Palestinian Higher Education Research Articles

Fostering Resilience in Palestinian Higher Education: Strategies for Effective Management and Progressive Transformation

This research explores how Palestinian universities have shown resilience and implemented strategies to overcome challenges caused by the occupation. It delves into the leadership-led reforms in engineering, law, and medicine within these institutions through in-depth interviews with program deans. The study highlights how faculty members adjust curricula, teaching techniques, and program frameworks to tackle obstacles and address changing needs. Key strategies identified for resilience include flexibility, investment in staff development, fostering international partnerships, and effective management practices. Progress in achieving gender equality and the successful global careers of graduates are noted as signs of effective management. By embracing pedagogy and community involvement, these universities demonstrate the power of higher education in conflict zones. They navigate adversity by encouraging critical thinking and social accountability, showcasing the potential for education to drive change during times of conflict. The insights gained from this research offer lessons for institutions confronting similar sociopolitical challenges while emphasizing the significance of resilience, adaptability, and effective management during crises.

TikTok as a contemporary literary space in Palestinian higher education: empowering students’ creative thinking of fiction

ABSTRACT This study explores the transformative potential of TikTok as a contemporary literary space that empowers students’ creative thinking within the context of Palestinian higher education. It focuses on a group of 76 students who enrolled in the Novel & Short Story course in the English Department at a Palestinian university during the second term in 2022. By employing a Piagetian theoretical framework and a quantitative research approach through the utilization of a web questionnaire, the research demonstrates how the power of TikTok can be harnessed to inspire and construct a vibrant literary community in Palestinian higher education. In this community, students are positioned as active heroes in their TikTok videos where their interactive practices increase intellectual discussions, productive in-class performance, and collaborative reflection. Famed in a positive light, the research findings show that a sustained communal engagement with novels and short stories via digital spaces not only cultivates effective modes of creative thinking among participants but also provides original and practical orientations of teaching and learning in the Palestinian academic community. The possible digital understanding of literary texts beyond the conventions of institutionalized pedagogy provokes a future where students become creative thinkers and contributors to the world of fiction.

Using Technological Tools in Palestinian Higher Education – Reality and Expectancy

Using Technological Tools in Palestinian Higher Education – Reality and Expectancy

Preparing university teachers for times of uncertainty: the role of a transnational pedagogical-development training in Palestinian higher education

PurposeThe aim of this study is to explore the extent to which a transnational pedagogical training affected university teachers' approaches to teaching, as well as their efficacy beliefs and cultural perceptions, and to examine how such training could stimulate teachers' pedagogical-development processes beyond the specific context.Design/methodology/approachAn explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was adopted for the study. Quantitative data were collected through an online self-reported questionnaire from two-independent samples, both before (n = 119) and after (n = 110) the training. Qualitative data were collected after the training through episodic narrative interviews with five teachers.FindingsThe quantitative and qualitative findings indicate contradictory aspects of the teaching approach and perceived culture. While the questionnaire responses highlighted the dominance of teacher-centred teaching approaches and an individualistic culture, a thematic analysis of the interview data showed that teachers experienced pedagogical development as (1) increasing student engagement, (2) improving their own teaching practices, (3) a community activity and (4) an institutionalised process.Research limitations/implicationsThe design of the current research may have limited the authors’ potential to deeply investigate the effect of the transnational pedagogical training, as only snapshots of the teachers' perceptions were elicited. Future studies might consider a within-subject longitudinal design to thoroughly follow teachers' trajectories in learning and development over time.Practical implicationsThe research findings suggest that transnational pedagogical training initiatives are to be promoted amidst these uncertain times. Even though the focus of the study was not to explore the teachers' perceptions of teaching development during the pandemic, the current results imply that the mentioned training helped teachers in tailoring their pedagogical practices to suit the unexpected online teaching settings.Originality/valueThe study adds to the relatively new literature on the perceived effect of transnational pedagogical training initiatives. This study’s findings contribute to the body of knowledge related to pedagogical development in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

Between construction and destruction: the experience of educationalists at Gaza’s universities

ABSTRACT Drawing on 36 in-depth semi-structured interviews with students and lecturers at Gaza’s universities, this article explores the past and present higher education (HE) experience for educationalists in Gaza, and how this experience may be evolving in the shifting socio-political context in the Arab world. The research was conducted during the period 2012–2017 as part of an inductive PhD in Education study at the University of Cambridge. Combining Western theory and literature with Southern empirical data from the Gaza Strip, this paper reveals a simultaneous process of construction and destruction that continues to undermine the academic functioning of Gaza’s universities. Highlighting this structure of ‘de-development’ is important in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Palestinian HE experience, and to empower academic reform at Gaza’s universities and beyond.

