Spiritual and indigenous funds of knowledge: how Palestinian Muslim teachers reclaim Islam and citizenship education in Israel

ABSTRACT

Scholars have argued for better integration of religion and citizenship education through overarching goals of interreligious tolerance and inclusive citizenship. Yet, such debates often neglect the political dimensions of these subjects. In this study, we explore how Palestinian Muslim teachers in Israel interpret the intersections of Islam and citizenship education and how they draw on this intersection in their teaching. Through qualitative interviews with 15 citizenship and Islam teachers, we found that most teachers ground this relationship in their spiritual Islamic and indigenous Palestinian funds of knowledge. In their teaching, these funds can serve as counterhegemonic tools to deconstruct dominant forms of citizenship and Islam as defined by the Israeli state. We argue that the hybridization of these funds of knowledge has important educational implications for conceptualizing more critical and culturally relevant forms of Islam and citizenship education.

Introduction

The concept of citizenship has been historically expanded to include social, economic, and cultural dimensions of human life (Marshall, 1950), and it has been debated how citizenship connects to people’s religious and spiritual lives (Habermas, 2006; Rawls, 1997). Since religion is an important aspect of many citizens’ identities, education scholars have demanded that citizenship education needs to reference religion (Davies, 2014; Watson, 2004). Such forms of citizenship education combine civic knowledge, virtues, and skills with religious values and attitudes (de Ruyter & Merry, 2009). Yet, researchers have raised concerns that religious education can be exploited for political goals and to justify discrimination and violence against political opponents and minorities (Fontana, 2016; Papastephanou, 2008) or to promote dogmatism and extremism, hindering autonomous and critical thinking (Agbaria, 2018; James, 2010).

These debates reflect the dual function of religion as a societal force, rooted in social groups’ direct experiences of their conditions on the one hand, and as a hegemonic force when coupled with the structure and authority of the state on the other (Gramsci, 1971). Considering this dual function of religion is central in our study of the perspectives of Palestinian Muslim teachers in Israel, who are caught between these dynamics. Since 2009, the Israeli Education Ministry has been mostly under the leadership of conservative and right-wing ministers, who tailored school curricula and textbooks in Israel to strengthen the link between Judaism and nationality (Maniv & Benziman, 2020; Pinson, 2020). Both Jewish (secular) and Palestinian citizens in Israel have protested against these policy changes, arguing that they undermine minority rights and the state’s democratic character (Muff & Bekerman, 2017; Pinson & Agbaria, 2021). It is important to note that Israel’s Jewish population is characterized by severe internal rifts, such as between religious and secular segments, those of Mizrachi and Ashkenazi backgrounds, as well as right and left political orientations (Cohen & Susser, 2003). Still, scholars seem to agree that the political power and influence of the national religious section over various political domains, including education, has increased over the last decades (Karayanni, 2020; Maniv & Benziman, 2020; Ram, 2008).

Palestinian citizens of Israel¹ currently constitute around 21.1% of the population, of which 82.9% are Muslims, 9.2% Druze and 7.9% Christians (Haddad Haj-Yahya et al., 2020). The increasing consolidation of national religious ideology in the political mainstream – even if resisted by parts of the population – further reinforced their already precarious situation. Palestinian citizens feel significantly less part of Israel and are less proud of being Israel than their Jewish counterparts, especially younger generations (Hermann et al., 2022). Albeit being granted individual citizenship rights, such sentiments reflect notions of second-class citizenship among Palestinians in their homeland due to discrimination in the realms of law (for example the Jewish Nation-State law, Law of Return, Israel Lands Law), the allocation of government funds, lack of autonomy in decision-making in matters concerning their communities, and symbolic exclusion from the narrative of the Israeli nation (Ghanem, 2016; Rabinowitz & Abu-Baker, 2005; Shafir & Peled, 2002). Since Israel’s founding, its Muslim community has been denied any real decision-making power in religious and cultural matters (Karayanni, 2020). Thus, recent political developments that prioritize the state’s (Jewish) religious character are likely to reinforce the marginalization and alienation of Muslim Palestinian citizens.

Focusing on Islam and citizenship education, our study explores how Palestinian Muslim teachers in Israel navigate the relationship between citizenship and religion and how their interpretation of this relationship manifests in their educational approach. We decided to interview both Islam and citizenship teachers to gain a broader insight into this relationship. Islam and citizenship are contested subjects since they relate to Palestinian and Muslim identities which are both de-emphasized in the Israeli education system and public sphere. Thus, we identified these subjects as relevant contexts to investigate how teachers navigate discourses of belonging, religion, and citizenship.

To conceptualize the relationship between citizenship and religion, we draw on Gramsci’s (1971) theoretical framework of hegemony and counterhegemony, discussing how citizenship and religion have been used as important signifiers to serve hegemonic agendas. From this we will move on to discuss counterhegemonic possibilities in education, focusing on the concept of critical spirituality (Dantley, 2003) that illustrates how marginalized groups reclaim their space in education by resorting to their spiritual and indigenous knowledge. Our goal is to explore such educational possibilities in the context of Palestinian Islam and citizenship teachers in Israel, by asking (1) how Palestinian Islam and citizenship teachers interpret the intersections of their subjects in Israel, and, (2) what are the pedagogical implications of these intersections for citizenship and Islam education? After presenting our methodology, we discuss examples from our data of how the teachers draw on their spiritual and indigenous knowledge to make sense of Israel’s political reality in their teaching practice. Finally, we argue that the intersections of these teachers’ funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992) can provide the ground for more culturally relevant pedagogy in both Islam and citizenship education in Israel and beyond.

