Educational Philosophy and Theory

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Covid-19 and the decolonisation of education in

Palestinian universities

Bilal Hamamra , Nabil Alawi & Abdel Karim Daragmeh

To cite this article: Bilal Hamamra , Nabil Alawi & Abdel Karim Daragmeh (2021): Covid-19 and
the decolonisation of education in Palestinian universities, Educational Philosophy and Theory

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1865921

Published online: 08 Jan 2021.

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EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY
https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1865921

Covid-19 and the decolonisation of education in Palestinian

universities
Bilal Hamamra, Nabil Alawi and Abdel Karim Daragmeh
English, An-Najah National University, Nablus, State of Palestine

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Despite the severe social, health, political and economic impacts of the Received 6 October 2020
outbreak of Covid-19 on Palestinians, we contend that one positive Revised 7 December 2020
aspect of this pandemic is that it has revealed the perils and shortcom- Accepted 11 December 2020
ings of the teacher-centered, traditional education which colonizes stu-
KEYWORDS
dents’ minds, compromises their analytical abilities and, paradoxically, COVID-19; pandemic; digital
places them in a system of oppression which audits their ideas, limits learning; teacher-centred
their freedoms, and curtails their creativity. While Israeli occupation has education; paradigm shift;
proven to be an obstacle in the face of the Palestinian government’s literature education
attempt to combat and contain the Corona crisis, on-line education, the
sole arena that escapes this colonial system, has forced many instructors
to give up their domination over the process of education and to create
a more collaborative atmosphere of education that is based on dia-
logue, research and flexibility of the curriculum content. This study is
designed to gauge English literature students’ responses to this mode
of digital learning. We interviewed a hundred students from six English
literature programs between March and August, 2020. Thus, through
critically examining students’ answers, and by drawing on Freire’s con-
cepts of banking education, consciousness and dialogue, we propose
that online education is an important step towards the decolonization
of education and a call for a paradigm shift on the account that the
existing paradigm of traditional education is stifling students’ creativity
and critical thinking.

Introduction: study context

While the spread of the Corona virus (Covid-19) poses a challenge to advanced nations and their
health systems, this pandemic poses an even greater, more complex challenge to the
Palestinians who continue to live in a highly volatile political environment that has many restric-
tions on student mobility, export and import activity, and access to adequate infrastructure and
education resources. The Israeli military occupation of Palestine and the repeated violence
against Palestinians have weakened the Palestinian health system and have consequently disre-
garded Palestinian rights to life (Alashqar, 2020). Over the past few months, the world has wit-
nessed, in response to World Health Organization’s call for solidarity and togetherness, inspiring
examples of cooperation among nations so as to combat the Corona virus. The manifestation of
global cooperation is clear, for example, in the Chinese assistance to Italy and some Arab coun-
tries during the initial phase of this crisis. Russia’s assistance of other countries worldwide is

CONTACT Bilal Hamamra bilalhamamra@najah.edu English, An-Najah National University, Nablus 00972, State
of Palestine
ß 2021 Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia
2 B. HAMAMRA ET AL.

another manifestation of this global cooperation which results from the pandemic. UN News
refers to the words of Nickolay Mlandenov, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace
Process, who has pointed out that ‘The COVID-19 pandemic is creating opportunities for cooper-
ation that Israelis and Palestinians must embrace to sustain Middle East peace efforts and bring
an end to decades of conflict’ (2020). However, the Israeli occupation goes against basic human
and humanitarian principles, shutting down a first-aid community initiative in the Jordan valley
during the global health crisis. Hawari points out that ‘[t]here have also been direct Israeli attacks
on Palestinian attempts to confront the virus, such as the destruction of a COVID 19 clinic in the
Jordan Valley and the arrest of Palestinian volunteers attempting to distribute supplies to impov-
erished communities in East Jerusalem’ (2020). During the first months of the outbreak of the
virus, social media displayed images and videos of Israeli soldiers dumping a number of
Palestinian workers and prisoners with Covid-19 symptoms at Israeli checkpoints without medical
care or coordination with the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Furthermore, Israelis are not offering
any medical services to Palestinian workers, and they have taken no notice of the Palestinian
authority’s request that they test workers returning to the West Bank. Because many workers
return carrying the virus, the Palestinian Authority prevented workers from returning to Israel
(Knell, 2020). This is also due to the fact that Palestinian workers in Israel are suffering from ‘the
lack of Israeli health insurance and the absence of physical distancing and hygiene in unpro-
tected accommodation sites’ (Alashqar, 2020). Thus the Palestinian populations from all walks of
life continue to be vulnerable to the economic distress, the health hazard and the inability of
the existing structures of governance to address economic, health, and safety and secur-
ity challenges.
However, one positive impact of the outbreak of Covid 19 is manifested in the adoption of
online education by many Palestinian academic institutions. It is needless to say that we did not
have much say in this sudden transition to digital learning. Indeed, it was our only option during
the pandemic. The Palestinian universities and schools suspended all classes without stopping
learning; all academic institutions migrated from face-to-face education to online education
(Abumaria, 2020; Jawabreh, 2020). The rise in digital learning has been positively viewed by
many education experts. In the words of Fawns (2019), ‘being digital is [ … ] inherently positive,
requiring transformation from an inferior, pre-digital state’ (p. 135) through innovating new
approaches to learning and teaching. Indeed, the rich potential of the postdigital is to open up
new ways of thinking about the digital and to frame such discussions in the context of long-
standing philosophical and theoretical questions about schools, education and time (Rikowski &
Ford, 2019). In this article, we draw on Freire’s concepts of banking education and dialogue so
as to highlight the decolonization of education or the gearing away from the banking system of
education in the teaching of literature in Palestinian tertiary education. Even though Paulo
Freire’s classic book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, was published half a century ago, its messages
of faith, hope, commitment to liberation and democracy are urgent and important in contempor-
ary Palestine which is plagued with the Israeli occupation and a corrupt Palestinian government
that consolidates Palestinian stagnant traditions. While the circumstances in which Freire’s theory
of pedagogy was embodied are different from those facing teachers today (Jandric & McLaren,
2020), ‘[c]ritical pedagogy’s mission toward emancipation and social justice has remained the
same’ (Jandric & McLaren, 2020, p. 5). We contend that online education limits or restricts the
hegemony of instructors over the process and the outcomes of literature education. Online edu-
cation adopted in many Palestinian universities follows the online and offline phases. While the
former focuses on discussions and representations on the parts of instructors and students, the
latter phase is based on research which enables students to practice and develop their critical
skills and forces teachers to read up on the subjects taught so as to be able to recommend fur-
ther readings to their students. The realities of virtual learning called for reduced contact hours,
less indoctrination, more research-based assessments, and the creation of learning spaces
(Facebook groups) that are managed and moderated by learners. The need to counter possible
 EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY 3