From Higher Education in Historic Palestine towards a Pan-Palestinian Higher Education

The fiercely waged, century-long conflict on the ground of historic Palestine between the Jews, who from the mid-nineteenth century have mainly immigrated from Europe, and the Arab Palestinians, who live there—and have been living there for centuries/thousands of years—primarily started in the educational field. With the establishment of the Technion Institute in 1912, the Political Zionist movement started to develop a higher education system (HES) that could deliver the human capital needed for the building of a prosperous state, one built on the occupation and expropriation of Palestinian land and material property, on the expulsion of the people who lived there, on a system of apartheid, and, at long last, on the denial and destruction of the Palestinian identity. It was only sixty years later that a Palestinian response in the field of higher education was in a position to start with the establishment of Hebron University in 1971, followed by over fifty other Palestinian higher education institutes (HEIs). Despite current numerical parity in the population of around 6.5 million each (The New Arab 2018) and the number of HEIs (over fifty each) on the ground of historic Palestine, a devastating multi-sectorial power discrepancy exists in favor of the visions of Political Zionism. The power discrepancy and the irreconcilable narratives developed on both sides render peaceful compromises impossible. Through bibliographic research, this paper provides an outsider’s general snapshot of the current state of higher education in Palestine in order to explore its relation to conflict narratives, to power gap, and to major political events. It presents ideas for an intra-Palestinian, just as a regional and a global, discourse on how the still weak Palestinian HES in the Occupied Palestinian Territory could be improved to further strengthen Palestinian economic and scientific progress. It reflects on how to expand into a pan-Palestinian HES that, in addition, targets Palestinian refugees and diaspora Palestinians from all over the world, as well as Palestinians living in Israel. Beyond this demographic expansion, this essay suggests an academic engagement with the strengthening of historic Palestinian identity and the restitution of its cultural Druze and Jewish components, which were lost during the last century of conflict. This strengthened renewed multi-religious (now multilingual) Palestinian identity can also offer a long-term perspective for a peaceful solution, a perspective which cannot be offered by the exclusive Political Zionism.

Positionality and self-reflexivity: Backyard qualitative research in Palestine

Conducting qualitative, critical ethnographical research on disability in Palestine requires deep self-reflexivity, exploring positionality while claiming authorship. As a Palestinian conducting backyard research, I explored ways to conceptualize disability in light of language and macro factors related to Israeli occupation practices. While conducting interviews and observing, I learned to appreciate the advantages of being an insider and an outsider, and to be aware of the disadvantages of being both. Positionality and self-reflexivity helped me focus on my participants’ voices. Through exploring disability in Palestinian higher education, I realized I was not only the representative of the collective knowledge, but I was also reflecting on how my research was creating indigenous discourse and decolonizing methodologies that challenged being politically correct. This was especially true when using certain acceptable language and content in Western academic discourse. Positionality and reflection on my own feelings, as an outsider and an insider at the same time, were an essential part of the research, especially when participants were addressing questions on lived experiences, content, language, and concepts to use when describing macro and micro-related factors causing physical disabilities.