The relationship between religion and citizenship education: hegemonic challenges

Since spiritual, moral, social, and cultural knowledge can hardly be standardized, both subjects are confronted with broader epistemological challenges (Castelli & Trevathan, 2008). To address such challenges, scholars have promoted pedagogical approaches such as the inquiry into values based on experience (Baumfield, 2003), moral reasoning (Castelli & Trevathan, 2008), engaging in critical and reflective debates, and supporting students to develop their religious, cultural, political identities (Miedema & Ter Avest, 2011; Skeie, 2006).

However, from our perspective, this literature has not sufficiently engaged with deeper structural issues and inherent power relations in discourses about citizenship and religion. Ong et al. (1996) captured these structural dimensions through his concept of cultural citizenship, which he defined as a cultural process of “subjectification” as both self-making and being made by systems of control, governance, administration, and surveillance. Cultural citizenship is dialectical, referring to “cultural practices and beliefs produced out of negotiating the often ambivalent and contested relations with the state and its hegemonic forms that establish the criteria of belonging” (Ong et al., 1996, p. 738).

While predominantly associated with nationality, Subedi and Rhee (2018) also defined religion as a (un)official marker of citizenship since religious privilege continues to reward members of dominant religious backgrounds with more cultural, political, and economic power. They argued that citizenship narratives still draw on colonial orientalist hierarchies of acceptable and unacceptable spiritualities and knowledge systems. Official citizenship curricula are bound by neocolonial and neoliberal forms of knowledge and power that primarily socialize students into obedience and conformity, neglecting a critical examination of those racist and capitalist structures that continue to shape religious privilege (Subedi & Rhee, 2018). Their argumentation suggests that the relationship between religion and citizenship is inherently political, as religion is a form of cultural power that exercises social control and can act as a hegemonic force (Gramsci, 1971). In his historical critique of Catholicism in Italy, Gramsci defined the hegemonic role of religion as an organizational mode of religion that serves as a source of hegemony and domination for the ruling classes and clerics. Yet, Gramsci ascribed a dual role to religion, not only as the “religion of the intellectuals” and a force of domination but also as a “religion of the people” that is rooted in everyday experiences of subaltern classes – a role to which we will turn in the following.

Critical spirituality and citizenship: counterhegemonic possibilities

Despite being interwoven in power relations, Gramsci viewed religion as highly variable among different social groups: “there is a religion of the petit bourgeoisie and city workers, a women’s Catholicism, an intellectual’s Catholicism” (Gramsci quoted in Forlenza (2021, p. 46). Due to its versatility, religion has also functioned as a source of marginalized communities’ social and political struggles, such as the liberation theologies of Indigenous and Black communities in the Americas, and Palestinian versions of it (Masalha, 2012).

Inspired by liberation theology, Dantley (2007) framed the justice-oriented concept of “critical spirituality” as an amalgam of critical theory and African-American spirituality, directed at promoting reflection, resistance, and reconstruction of the hegemonic ways of schooling in the United States. For Dantley (2007), a critical spirit is motivating d] for connectivity with others, sense of purpose and mission, and perspectives on what is morally and ethically right [which] are all based on notions of the undemocratic nature of asymmetrical relations of power and the interests that are being served through a commitment to a capitalist, market-driven ideology. (p. 169)

Freire (1970) formulated a similar notion of critical spirituality, influenced by critical theory and his religious tradition (Boyd, 2012). Embedded in his concept of utopia, Freire’s critical spirituality seeks to strike a balance between imagining an equitable society on the one hand and a critical analysis of oppressive conditions coupled with political action on the other. “Conversion” is for him a spiritual transformation through identification and solidarity with the struggle of the oppressed and involves constant self-reflection:

Those who authentically commit themselves to the people must re-examine themselves constantly. […] Only through comradeship with the oppressed can the converts understand their characteristic ways of living and behaving, which in diverse moments reflect the structure of domination. (Freire, 1970, pp. 60–61)

Freire and Dantley’s conceptions of spirituality and pedagogy share the critical analysis of the oppressing status quo and education as a means for transcendence as a just and equitable society. Both view the resources for their critical and radical pedagogies in the cultural and religious traditions of the oppressed populations.

Rhee and Subedi (2014) highlighted the relevance of such a “transformative spirituality” for citizenship education, as it can support the development of critical consciousness and a way to engage in anti-racist practices and political mobilization. In this way, spirituality can serve as an analytical lens to critically examine how religions are represented in textbooks and discussed in classrooms, inviting discourses of how religion is coupled to material questions of (neo)colonial history (Rhee & Subedi, 2014). Therefore, critical spirituality addresses the political dimension of the relationship between citizenship and religious education, which has been rarely addressed in the literature. Critical spirituality is explicitly pedagogical and political, as it aims toward the emancipation of the self and the society at large from oppressive conditions. We now shift our focus to teachers and discuss how their resources or funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992) are the bedrock for critical pedagogy and spirituality.

