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Digital technologies could be used to address each set of problems and challenges on a reactive and piecemeal basis but part of the research described here used fieldwork to explore the possibility that \u2018digital literacy\u2019, in the form understood and experienced by learning technologists in Europe, was inadequate elsewhere and specifically in Palestine because of: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- The focus on the individual with no mention of the community and the culture<\/li>
- The lack of recognition of the impact and hegemony of global English or of American digital technology <\/li>
- The potential importance of digital space and digital identity for a community and culture with severe constraints on its physical space and its physical identity<\/li>
- The need to express widespread trauma, loss and pain in circumstances where physically meeting or demonstrating were prohibited or problematic <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
This blog discusses empirical research to explore\ndigital literacy within the context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine\nspecifically in relation to teachers and their students, by focussing on accounts\nof the impact of the occupation and on the current use of digital technologies.\nMany poignant quotes illustrate the situation; one teacher says<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nlearner suffers from a psychological crisis and sleeps next to his family in\nAl- Shweikeh because one of his relatives was martyred and the soldiers come\nevery night to search the house which led to the child’s fear of everyone at\nschool and the constant going to the lavatory.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is just one quote, typical of many, coming from\nPalestinian primary teachers in Nablus, in the north of occupied Palestine. They\nwere describing the impact of the Israeli occupation on their professional\nlives and the lives of their learners but also describing the role of digital\nlearning technology in a complex and troubled environment. The quotes come from\nfocus groups held in December 2018 with six groups of teachers on the campus of\nAn Najah National University in Nablus, organised by the Faculty of Educational\nSciences. The topics grew out of a large-scale survey of over 500 teachers that\nexplored the impact of the occupation on teachers\u2019 professional lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One teacher remarked that no child in her class was\nunaffected by a death or wounding in the immediate family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To give some further context, the teachers describe the\ndifficulties of the daily commute, listing,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe daily checkpoints between the school and the house,\ninvoluntary returning from the checkpoint to the house, the late arrival [at] the\nschool, the separation wall and standing in front of the gates for hours.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
And interruptions to teaching and learning, variously<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dTeachers are afraid when the Israeli soldiers pass by the school;\nthat affects my performance thus reduces the quality of teaching.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Israeli army’s entry into the school leads to violence and\nsquabbles which affects the learning environment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The presence of the tank in front of the school and the\ndenial of access to the school were a major reason for our inability to focus\non education as the time was wasted by talking about it amongst students.”<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The teachers also describe how learners are affected by\nexperiences in their everyday lives outside school,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“… having an empty chair with a martyr\u2019s photo on it and\nthe refusal of students to sit on the chair in order to commemorate and respect\nthe martyr, leads all the students to continuing talking about him and\nremembering the incident<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAbsence from school to\nvisit family members in prisons such as mother, father and its effect on the\nstudent\u2019s psychological health, lack of financial resources because of the occupation,\nand the limited education to rote learning because of the absence of\nactivities.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, elsewhere,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe mother sleeps in prayer clothes because the soldiers might\ninvade the house while the family is sleeping, the arrest of students at a\nschool in one of the Jenin camps, …\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parts of both the survey and focus groups explored teachers\u2019\nuse of digital technology, such as SMS, websites and videos, to support\nlearning in the face of the situation they describe. They used whatever was available,\nbut the survey revealed technically savvy teachers in reasonable well-equipped\nschools alongside other teachers with much less competence, support and\ninfrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The findings also described the combined impact of the lack\nof specifically Palestinian digital resources and of restrictions on travel,\nparticularly to Jerusalem, depriving their students of a fuller sense of their\nPalestinian identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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A classroom in Palestine (Photo by John Traxler)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n The methodological details are available (Traxler et al\n2019). This followed earlier work (Traxler 2018) that was critical in a more\ngeneral sense of the gap between the high ideals in which digital literacy is\nconceptualised and articulated and the patchy way it is often then implemented.\nThis would be especially worrying if it was uncritically \u2018copy-and-pasted\u2019 on\nto the Palestinian education system. Given problems with criticality and\ncapacity in parts of academia in the cultures of the Middle East, this is a\nsignificant risk. The findings could underpin a more comprehensive and\nappropriate definition of digital literacy for the Palestinian education\nsystem, from kindergarten and schools to higher education and adult community\nlearning. This would start from a more holistic and comprehensive analysis of\nthe threats, pressures, experiences, resources and opportunities of\nindividuals, their community and their culture and asking how digital\ntechnologies can contribute to lives and learning that they value. Digital\nliteracy could be defined as the attitudes, access, competences and knowledge\nto take them from the former to the latter. This approach would moreover be generally\napplicable to any community and culture, thereby creating greater ownership and\nunderstanding of digital learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This project, funded by a Council for British Research in the Levant travel grant and led by John Traxler, assisted by colleagues from An Najah University in Nablus, built on the author\u2019s on-going missions and projects in the region, including significant work with UNRWA, the British Council and EU Erasmus programmes, in Palestine, in the wider region including Lebanon and Gaza, and with refugees in Europe. An earlier blog post by John Traxler describes “A couple of days’ work in Gaza<\/a>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Traxler, J., Khaif, Z., Nevill, A. & Affouneh, S., et al (2019) Living Under Occupation: Palestinian Teachers\u2019 Experiences and their Digital Responses, Research in Learning Technology, https:\/\/journal.alt.ac.uk\/index.php\/rlt\/article\/view\/2263<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Traxler, J. (2018), Digital Literacy: A Palestinian Refugee Perspective, Research in Learning Technology, Vol. 26, pp1 \u2013 21, https:\/\/journal.alt.ac.uk\/index.php\/rlt\/article\/view\/1983<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"John](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2019\/09\/traxler-e1569157672418.jpg?resize=150%2C100&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\nJohn Traxler (FRSA), Professor of Digital Learning, University of Wolverhampton, john.traxler@wlv.ac.uk | johntraxler on twitter and skype<\/p>\n\n\n