Abstract
ABSTRACT This study is a pioneer in reporting about the impact of the Arab Spring at Gaza’s universities. It is grounded in 36 in-depth semi-structured interviews which I conducted with lecturers and students at two of the universities in Gaza, as part of a PhD thesis at the University of Cambridge (2012–17). Although the study has benefited from Freire’s and Bourdieu’s conceptual insights, it remains mainly data driven, giving primacy to the Southern experience of higher education (HE) in Gaza. The article shows that although the socio-political changes in the Arab world had a negative impact on the Gaza HE experience, influenced by the spirit of the revolutions, students felt encouraged to voice their discontent to their universities. Nonetheless, due to educational and political barriers, Gaza students’ voices remain a cacophony; they are split between compliance and resistance.
Highlights
The article shows that the sociopolitical changes in the Arab world had a negative impact on the Gaza higher educa tion (HE) experience, influenced by the spirit of the revo lutions, students felt encouraged to voice their discontent to their universities
The questions to be explored in this article are: how do educationalists at Gaza’s universities perceive the shifting socio-political context in the Arab World, and what current or future impact the Arab Spring may have on the educational context at their universities? This article takes the broad defini tion of impact offered by Oxford English Dictionary, as ‘a marked effect or influence’
The interviews with students and their lecturers on their perspectives towards the Arab Spring revealed a degree of ambivalence, and pessimism
Summary
The questions to be explored in this article are: how do educationalists at Gaza’s universities perceive the shifting socio-political context in the Arab World, and what current or future impact the Arab Spring may have on the educational context at their universities? This article takes the broad defini tion of impact offered by Oxford English Dictionary, as ‘a marked effect or influence’. The questions to be explored in this article are: how do educationalists at Gaza’s universities perceive the shifting socio-political context in the Arab World, and what current or future impact the Arab Spring may have on the educational context at their universities? Despite different expres sions, this historical phenomenon is internationally referred to as the ‘Arab Spring’ These regimes’ attempts to domesticate cultural institutions and contain people’s awareness have failed (Brynen et al, 2012), as the youth has ‘inevitably come to see the world differently from the elderly’ The shifting socio-political context in the Arab world implies a renewed focus on the individual’s voice (Inbar, 2012) and ‘bottom up’ research (Gerges, 2014), to which this article is a meaningful contribution
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