plagiarism attempts compelled instructors to design homework and exams that involve both crit-
ical thinking and research.
To gauge the impact of this sudden migration to the more democratic and flexible digital
learning spaces, we conducted a series of two-hour unstructured interviews with English litera-
ture students in the second and summer terms of 2020. 100 students, randomly selected from
all Palestinian universities, participated in this study. All participants were enrolled in literature
courses, specifically the Special Topics, Shakespeare, Literary Criticism, The Novel and Short Story,
and American Literature. They were prompted to compare the pre-Covid 19, in class education
experience with the digital, home-based mode on five main levels: learner voice and agency
(decision making), intellectual decolonization, gender sensitivity, and democratic values such as
diversity and pluralism. The participants’ responses were incorporated in the analysis under these
main themes, and, since the interview was unstructured and the participants were given the
time and the freedom to reflect on the experiences from their own vantage point, new dimen-
sions to the experience, both positive and negative, emerged which we added to the richness of
the analysis.

The paradox of resisting and practicing oppression

Since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Palestinian universities have
acted, firstly, as ‘bearers of national consciousness’, then as ‘centres of resistance to Israeli coloni-
alism’ and thirdly as ‘contributors to state building’ (Bruhn, 2006, pp. 1125-1126). Palestinian uni-
versities are in the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; many universities have been attacked
by Israeli soldiers with bullets and tear gas causing injuries and fatalities among students and
staff members. Reisz suggests that the quality of education plays a role in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and in the construction of independent nations. Many Palestinian scholars have been
exiled because of their political beliefs and their resistance to Israeli occupation (2015).
Shalhoub-Kevorkian (2010) notes that ‘education is utilised as a tool for oppression in conflict
zones, primarily and precisely because it can be used to affect social and political transformation,
emancipation, and liberation’ (p. 336).The construction of education in conflict zones as a means
of liberation is further substantiated by the fact that Israeli occupation closed all Palestinian uni-
versities and schools in 1967 and during the first Intifada starting in 1987 (Abo Hommos, 2013;
Asaad, 2000; Mahshi & Bush, 1989).
At that time, Palestinian educators found a substitute for the closed campuses, turning their
houses and some public institutions like cafes and clinics into classrooms. One student would
invite his classmates and his/her tutor to have the class at home. This practice was in defiance of
the Israeli occupation which was constantly trying to abort all Palestinian attempts of disseminat-
ing education in the occupied territories. Writing on the Israeli closure of Palestinian universities
during the first Intifada in 1988, Baramki points out that:
The closure was challenged (at first by BirZeit University) on the ground that it referred to on-campus and
not off-campus teaching. The military government did not respond to the challenge, and by the end of the
second year, virtual regular classes were held off-campus. Reference books and periodicals were smuggled
out of libraries, and even some pieces of equipment were set up outside campuses for special
groups (1996).

Would virtual education have been a savior had it been available at that time? The answer is
in the negative because it would be easy for the Israeli occupation to not only monitor the inter-
net service but to deprive Palestinians from it altogether. However, during the pandemic, Israel
is not interfering in the flow of data from homes. Palestinian universities are using different inter-
nationally designed platforms such as Moodle, Zoom and Facebook to deliver education services
to thousands of students in the West Bank and Gaza.
4 B. HAMAMRA ET AL.

Despite the fact that Palestinians have control over the education system and despite the fact
that they have introduced a series of changes to the school and university curricula since the
establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1996 with the help of donor funds, the teaching
and learning environments in Palestine remain predominantly teacher-centered in practice. The
use of traditional education, which is based on a superficial analysis of texts and memorization,
has paradoxically placed Palestinian universities in the contradictory position of resisting and
practicing oppression at the same time. Instead of producing creative, critical learners, the uni-
versities have, for a long time, perpetuated ‘a colonial practice’ that oppresses students, prevent-
ing them from engaging in social and political challenges. This view is further substantiated by
the fact that the Israeli occupation tolerates the traditional education system in Palestinian uni-
versities because it regards education as ‘an effective inculcator of the same cultural and Islamic
propensities which have governed Arab intellectual categories for centuries’ (Anabtawi, 1986, p.
10). The adoption of the traditional way of teaching originates from the fact that Palestinian aca-
demic institutions are influenced by Palestinian culture and the geographical location of stu-
dents, the majority of whom come from conservative rural areas, and the professional
characteristics of professors, quite a good number of whom received their higher studies from
universities in the Arab World that generally follow the traditional system of education. While
many scholars received their higher degrees from Western universities which promote creative
and critical thinking, many of them become institutionalised in the sense that they follow the
traditional way of teaching that is based on memorization and superficial analysis of the liter-
ary work.
In more general terms, the educational system in some Arab countries is characterized by
memorization, superficial analysis, rote learning, religious education and reverence and subjuga-
tion to the ruling regime and the dominant ideology (Muasher, 2014). In many Palestinian uni-
versities and schools, students are treated as empty vessels to be filled by the instructors.
Ramahi (2015) points out that
The available data in the Occupied Palestinian Territories indicate that both the curriculum content and
modes of assessment in formal education do not respond adequately to the various challenges and
demands of the political and socioeconomic conditions within this colonial context. Students in schools,
colleges and universities are taught to become passive recipients of pre-packaged knowledge as a result of
an outdated pedagogy that is associated with power structures and patriarchal elites (p. v).

Such rote learning practices treat students as passive organisms and that is counterproductive
to the whole teaching process. In the words of Paulo Freire, many instructors use ‘banking edu-
cation’ (1970, p. 54), which ‘turns [students] into ‘containers’ [ … ]. The more meekly the recep-
tacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are’ (Freire, 1970, p. 58). While
many educators in the Departments of English across Palestine were enmeshed in the stagnant,
traditional education, we contend that the outbreak of Covid 19, that forces us to gear towards
virtual education, is the cloud with the silver lining. While the early days of the pandemic cre-
ated uneasiness and fear among students and educators alike, these feelings began to subside
and both students and educators are meeting the challenge that virtual learning demands.

Migrating to digital learning

The Palestinian government, like many other governments around the world, has issued policies
and defensive strategies to reduce the contacts among people so as to control the virus and to
protect the public health. On 5 March 2020, the Palestinian authority initiated a series of emer-
gency management mechanisms including social distancing, the lockdown of cities and the shut-
ting down of schools and universities. Jandric notes that ‘The Covid-19 pandemic has brought a
huge social experiment into our homes, streets, cities, countries, and globally. Outcomes of this
social experiment will follow the whole humankind, probably fairly unequally, far into the future’
 EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY 5

(2020, p. 236). We all feel obliged to follow certain protective measures and be very wary of our
social interaction with colleagues and acquaintances and by virtue of that the majority of us
have felt or do feel that we have to step out of our comfort zone and be watchful of our sur-
roundings since contracting this virus is not a remote possibility. Social distancing is further illu-
minated through the closure of public spaces, schools and universities to protect public health.
The migration to digital learning has led many instructors in the Departments of English in
Palestine to give up their domination over the process of education and to create a more demo-
cratic atmosphere of education that is based on dialogue, research and flexibility of the material
taught. Within the context of contemporary Palestinian academic institutions, particularly the
Departments of English, online education has revealed the colonization of the pre-Covid 19
mode of education and has, as evident from the data collected over 6 months of digital educa-
tion, freed students from the bondage of passivity and silence. This opportunity, made available
through the transition to online education, presents a call for a paradigm shift. Thomas Kuhn
(1996) pointed out that in the history of science, scientists encountered anomalies that could not
be explained by a prevailing paradigm, and then a new paradigm was created to address the
problems. Thus, a paradigm shift requires ‘enough significant anomalies to accrue’ so as to throw
a discipline paradigm into a state of “crisis”’ (pp. 11–12). The result is the emergence of a new
paradigm which ‘gains its own new followers, and an intellectual battle takes place between the
followers of the new paradigm and the hold-outs of the old paradigm’ (Kuhn, 1996, p. 13).
Kuhn’s paradigm has enabled scholars and scientists to perceive the world anew, to adopt new
instruments and methods (Patton, 1990). However, within the context of education, it would be
counterproductive to rely on one single paradigm to account for various educational problems.
For example, Donmoyer (2006) points out that ‘my argument for abandoning paradigm talk, in
short, is based on strategic and pragmatic considerations’ (p. 29). The migration of Palestinian
universities from in-class education to online education can be read as a call for a paradigm shift
for it enables us to spotlight the shortcomings of the banking education practiced in class edu-
cation. The dialogical pedagogy that shored up in the digital mode of education is a promising
alternative paradigm to the in-class, teacher-centered approach which has fallen short from ful-
filling the emancipatory purpose of education. Because it is online education that has, in many
ways, revealed the perils of in-class education, we need to utilize virtual learning as a subsidiary
tool that works hand in hand with the traditional means of learning. As Fawns (2019) points out,
‘Learning spills out beyond the classroom and the computer, blending face-to-face and online,
asynchronous and synchronous, bodily and cognitive forms’ (p. 134). Jandric et al. point out that
Covid-19 pandemic is an extreme ‘rupture and continuation event’ (Jandric et al., 2018, p. 895),
and that this ‘event’ will significantly influence the way we will be teaching and experiencing
the world in the foreseeable future.