Learning from discrepant experiences: minoritized teachers’ funds of knowledge

Studies about teacher identities highlighted minoritized teachers’ commitment to teaching about social injustices and diversity. For example, Abu-Saad (2006) referred to Said’s (1993) concept of “discrepant experiences” to explain minoritized teachers’ capacity and readiness to teach about such issues. According to Said, such alternative experiences of minoritized groups diverge from dominant or privileged forms and this discrepancy creates “a historical necessity” (p.35) for resistance and counter-hegemony. These discrepant experiences are an important aspect of minoritized groups’ funds of knowledge, which constitutes underappreciated knowledge from learners and teachers’ personal and communal lives that supports them in their critical analysis of social injustices (Moll et al., 1992). Importantly, such funds of knowledge also include religious beliefs and practices (Dallavis, 2011). Funds of knowledge (re)center the cultural capital of minoritized and indigenous groups whose experiences are largely omitted or even delegitimized by official curricula, education systems, and institutions. They can support minoritized teachers to act as role models for students and as agents of change due to their ability to understand and relate to minoritized students’ experiences, and to build cultural bridges between the students’ homes, schools, and communities (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2011; Quiocho & Rios, 2000).

Most research on minoritized Muslim teachers focused on North American and European contexts. A common thread in these studies is that teachers feel insufficiently supported by educational authorities due to a lack of suitable materials for Islam education, adequate formal teacher preparation programs (Kallioniemi, 2018; Memon, 2011), and a missing connection to citizenship education, which could support Muslim students in their identity development (Memon, 2011; Zine, 2008). They also demonstrated how minoritized Muslim teachers refashion their teaching to be more culturally relevant to their students by drawing on Islam and discrimination experiences. For example, Muslim students and educators in Canada built on their Muslim identity to challenge Eurocentric and discriminatory policies and cultures (Zine, 2000); in Britain, Muslim teachers referred to discrimination experiences to challenge racist securitization discourses that underpin educational policies (Panjwani, 2016). This body of research attests to how Muslim teachers navigate their different cultural living contexts by contextualizing academic and Islamic knowledge in their specific circumstances as a minoritized community. Everington (2015) described this process of crafting a “new knowledge” by teachers as

bridging [their Muslim identity or faith] to external sources of knowledge and ideas would enable the pupils to create “a new knowledge” of their Muslim identity in a multi-ethnic/religious society, of how to navigate through the challenges of living as a Muslim in such a society and find ways of articulating and defending their beliefs in response to challenges. (p. 171)

The pedagogical process of creating intersections between different funds of knowledge (e.g. Islam and citizenship) has been labeled a “third space,” where new knowledge is formed based on students’ and teachers’ diverse experiences (Moje et al., 2004). Intersections of different funds of knowledge have not been explored in the context of the Palestinian Muslim community in Israel, to which we turn in the following section.

Context: citizenship and Islam education in Israel

Education in Israel is organized into a state system under the authority of the Ministry of Education and an independent system, which is managed by diverse religious bodies and organizations, non-governmental and parent organizations. The independent education system includes schools for the ultra-orthodox Jewish population and a few private parochial schools for the Christian minority. Yet, there is no independent sector for Muslim students who mostly attend public state schools or private Christian schools (Al-Haj, 1995).

The state system is divided into different tracks for secular (state schools) and religious Jewish students (state religious schools) who study in Hebrew, and Arab (Palestinian) students who receive instruction in Arabic (divided into Christian, Muslim, Druze, Bedouin, and Circassian sub-tracks). The Department of Education in Arab Society, which is supervised by the Ministry of Education is responsible for the implementation of policies in Arab public schools, the adaption of policies to the needs of the Arab population, the development and updating of curricula, and following up on implementation processes (Ministry of Education Israel, 2024a). Education researchers have criticized the persistent discrimination of Palestinian citizens in the education system (examples are the underinvestment in infrastructure, training, and special education programs) and the lack of autonomy of the Arab communities in determining their curricula and policies, which even persists in the Arab education department (Abu-Saad, 2006; Al-Haj, 1995; Yonah, 2008).

Citizenship education was introduced as an independent subject in 1976, focusing mainly on the teaching of formal knowledge about the political system and procedures in Israel (Cohen, 2019b). In the 1990s, a committee was appointed to examine the state of the curriculum and concluded that it was outdated, and limited to procedural aspects of democracy and that several curricula for different groups in Israel existed. As a result, in 2000, a revised version of the curriculum was introduced as a compulsory and unified subject in Jewish secular and Arab state schools, in which students are tested during the matriculation exam (bagrut). The curriculum declared to promote the development of a civic identity in addition to a national one, respect for human and civil rights, the use of higher thinking skills, the development of complex opinions, and tolerance toward different opinions (Ichilov et al., 2005). Yet, since the 2009 national election, conservative and right-wing ministers have prioritized a nationalistic-religious discourse over democratic universal principles (Cohen, 2019b). This ideological shift was reflected in the introduction of legislations such as the Nakba law,² and revisions to the centralized curriculum promoting a neo-nationalistic religious discourse that marginalizes the rights and civic status of Palestinian citizens, and downplays their national identity and historical connection to the land (Pinson, 2020).

While national education law from 1953 formalized that every religious minority in Israel would receive instruction in its own religion through a curriculum taught exclusively by instructors from the respective communities, Islam education “never gained a strong foothold in the Arab secondary schools” (A. R. Peled, 2012:16). Only in 2014, Islam education’s status was elevated to a mandatory subject for Muslim students to pass the matriculation exam (bagrut), and a new textbook was developed (Saada, 2020b). The curriculum for “Heritage and Religion of Islam” consists of studying the basic principles of the Islamic faith, the Qur’an, the Sunnah, Islamic law, the biography of the Prophet Muhammad, and Islamic values (Ministry of Education Israel, 2024b). Agbaria’s (2012) review of the curriculum found that it focuses on teaching religious norms, civic virtues, and personal qualities to function as a loyal, reconciled, and disciplined citizen. He concluded that it emphasizes character education that seeks to elicit acceptance, cooperation, and compliance and is therefore limited to teaching a generic, monolithic, decontextualized, and ahistorical faith, which is disconnected from the history of the Palestinians and their holy sites (Agbaria, 2012).

