This article focuses on how the relations between Ottoman and Iran, which are important states of Islamic history, are discussed in Iranian high school history textbooks. The shadow of collective belief and identity constructed through history education reverberates across the fields of international and foreign policy. Past relations affect two…

This article probes the socially embedded musical pathways and learning strategies followed by professional Palestinian Arab wedding musicians active in the Galilee region of northern Israel from the late 1960s until the present day, from their first childhood experiences of music until the point when they step onto the platform for the first time…

Birzeit University (BZU)--established in 1924 by the Nasir family--was born out of struggle and developed as a microcosm of the Palestinian national movement against the Zionist settler colonial state of Israel. This article explores specific moments of solidarity with BZU and beyond. I map out a genealogy of three modes of solidarity with…

This paper examines two research questions: How do teachers refer to historical figures when teaching difficult past events? Which approaches to teaching difficult past events are reflected in teachers' ways of talking about historical figures? The paper is based on an analysis of lessons by three 11th grade history teachers in Israel on the…

"Children of Our Future" was a short essay published in 1929 in the Hebrew Teachers' Association jubilee book. It boldly claimed that future offspring of European Jews in Palestine were all fatally doomed due to the degenerative characteristics of the local climate. Such concepts stood in clear opposition to the dream of creating a…

American K-12 school curricula are often bereft of acknowledgements of the historical contributions of Arab societies to our present-day intellectual heritage, an oversight most apparent in the sciences. Teachers in a thriving democracy are obliged to introduce contemporary scholarship that reflects the contributions of Arab scientists between the…

Using transcripts of 6 classroom debates that took place in 4 urban schools, the present study takes a closer look at what middle school students do during classroom debates in the context of a social studies curriculum designed to support student argumentation in debate. Two coding schemes were used to analyze student comments in the transcripts:…

This essay analyzes the place of Israel in American Jewish schooling from the beginning of the 20th century until the early years of the 21st century. It utilizes curricula, textbooks, and instructional units, as well as other primary and secondary sources to delineate four distinct periods of Israel education. The subject of Teaching Israel is…

Education can cease to be a showcase for political projects and start serving women's lives only when the agency of women in their own education is acknowledged. In this paper I have addressed issues concerning harem education to emphasise that possible solutions to issues of girls' education require an awareness concerning the history of girls'…

One of the objectives in the fourth-grade art curriculum is to review an historical character in order to appreciate the achievements of early artwork. King Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut, is a very good choice because of the wealth of stimulating information available on this intriguing figure. This article describes a lesson in which…

Background/Context: Emotions often accompany discussions of ethnic matters, yet there have been few sustained investigations in education of how, and with what implications, emotional responses are (de)legitimized in the classroom, especially when conflicting historical narratives are involved. Emotions have remained in the margins of educational…

That primary source documents have the power to bring the past alive is no news to social studies teachers. What is new in the last 10 years is the number of digitized documents available online that teachers can download and use in their classrooms. Encouraging teachers to utilize this ever-increasing treasure trove of resources was the goal of…

The authors offer a brief introduction to the history of women of the Middle East, with a focus on three major religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Schools are paying increased attention to teaching world history, but they are giving too little attention to incorporating women as part of world history. One of the major dividing lines…

This essay is based on the author's book, "The Palestine Mandate and the Creation of Israel." As the sixtieth anniversary of Israel's independence in May 2008 approaches, that country remains a focal point of world attention. Israel's origins do much to explain why the Arab-Israeli conflict has been so hard to resolve, but also provide a…

Nakheel, a Dubai World Company has created the world's largest themed mall based on the narrative of Ibn Battuta, a 14th century Muslim explorer whose world travels are well documented. The Ibn Battuta Mall is located in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and utilizes a communication strategy called edutainment: a neologistic…