The Role of Administrative Governance in Fighting Administrative Corruption in the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education

This study aimed to identify the role of administrative governance in the fight against administrative corruption in the Palestinian Higher Education ministry. To achieve this objective, the descriptive method was followed, using a questionnaire as a tool for collecting relevant data. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of (180) staff members from the Ministry of Higher Education. The results showed that the aspects of the administrative governance in fighting administrative corruption in the ministry of higher education scored these results: rule of law (61.53%); accountability (61.14%); equity and equality (59.35%), partnership (58.29%); whereas the overall score of governance was (59.75). Furthermore, there were no statistically significant differences in the role of administrative governance in fighting administrative corruption in the Ministry of Higher Education that can be attributed to the variable of gender, academic qualification or experience.
 Keywords: administrative governance - the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education - Administrative Corruption

Disability and Higher Education in Palestine

Disability in Palestine and the experiences and practices of professors and administrators on accommodating disabled students in Palestinian higher education institutions are captured through critical ethnography mode. Disability in Palestine is discussed within the context of what I, as the researcher, call “segregating democracy.” The term segregating democracy refers to the political bonds between Israel and the United States of America that often lead to exclusion of the indigenous Palestinian community from the rest of the world. Segregating democracy and its consequences on disability in Palestine are the context in which the experiences of the Palestinian faculty and administrators are analyzed. Using critical disability studies, while also drawing from elements of teacher development theories, this paper identifies transformational ways of thinking about disability as well as the unique role of educators in promoting/adopting inclusive pedagogical practices towards accommodating disabled students in higher education.

The Extent of Higher Education Institutions Commitment in Serving Community According to Its Social Responsibility

The purpose of the study is to investigate the extent of higher education institutions commitment in serving community according to its social responsibility. Accordingly; the researcher adopted the descriptive analytical approach through using the quantitative approach by developing a questionnaire fitting the nature of the study. Based on this the study concluded several findings; indicating that the evaluations of faculty members for the role of Palestinian higher education institutions participated in the study (Beir Zait. Al-najah. American University) are in an average level in the domains of encouraging faculty members on participating in conferences as well as local and international seminars. Developing courses and academic programs and directing scientific research to solve community problems. Additionally, serving special needs people in the community. Meanwhile, the evaluations of faculty members for the role of Palestinian higher education institutions participated in the study were high in the domains of preserving environment, seeking to serve the community and social responsibility towards its employees.
 
 Based on the findings the study reached several recommendations such as; the need to work to establish social responsibility in the curricula and university courses specializing in community service and bring about desired behavioral changes. And put social responsibility at the heart of the general strategies of institutions of higher education so as to have a key role in establishing a competitive strategic thought that serves society and its issues by addressing its problems and seeking solutions to them using scientific methods. Enhancing coordination between higher education institutions and research centers in holding seminars and conferences and participating in the preparation of studies and researches related to community issues.

Quality of service acceptance in cloud service utilization: An empirical study in Palestinian higher education institutions

Cloud service is an emerging technology in Higher education institutions (HEIs). However, while providing this technology, quality of service (QoS) not given sufficiently important attention especially from the HEIs and decision makers. In this research, previous QoS models and frameworks are reviewed of researches done in this field are presented. It necessary to monitor, and evaluate QoS acceptance variables of cloud service to provide accurate information for HEIs. Thus, with the aim of representing and highlighting the factors influencing QoS acceptance, the need to develop a new model to enhance QoS acceptance, a new model is introduced to ensure understanding of the relation among QoS acceptance variables and utilizing cloud service. This study was conducted by a survey questionnaire for collecting data from top management in Palestinian HEIs. Results founded a positive significant relationship of technological and environmental variables with QoS acceptance while organizational shows insignificant relationship with QoS. Additionally, the developed model assist decision makers to develop their strategic plans of utilization cloud service by exploring, and evaluation QoS acceptance variables of current cloud service.

Disability, the Politics of Maiming, and Higher Education in Palestine

Different pieces of a puzzle are put together to unpack the implications of biopolitical forms in relation to disability in Palestine. Tracing the political connections between Israel and the United States of America (the U.S.), both countries give themselves the right to maim the Palestinians in different forms. Israel maims the indigenous Palestinians in more direct ways, while the U.S. is the guard and supporter of Israel in the process of maiming the Palestinians. Yet, successful, disabled Palestinians have emerged from under the rubble in different fields and in academia and higher education in particular. In this paper, Critical Disability Studies (CDS) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) are used as theoretical frameworks to examine disability in Palestinian higher education in light of political implications. The paper also reveals a dearth of research on disability in Palestinian higher education

