Fate of Education in Gaza & the Pandemic COVID19

Online Education … the Myth ?

Documentation of the phone conversations on the 21^st of August, and the follow up phone call with Mr. Refat S, GM & president of TCC & ACEA RESPECTIVELY, on the 25^th of August 2020.

The core of the conversation was to clarify my query about the difference between the impact of lockdown on education for the periods before and after the breakout of COVID 19. What triggered this clarification, is the blockade applied on Gaza by the Israeli occupying forces (Iof) since 2005, and the cut off of purchasing educational supplies, schools’ construction materials, and exchange of experts and services. Two situations that makes educational services supply to students suffer similarly.

Mr. Refat and Ms. Wafaa replied to this inquiry as follows:

The breakout of COVID19 pandemic added struggles and difficulties to the existing challenges of existential psychological being, social comportment, and global integration. The breakout caused a status of continuous raised anxiety among families from what yet to happen. People in Gaza are now more threatened than before. Beside the existing threats of security, safety, economic catastrophe, and social existence, that were created by the cruelty of the recurrent hostilities performed by the occupying forces and the blockade, there is now the added health threat. These triggered worries caused tension within families, and consequently affected the psychological wellness of parents and children. The resulting deteriorated psychological wellness in families will hinder or even block the child’s learning chances and abilities.

Until this moment, while these points are being documented, when the official commencement time of the academic year in Gaza has arrived, the health and security statuses are still vague. The option of online schooling is still being discussed, so is the regular schooling system with implementation of periodic schools’ shifts.

If regular schooling system with implementation of periodic schools’ shifts is to be approved”, challenges that are associated with this choice will be tremendous. For example:

Because students’ numbers in regular classrooms in Gaza in regular days vary between 40 to 50 students, then with the periodic shifts system, students will be divided into new classroom arrangements of 20 to 25 students per classroom. A number that will make social distancing among students during the school day impossible.

In regular school days, the school’s buildings operate on a two to three shifts a day. This is due to the irrelative ration of schools’ buildings numbers to the number of school aged children in Gaza. Rescheduling the use of the same schools buildings to serve extra shifts, will require to have schools operate till night shifts, and will create an enormous shortage in teaching staff numbers, as well as administrators and special services specialists.

Due to the blockade which resulted in absence of maintenance materials, and due to continuous hostility strikes, schools building are already dilapidated. Extra load of use of the buildings will require immediate maintenance, an option that is not possible. Moreover, the destroyed or unmaintained sewage systems and the nonhygienic toilets and water fountains, will be a health hazard and an extra health threat, specifically in the current situation with COVID19 breakout.

Parents’ elevated fear from having their children carry the virus home, to the family members, specifically the elderly, and in particular with the very limited availability of medical aids due to the blockade, such fear will push the parents to withdraw their children from schools for this coming academic year.

In the past 10 days, since the 15^th of August, and until documenting this conversation on the 25^th of August, Gaza lives under daily air strikes and missile attacks performed by the (Iof). In such circumstances, civilians rush to help with rescue operations of the casualties and the injured citizens, in alignment with health and local authorities. After the breakout of COVID19, the measures have changed. Such civilians support will be banned by health authorities, and / or will not be offered by volunteers. Moreover, due to the lack of safety wear, and hygiene equipment, the authorized health rescue teams are more exposed to the pandemic, which triggers a eider spread out. A situation, that causes chaos and panic, and elevated unemployment. University, tertiary institutions, and high school students has been negatively impacted by the elevated unemployment and started dropping out from education institutions. Withdrawal, of high school students, is a noticed action among high school male students in Gaza. They drop out to join a casual job for a quick cash in hand to support their own and families daily living.

Since August 24, Gaza has monitored the spread of some cases of corona due to an infected woman coming to Gaza from the Palestinian occupied territories. Until this moment, the reason for her arrival was not known, and the reason for agreeing to give her an entry permit by the occupation authorities controlling the Peres crossing between Gaza and the occupying Zionist entity. This woman entered Gaza and moved between its institutions and neighborhoods, mixing with many people and transmitting the infection to them. Accordingly, the local authorities in Gaza imposed a complete quarantine with the imposition of a 24-hour curfew for a period of two weeks.