Research about the views and teaching practices of Palestinian citizenship teachers in Israel paints a complex picture. While many teachers criticize the curriculum content for the lack of Palestinian perspectives, they also reclaim their civic spaces by focusing on their individual citizenship rights and by drawing on their Palestinian identity, culture, and history in their classroom discussions (Agbaria & Pinson, 2019; Cohen, 2019a; Muff, 2019). The perspectives and teaching approaches of Palestinian Islam teachers have been scarcely researched. An exception is Saada’s (2020a) study about Islam teachers’ views on democracy and citizenship, which concluded that the interviewed teachers dichotomized Islam and democracy since teachers either perceived democracy as a threat to their religious/Islamic way of life or sought to “Islamize democracy.” This echoes the findings of his other study (Saada, 2020b) that Islam teachers in Israel tend to support Salafi (conservative) conceptions of Islam education and focus on the transmission of knowledge as their pedagogical approach (Saada, 2020a). Comparing Islam and citizenship teachers, these studies suggest that Palestinian Islam teachers promote passive and conservative notions of citizenship, whereas citizenship teachers tend to advocate liberal and justice-oriented citizenship. Intrigued by these differences, we saw the need to investigate both citizenship and Islam teachers’ perspectives on the intersections of Islam and citizenship and how these intersections manifest in their teaching.

Methodology

This study was part of a larger research project about the relationship between citizenship and Islam education from the perspective of Palestinian Muslim teachers in Israel. We conducted a qualitative case study (Merriam, 1998; Stake, 1995) focusing on the specific case of Palestinian Muslim teachers in Israel. Our study is guided by critical theory (Adorno & Horkheimer, 1947; Marcuse, 1941) and a postcolonial perspective (Hall, 2004; Said, 1979) as we sought to examine how power relations and the production of knowledge in Palestinian Muslim education settings are shaped by colonial orientalist legacies and neocolonial ways. Therefore, we tried to amplify the teachers’ voices in our findings and to give space to their ways of knowledge production.

We recruited teachers with the help of graduates from our university’s education faculty, which specializes training educational counselors, principals, and non-formal educators. The graduates were former BA and MA students who worked as schoolteachers in the north of Israel with an extended network of colleagues. They referred us to potential interviewees who met the criteria as Palestinian Muslim Islam and citizenship teachers working at public schools in Israel. Between January and March 2021, we conducted semi-structured individual interviews with seven citizenship teachers and eight Islam teachers from Arab public high schools (except for one teacher, Ida who taught at a middle school), after receiving their informed written consent.

All the teachers were from and taught in schools in the Northern Triangle region. Most of these locations were smaller towns and villages (with either mixed Muslim-Christian or only Muslim populations) and most suffer from economic deprivation and poverty (Haddad Haj-Yahya et al., 2020). The teachers have varying educational biographies: some hold first and second degrees, multiple degrees, and one participant was finishing a PhD. They studied in various locations such as an Arabic-speaking teacher education college, a university in the West Bank, and the majority studied at universities in Haifa and Tel Aviv (see Table 1). The interview questions focused on their religious and political identities, their views on the relationship between Islam and citizenship education, and how they refer to this relationship during their teaching.

Table 1. Background of participants.

Pseudonym	Educational background	Teaching experience	Subjects
Ezra	BEd Islamic studies	23 years	Islam
Ida	BA Arabic language and literature	22 years	Islam, Arabic
Mariam	Unknown	Unknown	Islam
Elham	BA Arabic language and Islamic studies MA Arab culture and education in Israel	3 years	Islam, Arabic
Amir	BA Arabic language and Islamic studies MA Islam and Arabic language, MA Educational leadership PhD in progress	27 years	Islam
Malik	BA Islamic Sharia and Fiqh MA	17 years	Islam
Nadia	Unknown	4 years	Islam
Salma	BA Arabic language and Islamic studies	Unknown	Islam
Salah	BA History MA Political Science	23 years	Civics, History
Zaynab	BA Political Science	20 years	Civics, Journalism
Salim	BA Social and Political Science	27 years	Civics
Tareq	BA and MA Political Science	23 years	Civics, Social Sciences
Sherine	BA Social and Political Science MA Political Science	16 years	Civics, Sociology, Humanities
Rami	BA Political Science and History MA Behavioral science MA Government and Public Policy	25 years	Civics, History
Ibrahim	BA Political Science MA Humanities	26 years	Civics

We decided to work with local Palestinian research assistants, who were previously trained in qualitative interviewing, to conduct the interviews. We reasoned that the shared community background and language may have facilitated trust between participants and interviewers, especially since the interviews dealt with sensitive topics such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Due to the COVID-19 regulations that were in place at the time of data collection, the teachers were interviewed using the online video communication software Zoom. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. The study received ethical approval from the research ethics committee (Approval # 532\20) at the Faculty of Education in our university.

