Navigating curricula choices for Palestine refugees

Abstract

The question of what refugees learn is often absent from discussions of the importance of education. This oversight is significant. Curricula choices and the textbooks that convey these choices reflect a vision of society: who is included, who is not and how they are represented. There are longstanding disputes over the curricula taught to Palestine refugees who learn in schools run by the UN. Following Palestinian displacement in 1948, public, private and volunteer-run schools accommodated Palestinians in their places of exile. In some cases, existing schools expanded their capacity to include refugee students; in others, new schools for the refugees were created. The piecemeal emergence of schools and inadequate funding for education meant that providers relied heavily on existing education resources, including host-state curricula and textbooks. When the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East took over the schools in May 1950 it was more expedient, cost-efficient and politically viable to continue using these resources than to create new ones.