Abstract

This book is an in-depth examination of education and media under occupation. The contributors to this volume engage dialogue to explore these domains and their roles and functioning under occupation while keeping an eye toward resolution, using the on-going conflict between Palestine and Israel as the focus. The uniqueness of this collection is not limited to the willingness of its authors to investigate topics that have often been left out of the mainstream, but that they actually enter into dialogue with one another. Education and media are exemplified as domains that can either maintain the status quo of oppression when used by policymakers and governments to do so or can be utilized as mechanisms for change and peacemaking. These contradictory roles are highlighted throughout this book by multiple voices.

Ilham Nasser is an associate professor in Early Childhood Education at George Mason University. She has spent over 25 years in teaching and research in different educational settings in the US and the Middle East. She has researched and published on the topic of teacher development and teaching for peace.

Lawrence N. Berlin is Professor of Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language and Chair of Anthropology, Philosophy, and TESL/TEFL at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. He is the author of several publications, including Contextualizing College ESL Classroom Praxis (2005, Routledge) and Theoretical Approaches to Dialogue Analysis (Ed., 2007, Max Niemeyer Verlag), as well as the founder of the organization â??Dialogue Under Occupationâ??.

Shelley Wong is an Associate Professor at George Mason University in Multicultural/ESL/Bilingual Education. Shelley was President of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL, Inc.) and served on the Executive Committee of TESOL from 2007-2010. She is the author of Dialogic Approaches to TESOL: Where the Ginkgo Tree Grows (Routledge).

This book is a unique compilation from a wide range of experts that explores how creative dialogue and education can be used to promote a just Palestinian peace - not apartheid - in the Middle East.

A really courageous, inspiring book. It provides vivid insight into how Palestinian, Israeli and other scholars are constructively involved in resolving existential issues in education, unmasking media bias, and creating and exploring dialogue that can transcend political bigotry and paralysis. Theoretically coherent and empirically rich, the book is committed scholarship at its best.