Positionality

Emphasizing the role of power relations in this study certainly requires us to reflect on the impact of our own backgrounds on the research. The first author has lived in Israel for several years and grew up in Germany as an atheist in a Protestant community. The second author is a member of the Palestinian Muslim community in Israel and has been engaged in political and interreligious educational initiatives in Israel. We felt that our diverse backgrounds have brought “insider” and “outsider” perspectives to our interpretation; taking an insider perspective might have helped to situate the teachers’ narratives within the local culture and history, while the outsider perspective helped to situate it in relation to wider international settings. Further, we share a common commitment to critical political education, as well as a concern for human and minority rights.

Data analysis

After transcribing and translating all the interviews into English, we organized them in the software Atlas.ti and analyzed the data using a reflexive thematic approach (Braun & Clarke, 2019). First, we immersed ourselves in the data and generated initial categories for coding, considering reflective notes and our literature review. Second, we conducted multiple rounds of coding and recoding, probing for the theoretical themes, based on the literature review and our theoretical frameworks. As a final step, we analyzed our data in reference to general themes or patterns that we identified during the coding process, which we present in the following section. The names of the teachers presented below are pseudonyms.

Findings

We identified two major themes through which the teachers described the intersections of citizenship and Islam: first, their spiritual funds of knowledge, shaped by their interpretation of Islamic concepts, laws, and values; and second, their indigenous funds of knowledge, grounded on their historical and contemporary experiences as Palestinians. These funds are contextualized and politicized through their discrepant experiences (Said, 1979) as a religious minority and second-class citizens in their homeland. Such experiences mirror the gaps between the official rhetoric of rights and citizenship and their lived reality of violence, discrimination, and economic hardship.

The teachers provided examples of how they draw on the intersections of Islam and citizenship to define their pedagogy and classroom practice. In the final section, we conclude that some teachers promote hybrid learning based on these two funds, which can inform new concepts of citizenship that are critical, culturally relevant, and activist.

Discrepant experiences: the depoliticized Palestinian Muslim citizen

Before delving into the teachers’ funds of knowledge, it is important to discuss the discrepant experiences that the teachers described in citizenship and Islam education. The citizenship teachers did not see the citizenship curriculum as reflecting the actual historical events, experiences, and identities of Palestinian citizens of Israel. They identified gaps between the curriculum, from which the teachers choose to teach students about concepts, procedures, and laws on the one hand, and their lived reality on the other: “In fact, we teach civics from a theoretical point of view, but on the ground, things are completely different.” (Ibrahim, citizenship teacher). Another citizenship teacher, Salah, went even further and described the teaching content as contradicting their lived experiences:

Look, our subject has a lot of contradictions because we teach one thing, whereas, in reality, they [students] see another. We teach about equality, but there is no actual equality in this country. We teach about rights, but we do not receive all of our rights. We teach about the right to property and ownership rights, yet there are confiscations. [of Palestinian land]

Thus, many teachers saw it as part of their role to address these issues in their classroom, as citizenship teacher Tareq explained: “you investigate how things are in reality compared to the material that you’re supposed to teach in civics classes.”

In contrast, the Islam teachers did not lament the fact that their curriculum does not deal with political issues, perhaps because this is not expected of an Islam curriculum. However, many teachers stressed the importance of connecting the teaching material to actual events: “I always try to give a role to life events and connect them with religion” (Ida, Islam teacher). Yet, another Islam teacher admitted that she avoids discussing politics in her classroom “there isn’t a freedom of speech when it comes to politics, so, I cannot delve deeper into politics with my students.” (Salma). Reasons for this might refer to the fear of being reprimanded by their school or other educational authorities or/and their sense of alienation from the curricula that stress the state’s Jewish character while omitting Palestinians’ historical connection to the land – an issue that we infer from teachers’ statements that will be presented below.

Nevertheless, teachers from both subjects recognized political intentions behind educational policies to create Palestinian Muslim citizens who are apolitical, law-abiding, and loyal to the state. Islam teacher Elham’s statement was exemplary for this: “[T]he state of Israel wants to shape a Muslim that stays away from the street, stays out of politics, and stays out of the things that we see nowadays like the protests against violence.³”

In the following section, we will argue that even though some teachers claim not to discuss politics in the classroom, the teachers in our study rebelled against the “depoliticization” of education and citizenship in various ways by drawing on their spiritual and indigenous funds of knowledge, bridging the gap between the teaching material and Palestinian Muslims’ lived reality.

Re-politicization through funds of knowledge

Muslim identity: teachers’ spiritual funds

Some teachers argued that Islam education can fill a vacuum that is left in citizenship education. Contrary to citizenship education, Islam provides a moral basis for everyday life, as well as social and political engagement, as Islam teacher Elham explained: “Civic education talks about rights and duties, but I do not think that it teaches anything about identity or the components that make up who I am from a political point of view.” Elham described citizenship as a technical subject that fails to develop a political identity that consists of values, belonging, or ideals, whereas Islam provides a reason for moral behavior in the form of divine reward. In the following quote, she stated that she sees such a Muslim political identity personified by nonviolent protestors:

People are taking part in peaceful protests carrying signs against violence, and anyone that goes out to protest violence is for sure someone that has inner peace and a spiritual essence that drive this strive to preserve our society and our lives.