Pedagogical drawbacks in the teaching of literature

The literature courses are no exception to the rote learning mode. The literary approach that is
mostly used in the Departments of English is the formalist approach. The reading list for many
literature courses includes mainstream canonical writers from the British and American traditions.
In most literature courses, teachers examine the figurative language, sound device, imagery, sym-
bolism and structure of excerpts of the literary texts that they teach. In the words of Hall (2005),
teaching literature in Arab universities tends to be ‘conservative, over-specified in terms of exces-
sive reading loads of prescribed canonical works, but underspecified in terms of educational
aims, as if the value of literature was obvious’ (p. 146). The process of teaching and learning in
many Palestinian universities gears towards mastery of pre-set ‘knowledge’ in preparation for the
examinations; students are traditionally asked to comment on selected lines from the literary
texts, identifying the speaker and context and commenting on figurative language and imagery
6 B. HAMAMRA ET AL.

embodied therein. In other words, the primary task of many instructors is to prepare students to
pass their exams which require superficial analysis and synthesis of a literary work. Many stu-
dents, the majority of whom are women, study to pass exams and receive degrees without get-
ting involved in the fight against social and political injustice. The teacher is more of a judge
who decides on a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ answer, allowing no space for an answer different from
his or her viewpoint. The search for a one right answer (a transcendental signified) is the funda-
mental error that Derrida finds and tries to correct in Western civilization.
While banking education treats students as receptacles for instructors’ knowledge, dialogue
raises students and instructors’ consciousness through reflection on the social and political real-
ities of their lives. The dialogical relation between instructors and students encourages a liberat-
ing education in an effort to work toward a democratic and equitable society. Indeed, in his
criticism of the banking system of education, Freire (1970) advocates pedagogy whose ‘very
legitimacy lies in [ … ] dialogue’ (p. 109). In the manner of the international calls for solidarity
and togetherness so as to combat the pandemic, we think that the only way to learn is together.
Dialogical and active engagement pedagogies raise students’ awareness of their conditions and
rights and allow them to develop a sense of agency so they can participate in resisting various
forms of injustice. Taylor (1993), discussing Freire’s texts, points out that ‘Conscientization is a
process of developing consciousness, but consciousness that is understood to have the power to
transform reality’ (p. 52). The process of conscientization, which represents the development of
critical awareness, evolves from on-going dialectical dialogue between human beings and the
world. According to Freire (1983), ‘to be human is to engage in relationships with others and
with the world’ (p. 3).
However, while dialogue is crucial in helping students to free their thinking from those of
their teachers, many students complain that some instructors, especially those of the old gener-
ation, prevent them from discussion in classrooms; they mock students’ analysis and deny them
the chance to participate, teaching them to accept what is handed down to them without ques-
tioning. As professors of English literature in Palestinian universities, we often, in our departmen-
tal meetings or talks with our colleagues, hear some instructors expressing negative opinions of
their students, that impede the liberating purpose of education: ‘I do not believe them’; ‘I have
no faith in them’; ‘they have nothing to say’; ‘they are hopeless cases’; ‘they cannot contribute to
the educational process’. These instructors’ lack of faith and hope in their students impede the
possibility of liberating education based on dialogue and shared knowledge. Because many
instructors exercise tyranny rather than collegiality, many students internalise this system of
oppression, retreating behind the walls of silence so as not to provoke their teachers’ criticism.
One of the students, reflecting on in-class education, said, ‘I liked to participate, but the teacher,
in his angry and bitter comments, gave me and my classmates the impression that students,
who articulated their thoughts on the subject, were not happy with his discussion’ (16 June
2020). Another student said that ‘many teachers used to like silent students’ (16 June 2020).
While Palestinians are struggling to have a voice of their own, such instructors are playing the
role of the colonial power, that is, the Israeli occupation, oppressing their students and perpetu-
ating their passivity and docility.
However, we contend that digital education enables many instructors and students of litera-
ture to spotlight the shortcomings of such oppressive practices. In addition to the textbooks,
teachers are making available a plethora of digital content such as lecture recordings, links to
online content, PowerPoints, forum discussions, home assignments, online polls. In the offline
phase, students are expected to do their own learning in their own time, at their own pace.
They collect additional data, engage in arguments and dialogues with their peers, write essays,
deliver individual and team presentations, assess strengths and weaknesses in literary
approaches, critically engage with critical concepts from different literary movements and peri-
ods, transfer their knowledge to their present context to assess its relevance or irrelevance to
the social, political, economic, and gender realities in Palestine. All this learning is happening
 EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY 7

without close observation from their teachers, a practice which translates into less reliance on
their teachers and therefore less control over the process of learning and its outcomes.