Economics of Higher Education under Occupation: The Case of Palestine

Through some extremely difficult experiences, education in general and Higher Education in particular has remained a constant focus of resources in Palestine. Due to the ongoing occupation of Palestine, Palestinian universities could not expect to contribute significantly to economic development in the same way as other institutions around the world. However, the establishment and development of universities in Palestine meant that Palestine was investing in Palestinians, and, for reasons discussed in this paper, the development represented a clear breakthrough to be celebrated throughout Palestinian society. Most of the previous studies on the Economics of Higher Education (HE) have not explicitly dealt with the Economics of Higher Education under occupation, especially in Palestine, neglecting much of the broader context and strategic impact of Palestinian Higher Education. This research investigates in depth Palestinian HE socio-economic outcomes for Palestinians, bringing to the light the meaning of HE under occupation that goes beyond mere economic impact to include its impact on Palestinians' human capital, dignity, and national identity reflecting the unique case of Palestine. This research reveals that from very early on it was clear that Palestinian Higher Education could not give the economy a boost, but that universities did give people a pride in Palestine, which, given the conditions of a brutal military occupation that increasingly separated one Palestinian from the next, amounted to quite a significant achievement. It demonstrated the central role Palestinian HE plays in the life of Palestinians as it is goes beyond means of economic growth to means of survival, building human capital, and maintaining people's dignity and national identity.

Financing Higher Education in Palestine

Despite great obstacles over its relatively short threedecade history, Palestinian higher education has helped to meet the rising demand for further education, providing access in West Bank/Gaza to those who had been forcibly deprived of the chance to study abroad. But longstanding demographic and fiscal pressures, coupled with inadequately defined priorities and chronic economic and political problems only heightened by the recent turbulence, have led to a higher education system in fundamental need of repair. In recognition of these facts, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has decided to develop a financing strategy for the purpose of creating a more effective, accessible, efficient, and accountable higher education system.

Assessing the Scientific Research Productivity of the Palestinian Higher Education Institutions

An-Najah National University (ANNU) is a Palestinian university that was established more than 35 years ago. The objective of this study was to do a bibliometric assessment of research output, which describes the growth, contribution, and impact of research carried out by the faculty members, researchers, or students of ANNU in the past 35 years. The data used for this study were retrieved from Scopus database. Bibliometric analysis was used to identify the pattern of publication, relative growth rate, authorship pattern, collaborative measures, author’s productivity, most prolific authors, and most prolific journals. A total of 791 published documents were retrieved for ANNU. Seventeen documents (2.1%) were published in Acta Crystallographica Section E Structure Reports Online, whereas 16 (2.0%) were published in Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A: Environmental Science and Engineering, and 10 (1.3%) were published in International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Six hundred one (76%) documents were published in journals listed in Web of Knowledge. The total number of citations for documents published from ANNU, at the time of data analysis (November 19, 2013), was 4,553, with an average of 5.8 citations per document. The study identified 384 (25.8%) documents with 59 countries as ANNU–foreign collaborators. Research output from ANNU showed steady growth over the past 35 years. Research output was high from certain scientific disciplines, whereas was lagging from others. Future emphasis on joint research, international collaboration, and publishing in indexed journals is needed.

Education, revolution and evolution: the Palestinian universities as initiators of national struggle 1972–1995

Since the concept of nationalism first emerged on the world stage, universities have played a key role in its collective formation and dissemination to the masses. Established under challenging circumstances and subjected to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the wake of the 1967 war, Palestinian institutions of higher education have trodden a thin line between the training of human resources requisite to their national movement and compliance with the dictates of a military regime bent on curbing such aspirations. This research examines the various roles played by Palestinian universities in the ongoing struggle for national independence. Spanning from its inception to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, this collection of first-hand accounts, historical documents and critical analysis explores the evolution and adaptation of Palestinian higher education amidst three decades of social and political turmoil.

Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life (review)

Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life, by Sari Nusseibeh (with David Anthony). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. 542 pp. $27.50 This is the autobiography of one of the foremost Palestinian intellectual and political leaders. The scion of an elite family that traces its roots in Jerusalem back 1300 years, Nusseibeh has distinguished himself by vigorously abjuring resort to violence in the struggle against Israel. This has earned him the admiration of the Israeli peace camp. It did not, however, protect him from vitriolic attacks by the Israeli right wing nor from radical Palestinian elements, who thought him too conciliatory. Nor did it keep him out of Israeli prisons. Although assuming the form of an autobiography, with appropriate emphasis on personal experience, the book also provides running commentaries on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as including numerous references to the works of medieval Arab philosophers (with whom he is thoroughly familiar), their ancient Greek predecessors, and their modern European successors. As a graduate of Oxford and armed with a Harvard Ph.D., Nusseibeh carved out a career in Palestinian higher education, culminating in the position he still holds today: President of al-Quds University, the only Arab institution of higher learning in Jerusalem. Nusseibeh's life brackets the conflict by which it has been dominated. He was born in 1949, the year after the formation of the State of Israel. As a child, he lived in a family home which bordered on the so-called Green Line in Jerusalem. From his bedroom window he was able to observe at fairly close range the comings and goings of the ultra-Orthodox denizens of Mea Shearim, the famous shtetl-like district of West Jerusalem. Not until 1967, when he was in his late teens, did the elimination of the Green Line enable him to enter Israel proper and see that it consisted of a lot more than just the ultra-Orthodox. He was exposed to political ideas and concerns by his father, a politically active lawyer who held several important positions in the Jordanian government, and who maintained a tolerant, cosmopolitan, and open atmosphere in the home. At age 19, Nusseibeh moved to Oxford and later Harvard, where he studied philosophy. Already at this stage, he developed a strong belief in the unity of civilizations, as opposed to the so-called clash of civilizations set forth by such neo-conservatives as Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington. He also abandoned his youthful infatuation with the ideal of a single secular democratic state with equal rights for Jews and Arabs, and instead came to advocate the concept of a two-state solution with a separate independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel. This is the position he continues to maintain, arguing that Israelis and Palestinians are (or should be) natural allies rather than mortal enemies. In addition to his impeccable academic credentials, and the fact that he pursued a career in higher education, Nusseibeh was also politically active. Yasir Arafat actively sought his support, but Nusseibeh successfully resisted most of the time. He devoted considerable energy to building al-Quds as a genuine and respected academic institution. Arrayed against him was a series of formidable obstacles, beginning with the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education, which sought to impose its authority on the essentially autonomous university, and including the Israeli government which was bent on limiting if not eliminating all Palestinian institutions within the city of Jerusalem, to Fatah and Hamas, whose members among the students got into open and violent conflicts which led to the expulsion of the Hamas faction from the university. …

Palestinian Higher Education: National Identity, Liberation, and Globalization

Research Article| February 01 2000 Palestinian Higher Education: National Identity, Liberation, and Globalization Ibrahim Abu Lughod Ibrahim Abu Lughod Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google boundary 2 (2000) 27 (1): 75–95. https://doi.org/10.1215/01903659-27-1-75 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Ibrahim Abu Lughod; Palestinian Higher Education: National Identity, Liberation, and Globalization. boundary 2 1 February 2000; 27 (1): 75–95. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/01903659-27-1-75 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll Journalsboundary 2 Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Duke University Press2000 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Recent developments in Palestinian higher education and the CEEPAT programme

Palestinian teachers at the pre-collegiate level who participate in the CEEPAT programme will, it is hoped, learn to place new emphasis on enhancement of their students' analytical skills and discourage an identification of knowledge with memorisation. For their part, Palestinian professors who have been trained to teach in the programme will presumably constitute a growing reservoir of talent which may be expected to raise the quality of Palestinian university education. Plans are now under way to give all Palestinians teaching under the auspices of CEEPAT an opportunity to attend an annual, three-week winter seminar in Gaza and/or a summer seminar in the United States, both of which will focus on issues of pedagogy and methodology. Such professors can be expected to “pass on their new understanding of teaching via discussion to their colleagues and to their university students, thereby spreading an important pedagogical method to other segments of the Palestinian... community”. 7 CEEPAT clearly has the potential to make a significant contribution to the elevation of educational standards in Palestine at a time of major historical change.

The Mission of Palestinian Higher Education

The Mission of Palestinian Higher Education