The health conditions will be monitored afterwards, and a decision will be made later to stop the quarantine or to continue it accordingly. This situation occurred at a time when schools were preparing for the start of the new school year. An order that will inevitably force the guardian to reconsider registering his children in schools, in consideration of the consequences resulting from the outbreak of the pandemic.

If online schooling systems are approved:
Until now, no information was available to us about the readiness of parents and their ability to pursue distance learning. In this regard, we will conduct a field questionnaire through the Teacher Creativity Center and the Arab Campaign for Education for All to measure this readiness. (The questionnaire is attached).

Primary level Students between first and fifth grade level, students of learning difficulties, and slow learning students, will face a great challenge in distance learning through electronic platforms. They need to be accompanied by a parent or a professional who can follow up on their learning. The situation that will interfere with the daily life of these adults. Some of them will have to leave their job, and others might hire someone to do their part during their work. This will cause financial hardship for the family due to the tight living conditions, which may prompt a lot of the families to stop registering their children in schools for the next academic year.

DopaMe … Instagram & Me …

#Instagram

“The desire for a ‘hit’ of dopamine, coupled with a failure to gain instant indulgence, may prompt users to perpetually refresh their social media feeds”.

#Instagram and the #quicksand colloidal effect of pictures on #emotional health.

As every other social media platform, Instagram is marketed as a free choice. Moreover, a free choice that gives “Opportunities to create, connect, communicate, discover, and share; Fostering a positive, inclusive, and safe environment” as specifies in their policy. Also, they provide users with privacy, and access to complains and spasm reporting.

From another point, Instagram is product of Facebook that is determined to create a cybersafe with its own governance. Eventually, they have created a platform that is purely devoted to utilizing a human natural trait of the brain and its emotional dependence. The brain is designed to be affected by images more than words and audios. The psychological impact of pictures triggers emotional depth, and specifically prior to sleep. Specialists specified the impact of the last 10 pictures that are stored in mind prior to sleep, will multiply during sleep and creates a drive of stimulations that will direct action after waking up.

Furthermore, the platform reads, stores, sorts out and systemizes the “likes”, search history and profile clicks. Accordingly, the user, who slept under the influence of the last 10 images, will wake up to find a set of suggested pictures that enforces what has been multiplied through the night. This person will become determined to what the images emphasized. Another criterion that Instagram suggests images, is based on the search history of friends followed by the account user, and interactions between these followers / followed accounts, on Instagram and Facebook.

This process is ongoing and will occur even if the search history is deleted and is no longer visible to the user. The process is also indulged in millions of robotic accounts, that will CommNet on automated suggested images with a wording system that instill the connection between the viewer and the systemized themes of these images. Total containment of one’s brain. And total systemization of a virtual community.

All that is topped with a system of beatification. Beautifying of photos and chosen pictures by applying a range of enhancement filters. This function changed the way people present themselves online, and the peer interpretation of “perfect” beauty that will affect viewers’ emotional and psychological responses.

The result of all that, is a “product” user, who developed increased social anxiety. An anxiety that is developed because of the fear of missing out, or being missed out upon, and the feeling of jealousy. Two main social factors that “ads” use to emphasize the bias political and economic messages required in a language that navigates street jargon.

Instagram, is a main cause of many social movements that called to create campaigns of theoretical and practical implications for the design of health campaigns and education to enhance the positive effect of social media on health and emotional well-being, instead of the social comparison, distorted image of beauty, that lowered self-esteem.

How could the platform be improved? I believe the content is the target that needs to be improved and not the platform. Education psychology is to utilize this ready-made platform to instill “learning” of non bias information and knowledge. An emotional intelligence fertile ground ready to use. But are educators and education institutions trained to emotionally reshape education?

As Manuel Castells described such a platform, a Global Surveillance Agency that is a form of a picture or a message that cannot be intercepted, or prisoned.

Instagram … Can we do ant better ?
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Even “Spider Man” analogy is a Colonized Gender Identity …

Socio-cultural diversity and values of gender development through the scope of the world’s systems

“Woman” as a concept is to be freed from being traded in as a hot agenda weapon in international development concepts and programs. In a more general scope, “gender” is also a concept that should be freed from being the focus on the agenda of international development.