Dare to speak
The asynchronous, learner-centered nature of the online education creates a democratic platform
where all students participate and express thoughts (Eastmond, 1997; Northrup, 2002) and where
the teacher’s role transforms into a facilitator of learning (Young et al., 2001). The emphasis on
dialogue between students and instructors reveals that students and instructors are equal in the
process of education; students become ‘critical coinvestigators’ who engage ‘in dialogue with
the teacher’ (Freire, 1970, p. 68). While we cite these enthusiastic views, we also acknowledge
that dialogue-based learning is not always democratic and liberating for students. Indeed, this
pedagogy has been criticized for perpetuating hegemony (Ellsworth, 1989).
The social constructivism approach to learning in a face-to-face learning reality which aims at
constructing meaning and learning experiences by some cooperation among learners is trans-
formed into a community of inquiry through an e-learning environment. There are researchers
(Bleazby, 2012) who think that the community of inquiry and the internet are not very compat-
ible. The internet governs and directs our search through hyperlinks interfering with ‘higher
order thinking and the deep processing of information’ (p. 5). Bleazby also argues that the com-
munity of inquiry is based on generating ideas and constructing meaning through diversity but
in reality the internet creates homophily among users by brining like-mind people together.
Palestinian universities suffer from homophily since their creation in the 1970s. No foreign stu-
dents from outside Palestine are allowed to join Palestinian universities due to the visa restric-
tions imposed by the Israeli Occupation. The virtual learning model at Palestinian universities
offers the chance for reaching out to communities of inquiry outside Palestine. One of the
researchers participated in a Classrooms Beyond Borders project in which he liaised his
Autobiography class with partners at Ithaca College in New York (2009-2015). Students of
Autobiography from An-Najah National University and student of Political Justice at Ithaca
College met via video conference on a weekly basis to discuss an autobiographical work. The
classrooms included both Synchronized and asynchronized activities.
We realize that the degree and level of learners’ empowerment will ultimately depend on
how much space they are given to voice their opinions, how safe they feel as they express their
views, and how confident they are that their views will be tolerated by their peers and their
teachers. Our respondents reported that the digital learning environments increased their confi-
dence and courage to engage in issues that range from negotiating course requirements to the
articulation of anti-patriarchal and female liberation positions. The learners negotiated the work-
load, the content, the assessment methods, and the pace of the course progress. Furthermore,
e-learning proved to be an excellent resource since it has provided those who dread public
speaking with the courage to express themselves freely and to take stance on any subject they
wish to discuss. Some of the researchers’ students who are apprehensive about public-speaking
or taking stance in front of their classmates became outspoken in on-line discussions. One of the
female respondents who used to shun gender-related subjects said that ‘I used to blush when I
expressed my ideas in front of the class. But now, I feel comfortable even in articulating gender-
sensitive issues because I am home and I will not be an object to my classmates’ gazes and
reactions’ (20 July 2020). Another female student said that ‘I used to worry about in-class partici-
pation, but in this mode of education, I always prepare and feel happy to articulate my words
on the subject taught even if it is considered a taboo subject for females by society or other
classmates’ (20 July 2020). On one level, the digital space becomes an enabling space that helps
female students to shake off their shyness and to overcome the self-censoring practices which
result from the fear of their peers’ judgments while, on another level, it feels like a safe space to
8 B. HAMAMRA ET AL.

engage in online discussion about socially sensitive and taboo subjects. They dare to speak
more than they do in face-to-face meetings in a culture that censors female ideas and curtails
their voices. The fact that these are female voices is quite revealing since it reflects the gendered
history of censorship which has been biased against females in the Palestinian society.

Fiction and reality

Instead of the verbal alienation that characterizes the banking system of education, the presenta-
tions and research papers that both students and instructors deliver via Zoom and Moodle are
reflections of reality. In other words, the online education has blurred the boundaries between
material, digital and human experience, showing that technology and education are inter-
dependent and can support more effective teaching (Fawns, 2019). In his reading of the word-
world link, Freire points out that:
The act of reading cannot be explained as merely reading words since every act of reading words implies a
previous reading of the world and a subsequent rereading of the world. There is a permanent moving back
and forth between ‘reading’ reality and reading words. [ … ] For me, this dynamic is central to literacy
(1985, p. 18).

