How Palestinian Middle-Schoolers Approach Future-Building: The Roles of Teachers, Family, and Community on Students’ Attitudes Toward the Future
By Catherine Pitcher and Fatima Mohammad
27 February 2023
Young people growing up in areas of conflict can struggle with imagining their future due to uncertainties brought about by structural barriers like lack of full citizenship, discrimination, and a general sense of unpredictability about the future. Future-building describes an approach to thinking about the future that is open, optimistic, and allows students to dream and explore within their context(s). Among Palestinian middle schoolers who participated in a program designed to support future-building we found that students:
a) appreciated explicit support in future-building,
b) felt that teachers had an important role to play in helping them imagine a future, and
c) thought about their futures in relation to family and community.
Context
Students in Palestine have to navigate occupation and patriarchy which present challenges to imagining their future. Restrictions on freedom of movement, the absence of political sovereignty, and a lack of geographic unity in Palestine further restricts the available options for students.
In response to these needs, the NGO Palestine: Sports For Life (PS4L) developed a program called “My Education, My Power” to provide students structured support to imagine a future that sits at the intersection of their dreams and their geographic and socio-political context. Students worked with social workers to explore career options that allow for remaining in their villages and the education needed to pursue those dreams. In English classes, students were guided through exploratory activities to prompt self-reflection and learned how to communicate those ideas in English. In sports classes, students had opportunities to build their 21st-century skill sets through activities developed by a team of sports and education experts from PS4L and Court Vision International based on principles of self-directed learning and purposeful play.
The Findings
We, Fatima and Catherine, a teacher and a coordinator from this program, conducted a series of student interviews to further follow up on our existing monitoring and evaluation initiatives to better understand our former students’ thinking about the future and what teachers can do to support them.
All students interviewed appreciated having a space to explore future-building and referenced the impact of their teachers in supporting the development of their building a dream of a future. While all students named specific individual goals, reflecting a general sense of agency as a hope for their future, they always conceive these dreams in relation to their family and community.
Future-Building Pedagogy & The Role of Teachers
Students appreciated lessons that allowed them to name and express their emotions about the future, connect to an imagined version of their future self, and which developed critical consciousness of political and societal structures. Students felt the program developed self-awareness and kickstarted a thought process of future-building. Students are not currently feeling tied to any specific future path, but have a higher level of engagement in thinking about their futures than they remember having before the program.
Students specifically appreciated when teachers organized group work, offered multiple modalities for expression and participation, and gave explicit encouragement for students exploring non-traditional options such as a structural engineer, forensic pathologist, or basketball coach. Female students appreciated when teachers, especially male teachers, would intervene if male students attempted to reinforce traditional expectations.
Family
Students expressed that their families influenced the ways they envisioned future-building, and that they considered the impact of their choices on their families. Family support for future choices was a necessity in all students’ minds. Female students expressed that family support could be a protective factor in their ability to pursue roles that have traditionally been reserved for men. Students believe that achieving their future goals will positively enhance the lives of their families and hope to make them proud.
Community
Students expressed an explicit desire to have a positive impact on their villages through supporting community development and inspiring the next generation. However, female students were aware that they may not be able to travel abroad for education, or may be expected to choose traditional career paths such as teaching. Although these expectations felt restrictive to female students, no students were considering leaving their community or imagining their futures elsewhere in the world. They were assertive, willing to face challenges and hopefully impact their communities in a way that opened doors for future youth.
Moving Forward
Teachers of Palestinian students should reflect on how they are already guiding students in future-building, what further supports they can provide, and how they can partner with families and communities in this process. Given the uncertainty in this context, efforts in partnership with families and communities to support students in future-building could greatly impact students’ abilities to develop a future that promotes dignity and which fulfills their personal, familial, and community-based desires.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this publication belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily represent those of REACH or the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Catherine Pitcher completed her Ed.M in International Education Policy at Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) in 2021. She has taught and coordinated educational programming in Palestine since 2017. Currently she is a Ph.D. student and the English Coordinator at Palestine: Sports For Life. She can be reached at cpitcher@gse.harvard.edu, and via LinkedIn or Twitter.
Fatima Mohammad completed her B.A. in English Language and Literature at Birzeit University. She has been teaching at UNRWA schools serving refugee students in Jerusalem for nine years. She was a part of the curriculum development team and the teaching staff of the “My Education, My Power” program developed by Palestine: Sports For Life, and is a current Fellow at HGSE’s Middle East Professional Learning Initiative. She can be reached at ftm.moe1@gmail.com, or via LinkedIn.