It might be difficult though to build such a progressive concept as the word gender was not an official common term in ancient history. Yet, in this short essay, the future of gender development will be critically reflected upon from three different angles, based on intersections of the concept of gender (man and woman for the ancient periods) between an ancient pre “third world” pre-Islamic Arab Peninsula concept, then from a Red Indian’s woman positioning prior to the European Colonization, and lastly from a post-colonial African concept through the role and impact of the Woman Bureau (WB) in Kenya. Next, the three concepts will be discussed from an international development approach. Lastly the three aspects will inform the concluding discussion with impact of gender focus on international development discussing the nature of transformation from WID to WAD and recently to GAD.

A 7^th century inspirational marriage relationship, initiated by a woman who was admired for her acumen and sought after for her legacy. Khadija excelled to manage her tradelines across the Arab Peninsula and the Levant. She hired Muhammad to accompany her trade, due to his reputable attributes of sincerity, honesty, truthfulness, and compassion to the less privileged. Khadija chose to deem in Muhammad, and her choice to spend her life with him as her husband led to abandoning socially equivalent wealthy businessmen whom she frequently worked and traded with.

Khadija later came to be “The Mother of all Faithfull’s”, and Muhammad (peace be upon him) became to be the very last Prophet of God and the messenger of the Religion of Islam. Prophet Muhammad, who used to run for sanctuary between her arms, and was emotionally, mentally and socially supported by her until she died 15 years after their marriage. A divine preparation to a man through a woman to be able to serve a hard responsibility. The Islamic revelations stopped girl’s infanticide, defined the inheritance system, in which woman officially inherits her family, and forbid the market of prostitution, which is an area where women work in more than men. Some of these sex workers start at an extremely young age, but that is a story for another report (Bancroft-Hinchey, 2014).

The paradox in this relationship is that it happened in Mecca; in an era where newborn females were buried alive because the father would be ashamed of announcing a newborn female. It was also common for widows and divorcees not to remarry. Her attributes embedded hope and empowerment for women weather it being a manager, a businesswoman, a leader, a source of knowledge, or a source of advice and inspiration to her family, community and of course her husband. There are many social and physical characteristics that are expected by gender, and this creates a social and mental impact on the upbringing of children as explained by WHO (Newman, T., 2018). An example of where this doesn’t exist would be the Yoruba society. (Maria Lugones, 2016). Khadija’s role in the prophet’s life included norms of behavior set for both men and women. Khadija as woman, a one-sexed person, acted as a woman in containing her husband and her children with love, care and advise, and on the other hand as a man in managing her trade across cultures. This is if we agree to the categorized characteristics of feminine or masculine back in the 7^th century in the Arabian Peninsula, which still exists on a smaller scale now!

Eight centuries later, in the 15^th century, we sense another historical positioning of women. The Indian American Navajo’s dances, songs and celebrations are all based on woman. The Spider-Woman. She appears in their stories as the heroic woman who is the protector of the needy, the less privileged, teacher of art and trainer of the indigenous methods of agriculture who’s primary goal was to create a universe with women at its center (Maria Lugones, 2016). With the European colonization of North America, gynocritic spirituality was replaced by the hierarchical gender system of the one supreme male. A change in system that require Social Adjustment Programs (SAP’s) to be introduced and men were trained to take over this new role, through which woman lost most of her role in the community (Maria Lugones, 2016).