This shows that the spoken and written word is a way of reading the world and making sense
of reality. In other words, the source of knowledge (words) becomes the world (reality) in which
instructors and students are embedded both literally and figuratively. Students need to be able
to recognize real-world issues and to critically engage with these issues. For example, in the
Shakespeare course, some students submitted and presented papers exploring connections
between rumor in Shakespeare and during Covid-19; Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Othello
and Black Lives Matter; handshaking, breath and contagious diseases in Shakespeare and Covid-
19; and Hamlet’s inactivity and the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations and the Israeli plan of
annexation. In the Drama Class, some students investigated the uncertainty and the endless task
of waiting enacted in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in connection to the uncertainty and the futility
of finding effective drugs to combat Covid-19. Likewise, the teaching of American literature
brings interest to the virtual classroom because of the relevance of the topics to the life of
Palestinian students. In a presentation that Mariam Alqam made (8 July 2020) about the
American ‘Declaration of Independence’, she highlighted the reiteration of the Jeffersonian
(American) values of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ and how they were not meant to
be for Native Americans and Afro-Americans. ‘By the same token’, Alqam wrote ‘America contin-
ues to be partial in its definition of democracy and in levying war and concluding peace the way
their partiality leads. They find it their prerogative to teach the world their subjective version of
democracy’. It is significant to point out that the researchers do not impose their readings of
reality on their students who wrote and presented such papers in response to their instructor’s
demand that students reflect on the texts studied and reality, emanating from the researchers’
belief that education must be relevant and should engage the lived experiences of students and
instructors.
In addition to penning research papers on texts that hold up a mirror to reality, many stu-
dents unleash their critical thought rather than passively accept the information passed on to
them by instructors. It became apparent through student responses that they were engaged in a
political task, such as what Chomsky and Foucault (2006) describes: ‘the real political task in a
society such as ours is to criticize the working of institutions which appear to be both neutral
and independent; to criticize and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which
has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight
against them’ (p. 41). The engagement of students in this disruptive critical practice has exposed
and challenged the legitimacy of the normalizing discourses that are created around gender dif-
ferences in the Palestinian society. For example, in one of the researcher’s graduation project
 EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY 9

where a cohort of six students are involved in the research required as part of their graduation,
examined the misogynist representation of women in Palestinian oral tradition which confines
women in the domestic sphere and conflates between their speech and sexual looseness. One of
the most reiterated proverbs that students referred to is ‘If you see a girl’s teeth (if she smiles), follow
her without any fear’. This proverb shows that even a female smile signifies sexual desire. One of the
researchers’ female students who are involved in this research said, ‘I am a privileged girl being
grown up in an upper middle class family that does not discriminate between male and female’ (19
June 2020). Another female student asserted that ‘the domestic violence we have been witnessing
during the pandemic is based on the gender stereotypes examined in oral tradition’. She added that
‘women and men are confined in the household, but men are projecting their poverty (brought
about by the pandemic) and inability to sustain their power onto women’ (19 June 2020). Another
female student, in a sense of humor, said that many people are gendering Corona as feminine based
on the feminine ending of the word (a), but I see the pandemic, based on violence against women,
a sign of masculinity in crisis’ (19 June 2020). This research shows that students are involved in crit-
ical thinking in contrast to passive acceptance of ‘ideas’ passed on to them by instructors. In other
words, online education has offered a subjective space for ‘individualizing the learning experience’
(Fawns, 2019, p. 138), nurturing students’ critical thinking and creativity.

Voice and agency

In broader terms, the participants were overall satisfied with the digital learning experience.
Many students expressed their satisfaction with the changing roles of students and teachers.
One of the students said that ‘This is the first semester that I feel that students can contribute to
the field they are studying. Instructors are giving us a space to articulate our thoughts on the
subject and they listen to what we are talking about carefully’ (10 May 2020). In the same spirit,
another student said ‘I was impressed by the change: the syllabus that is uploaded in Moodle,
the organized plan that the instructor details point by point and the active roles of students
were wishful-thinking in-class education’ (10 May 2020). A female student, with a sense of
humor, said ‘we are no more objects of mockery; students’ questions and answers are highly
appreciated by instructors’ (10 May 2020). A graduate student in one of the researchers’
Comparative Literature seminars wrote:
Although e-learning was off track in the last semester, but at least it was like breaking the ice and an
example of using new teaching methods instead of using ‘spoon-feeding’ method which most likely was
the reason behind ruining our generations’ creativities and critical-thinking skills (16 June 2020).

The attraction of students to online education originates from the flexibility of the courses,
the carefully designed activities that promote discussion and the prompt responses to students’
questions. In a meeting via zoom on 16 June 2020, one of the researchers’ students from the
Shakespeare course emphasized the importance of online education in giving them a space to
express their thoughts during discussions with instructors and to write research papers on the
subjects taught. For example, a female student said that
Speaking from my experience, online learning is pretty enriching. More responsibility falls onto the student
to actually work to find the answer. It allowed creativity in many aspects. Especially as English literature
students, I feel like since we had to research a certain topic for hours to write our assignment, it exposed us
to all the different ways of thinking. I often found myself reading various interpretations and viewpoints by
different people, but it also helped me to form my own interpretations away from the usual learning
system where we only think in the ways exposed to us by our teacher. All in all, I think researching to write
an assignment, although it takes a lot of time and effort, induces creativity, freedom of thinking and in
many ways enlightenment (16 June 2020).

