Caught in the crossfire: education in Gaza

How Gazans have managed to keep education going amid ongoing bombardment, death and displacement is the focus of a new project led by the University of Auckland.

The 15-month study will record the experiences of around 200 educators who have continued teaching since the Hamas attack on Israel (7 October 2023) and the relentless attacks on Gaza by Israel in the years since.

Led by Dr Ritesh Shah, an expert in education in conflict zones, alongside University of Auckland doctoral researcher Saleh Albalawi and Dr Zeena Zakharia at the University of Maryland, the project aims to highlight “the day-to-day acts of refusal and solidarity by those who continue to survive in Gaza,” says Shah.

“People self-organised into tents, brought children together and did what they could. It was driven by the conviction of those living in Gaza that they needed to do something.”

Shah says community members – including qualified teachers, student teachers and volunteers – created ad hoc learning spaces to give young children some degree of safety, routine and hope, and to help older students complete their Tawjihi (final exams at the end of high school) so they could still aspire to university or scholarships abroad.

He says this locally driven response harks back to the early 1950s, when Palestinians first displaced to Gaza also organised education in makeshift places like tents before formal education was established.
 

Saleh Albalawi believes it’s important to hear directly from people on the ground and that there are lessons to be learned about the importance of education, especially in the darkest of times.

“Education has long held a central place in Palestinian society,” he says.

“It’s a pathway to dignity, opportunity, and collective steadfastness, known as ‘sumud’ in Palestinian culture. Maintaining education is a form of refusal against the harsh realities imposed by the Israeli occupation and its punitive policies. Even amid ongoing bombardment and displacement, Palestinians continue to hold on to education because it represents hope and the possibility of a better future.”

He says as a Palestinian and former Gaza resident, the project is also close to his heart as a way to stay connected and to give back to his community.

“This is not just an academic topic for me, it’s part of my life, memory, and identity. Through this work, we hope to document the courage of teachers who continue educating under extremely difficult conditions and to ensure that their voices and experience reach the world and policymakers, with the aim of improving their situation.”
 

The US$75,000 project, funded by US-based Spencer Foundation, not only looks at how education was still possible under duress, but its significance as an act of resistance.

“More than 700 teachers have been killed since the start of the current phase of the conflict,” says Shah, “and many survivors face hunger, lack of water, constant insecurity and threats to their lives, and yet still turn up to teach.”

“We want to understand what education means to these community educators in a time of genocide. Just turning up to teach is a political act. It’s an act of resistance and defiance, of solidarity and resilience.”

He says the project challenges dominant view that education – and teachers – should be ‘neutral’ in times of crisis.

“There is a dangerous idea that education should somehow be detached from lived realities.”

The study aims to produce a visual timeline mapping what happened to education in Gaza from 7 October and how attacks on schools, teachers and students escalated over time.

As well as local voices, it will also include the experiences of Gaza-based staff working with UN agencies and international NGOs, who found themselves caught between headquarters’ demands and the realities on the ground.

Data (which will remain anonymous) will be collected remotely in coordination with UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) and the Education Cluster, which brings together local and international education groups in Gaza.

A report will be shared with international bodies, including the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), Education International and the Global Campaign to Protect Education from Attack.

The team believe the study will have relevance in other conflict zones, and for education generally.

“Too often, teachers are treated as mere technicians and education is reduced to content delivery,” says Shah.

“This project is a reminder that education always has a context, it’s always political, and teachers are making profoundly ethical and political choices – in Gaza and around the world.”