The Arab College of Education - Haifa

Education and Palestinian lives

Midterm assignment for the "Sociology of Education"
course

Second semester 2019-2020

Submitted to: Dr. Tom Pessah

:Details of the presenters

Abed Alhamed Abo Johar (3150246661) .1

Abed Alrhman Khalil (211866652).2
Seraj Zoubi (322305962).3

Date of Submission: 07/05/2020

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The opportunities to enter school:
• There are many differences in the opportunities to enter school
between generations.
• As we know for the previous generations is was not easy to get
into school as it is today.
• The previous generations had few opportunities to enter schools
or to continue their education for many reasons.

Seraj’s grandfather:
My grandfather called Abdullah. He lives in a small village
called Tamra and it is located near Afula if you know it. He tells
me that his school just had three rooms and it was the same
school for all the pupils in the village. He even learned with
older or younger pupils than him because they just learned to
write and to read. He did not take very much time in school
because he had to leave school in order to help his dad in order
to get money. His school was very old and there were not
conditions, also there were about 40-60 students in each room.
They learned to write in notebook that has just two lines. In this
school they just had three teachers, each teacher teach the
students reading and writing and the basic of math. My
grandfather often walked to school or he rode their bicycles
once a week, he had difficulty to go to school in winter days. In
the class, my grandfather and his classmates were only allowed
to talk when the teacher asks him to answer questions and it
means that school teachers were very strict and if someone in
the class misbehaved could be given the strap. The teaching
methods were very strict and if students did not pay attention to
the teacher or did not have the works, they could get punished
and usually the teacher hit the student in their hands. My
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grandfather’s teacher did not value a student's opinion. It meant
that students just receive and the teacher did not want to hear his
students, my grandfather tells me that they did not go on camps
on this school and all of their lessons were in the classroom. He
tells me also that when the teachers teach him history, they
avoided talking about Jews history so the teachers preferred to
teach just Arab and Palestine history. When the teachers teach
the student fake historical facts the student felt that it against
their beliefs.

Abed Alrhman grandmother:

My grandmother is called Farhoda, she never went to school, so
she could not read and write. She did not go to school because
of the size of her family; she has three brothers and 11 sisters.
Her father preferred to gives his boys an opportunity to go to
school because people in the past though that it was best for
boys to go to school and to finish their education. However the
women should teach to marry and to stay home and to take care
of her husband and children. So because that she did not go to
school and she stay home with her mother and learned how to
take care of her husband, to cook and so on.

Abed Alrhman mother:

My mother is called Omaima she is 56 years old. Her dad died
when she was in the ninth grade and because of that my uncle
helped her in order to complete her education up to twelfth
grade. My grandmother decided that she does not want to let my
mother continue her Academic learning because of the tight
budget and hard economical state.

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Also my mother was under her mother’s pressure because my
grandmother think that girls or women should be housewife
and to take care of their husband and children. When she got
married to my father and then he decided to help her in order to
complete her education. She started her education in college
after she give birth my older brother and now she works as an
accounting.

Seraj’s father:
I will talk about how my father’s education was before. First,
my father entered the school with difficulty for several reasons,
the first of which is the scarcity of educational centers during his
reign and that he has a lot of brothers and his father who are
unable to teach them all. My father continued to study despite
the odds, as education was not as easy as now. There were no
computers, tablets, or digital devices, so education was difficult.
My father’s relationships at that time and there were
contradictory in matters of religion…So there was no politics
within the educational system. My father completed school and
then he continued his academic education in learning the
principles of religion. Until he became” Sheikh “in teaching the
principles of religion and “Sharia”.

Abed Alhameed's female cousin:

The third generation, the new generation starting with my older
female cousin. From her generation and forward, opportunities
to enter school became easier and more affordable and that
helped her get into school. Also, what helped her stay in school
is the new thoughts and the new idea that everyone have to learn
and everyone is known and can get a job if he/she get a job these
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days. Therefore, learning various and new subjects like Arabic,
Hebrew, English, mathematics, etc. that opened a lot of doors
for her to be able to enter university and get a certificate and
being able to get a respectful job to be able to afford things in
her life. As, for the teacher status, it became a little bit lower in
terms of getting knowledge, why? Because teachers are not the
main source of knowledge as they used to be. This is because of
the internet development helped and became one of the main
sources of knowledge today. Moreover, the teacher-student
relationship changed over the years. In other words, the teacher
became like a friend to the student and respected for himself not
by fear. As for the materials, they were not controversial at all or
related to politics.