Another male student emphasized that online education has an impact upon instructors who
gave up their domination over the class and the process of education. He said that ‘Online
10 B. HAMAMRA ET AL.

education surely changed the shape or the stereotypical system for many instructors especially
the ones who’ve been in the business for so long’. He added that ‘Online education for me per-
sonally was about being more independent when it comes to studying or collecting information
about my courses. I learnt a lot alone just by doing some research’ (16 June 2020). Thus, the
online mode of education offers students an opportunity to hone in on their communicative and
critical thinking skills so that they can excel at the tasks assigned to them. A female student said
that ‘Online education indeed leads students to think out of the box and do their own research
to find answers instead of resorting to memorization’ (16 June 2020). Many students emphasized
that in traditional in-class teaching, they used to study to pass exams and they forget what they
study once they finish exams. But online education enabled them to fully understand what they
are reading. For example, a female student asserted that
Online Education is better because we are reading, searching, and asking, so we can share our ideas. Based
on me, last semesters I did not study all the semester’s day expect the day before exam. The only aim for
me was passing the courses. However, in Online Education I still remember what I study, read, search
because I have been working harder day by day to make my research and submit it perfectly (16
June 2020).

Difference and diversity

Palestinian university students come from diverse economic, social, geographic and religious
backgrounds. It is not uncommon to have Christians, Muslims and Samaritans in one class.
Regarding the social and economic diversity, some of our students come from refugee camps,
some from urban cities and some from remote villages. The peer-to-peer online discussions
developed more tolerance of others’ ideas and difference in thought and in positioning. The
digital mode of learning has taught students to use their own strengths to contribute to discus-
sions while showing respect to the diverse views and backgrounds of their peers. One student
said that ‘Instead of listening to one voice (the teacher’s), we find it more enjoyable and more
fun to work against peer ideas. We now listen to each other much more than in the old ways. I
now listen and respond to others in online dialogues’ (20 June 2020). The dialogues have wid-
ened the horizons of some other students who are now obliged to listen to other’s views. One
male student added: ‘I used to listen to my own opinion and to not care about what others
believed. Now, I spend much more time listening to others’ (20 June 2020). Keeping an open
dialogue among students has increased their sensitivity to social and religious difference and has
trained them to become less offensive to others. Another female student said that she now
more consciously controls her emotions when it comes to tolerance of difference and diversity:
‘Though I sometimes feel like I am provoked by my peers’ ideas, I learned to tolerate it more
and to learn from the difference in opinions’ (20 June 2020).
Thus digital learning has contributed to the setup of less authoritative and more pluralistic
learning environments which allow students to approach the topics from their own perspectives
and to learn from their own experiences and those of their peers. It ultimately promotes active
citizenship and democratic values where students from both genders and from diverse social,
religious and economic backgrounds talk, listen to and respect each other. These decolonized
learning spaces are empowering in the sense that learners can speak without feeling excluded
or marginalized.

Self-reliance and time management

Finding some income frees the student from different social constraints. One of the researchers’
students in the American Literature class at the Arab Open University (AOU), confessed to the
instructor that he was attending class while he was on his way back from work in Jaffa (22 July
 EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY 11

2020). The confession surprised the instructor because the student was the most active student
in the class; he was participating in the discussion from a convenient car seat. Another male stu-
dent told his instructor that he attended the class while at work and he apologized for not being
able to participate in the discussion but he would send him a message on the Microsoft Teams
Chat (AOU, Ramallah, 15 July 2020). We sometimes read stories in world literature about self-
made men and women who excelled not by attending regular classes with their peers but by sit-
ting outside the class eavesdropping at what the teacher says. Washington (2015) wrote about
his thirst for education in Up from Slavery
I had no schooling whatever while I was a slave, though I remember on several occasions I went as far as
the schoolhouse door with one of my young mistresses to carry her books. The picture of several dozen
boys and girls in a schoolroom engaged in study made a deep impression upon me, and I had the feeling
that to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting into paradise.
(p. 6)

Actually, the Syrian comedian Duraid Lahham (also known by the name of the character he
plays Ghawwar) dramatizes this concept of learning from outside, through a window, in his very
popular film Kafroon (1990).
Some other female students and stay-at-home mothers find online learning a blessing. As one
of the researchers gives his class, he sometimes could hear mothers silencing their children who
play around as they attend the class. This casual atmosphere that virtual education provides is
considered chaotic and counterproductive by the traditional schools of pedagogy. However, we
find it very useful and liberating for teachers and students. Of course, not all students are lucky
enough to find jobs and be stay-at-home mothers during these hard times. At least online learn-
ing allows families, who find it difficult to make ends meet at the end of the month, to save the
pocket money they give to their children five days a week.
Educators also had more flexibility and control over their time; they can choose the day and
hour that suit them and their students. They too can teach within a relaxed atmosphere, save
the transportation money and attend department meetings online. For people with special needs
virtual learning offers a potential leeway. Both students and instructors who have some physical
special need find virtual learning a blessing; it spares them the hassle of using public transporta-
tion, climbing stairs to lecture halls and seeking the help of friends and acquaintances.
These testimonies reveal that the student-based approach of research emancipates students
from the domination of instructors over the material taught and their colonization of their stu-
dents. While the call for a student-centered approach has always been the target of the new
pedagogical approaches to education, virtual learning brought to the surface and made
it imperative.