In the 20^st century WID (Woman and Development 1970’s) changed to WAD (Women and Development 1970’s), which later changed to GAD (Gender and Development 1980’s) (Glaser 1991). WID focused on the idea of egalitarianism and how everyone, no matter their sex or race, should have the same economic opportunities. This included strategies of integrating them into development processes. The WAD perspective focusses on the relationship between women and development processes rather than purely on strategies for the integration of women into development. Finally, GAD is about what socialist feminists have identified the social construction of production and reproduction as the basis of women’s oppression. GAD focuses its attention on the social relations of gender, questioning the validity of roles which have been delegated to both women and men in different societies (Snyder 1995). In modernized Kenya, men dominated the social, economic, and political fields. Women were viewed as mothers and housewives (Snyder 1995). Not until mid-1970’s that woman started being viewed as a source of participation to the urban industrial life, specifically after the World Bank developed Social Adjustment Programs (SAP) after the economic deterioration in Kenya, in an attempt to increase the workers for government trade practices and help improve the economy (Woestman 1994). Soon after that, the term gender was infused into the market to integrate the labor market to the westernized SAP (Schuurman). A confusion is caused, between the Marxist Socialists Feminists GAD supporters, and the WID liberal radical supporters (Stamp 1990). Local socialists announced the subordination of woman and exploitation to her identity and worked on an agenda of “Women as Victims of Patriarchal Structures” (Stamp 1990). A total new image stripped many women of the responsibilities they once had in indigenous pre colonized Kenya (Gatwiri Kariuki, Claris, 2010).

From the above “global” cross sectional view of “gender development” through history, it seems that indigenous communities are more developed than modernized societies in terms of woman productive involvement in the community. Moreover, although there has always been heterosexuality, exploitation of woman in prostitution industries, and devaluation of girls and woman, yet, woman indigenous communities were less gender biased. Men and women’s roles tend to negatively be altered through contact with embedded cultures and economic systems. Views on men and women’s relative status remains connected to the original underlying cultural estimates of maleness and femaleness. They are neglected in “gender‑focused” development policies.

My comprehension of gender development reflects as a human error. An error that will multiply with time. From WID to WAD then GAD, the benefits of local and global development practices for communities engaged in development processes is decreasing the influence of woman in overall value for societies. Gender to replace sex is a “dangerous” development approach that is embedded in globalization and political drives.

I support the approach that gender development, with categorizing binary sex system into a rainbow of genders scheme, will enlarge the intersections among more layers of inequalities. Therefore, positions of women and men, and other gendered based groups, will be burdened even more with the new policies to be created to serve the full scope of genders (Patel, P., & Evans, A. 2011). Moreover, this approach is going to increase the racial segregation based on gender. Levels of discrimination will be experienced differently by male and female-based sexes, different hormonal, psychological and environmental backgrounds (Patel, P., & Evans, A. 2011).

Social Media twirls Education Specialists Creativity

Ignorance in Social Media Hacks & the Struggle of Education Professionals

Social Media, International Education Development and Facebook …

Starting an analysis of an existing platform, by a “beginner’ in social media is a “weird” task I am conducting.

As an educational consultant, I have always shared my work via organizational set up in meetings, training sessions, development workshops and in demo classrooms, Mentoring meetings, evaluation conferences and other personal development strategies were also followed. I have my Facebook, twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts, yet they have not been used for professional development. I used them to blog a comment, share an achievement, participate in social interactions, and occasionally share a professional blog that related the news or political situations to education. Collecting likes, and shared was left to natural interactions, I never worked to assure my online existence as a professional and specialist.

Marketing the Educational Institution is a real struggle. It takes a non-educational marketing specialist to work out the marketing strategy from a devoted business view. However, the link between business and education is a vague concept for both ends of the joint venture. Different objectives and different disciplines make the product vibrates between selling the institution or selling the content to be learned from the institution. Academic or Vocational, developing nonprofit social service or for-profit corporate with social responsibility?

From another point, spreading the educational content through social media platforms is another struggle. The “to be learned content” is not an appealing product to be marketed, especially for school aged clients. The “to be learned content” is also required to be prepared by many professionals (the academics, techno people, the creative designers, and the delivers). Having all these professionals brought together under one umbrella is almost not possible, regardless to the fact that the combo does exist in real ground.

Furthermore, another true struggle is the struggle of branding the educational institution as unique and different, yet, serve committed to the latest trends in serving “learning” To be creative, productive, educative, and falls within limits & standards, rules & regulations, yet stay unique? Reading content, following the steps, watching the videos, dramatizing the content, even naming the domain, and specifying the position is always available on the web and for all. Professional designs, processes and procedures are no longer a scarce resource. Then what makes a new brad stands out?

