English teacher education. The curriculum of English Education addresses all aspects of reading and writing, including language and rhetoric, and the teaching of those entities. Historically, the field has been punctuated by contention, with debates over what texts, contexts, and approaches should be included, and has been subject to the political influences that have impacted all public education, ranging from calls for progressive approaches that are student-centered to an emphasis on standards and accountability. Intertwined with these forces have been scholars whose theories greatly affected teachers’ approaches, especially related to the teaching of literature and methods for writing. While some movements advocated for basic skills and isolated drills, others pushed for a more critical and culturally situated English Education that expanded traditional notions of literacy to include social practices. Scholarship and research in the field mirrored these trends, with much focus on preservice teacher education, secondary students’ performance, and teachers’ use of various strategies to further engage youth. Future directions for the field include more classroom-based research on how English Education can respond to the demands of our technology-saturated and media-driven society as well as longitudinal studies of English teachers from preservice through their induction years to further study the impacts of their preparation programs.
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Multilingualism in Monolingual Schools and the German Example
Ingrid Gogolin
The majority of European countries consider themselves as monolingual nation-states. Some exceptions are countries composed of different linguistic territories, such as Belgium and Switzerland. Another form of exception is countries where certain territories are inhabited by linguistic minorities who are granted particular linguistic rights. Monolingualism with exceptions for special constellations or cases is therefore considered the “linguistic normality” in European nations. This understanding of normality is also reflected in the nations’ public institutions and is particularly pronounced in the national education systems.
The linguistic reality in Europe, however, contrasts with this notion of normality. Since time immemorial, the regions that have become European nation-states have been characterized by linguistic diversity, not only across but also within their boundaries. Since the second half of the 20th century, however, the number of languages that are vital and used daily has considerably increased. The most important driver of this development is international migration. Some European countries—Germany in particular—belong to the most attractive immigration destinations of the world. Despite of this reality, European national education systems largely persist in their monolingual mindset—or in other words: in a monolingual habitus.
This ambiguity can be amply illustrated by the example of the German education system. Education research shows that it belongs to the causes of educational disadvantage for children from immigrant families. This is precisely why innovation initiatives have been launched to mitigate the risks to teaching and learning associated with multilingualism, while making the best use of the resources offered by linguistic diversity to all children—be they growing up in monolingual or multilingual families.
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Public and Private Dimensions of Food Education in Early-20th-Century Argentina
Angela Aisenstein and María Liliana Gómez Bidondo
Eating is a conscious activity, not just a biological necessity, and as such, eating habits and tastes can be guided. When individual issues, such as those around food, coincide with the economic, demographic, and health problems of society, they become public issues, then state concerns, and ultimately part of public policy. In Argentina, the education system was founded simultaneously with the nation-state and became a crucial tool in the process of modernization. Feeding and food education were part of that process. This issue was of essential importance in a country structured from the beginning as a dependent agricultural-export economy. Food education is defined as a set of means, methods, and social relationships related to the production, transmission, distribution, and acquisition of knowledge and expertise. The purpose of food education is to influence the kind of food the population eats, to shape their nutritional habits and tastes; to produce enough food and set the conditions, techniques, and technologies to achieve it; to convey people’s rights and obligations to access food; and to establish the roles the state, community, family, and the market must play in order to reproduce the biological, economic, and cultural order of society.
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School Choice Policies in Postapartheid South Africa
Bekisizwe S. Ndimande
School choice is a fairly new phenomenon among Black communities in postapartheid South Africa. “Choice” has historically been state-determined; in other words, parents were instructed where to send their children to school based on race and based on the urban/rural homeland division of Black South Africans. Even after 1994, the new and democratically elected government gave very little direction to schools or school districts as to school choice for the purpose of desegregating public schools; there was no bussing, for example, as in the United States when desegregation started in the 1960s. Nor was there a strong rezoning policy that would force White public schools to give Black students access to White schools. In theory and according to the law, parents could choose to send their children to any school regardless of race. In practice, White schools determined who gained access to their schools through self-created policies based on high tuition fees, exclusive language policies, and self-defined “catchment areas” from which students would be chosen. Together, these strategies effectively excluded the Black poor, even though it provided access to the small numbers of Black middle class parents in the mainly English-medium White schools.
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A Transnational History of Intellectual Exchanges with the United States and the Shaping of Latin American Education
Rafaela Rabelo
At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States stood out internationally as a reference in pedagogical innovations and educational research. Teachers College (TC) at Columbia University in New York was one of the most renowned institutions that received students from many countries. Between the 1920s and 1940s, TC received more than 300 Latin American students. Some were already teachers or held administrative positions in their home countries. Upon their return, these Latin American educationalists promoted the circulation of what they had studied at TC by leading educational reforms, working on teacher training, and translating books. Later, several held prominent positions as university professors, in public administration, or as heads of research laboratories.
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1964 Freedom Schools in the United States
Kristal Moore Clemons
The 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project served thousands of children and adults in over 40 Freedom Schools created to combat voter suppression and encourage youth to engage in the Civil Rights Movement. The Mississippi Freedom Summer Project included three main initiatives: Freedom Schools and community centers, voter registration on the official state rolls, and a freedom registration plan designed to independently elect a slate of delegates to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Voter registration was the cornerstone of the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and approximately 17,000 Black residents of Mississippi attempted to register to vote in 1964, but only 1,600 of the applications were accepted by the registrars. The Freedom Schools utilized a curriculum focused on the philosophical tenets of the Civil Rights Movement, arithmetic, reading, writing, and African American history. The purpose was to supplement what children in the various counties in Mississippi were not receiving in their traditional public school setting. Marian Wright Edelman, activist and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), reinvigorated the contemporary Freedom Schools movement in the 1990s. The CDF’s Black Community Crusade for Children saw the CDF Freedom Schools program as an intergenerational collaboration between Civil Rights Movement–era activists and younger generations.
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An Overview of Historical Transitions in Politics of Education in Spain
Gonzalo Jover and Mariano González-Delgado
Politics of education constitutes a major line of research in Spain in recent years. This interest is the result of a long process. Enlightened thought and the emergence of new ideas led to thinking about the need to develop a national education system. The 19th century witnessed the birth of just such a system, along with the unfinished debate between liberals and conservatives on who should control education (church or state) and how it should be funded. By the 20th century, the education system had become one of the main resources for achieving social modernization in Spain and grew accordingly. Despite the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), this push for modernization carried on into the Franco dictatorship, with the typical peculiarities of a totalitarian regime. By the end of World War II, the Spanish education system was characterized by following the development of educational policies inscribed in the model of Western societies, or what has been called “global governance in education.” This conception of education was continued during the restoration of democracy in 1978. Despite its intention of configuring an education system based on the agreement between the major political parties of the day, the Constitution of 1978 did not manage to end the “school war,” which has caused considerable instability in the system. Since the end of the 20th century, the Spanish education system has been inserted in the context of international trends such as the resizing of political spaces, the push of the neoliberal global economy, and the move toward multicultural societies. The battle of statistics, figures, and scores has led to a supposed depoliticization of the debate. In face of this alleged depoliticization, an argument can be made in favor of resituating the politics of education as a field of knowledge that concerns social aspirations forged in the course of history and ethics.
