Abstract
In 1997 the Lebanese government published its newly developed curriculum and textbooks following a long and fierce civil war, which started in 1975. The new curriculum emphasized nation building, reconciliation and citizenship. This study aims to examine how the civics textbooks in Lebanon addressed human rights and peace education, both of which are crucial in any attempt to build cohesion in a post-conflict society. Findings revealed that human rights and peace education were endorsed in the aims and objectives of the 1997 curriculum. The textbooks directly addressed some of these themes, particularly human rights and to a lesser degree peace education. The pedagogy followed in the textbooks to teach the two concepts was primarily descriptive. Despite the fact that the constructivist approach has been adopted as part of the curriculum objectives, implementation of this approach is almost absent from the civics textbooks. The study compares these results to citizenship education in two other countries in the region, Turkey and Palestine.
Introduction
The 1989 Taif Agreement, which put an end to 15 years of civil wars in Lebanon, initiated a major education reform and called for the creation of a new curriculum that promotes national unity amongst the various religious and political groups in Lebanon. As a result, the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) developed a new curriculum, which was implemented in 1997 (Ministry of Education, 1997). The two main stated goals of the new curriculum were “building the individual’s personality and establishing citizenship” (Education Centre for Research and Development, 1997: 3). The 1997 curriculum emphasized citizenship education and reconciliation. The Ministry of Education also developed a curriculum for a new compulsory subject National and Civic Education, to be taught one hour per week in all public schools from Grade 1 to 12. The subject was also included in the official exams held in Grade 9 and 12 for all students doing the Lebanese program and Baccalaureate. In addition the Ministry of Education developed a new set of textbooks (12 books, one for each grade) to be used for the new compulsory subject. A similar attempt was made to develop a history curriculum and textbooks but failed to see the light of day due to the politicization of the process of writing the textbooks and the lack of agreement on content.
Almost 20 years has passed since the development of the curriculum and the corresponding textbooks. In 2010 Lebanon began another education reform that includes revising the citizenship curriculum and textbooks. The new reform encourages reflections on the previous curriculum and considers the extent to which the 1997 curricular materials addressed key components for promoting social cohesion and reconciliation. The purpose of this study is to contribute to such reflection. The study examined: (1) how the civics textbooks address human rights and peace building; (2) the pedagogies adopted in teaching these topics; and (3) how the Lebanese case compares to two other countries in the region, Turkey and Palestine.
Human rights and peace education in civics textbooks
Recent studies document that human rights education is a central component of citizenship education globally. Human rights education promotes the rights of individuals on the local, national, and global levels within and beyond the state, and thus breaks away from the nationalistic approach to citizenship education that focuses primarily on citizen loyalty. Studies show that recent curricular reforms in many countries around the world have focused on incorporating global citizenship education, in general (Friedman, 2000), and human rights education, in particular (Firer, 1998; Niens et al., 2006).
Over the past four decades, many countries have introduced human rights and children’s rights into their curriculums (Firer, 1998; Niens et al., 2006). A content analysis of 465 social studies textbooks published between the 1970s and 2008 in 69 countries showed that since 1994 there has been an increasing emphasis on human rights, especially in civics and social studies (Meyers et al., 2010). This increase has been associated with a greater emphasis on student-learning. Tibbitts (2002) identified three models of teaching human rights: (1) the value awareness model which focuses mainly on transmitting basic knowledge of human rights issues and fostering their integration into public values; (2) the accountability model, which focuses on professional responsibilities for monitoring and protecting human rights violations and advocating with the necessary authorities; and (3) the transformational model, which is geared toward empowering the individual to recognize human rights abuses and commit to their prevention.
