The Role of Political Education on Palestinian Youth Activism in Montreal, Quebec


Zeina Jhaish, McGill University

 The continuous displacement and refugee crisis of Palestinians worldwide is leading to a collective loss of Palestinian cultural and historical knowledge. More specifically, Palestinian displacement has also led to a loss of political knowledge among Palestinian youth worldwide. As more Palestinian youth move further away from Palestine, they become integrated into other societies where they may not be offered opportunities to be educated about their homeland. Though, with the age of accessible and decolonizing education, researchers (Masalha, 2012) observe transnational interest in accessing knowledge about the Palestinian political issue. Despite the displacement of Palestinian youth existing in Canada, Palestinian youth activism in Canada has been on the rise through multiple student and grassroots organizations (Davies et al., 2022) that are a part of the Palestinian social movement. This presentation’s main focus is highlighting how political education as an informal method of education engages and motivates young Palestinians in Montreal to achieve political action. The research also contextualizes the motives behind youth political activism for Palestine. Subsequently, the presentation defines political education, highlights the demographic of youth in the study, showcases the history of Palestinian youth activism in Montreal, and exemplifies current activism and political education initiatives in Montreal. The theoretical framework of the research stems from Paulo Freire’s (1970) premise that education is needed for those in political struggle to achieve their goals. Political education exists in various informal forms such as workshops, social events, and informal schools. Assman and Czaplicka’s (1995) characteristics of cultural memory drive the research’s goal of explaining the activists’ narratives. Social Movement Theory (Kornhauser, 1959) relates to the project in understanding how social movements require educating activists about Palestine and why. The research ultimately hypothesizes and will argue that political education has a positively changing effect on Palestinian youth activism in Montreal, Canada. This hypothesis will further be concluded after answering three inquiry-based questions: Research Question 1: What resources do Palestinian youth seek out to support their activist goals? Research Question 2: What forms of activism do these resources support? Research Question 3: How do popular education resources support identity and community building among Palestinian youth? The methodology of narrative inquiry will detail the experiences of the activists. The research will offer a holistic account of the activists’ experiences. The participants are Palestinian activists in Montreal who will be recruited through call-outs to Palestinian activist groups. The narrative inquiry methodology will be achieved by an interview process. Answers will be addressed by collecting semi-structured interviews from participants about their experiences with Palestinian activism. Answers from participants will be synthesized into a conclusion through thematic analysis. The final stage will be conducted by holding a focus group where the role of political education in the collective work of the activists is studied. The main drive for the research is to amplify Palestinian voices in support of their plight to return to a decolonized Palestine.The outcome of the research is to practically contribute to the Palestinian cause by including information for Palestinian youth activists about how popular education can be further integrated into their activism. Consequently, presenting the research at this conference is relevant to the conference goals on imagining sustainable and shared features. Palestinian youth are at the forefront of the Palestinian struggle (Davies et al., 2022) and studying how that impacts the current social issues in Palestine will engage conference attendees as scholars and citizens. Palestinian youth are also resisting the negative implications and consequences of their displacement by engaging in informal and political education to challenge hate narratives about Palestine and Palestinian activism. As scholars, studying how these youth activists challenge hate can impact academic theorization of current social issues like Palestine.

This paper will be presented at the following session: