Palestinian researcher: Official bodies are lenient on the curriculum file to preserve the stability of the Authority
Palestinian researcher Asma al-Sharbati warned against the 'Open Educational Resources' project, considering it part of international pressures and funding conditions on the Palestinian Authority. She affirmed that official bodies are lenient on the curriculum file to preserve their stability, which may threaten Palestinian identity. She called for developing the school textbook through a Palestinian review instead of abolishing it.
Palestinian researcher and academic Dr. Asma al-Sharbati warned of the repercussions of the 'Open Educational Resources' project on the future of Palestinian curricula, considering that its proposal and implementation at this time cannot be separated from international pressures and conditions linked to funding for the Palestinian Authority. She said that official Palestinian bodies are lenient on the curriculum file in favor of what she described as their 'existential stability file,' warning that this may come at the expense of representing Palestinian identity within the educational process. She explained that the idea of education based on open resources may be useful in principle, but it becomes dangerous when treated as a substitute for the school textbook, especially in the Palestinian context, where education cannot be separated from the struggle over narrative and identity. She pointed out that the speed of the project's implementation raises questions about the readiness of the educational system, noting that schools already suffer from challenges related to regular attendance, teachers' conditions, and weak training and technological infrastructure. Al-Sharbati linked the project to international pressures that Palestinian curricula have faced in recent years, referring to conditions related to funding and modification of school textbooks, and to the continuation of international reviews of Palestinian curricula. She said that adopting the 'quality of education' discourse at this stage may obscure broader political dimensions, considering that the context, environment, and timing indicate an issue that goes beyond educational development and relates to attempts to influence the content of curricula and the way Palestinian identity is presented. She stressed that she does not defend the current Palestinian curriculum as an ideal model, noting that she has substantive criticisms of its content and its representation of Palestinian identity, but she simultaneously refuses to abolish the school textbook entirely, considering that this may open the door to unspecified sources that are not subject to a clear national reference. She warned that adopting open sources without clear standards may place teachers before the responsibility of choosing content themselves, in light of training shortages, and may lead to reliance on ready-made sources online or artificial intelligence tools, without sufficient guarantees regarding their content or consistency with educational and national goals. In this context, she saw that curricula represent a battlefield over identity and narrative, stressing that the school textbook is not just a means of transmitting knowledge, but a tool for shaping the consciousness of new generations and defining the image of the Palestinian, his history, and his relationship to his land. Al-Sharbati based her arguments on the results of her doctoral thesis on 'Representations of Palestinian Identity in Palestinian School Textbooks: Strategies of Containment and Exclusion,' in which she studied how the Palestinian, the refugee, the prisoner, and the martyr are represented, along with the presence of Palestine in texts, images, and educational content. She said her study showed, according to her analysis, a marginalization of some Palestinian groups, a focus on human suffering more than agency, and the presentation of Palestine in some places as a 'state' more than a 'homeland.' She stressed that criticizing curricula from within is healthy and necessary, but she called instead for preserving the school textbook and developing it through a Palestinian academic and community review, rather than abolishing it and moving to a system that may make educational knowledge sources open and unspecified. Al-Sharbati concluded by warning that Palestinians, after about 26 years of teaching a Palestinian curriculum written by Palestinian pens, may return to square one if education becomes dependent on sources determined by others, considering that preserving the Palestinian narrative and identity within education is a responsibility that should not be subject to funding pressures or political calculations.