In Lebanon, the 1997 post war curriculum adopted human rights as the main philosophical underpinning of aims and objectives. Human rights values and ethos provided Lebanon with an ideal theoretical and conceptual framework to bring together the different sectarian, confessional, and political groups who fought each other for more than 15 years. It was a practical and pragmatic resolution by the educators representing the various main sects of Lebanon who met together for the first time after many years of being estranged to put together a new curriculum that could unify the Lebanese. As one of the civil servants who participated in developing the 1997 curriculum stated,
we suddenly came together after we had spent over 15 years fighting each other behind barricades and war trenches to write a national curriculum for the country. Human rights were the best umbrella of values that could bring us together. (Personal communication, 2012)
With a long and fierce war in the back of their minds and much faith and many doubts, the Lebanese educators highlighted priorities such as dialogue and peace building in the new curriculum. Several terms are used to refer to peace building, such as peacekeeping, conflict management, conflict resolution, and dialogue. The term “peacebuilding” (coined by Johan Galtung, 1975 with the publication of “Three approaches to peace: Peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding”) comprises negative peace, positive peace, structural violence, and root causes of conflict and sustainable peace. Negative peace refers to the absence of violence, while positive peace focuses on the absence of structural violence often the outcome of social injustices. Structural violence on the other hand includes indirect violence resulting in inequalities or the marginalization and oppression of some groups or individuals and often results in direct violence. Root causes of conflict are the outcomes of structural and cultural violence resulting in the breakout of violence. Finally, sustainable peace involves creating permanent solutions for addressing structural violence.
Peace education, which proliferated in the 1980s and spread widely in the 1990s and early 21st century, passed through different phases. The discourse moved from focusing on a global peace by stopping or preventing wars to a local discourse with emphasis on peaceful individuals, conflict resolution skills, and dialogue. Emphasis on pedagogies also evolved with increased attention to how peace education can be practiced and manifested on the local level in terms of schools, bullying, family violence, racism and discrimination. Developing individuals’ peace building skills has become the priority, with attention to developing active listening, dialogue, conflict resolution skills, reflection, democratic leadership skills, and collaborative work (Burns and Aspeslagh, 1996).
Previous research
Since the implementation of the 1997 Lebanese curriculum, several studies have been carried out particularly on citizenship education as an independent subject and as a cross-curricular theme in school life. These studies included general analyses of the civics textbooks without focusing particularly on human rights and peace education. However, they do shed light on some issues relevant to the current study, particularly on the pedagogies adopted in the civics textbooks. Acra’s (2003) analysis of the civics program of study showed a lack of progression in concepts and over-reliance on ideals with little or no reference to topical issues and personal experiences. The civics textbooks, too, have undergone close critical review. At the onset of their publication, Zoreik (2000) identified degrees of gender bias and found the lessons did not encourage students to explore existing issues through active learning. In the classroom, researchers showed that most practices emphasized rote learning (Abouchedid et al., 2002; Akar, 2007; Shuayb, 2007, 2012; UNDP, 2008). In many cases, teachers avoided dialogic pedagogies in fear of conflicts among students and with parents (Akar, 2007; Zakharia, 2012). Moreover, students and teachers described the textbook as inaccurate, repetitive and conflicting with reality, resulting in students’ low levels of motivation to learn civics (Akar, 2006).
Shuayb’s (2012) survey of teachers’ and students’ views on citizenship education included 900 students and 60 citizenship teachers in 26 public and private schools. It revealed an overemphasis on civics literacy at the expense of active citizenship education. The study identified numerous obstacles to the development of active citizenship education in the classrooms and school environment, including didactic pedagogies and hierarchical and undemocratic school environments in the surveyed schools. Akar’s (2006) study of civics teachers’ concepts of citizenship and their teaching practices found that the majority valued and practiced traditions of rote learning while some of them raised concerns about planned and unplanned debates within the classroom.
A number of studies have explored the impact of the 1997 curriculum on students’ sense of belonging and civic attitudes. Abouchedid et al. (2002) survey of identity and sense of belonging in Lebanon showed that the majority of students did not know much about sects other than their own, and felt their primary sense of belonging was to their family and sect rather than to their nation. The United Nations Development Project’s (UNDP, 2008) study of citizenship values revealed that Lebanese students’ civic knowledge was better than their achievement in civic skills. In addition, students’ expectations of political participation appeared quite limited. They also exhibited sectarian views. More than a third of the students agreed that elections and voting should be condoned by religious leaders while around a quarter agreed that voting in elections should take place based on overall family preferences; almost two thirds (64%) of the student population agreed that each religious sect should educate its own “followers” and should provide educational grants for them. As for the pedagogies used in teaching civic education, the study revealed that the pedagogical approach of many schools continued to rely on rote learning. The findings of the UNDP study were that civic education had limited effect in influencing and shaping young people’s views.