Abed Alhameed:
Last but not least, I will be talking about myself (Abed
alhameed); I had an easy opportunity to enter school. This is
because entering school was affordable and important for the
future life later on. As for staying in school it was out of a
personal motives because I enjoyed being in school and of
course for the tracery education later on to be able to get a
respected job in the future. As for the opportunities, the school
gave me plenty materials like learning Arabic, Hebrew,
chemistry, etc. but, especially English which is my major today,
learning in the Arab academic college for education in Israel –
Haifa. To become a great teacher in the future. As for the
teacher status in the classroom it changed in my days, the
teacher become respected for himself and his kindness and
become friends with his students and not being respected by fear
like in the past. Finally, for the materials, they were normal and

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 not being controversial and no politics were visible behind the
materials.

The differences between generations:

We will talk about the differences between generations in education
and what is related to it. Starting with the opportunities to enter
school. Where it was almost nonexistent in our ancestral generation
for several reasons, the first of which is the lack of schools and their
preoccupation with harsh life matters, but in the generation of our
parents, opportunities were available but, not at the required level.
However, in our present generation, education is available to
everyone, it is affordable, and there are opportunities for everyone.

Secondly, if we compare the structure and the shape of the school

among these generations, we will find that the shape of the school in
our ancestral generation may be largely rudimentary, as it can be
rooms of straw or clay. As for the generation of our fathers, the
structure has evolved largely the school form has become attractive.
As for our current generation, I mean schools are equipped with all
the amenities and education of chairs and computers and
technological aids.

Thirdly, we will talk about the number of students in each generation.

Starting with the generation of our grandparents, the number of
students in each class was a large number due to the lack of schools
and the difficulty in obtaining opportunities where there could be
sixty students in one class and two groups from many villages.
However, if we compare them with the generation our parents, we
will find that the generation of our parents was smaller. Despite that,

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it was a large number and did not give its quality in education.
However, when we speak about the number of students in our
generation, classes includes ten to twenty students and they enjoy all
means of comfort and education and a greater number of teachers. In
addition, our current generation is more comfortable thanks to the
technological developments.

Finally, we will talk about the challenges and difficulties faced by

each generation. If we started with our ancestors’ generation, they
faced great difficulties in education, beginning with opportunities and
obtaining it, and their relationship with teachers was almost non-
existent. Their education was limited to the teachings of religion and
language, where they did not get enough knowledge about Palestinian
history and so on. As for the generation of our parents, they faced
challenges in the light of the educational situation that is not
distinguished, as they were facing difficulties in knowing the history
of the Jews, entering it to their land and misleading the information.
Therefore, their relationship with the teachers was not good, and
therefore political matters were not included in the educational
system. As for our present generation, it may have faced challenges,
but not as much as previous generations, because everything became
available from getting information and accessing it. In addition, their
relationship with teachers has become strong and reached the point of
becoming friends with them and mot just being respected by fear.
Moreover, the teacher nowadays is not as he/she used to be the source
of information but he/she became as helper to give help in getting
information from various sources. In addition, there is nothing
preventing them to teach about the true history of Jews and
Palestinian history and politics.

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3.In the British period, we can see that Christian schools were better
than Muslim ones in terms of investing in it regarding the content.
However, later on in our ancestors and parents and even our
generation there is not much difference in schools no matter its
religion. In addition, back in the British period they did not want to
build or develop schools in villages because they did not want people
to learn and get educated fearing that they might protest against them.
As for girls in the British period, they were not allowed to learn at
schools alongside boys, but in the our three generation (our ancestors,
parents and ours) things were different because girls got the
opportunities to enter school and learn alongside boys even though
the economic situation was kind of tight and hard. Last but not least,
the teaching of history and politics in a way. In the British period, the
teachers taught students what the government wants them to teach.
However, nowadays things are a lot different and more freely,
everyone is able to talk freely about the history with no deceiving or
false information.

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We will make a comparison between the period of the Ottomans
and that of our grandparents…as education was restricted to
men only, women have no luck in education for many reasons.
Taking care of household matters and caring for her husband
and children…
During this period, the Christians were better school than
Muslim schools and are still today. If we talk about the
comparison between the ottomans and our generations. The
language factor will be the primary. Where the Turkish language
was the basis of education in the era of the ottomans. As for our
present generation, the Hebrew language in the basis of
education, because it is the primary language in the country.
In the end, we talk about the form of education, where it was in
the Ottoman period that books were translated from French and
in that there was a difficulty... As for the generations of our
parents, they were learning to read and write without having
translated books for them from French. In our current
generation, everything is available on books and computers.
And Internet search engines. It became easy to receive
information even if you did not go to school.