Nonviolence was a principle that featured in many teachers’ statements about Islam’s contributions to citizenship education. In explaining this, they referred to an Islamic proverb, like Islam teacher Ezra in the following quote:

“A Muslim is one from whose tongue and hand Muslims are safe.” In my opinion, a Good Muslim is the Muslim that does not say malicious things about other people and doesn’t hurt them. These beliefs should also be applied to citizenship nowadays. If [people’s] tongues would quit the rumors, and their hands would quit the murder and bad deeds, I believe we’d have a society that indeed has good individuals.

Another value that was often referenced by teachers was forgiveness. In the context of increasing numbers of homicides across Palestinian communities in Israel, citizenship teacher Zaynab highlighted the importance of forgiveness:

The concept of fighting violence with violence became the norm. Anyone that attacks me, I must attack back. […] This is the root cause of violence in our society. Violence comes from simple and silly things that escalate due to incitement and the belief that we must not forgive.

These two examples show how teachers draw on Islam for value and moral education, which they identified as an educational need among young Palestinians in Israel who live in a reality of constant conflict and violence.

For some citizenship teachers, Islam was an important source of knowledge to make sense of concepts taught in citizenship education such as democracy or human rights. For example, Zaynab described how she refers to an ayah [verse in the Quran] when she teaches her students about democracy because it helps her to understand and teach about it:

It makes it easier for me to teach democracy, particularly the principles, the rights. […] For example, when I talk about human rights, when I talk about making decisions in a democracy, [I mention the ayah] “conduct their affairs by mutual consultation.” In Islam, there is no such thing as an autocratic decision. I cannot pass a decision on my own.

Similarly, Sherine explained how she references Islam as a source of various civic values in her citizenship lesson: “I conclude every speech or video with a religious saying. […] If you want to teach civic education, and especially when we talk about democracy, freedom, justice, and peace, then religion is the basis for all this.”

Sherine also referenced Islam to define critical thinking and political activism:

The prophet prohibited us from being lackeys […] We must think for ourselves and choose the right path for ourselves, our fellow countrymen, our children, and our families. I should act wherever I think I can be of good influence and whenever I see something that I can fix. It is my responsibility to help, to stand up, and not to wait for other people to make a change and to defend my rights, no, I have a role to play here as well.

Sherine’s definition reflects notions of justice-oriented citizenship that promotes critical thinking and civic action. Islam teacher Mariam also stressed the importance of critical thinking in Islam education:

Why don’t I let my student think and be creative or give him space to read into things and doubt things? In a positive way, not a kind of doubt that leads to atheism, or to seeing religion in a negative light. Why should I force a girl to wear the Hijab? We must have more awareness on how to deal with our youth nowadays.

By raising these questions, Mariam argued that Islamic education needs to give space to doubt and question (even though she sets limitations to this as well) and to be reevaluated against the young people’s living context.

These examples suggest that Islam is an important source of knowledge and meaning-making for both Islam and citizenship teachers. Since concepts such as citizenship, democracy, and human rights have become tokenistic for Palestinian Muslims, these teachers often draw on Islamic texts to make sense of these concepts. Through their references to Islam, Palestinian Muslim teachers contextualize citizenship and make it culturally relevant to their students, constructing new understandings of citizenship and Islam that are political and critical.

Palestinian identity: teachers’ indigenous funds

Besides Islam, teachers draw on their Palestinian identity as an important resource to make their lessons more culturally relevant and to promote active citizenship. The interviewees discussed their Palestinian identity by referencing historical events and collective experiences of discrimination and racism. Citizenship teacher Salah explained that since such events are not mentioned in the textbook, he uses alternative materials to teach about these events, even though he is not allowed to⁴

We are forbidden to use anything other than the textbook. Now, if I want to educate my students about the Kafr Qassem⁵ massacre, for example, I bring material that I can show them in class […] I do not replace the curriculum, but we do not forget in school these important events like the Kafr Qassem massacre, Land Day, Nakba Day, et cetera. […] there are a lot of politically conscious students that will remind you if you forget.

The fact that his students sometimes initiate these discussions suggests the relevance of these topics for them. Content about historical events such as the Nakba, Land Day, the Kafr Qassem massacre, and ongoing developments such as the occupation and land confiscations is not included in the curriculum and there are policies in place to sanction teachers who address some of these issues in the classroom. Nevertheless, like Salah, many teachers stated that they talk about these events with their students.

While discussing such topics was important for most teachers, it also created a dilemma for them, especially when teaching about politics and citizenship in Israel. Citizenship teacher Rami described this “double dilemma:”

[W]e, as Arabs here, face a true dilemma, a double dilemma. In my blood, my soul, and my affection, I am all Palestinian and my identity is Palestinian, but on the other hand, as a citizen, I bear the Israeli citizenship. […] I can’t explicitly tell them that they must not deny they are Palestinians, that they are the indigenous people of this land and country, that they are the ones with deep roots here, that this [Israeli] nation occupied us and imposed on us by force. […] At the same time, I tell them that they are Israeli citizens, and just like any other citizen in any other state, they must respect the law and abide by the law, to a certain extent. When I talk about the Israeli nation-state law or the Israeli law of return in my civic education classes, I try to clarify to my students what these laws really stand for, which is racism and denial of the Arab minority.