The above review of studies of citizenship education and civics textbooks reveals some problems, primarily in the pedagogies used in teaching the subject. In particular, educators tend to rely on rote learning while avoiding controversial topics and debates for fear of conflict and political tensions. Unsurprisingly these studies reported a higher level of knowledge compared to civic skills amongst Lebanese students. In addition, the students continued to exhibit sectarian attitudes and had limited knowledge of religious groups in Lebanon other than their own. These findings indicate a shortfall of the citizenship curriculum in promoting peace education, social cohesion, and diversity. Further, there is a lack of research on how the citizenship curriculum promotes human rights and peace education.
This study seeks to examine how the Lebanese curriculum and corresponding citizenship textbooks approach human rights and peace education. Additionally in this article, I compare the findings to research carried out in other countries, particularly countries recovering from conflict.
Research methodology
The research methodology consisted primarily of a content analysis of the aims and objectives of the 1997 curriculum, the Grades 1–12 Civics textbooks and 25 official exams (between 2004 and 2012).
Content analysis
Content analysis is one of several research methods used to analyze text data. Berelson (1952: 18) defines content analysis as “… a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication.” Content analysis enables researchers to examine large volumes of data in a systematic way in order to address a particular question. George (2009: 144) eloquently described the purpose and rationale for conducting a content analysis:
Quantitative content analysis is, in the first instance, a statistical technique for obtaining descriptive data on content variables. Its value in this respect is that it offers the possibility of obtaining more precise, objective, and reliable observations about the frequency with which given content characteristics occur either singly or in conjunction with one another. In other words, the quantitative approach substitutes controlled observation and systematic counting for impressionistic ways of observing frequency of occurrence.
This purpose fits the objective of this study, which aims to examine the extent to which civics textbooks address human rights and peace education. The controlled observation and systematic counting offered by the content analysis approach help quantify the frequency and variation with which the key themes occur.
Coding is the main process in conducting a content analysis. Codes enable researchers to organize large quantities of text into relatively few content categories (Weber, 1990). There are three major types of coding: conventional content analysis, directed content analysis and summative analysis. This study followed the directed content analysis approach, where the coding scheme is developed prior to the analysis, as opposed to a conventional content analysis, where categories are derived from data during data analysis, or the summative approach, where the text is approached as single words or in relation to particular content. Directed content analysis was most appropriate for this study, which examined how the textbooks address particular themes.
Two coding schemes were created for each of the two themes, human rights and peace education. In addition, both schemes addressed two dimensions: (1) the extent and content of coverage of the theme (human rights or peace education); and (2) the pedagogy used in the textbook to teach the particular theme.
Coverage and content
The coding scheme related to coverage of content included items that focused on the extent, depth and context of coverage of the two themes that this study aims to examine—human rights and peace education.
Pedagogy
Items in the coding scheme addressed the pedagogical approach adopted in textbooks when teaching human rights and peace education. Examples of these items included an analysis of the type of activities, instructions, documents, resources, pictures, and assessment.
Each of the two dimensions included a number of codes which were observed, counted and described when analyzing the textbooks as outlined below. Examples of these variables are presented in Table 1.
The coding framework for the content analysis.
Excel sheets containing the codes were created. The content analysis template also traced the presence of the variables in each grade. Each book was then read and coded based on the coding frame described above. The coding took the form of a brief description of the way the textbooks address the particular code in addition to the page number of where it was cited.
Content analysis of human rights and peace education in the 1997 Lebanese curriculum
An important starting point for examining the two themes (human rights and peace education) in the civics textbooks is to examine the overall objectives and priorities of the 1997 curriculum and the extent to which the themes are highlighted. The aims and objectives of the curriculum are focused on three main themes: intellectual, humanistic, national and social. Under the intellectual and humanistic theme, the curriculum aims to teach students that Lebanon is a just country governed by the Lebanese constitution and laws and is committed to the values and humanitarian concepts that respect humanity. The national objectives of the curriculum include students recognizing the Arab identity of Lebanon, which is a democratic parliamentary republic founded on respect for public liberties. The curriculum emphasizes respecting the state’s law and the freedoms of individuals and groups such as participation in political and social activities.