This website is devoted for International Education Development. IED as a GLOBAL CONCEPT that will be presented as a Web-learning Page that provides learning in the steps of developing the page. Learning at the spur of the moment as never happened before. Founded and managed by an Educational Expert who has experienced education as academic and vocational paradigms. The main purpose of this website tis to “analyses” the emotional trigger in the educational posts and development material. As per my interactions through my leading roles, all has agreed that this is a unique “power” of my leadership style. A heart to heart education was always my motive .

This website aims to lead beginner education specialists to construct unconventional Global Educational Platforms through published trial and error. On-site training and step by step practice to edit and develop already published pages, is going to be the innovative practice in this page. The website focuses on interrelating educational, economic, technological creative skills into a “Knowledge Economy World Bank” in a platform that spread Global Concept via Education out of a heart, hence my Slogan.

The website is designed to provide an everlasting renewable resources of INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT – content and ideas. The content will be shared via twitter, Instagram, Facebook and linked in platforms, where I already have accounts and followers to start with.

An example of a shred blog:

https://international-education-development-amaniamad.com/2020/07/21/blog-1-17th-july-2020/

Considering Facebook as the platform that will be used to share the website’s posts on, and how is it suitable for its purpose.

Analyzing Facebook had given me insights in what to think of when designing my web page. My web page is just starting to be shaped and constructed.

Facebook Analysis

Domain:

Facebook domain has been changed in 2004 after many years of use of Facebook in full word, into FB. FB has as well bought all similar possible typing mistakes as fAcebool, or gacebook …etc to own search get redirected to their main domain page.

FB mission: “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them”. This mission as per (Thorelli, 1968), fulfills defined scope, specific objectives, function, of service and clients served.

Interrelated sources of Power of FB:

FB with sources of power provided, will be a technology and economic leadership power of identity and legitimacy. FB as per literature, provided

long-term contracts
part ownership of another network member
interlocking directorates
joint-venture arrangements

These sources of power dominates:

Economic: Economic Impact of FB in 2014 Facebook developed to be: cash generator, jobs opportunities creator, marketing platform, entertainment business, socio-economic, information search, and other businesses stimulator and developer. In 2014, the FB company had a revenue of 1.4 bn USD in profit in its 1st quarter. It created a 4.5 million jobs globally.

Position and Expertise: After being a social interaction platform that was developed to become an economic and information source of impact. A question was raised of FB: Can a social network become a governor? A new position is being questioned as well in 201: Can FB role have a role in as a principal human rights monitor for freedom of expression? With a 130 million $USD budgeted to advocate for this new positioning. Facebook is taking a significant step toward self-governance of online speech.

Legitimacy: A global platform is legitimate by individual states government laws as well as international law depending on the situation, location, topic, and content. And when such a platform seeks a new positioning as a role in HR freedom of expression advocacy, new laws and a new board of legitimacy will be defined, although this is will not help legitimize content and practices that many find objectionable, such as the increased use of automation to make decisions about content. “If the board’s decisions are rooted in the kinds of human rights standards that individuals around the world cherish, if they genuinely absorb the input of communities worldwide, Facebook’s legitimacy and influence may rise”.

Trust:

With time FB might build that trust to expand to govern a worldwide industry of online speech and provide an umbrella to “all” other online platforms to publish under its governance for a lower legitimate responsibility and economic coast. And this will encourage competition in this market specifically by encouraging new platforms to join the industry specially those that come with innovative ideas.

Furthermore, strategic management purposes forecast, is to look upon the entire network as a single organization, by forming joint product development.

Now the next step to be taken is to apply all this on my website and see how it goes with pricing, marketing, positioning and legitimating my services via horizontal and vertical hierarchies.

International Education Development – Social Media beats Education Profession
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Research Blog 3

Initiation with ACEA

IDR 1 – Blog 3

23^rd July 2020

Research Title: Fate of Education in Gazza due to Recurrence of Conflicts and

the 2020 COVID 19 Pandemic

The link with ACEA has been initiated. Mr. Refat thankfully has granted approval and all support to make this research project come to the light. A highly appreciated opportunity to work research a region, district and topics that will serve education and learning in & around the Arab Region and will be enlightening all other education regions.

