Week 6 Blog, October 3rd
National vs. Cultural Identities
This week’s reading, entitled ““I Was Born Here, but My Home, It’s Not Here”: Educating for Democratic Citizenship in an Era of Transnational Migration and Global Conflict”, is an in depth study of how Palestinian American students perceive their national and cultural identities and how Palestinian Americans are viewed in the “imagined community” of the United States. The author, Thea Renda Abu El-Haj, worked with many Palestinian students over the course of the study and analyzed their words and actions to discover how they identified both culturally and nationally. Many of the students describe themselves as holding U.S. citizenship but being Palestinian, even though they were born in the US and lived there at the present time.
The students all demonstrated that they have strong connections with Palestinian culture. Some students describe that even though the conditions in Palestine are tougher as far as access to medical services, a decent education, or welfare, they would still rather live in Palestine than America because it is where they feel more comfortable. The article discusses how U.S. citizenship is a privilege which affords members rights such as access to a legal system, the right to vote, and the opportunity to pass freely across borders. The Palestinian students describe US citizenship as a possession rather than an identity they associate with, and describe ways that they use their citizenship to support their families back “home”.
Abu El-Haj provides many examples of how Palestinian American students are targeted as being outsiders and how they struggled to feel a sense of belonging and “justice for all”, especially after the events of 9/11/01. One portion of the article focuses on the pledge of allegiance and how Palestinian American students were viewed by their peers if they did or did not stand for the pledge. Abu El-Haj refers to the time period just after September 11th where communities such as Arab, Muslim, and South Asian were targeted and labeled as “terrorists” and how this discrimination revealed that these groups of people are positioned at the bottom of the hierarchy in what is referred to as the “imagined community”. This symbolic community represents those who are in a position to contribute economically, politically, culturally, and socially to our country.
Abu El-Haj ultimately argues for schools to be the sites at which national belonging felt by immigrant youth is strengthened. Educators need to practice democratic education, where the perspectives and experiences of all students are listened to and respected. School-age children of all backgrounds need to be taught the skills necessary to be able to talk openly about cultural differences. Civic education in schools needs to focus particularly on the demographic shifts we are seeing in our country due to new immigrant communities and the challenges that are posed by these changes. Students need to be given the opportunity to examine what it means to “be American” and the groups of people who are traditionally placed outside of this realm of the American culture. Ultimately, “schools may become more inclusive sites that help to build diverse, democratic citizens” (310).
Just as Jean Wing pushed for the abolishment of myths and stereotypes in our schools, Abu El-Haj also calls for the inclusion of all students no matter their ethnicity. Both authors push for school environments in which cultural differences are recognized and celebrated in order to open the minds of our youth. A summer camp near my grandparent’s house in Maine is providing a space where young people from different countries, especially places that are typically placed against one another on the global scale, can come together to discover new perspectives and learn to respect each others’ differences. It is our job as educators to create the same type of environment in our schools.
This week’s reading, entitled ““I Was Born Here, but My Home, It’s Not Here”: Educating for Democratic Citizenship in an Era of Transnational Migration and Global Conflict”, is an in depth study of how Palestinian American students perceive their national and cultural identities and how Palestinian Americans are viewed in the “imagined community” of the United States. The author, Thea Renda Abu El-Haj, worked with many Palestinian students over the course of the study and analyzed their words and actions to discover how they identified both culturally and nationally. Many of the students describe themselves as holding U.S. citizenship but being Palestinian, even though they were born in the US and lived there at the present time.
The students all demonstrated that they have strong connections with Palestinian culture. Some students describe that even though the conditions in Palestine are tougher as far as access to medical services, a decent education, or welfare, they would still rather live in Palestine than America because it is where they feel more comfortable. The article discusses how U.S. citizenship is a privilege which affords members rights such as access to a legal system, the right to vote, and the opportunity to pass freely across borders. The Palestinian students describe US citizenship as a possession rather than an identity they associate with, and describe ways that they use their citizenship to support their families back “home”.
Abu El-Haj provides many examples of how Palestinian American students are targeted as being outsiders and how they struggled to feel a sense of belonging and “justice for all”, especially after the events of 9/11/01. One portion of the article focuses on the pledge of allegiance and how Palestinian American students were viewed by their peers if they did or did not stand for the pledge. Abu El-Haj refers to the time period just after September 11th where communities such as Arab, Muslim, and South Asian were targeted and labeled as “terrorists” and how this discrimination revealed that these groups of people are positioned at the bottom of the hierarchy in what is referred to as the “imagined community”. This symbolic community represents those who are in a position to contribute economically, politically, culturally, and socially to our country.
Abu El-Haj ultimately argues for schools to be the sites at which national belonging felt by immigrant youth is strengthened. Educators need to practice democratic education, where the perspectives and experiences of all students are listened to and respected. School-age children of all backgrounds need to be taught the skills necessary to be able to talk openly about cultural differences. Civic education in schools needs to focus particularly on the demographic shifts we are seeing in our country due to new immigrant communities and the challenges that are posed by these changes. Students need to be given the opportunity to examine what it means to “be American” and the groups of people who are traditionally placed outside of this realm of the American culture. Ultimately, “schools may become more inclusive sites that help to build diverse, democratic citizens” (310).
Just as Jean Wing pushed for the abolishment of myths and stereotypes in our schools, Abu El-Haj also calls for the inclusion of all students no matter their ethnicity. Both authors push for school environments in which cultural differences are recognized and celebrated in order to open the minds of our youth. A summer camp near my grandparent’s house in Maine is providing a space where young people from different countries, especially places that are typically placed against one another on the global scale, can come together to discover new perspectives and learn to respect each others’ differences. It is our job as educators to create the same type of environment in our schools.
That camp looks amazing and seems to be exactly what El-Haj hopes our schools can look like one day. I mentioned in class last week about how many of my students come to the states with prejudices they have learned in their native country. In the United States, many of these issues are never discussed (or hardly) especially when the US has minimal economic/political interest in the area. So these students are suddenly just expected to "get along" with people they have viewed as the oppressor or the oppressed. This camp seems to give an opportunity for these types of students to talk and understand the issues and come to new conclusions based on new and shared views. I think it is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, I wondered while reading El-Haj's research about how the students were getting along with Jewish students at the school - or if there was not a large population of Jewish students. For many Muslims and Jews, the Palestinian/Israeli issue is a passionate one, even if they have never lived outside of the US. This camp you shared would be a great place for these students to get to know each other in a safe and open environment.
Can I go to that camp???? Ha! I think its amazing that they offer such a thing. I want to incorporate this type of things in schools nationwide. These students need to realize that we all genuinely have more similarities than differences, and once we let that guard down, we are on the path of relationship building and making connections. We need to face the things that divide us head on to see what we can do to understand and go deeper than surface level relationships.
ReplyDelete“At Camp, I learned to listen to people, even if I don’t agree with what they say. I learned how to understand other opinions, respect them, and became more open-minded.” — Shai (Israeli) What an awesome thought. I feel we need to embrace this. Spread the idea of listening and be heard. El-Haj article made me more aware on the idea of belonging in a classroom from the point of view of students. How can we get the mentally of Shai's quote in our classrooms?
ReplyDelete