A content analysis of the objectives listed under the intellectual, national, and social categories reveals that the national and political targets dominate the 1997 curriculum principles, and are given precedence at the expense of the cognitive, humanitarian and personal targets. Nationalism, and political rights and responsibilities are the two main principles most widely mentioned. Social justice, equity and non-discrimination on religious or ethnic bases, and openness to other cultures are each mentioned once in the principles. There is a direct mention of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights twice, in reference to Lebanon’s commitment to it and respect for the freedom of the individuals and groups. The only two rights mentioned are: (1) the right to receive education, and (2) the right to social and political participation. The politicization of the post-civil war education reform resulted in a curriculum deployed mainly to foster national identity and reinforce unity. As for the rights emphasized in these principles, political and religious rights were the most frequently mentioned, reflecting the extent to which this reform was politicized and overshadowed by the remnants of the civil war. Both gender equality and conflict management are absent; while peace building is mentioned once.
In order to further understand how human rights and nationalism are translated into citizenship education in Lebanon and how the Lebanese experience compares to other countries I examined the aims of the Lebanese citizenship curriculum.
Aims and objectives of the subject “National and Civics Education”
Following the discussion of the overall aims of the 1997 Lebanese curriculum, I examine the specific aims of the subject “National and Civics Education.” The specific aims of this subject acknowledged human rights as the value system underpinning the subject. They also emphasized nationalism, vocational education, conflict management, diversity, critical analysis, civic, social and economic participation as described in Table 2.
Aims of national and civic education.
The aims of National and Civics education emphasize both international human rights and local identity, nationalism, and patriotism. While the aims emphasize identity and nationalism, they also base the curriculum’s values on human rights and hence appeal to global citizenship values including gender, ethnic and religious equality. However, peace education is completely missing from the aims and objectives of the civics curriculum although it appears in the general objectives of the Lebanese curriculum.
Human rights in civics textbooks
Human rights are addressed in several grades and units in civics textbooks sometimes under the title citizens’ rights. The types of rights covered include freedom of faith and body, right to privacy, self-defense, economic rights, and right to political participation. Table 3 presents the types and frequency of rights mentioned in the textbooks.
The frequency of appearance of human rights in the textbooks.
As illustrated in Table 3, rights appear a total of 35 times in the civic textbooks across 12 grades. The textbooks address a variety of rights that vary from education to freedom of speech and self-determination. Human rights appear in separate lessons across different grades. In the early grades, the child’s rights are discussed including family safety, health and education. As the child progress through the years, human rights are discussed under the rights of the citizens as the emphasis is placed on political and legal rights.
Although the textbooks manage to cover and discuss some human rights under citizen’s rights, there are some shortcomings of this approach. By discussing most human rights under the citizen topic and not defining them as rights of the child might create some confusion over entitlement to these rights, especially because the concept of “citizen” is not clearly defined. The textbooks do not explicitly define the differences between a citizen and a national. Often in the Arabic language the word citizen is used to refer to those who are state members. For example, individuals are often described as a Lebanese citizen [Mowatin Loubnani], a Palestinian citizen [Mouwatin Falastini]. Hence the concept of citizen is almost used synonymously with nationality. Palestinian refugees who have been born and are living in Lebanon are rarely if ever described as citizens [Mowatineen]. With no definition of what the term “citizen” means and who is entitled to it, students might be left with the misapprehension that these rights only apply to those who have Lebanese nationality. Hence, the entitlement of all children to these rights is not made explicit.