We started by a conversation over a phone call, to get to greet each other, introduce the research objectives, and discuss ACEA’s interests as an educational movement; what research topics are of interest to them, and what areas are required to be emphasized through research during the COVID19 pandemic global emergency.

A glance about my background that was shared with ACEA;

an educational professional with background science research, education, and senior management. My work experience has been progressively developed through teaching in international schools, to team leading & administrative roles. Furthermore, participating in strategic educational top management, consultancy and policy making occurred over the past 7 years of my work experience. I have worked in general education fields and inclusive education. I have worked with mainstream education systems, inclusive education systems, of local and international governance. Policies for general education, learning difficulties and learning disabilities were written and evaluated.

I am currently based in Kuwait where all schools and educational companies are currently closed due to the pandemic. The exception being a few international schools, that have allowed part of their student base to continue with distance schooling, based on parents’ approval and students’ choice.

Mr. Refat explained the interest of ACEA in the research topic and have added that he will introduce me to his team from TCC (Teachers Creativity Center). He expressed the interest of the center in following up closely on the via the research about education after the pandemic and demonstrate a report about the actual findings.

We agreed to discuss the areas that we will cover in the research study over a Skype meeting with the TCC representatives, Ms. Hala and Ms. Rawan.

A glance about TCC

The Teacher’s Creativity Center (TCC), is a non-for-profit, non-governmental Palestinian organization, registered officially to the specialized department of the Ministry of Interior, in Palestine. TCC advocates for a community-driven, rights-based education and for an outcome-oriented planning for education in Palestine and MENA. TCC is mainly devoted to transforming the role of education to become socially responsible education. TCC is based in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank.

The work of TCC is aligned with SDG4, article 4.7, and the article 26 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the Socially Responsible Education.

TCC homepage link is provided below for reference and more information.

Teacher Creativity Center. (n.d.). Retrieved from, Palestine, Ramallah

http://www.teachercc.org/articles/view/1

Research Blog 2 Communication Management

Fate of Education in Gaza due to Recurrence of Conflicts and the 2020 COVID 19 Breakout

July 2020

Blog 2 19th July 2020

IDR 1 – Blog 2

19^th July 2020

Now the topic and the title have shaped up in my mind, communicating the idea of the topic with Robert was the next step. What was harder than choosing the topic, was choosing the time to talk to Robbie as we are 8 hours apart. So, we agreed to have the first Skype Call early in the morning for me before I leave to work at 7am. This time is towards the end of Robert’s working hours. Technology failed to allow us to connect on time. I sent an email to Robbie saying I am not able to connect with him on Skype for Business. By the time Robbie saw my email, and prepared to send me a new invitation link, I was out driving on my way to work. I received his invitation halfway through the way. So, I pulled over to the side of the road, and connected to Skype. Our first communication occurred on the side of the road, on a rainy day for me … 😊

A very fruitful discussion indeed, Robbie was very insightful and informational. Moreover, he was very knowledgeable about the topic I communicated with him. Education as a human right and the situation of education in a place like Gaza, that works on very limited resources of food, shelter, electricity and basic needs of life.

The idea of the research that I had in mind to start with, evolved around finding the suitable ground and resources for teaching children in Palestine who are exposed to extreme circumstances of social and emotional isolation. Maybe in such situation, all students are considered special needs learners with difficulties and disabilities, even though the definition of learning difficult or disability here might be different. Those learners, although they don’t get diagnosed with learning difficulties or learning disabilities as per se’, yet they become disadvantaged learners, as they continuously experience oppression, anger, bitterness, regret, sadness, feelings of isolation, losses of family members and homes,.

These learners are socially abundant. They live under occupation that controls their daily lives, basic needs and necessities. They are not part of the globalized world and are not heard by most nations, and not heard by political systems. Their true story is lost, and their identity is stolen.

What I was looking for at the beginning of the talk was is to integrate legitimate Indigenous knowledge of Palestinian education systems and students into having a say in international education development. If there voice is absent from development plans that will be implemented in their schools, it is certainly a postponement in development and a delay in applying solutions. What if there is an indigenous successful practice, that is not defined in today’s sciences and yet to be discovered, will be obsolete as per the list approved in the book?