Rami explained how he navigates the dilemma of belonging to two entities that he sees as being in tension with each other: being a member of the Palestinian community and a citizen of the Israeli state. While knowledge about these historical events is an important resource for identifying violations of rights and injustices, Rami still stresses the importance of being a lawful citizen. A way to mediate this dilemma seems to be a critical examination of existing laws such as the nation-state law. Rami described how his knowledge helps him to unpack the actual intentions of the nation state law.⁶

By addressing the gap between the formal concepts in citizenship education and the conflictual reality of many Palestinians, the teachers also seek to make citizenship education more meaningful for their students. For example, citizenship teacher Tareq stated how he teaches about the difference between individual and group rights which characterizes the “thin” citizenship for Palestinians in Israel:

I tried to transmit an image to my students of the big difference between what is said and what is done. Israel mentioned in the Declaration of Independence that she will give the Arab citizens complete and equal citizenship and appropriate representation. […] however, in reality, we as a minority only receive some of these rights from this state […] on the individual level and not on the group level.

Tareq’s statement was exemplary for other citizenship teachers who teach their students “how things should be in Israel, compared to what we see on the ground.” (Rami). It appears that for the teachers bringing such content is a way to “re-politicize” their citizenship and Islam lessons, to develop political thinking among their students, and to affirm their Palestinian identity.

Hybridized funds: double culturally relevant pedagogy

Research has documented how Muslim educators in Canada connect social issues to Islamic content helping students to make sense of their discrimination experiences and guiding students across contradictions (Alkouatli, 2022). Such hybridized learning (Alkouatli, 2022) also seems to take place among Palestinian Muslim educators who navigate their spiritual Islamic and indigenous Palestinian funds of knowledge. Citizenship teacher Ibrahim explicitly addressed the hybridization of these identities:

In addition to our religious identity, I also stress the national identity as Palestinian Arabs, as well as our connection to the land. I usually talk about our attachment to the land and show it to the students. I mean, we have to hold on to our land, we have to hold on to our country, our beliefs, and not give up on them.

Ibrahim’s statement expresses resistance through the preservation of Palestinian Muslims’ connection to their land and their religion, which are both perceived as under threat in Israel. Similarly, citizenship teacher Sherine advocated for a hybridization of citizenship and Islam education. Integrating Islam into citizenship lessons can help to reconnect students to concepts such as equality from which they have been alienated through citizenship education:

Students show estrangement to civic education. […] They start to bring up examples of the lack of equality and to count the instances where the state treats them unequally. You must then bring them back on track, and explain to them that equality in a democracy, in the democratic system, in public life, or in Islam is such and such, and if the state behaves differently and treats you unequally, this doesn’t mean that equality does not exist. You must teach your student about Islam, its method, and his life, and you must bring your student closer to civic education by finding what’s in common between civic and Islam. When the student finds this common ground, he will find the answers to what he learns, and what he learns will become meaningful.

In return, Tareq, the only citizenship teacher in our sample who identified as secular, argued that the concept of tolerance in citizenship education is more inclusive than in Islam education thus suggesting how citizenship education can enhance Islam education:

Religion teaches you to be tolerant with the other that is different from you, but on the precondition that the other does not deny that Jesus is the son of God, or that Mohammed is the last prophet after whom there are no prophets. In civics, on the other hand, what is meant by tolerance is tolerance towards any person that rejects the religious values that you live by and espouse. It means that you should accept this rejection.

Both subjects must respond to the lived realities of the students. The intersection between spiritual and indigenous funds can serve as important counterhegemonic resources to critically examine injustices and to frame alternative concepts of citizenship that are grounded in their Palestinian Muslimness. We argue that Sherine’s approach to integrating Islam in her citizenship lesson is an example of contemporary contextual pedagogies (Alkouatli, 2022), as she connects Islamic content to the needs of today’s learners, especially against the background of the particular experiences of Palestinian Muslims in Israel. Similarly, Tareq’s statement highlights how citizenship education can make religious education more inclusive by broadening the concept of tolerance.

Discussion

Our first research question explored how Palestinian Muslim teachers conceptualize the intersections of Islam and citizenship education in Israel. The data suggests that teachers identify both intersections and divergences between these subjects. Citizenship is viewed by the teachers as a subject in which the teaching content alienates Palestinian Muslim students as it often contradicts their lived experiences. In contrast, Islam is viewed as a subject that can provide meaning beyond Islamic education, especially through moral and value education. However, teachers also provided many examples of the importance of citizenship education, especially when it comes to teaching about rights.

What is common among teachers from both subjects is that they draw on their indigenous and spiritual funds of knowledge to illuminate the shortcomings of official citizenship in Israel. It is evident that the teachers largely reject the official representations of Israeli citizenship and Islam in the curricula as apolitical, passive, and disconnected from their lives. In response, they use their indigenous and spiritual funds as forms of local and communal knowledge to create new counterhegemonic citizenship and Islam education. For example, they draw on Islamic principles and Palestinian history to reinterpret and teach about concepts such as democracy, rights, tolerance, and critical thinking in ways that reflect their lived experiences.

Relating to the second question about the pedagogical implications of these intersections between Islam and citizenship, we argue that teachers seek to make Islam and citizenship education more culturally and spiritually relevant to their students by drawing on these funds of knowledge. As Palestinian students may feel alienated from ideas of citizenship and democracy in Israel, the teachers seek to revive these concepts by connecting them to their communities’ social and political struggles and grounding them in Palestinian and Islamic history. In their pedagogical approach, the teachers also use such funds to frame their role as educators who not only guide their students to academic success but also spiritually, encouraging them to live according to Islamic values and become active citizens and critical thinkers who hold the Israeli state accountable.

