Citation

Romanowski MH, Alkhateeb H. Near Mid. East. J. Res. Educ. 2011; 2011(online): 1.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Qatar Foundation)

DOI

10.5339/nmejre.2011.1

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Textbooks reflect a national consensus regarding the knowledge, values and perspectives that a society wants conveyed to their students. Through textbooks, students are exposed to a dominant narrative that presents an official story that shapes contemporary patriotism (Hein and Selden, 2000). This paper centers on how the narratives of textbooks portray the Arab-Israeli conflict and other relevant events. Textbooks from Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and the United States are examined to determine what knowledge is transmitted to students about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Findings indicate that the conflict is oversimplified, important information is omitted and textbooks provide limited narratives of the conflict. The authors of this study suggest the implementation of a narrative-based approach to teaching history so that students are provided with opportunities to develop a critical analysis of textbook knowledge and to discover that historical events are composed of multiple narratives that should be examined.