Therefore, I wanted to research possibilities of providing an education system that:

is accessible to learners in Palestine
is served by global educators
meets international standards
prepares the learners to join international universities and institutes
feeds their intellectual, social and emotional needs
introduces them and their true identity to the world, as well as get them to be introduced to other true stories from the rest of the world. Story telling is a fabulous technique to educate and connect people at a shared moral base.

(hopefully the same procedure will be later applied to suit all leaners in refugee camps as well).

COVID 19 was not the talk at that time. This conversation took place early February 2020.

Robert was well connected to a great resource of support who could help me conduct such a research. Robert linked me with Mr. Sabbah, the president of ACEA (defined in Blog 1).

Research Blog 1-17th July 2020

Fate of Education in Gaza due to Recurrence of Conflicts and the 2020 COVID 19 Breakout

IDR 1 – Blog 1

17^th July 2020

International development (ID) and education, are a unique powerful combo that can construct or destruct the generations, communities and eventually the world.

Since I started reading through ID courses allocated content, reading through fellow students’ discussion panels, and adding to that knowledge accumulated through working in the field of education for more than 25 years; I realized that this world is segregated through vast misconceptions of rights and duties. The amount of poverty, instability, ignorance, humanitarian abuses, environmental destruction, and injustice that we have reached after tens of years of “democracy” are telling us: pause and find another solution!

Moreover, this combo of readings and experience made me believe deeply that the solution is in fair access for education for all. A dilemma that is not answered. A dilemma that made me put so many question marks about the huge incongruities in access to education in different parts of the world.

For the coming generations to be able to fix what have been destroyed, they need to work together. Working together requires a lot of education. This type of education is not content based, yet it is more of an ethical practical skills-based education, that help all of us “learn” to communicate “value” rather than “news” and “opinions”. And help us consider saving one’s own life through building other lives and supporting other communities. This was Truman’s vision when he planned to reconstruct Europe after WWII ⁽²⁾.

From another view, Escobar ⁽¹⁾ have described “participatory development” as a top down ethnocentric approach, by which people and cultures are moved up and down the measuring parameters according to the developers’ interests. Hence, in this perspective, education and development of “othered” nations will not be put first before control and hegemony, despite to the genuine hearts that are seeking real justice and recognition of indigenous people’s knowledge and rights in education, freedom and legitimate governance.

Moreover, the western definitions and procedures that are used as thresholds from where development is launched, that do not recognize Indigenous knowledge as content that is measured, evaluated and controlled; will at some point of time fall into “hypocritic” solutions. For example, Truman who knew that consequences of the WWII destruction in Europe will flash back on America and its progress, Planned in the exact same time in 1948 ⁽²⁾ to sign with the lobbying minds to allow the occupation of Palestine, and to agree to destroy the Palestinian nation. His interest at that point, was him winning his presidential elections and not development of other communities, which will on the long run flash back on America.

In our current world, the right to development, if it contradicts with the economic political prioritized targets, then it becomes a no – right. Rights to development are limited, to the service level, rather than solving problems level. For example, the right to development was re-adopted right at the Vienna Conference in 1986. A program of action was agreed upon in a global legal consensus. However, as explained by Uvin 2004 ⁽³⁾, it is important to understand the significant difference between a service-based and a rights-based approach to development. To have a right to something as food, access to water, temporary shelters, and education, is a form of accepted right-based development, but not a service that states with economic political interests will prioritize in offshore projects. Such moves give the donor state the image of a virtual giver, without changing or impacting its political economic priorities, hence it is an “ok” right of development case that won’t be taken to action.

Based on the above, and looking closely into an example of the abundant community of Gaza (an occupied Palestinian Territory), that has been ignored since it was occupied in 1948 and was put under total blockade since 13 years by the israeli occupation forces, the fate of education in Gaza became a very big question to me that needs to be looked into and find its answer, hence the tittle. And the topic became more pressing specifically, after the breakout of COVID 10 pandemic, that put the territory in a double blockade catastrophe. OR as described by Mr. Refat Sabbah, the president of ACEA (International Campaign for Education for all), the fate of education in Gaza is being under the catch of two viruses, the Corona Virus and the occupation virus, as came in his talk on the Webinar that was held on the 9^th of July 2020, and titled” “Education: the pathway for transformation during and after a crisis”.

The link is provided here: https://www.facebook.com/ICAEGlobal/live/

References

Escobar, A. (1995). Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. PRINCETON; OXFORD: Princeton University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt7rtgw
“Marshall Plan | Summary and Significance”. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2018-03-09.
(Uvin, Peter 2004. Human Rights and Development,Bloomfield: Kumarian Press

A little bit about Me …

Was born and raised up in in Kuwait for a:

Palestinian Jordanian father
Lebanese mother
Syrian grandmother

and a

Turkish great Grandmother.

A holder of

Master of International Development (RMIT – Australia) – current
Master of Education – Schools Management and Leadership (USQ – Australia) – 2007
Master of Applied Science – Analytical Chemistry (RMIT – Australia) – 1996
Bachelor of Science – Biochemistry and Zoology (Kuwait University) – 1986

Who believes that

Education is like politics, an overly complex process, however education is like water flows to all meadows, rocks and deserts regardless of politics of those lands …

Although education is affected by internal and external factors, a variety of actors, and bias of strict implementation of policy (Viennet & Pont, 2017), yet all students (young and old) around the world will still learn something new everyday .. The question is “what will they learn?”

Now, education, lives through tough times all around the world, specifically after the breakout of the 2020 pandemic. Variations in inputs and outputs become huge. Between the teaching and learning processes, lies a whole planet of “interferences” and disparities to the input and output “desires” of education providers . These interferences are interpreted in the vast differences in literacy rates around the world (Roland, Rubens, Azupogo, 2018), and in the reduced desire to learning among adolescence around the world (Viennet & Pont, 2017). Due to increased exposure to the internet world, increased bullying and disturbed feelings (Houston, 2018), both learners and educators have become confused, and lost access to productive communication among each other. Most importantly they positioned themselves far apart that they have list the essential power of “listening”.

Moreover, because education has become an economic product, that can be provided for a fee whether it is a governmental service or private business (Viennet & Pont, 2017), accordingly, qualitative and quantitative education that is based on international standards is no longer “valid” as a source of development.

From a humanitarian point of view, education is indeed a human right for all, throughout life. From a development point of view, UNESCO is entrusted to lead the Global Education 2030 Agenda through Sustainable Development Goal 4”. Therefore, the educational agenda for the coming years must undergo a divergent path and focus on sustainable development through (UNESCO 2019):

Changing content to serve Needs of Survival: Integrating emerging critical disciplines into the curriculum, such as climate change, biodiversity, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and sustainable consumption and production (SCP).
Designing teaching and learning pedagogy and environments in an interactive, learner-centered way that enables exploratory, action oriented and transformative learning in both physical as well as virtual / online learning environments to inspire learners to act for sustainability.
Empowering learners of any age, in any education setting, in every part of the world, to transform themselves and the society they live in to:
- Transfer to green economies, green jobs and to adopt a suitable lifestyle.
- Become an empowered “global citizen” who assumes local and global responsibilities to resolve global challenges and contribute to a more just and secure world. Pedagogy and learning environments:
Stimulating learning outcomes and promoting core competencies, such as critical and systemic thinking, collaborative decision-making, and taking responsibility for present and future generations.

BUT, THE PRIORITY to ALL OF THE ABOVE, THAT IS REQUIRED TO BE ADDED TO THE UNSESCO’s EDUCATION AGENDA IS:

TO SET A GLOBAL BUDGET TO EDUCATE ALL. EDUCATION MUST BE TAKEN OUT OF THE STATE HEIRACHIAL ORGANISATION. THE EDUCATION GLOBAL MAP OF THE WORLD MUSN’T BE THE SAME AS THE POLITICAL MAP.

For the Globe to be rescued … WE “the humans of the world” are in urgent need for a new EDUCATION ORDER

“Listen” …

listening-Pedagogy Download

https://internationaleducationdevelopment.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/listening-pedagogy.pptm

Amani Al Amad

EDUCATION CONSULTANT & LEARNING DEVELOPMENT MANAGER