Our data suggests that the intersections of citizenship and Islam education in Israel could give rise to new forms of citizenship that are spiritual, indigenous, and activist, embracing a form of spirituality that is grounded in a people, a place, and a history (Dei, 2002). Both the indigenous and spiritual funds help Palestinian Muslims to make sense of their conditions and mobilize them in their political struggle. The intersection is transformative in the sense that it helps minoritized and indigenous people reclaim their local history, culture, and religion. This is important because official discourses and policies in Israel have frequently downplayed Palestinians’ historical connection to their land. As a recent example, Israel’s extreme right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich declared at a conference in Paris that the Palestinian people are an “invention” and that there is no Palestinian history, language, or culture (Lis, 2023). The teachers’ efforts to reclaim a form of cultural citizenship (Ong et al., 1996) based on their indigenous Palestinian and spiritual Muslim heritage are significant. As Mahmoud Darwish famously wrote: “My freedom is to be what they don’t want me to be.”

Informed by the discrepant experiences of Palestinian Muslims in Israel, our data points to a potential for critical spirituality, taking shape in the teachers’ critical analysis of their condition, their call for political and social activism, and their imaginations of a more equitable society. The teachers promoted active and justice-oriented forms of citizenship that are grounded in human rights and solidarity, informed by their Palestinian indigenous and Islamic funds of knowledge. Like Freire, they demand to break with past practices of citizenship that perpetuate domination and oppression. In this way, Islamic spirituality can function as an analytical lens to expose historical injustices (Rhee & Subedi, 2014), support building cultural bridges, especially for minoritized Muslim learners (Everington, 2015), and provide a vision and morality for imagining a better society – a utopia (Freire, 1970).

However, we are also careful not to romanticize the teachers’ interpretations of the Islam-citizenship intersections. In another paper, we discussed in more depth how some teachers uncritically accept conservative religious discourses about homosexuality, atheism, or the right to criticize the Prophet Muhammed (Muff & Agbaria, 2023). Indeed, interpretations of religious texts need to be “subject to a moral critique in line with modern standards of ethical obligations” (Masalha, 2012, p. 113), and to critically examine how religious entities have oppressed marginalized communities (Rhee & Subedi, 2014).

Criticality is not alien to Islamic pedagogy. As Sahin (2018) argued, Islam has a long critical/reflective educational heritage that needs to be reclaimed. Potential for criticality lies in the hybridization of knowledge, as a way to guide learners to think across contexts, contradictions, and complexity as well as to create their own repertoire of Islam by merging Islamic traditions with their contemporary living contexts (Alkouatli, 2022). Such hybridization is also not alien to Islam, which has been creatively interpreted and synthesized with indigenous (and other) knowledge across different cultural and historical contexts (Sahin, 2018).

Our study contributes to a growing body of research that highlights how minoritized teachers draw on their diverse funds of knowledge for their teaching to make their subjects more culturally relevant for students, whose cultures, religions, and histories are usually excluded from official curricula. What is novel about our research is that it sought to explore the counterhegemonic potential of the intersections between political and religious education. Indeed, the case of Palestinian Muslim teachers in Israel is an example par excellence to illustrate the hegemonic and counterhegemonic function of religion, as these teachers rekindle the apolitical hegemonic concept of citizenship in their specific context. We argue that the teachers’ interpretations of the intersections of Islam and citizenship point to the possibility of critical spiritual citizenship – a concept that needs to be further explored and refined.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the dedicated teachers who participated in our study and the research assistants who helped us with the interviews. We also want to extend our gratitude to the Walter Lebach Institute for the Study of Jewish-Arab Coexistence at the Tel Aviv University for funding this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by a research grant from The Walter Lebach Institute for the Study of Jewish-Arab Coexistence.

Notes on contributors

Aline Muff

Aline Muff is a postdoctoral fellow at the Seymour Fox School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interests include citizenship education in diverse societies, the role of education in conflict settings, and the teaching and learning of difficult histories.

Ayman Agbaria

Ayman Agbaria is an associate professor in education policy and politics at the University of Haifa and a faculty member at the Mandel Leadership Institute. He specializes in education amongst ethnic and religious minorities.

Notes

¹ A range of different terms are used to label this societal group in Israel, such as Arabs, Israeli Arabs, 48’ Arabs or Palestinians. We recognize that this terminology is political and that identification is also subject to fluidity depending on the context. Our choice to use the term “Palestinian citizens of Israel” is based on research that found that these identities are prioritized among members of this group, especially among Muslims (Radai et al., 2015; Sorek, 2011).

² In 2011, the Israeli parliament passed a bill that allows the Ministry of Finance to withhold and withdraw.

funding for educational institutions that commemorate the events of the Nakba (catastrophe) referring to the Palestinian experience of the outcomes of the 1948 war (Budget Principles Law

(Amendment #40), 5771–2011, SH No. 2286, 686–7).

³ This teacher referred to protests as a response to the wave of homicides and murder that have rampaged the Arab Palestinian community in Israel over the recent years. The protests have been directed against the violence itself but also against the inactivity of the government and police to investigate or prevent these crimes (Joffre, 2023).

⁴ In the interview it was not clear whether Salah referred to his school as restricting him or other educational authorities.:

⁵ On 29 October 1956, the Israeli border police killed 48 civilians who returned to their village (Kafr Qassem) during a curfew of which they were unaware. Land Day marks an annual commemoration of 30 March 1976 when six Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed and hundred wounded by the Israeli army and police during a protest against land expropriations.

⁶ The nation state law is a basic law that was passed in 2018, specifying the character of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people.