Concluding remarks: a call for paradigm shift

In his book titled the Structure of Scientific Revolution, Kuhn (1996) points out that a successful
paradigm shift occurs when a period of anomaly takes place where there is a great deal of
uncertainty and chaos (such a state is taking place in Palestine), followed by a real crisis pending
the doing away of the old system (paradigm) and ushering in the birth or the adoption of a new
paradigm that is able to account for the existing problems and to provide adequate remedies to
existing and new problems. He remarked further that ‘A paradigm theory is meant to define the
problem and provide a stable solution to it’ (p. 98). The corona-virus pandemic reminds us that
bringing down the mental enslavement embodied in the concept of banking education will
enable both learners and teachers to engage in a critical and creative dialogue and it is, we dare
say, an absolute necessity that will make us accountable and will free Palestine and the
Palestinians from the bondage of silence.
12 B. HAMAMRA ET AL.

There is much talk now that the tertiary education is going in the direction of virtual learning
in the post- Covid period. In Palestine, we need to reconsider how we define our education prac-
tices in light of digital migration that has happened during the pandemic. Our students may find
online education both more enticing and liberating not only because it decolonizes their minds
by engaging them in research-based and self-reliant education but also because it allows them
to work and study at the same time. The digital learning has resulted in less indoctrination, has
freed students from the tyranny of the teacher-centred education practices, and has boosted col-
laboration and multi-channel communication among all stakeholders. However, the picture is not
always rosy. If virtual education is going to last for, say, four years (the duration of the BA pro-
gram), it means that students do not experience university life. Engaging in a round table discus-
sion, going to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee, working in mixed gender teams, forming
friendships, and evening using public transportation to get to campus are all important learning
experiences for Palestinian students who come from segregated schooling backgrounds and
who suffer from various kinds of restrictions on their mobility due to social and political reasons.
Most importantly, as one of the researchers’ students has asserted: ‘I like to see people and talk
to them. I do not like giving presentation; it feels like I am speaking to a screen, not to people.
Sometimes I do not participate because I do not see the point of talking to a screen’ (20 June
2020). This student’s complaint shows that in the online education, where communication is
mediated and indirect, students lack opportunities to develop skills associated with direct inter-
personal engagements. Despite the positive sides of online education, there is a serious danger
that the relationships between professors and students will be transformed from a friendly, recip-
rocal exchange into a more detached and mechanical relationship. In addition to voicing their
complaints, it was often that students were not present in class as they joined online classes
using the Zoom link but did not turn their cameras on.
The testimonies of our students in the literature courses mentioned earlier shows that stu-
dents work far harder and with enthusiasm and enjoyment than they do when they are forced
into banking education that is decontextualised from their lived experiences. Virtual learning
aims at creating and promoting a community of inquiry among students, teachers and, perhaps,
the larger educational circles. However, the researchers are aware of the risks of homophily and
the abortion of higher thinking that the internet may create. Educators, the world over, are
invited to find solutions for the incompatibility the of community of inquiry and the internet by
some guided communities of inquiry.
These thoughts and testimonies on the positive impact of quarantine on education serve as a
testimony to this historical moment and add more nuance to instructors’ and students’ roles in
the post-Covid education. Our current on-line education will be a constant reminder of the perils
of traditional education which reflects a passive, uncritical and uncreative learning character.
Accordingly, our urgent plea in these fraught times is that it is time to think and act otherwise
and to keep Freire’s legacy of hope, faith, commitment and dialogical pedagogy alive in theory
and practice so as to create for ourselves, our students and universities less authoritarian learn-
ing spaces where the principles of justice, tolerance, democracy, and critical engagements are
cherished as core values which will contribute to the decolonization of the minds of
Palestinian youth.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors
Bilal Hamamra has a PhD in Early Modern Drama from the University of Lancaster, UK and works currently as an
assistant professor of English Literature at the Department of English Language and Literature, An-Najah National
 EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY 13

University, Nablus, Palestine. His research interests are in Early Modern Drama, Shakespeare, Women’s Writings,
Gender Studies, Palestinian Studies and Pedagogy. His articles on language, gender politics, martyrdom and dias-
pora have appeared in Early Modern Literary Studies, Critical Survey, ANQ, Journal for Cultural Research, Journal of
Gender Studies, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Anglia, Psychodynamic Practice, The Explicator, Comparative Literature:
East & West, Middle East Critique, English: Journal of the English Association, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies and
Changing English, among others.

Nabil Alawi is an Associate Professor of American literature and translation at Arab Open University, Palestine. He
holds a PhD degree in American literature of the 19th century from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Alawi
published research papers in the domains of literature, intertextuality, translation and teaching English as a foreign
language. He also has a special interest in the study of cultural and social issues. Email: dr.alawi@gmail.com

Abdel Karim Daragmeh has a PhD in modern and contemporary literature and literary theory from Southern Illinois
University, Illinois, USA; Associate professor of modern and contemporary literature at the English Department, An-
Najah National University; co-founder of the American Studies; director of the Master’s program in comparative lit-
erature; director of The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning; Author of research on African, Arab and
American contemporary literatures, translation studies, and faculty professional development program. Email:
adaragmeh@najah.edu

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