Chapter 1: Sustaining Education in the Palestinian Territories: Challenges and Opportunities

For many decades, education in the Palestinian territories has faced difficult challenges that continue to hamper the effective functioning of schools. Coupled with the lack of stability in the region, the evolving complex sociopolitical realities have hampered efforts to provide meaningful educational opportunities for Palestinian students across the educational spectrum. While schools continue to survive by coping with difficult situations, they still struggle to reach sustainable stages for continual development and improvement. We examine the current state of education and its direction in the Palestinian territories within the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set forth by the United Nations. While the SDGs are on the top of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and its institutions’ agendas, the focus of this chapter will be on SDG 4 as a framework to understand the educational context in Palestine. The research approach involves hermeneutic phenomenology to provide an account of the complex educational and social realities facing the Palestinians and their schools. A hermeneutic analysis of the existing literature, education initiatives, strategic plans, evaluation reports, and educational standards, as well as providing a description of the lived experiences of participants in schools, will shed light on the challenges and opportunities that impact the improvement and sustainability within the territories. Implications for enhancing educational outcomes in this unique region will be provided within a global framework conducive to equity and social justice.