The designers of the textbooks also do not translate these rights to the micro level, which could relate to students’ daily life. For example, the textbooks discuss political participation in parliamentary elections but fail to mention the implications of the right to participate on the child’s life. In the textbooks, the concept of participation does not encompass participation in the school life or in a local community. Osler and Starkey (2005) describe this approach to citizenship education as “citizens in waiting,” when participation and implementation of the taught values and concepts are postponed until young people reach the age of voting. Finally, the authors do not mention that these rights are part of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which Lebanon endorsed and is expected to adhere to for all children living in Lebanon regardless of nationality.
Finally, in some cases the discussion over human rights is inconsistent with these rights, especially regarding gender equality. The almost complete absence of gender equality in discussions around human rights is accompanied by many cases of gender stereotyping. The dichotomy between human rights and women’s rights is worth a separate discussion.
An Inconsistent Approach to Human Rights Education: Gender Inequalities
Gender inequality is discussed here as one example of the inconsistency of the textbooks in dealing with the rights of particular sectors of the Lebanese community, including disabled people, refugees and migrant and domestic workers. When the civics textbooks were written in 1997, concepts such as gender equality were not highlighted in Lebanon. As a result, it does not come as a surprise that gender as an issue was almost absent from the textbooks. The analysis showed that the seven main types of gender bias identified by Sadker and Zittleman (2007)—invisibility, stereotyping, imbalance and insensitivity, unreality, fragmentation, linguistic and cosmetic bias—were fully manifested in the civics textbooks.
Invisibility: the issue of gender equality and bias is absent from the curriculum.
Stereotyping: particular roles for women.
Imbalance and insensitivity: the curriculum presents only one analysis or interpretation.
Unreality: situations are presented as ideal, romanticized and sanitized such as nuclear families consisting only of father, mother and children.
Fragmentation: the random presentation of women in different contexts.
Linguistic bias: this is particularly relevant to the Arabic language, which uses different nouns, verbs and adjectives for women and men.
Cosmetic bias: presence of images of women but no reference in the text to the contributions or struggles of women.
Gender equality as an independent issue was almost invisible in the textbooks. Gender equality was mentioned in passing in a Grade 10 textbook that includes a statement on gender equality pointing to the important progress made in the last two decades in regards to equal access in the education and health domains. This raises the hope of making progress toward gender equality in the areas of work and decision-making. Gender was also mentioned as part of an article from the Lebanese constitution, which guarantees equal rights to access jobs regardless of gender, and equality under the law. For the remainder of the textbooks, gender was mentioned implicitly in the few quotes from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles in the Lebanese constitution included in the textbooks around equality of individuals, regardless of religion, race and/or gender. There was no definition of gender issues and no discussion of their manifestations and causes.
The textbooks addressed some of the social and family stereotyping often associated with women’s role in these domains. Examples of gender equality in family roles were higher than those that manifested inequality. Women in the family shared the same responsibilities as their male counterparts, as mothers and as breadwinners. The text and pictures portrayed both the mother and the father to be equally responsible for performing roles within the family. In several illustrations, the father and the mother are seen carrying groceries and talking to their children. However, the mother and the grandmother are shown playing a more prominent role in the family, compared to their male counterparts. Females appeared seven times as “educators of social values,” whereas males appeared only once.
Women, however, were not equally represented in other domains, particularly the political and the administrative. Men dominated specialized professions and political positions and activism across all levels. Out of the 155 references to women’s political participation, 114 of these exhibited gender inequality. Politicians presented in the textbooks were primarily men. Women’s political participation was restricted to voting in elections. Many of the pictures depicted women at the voting booth. Men on the other hand were portrayed as political leaders participating in political decision-making, debates, summits, and UN conferences.
Linguistic bias was also predominant throughout the textbooks. The characters in stories, role plays, and pictures were primarily males. The language of the books was mainly masculine. For instance the student is replaced by the pronoun “he.” In the Arabic language the gender issue is exacerbated, because any use of pronouns would affect the verb, such adjectives, and the “number”—single, dual, and plural. As a result, nouns and verbs in the textbooks were masculine. Nonetheless, authors of civics textbooks have attempted to address the issue of gender in language by using the plural or the singular possessive “I.” However, this conscious effort to be gender neutral was not systematically applied in all the textbooks and was mainly restricted to Grades 1, 2 and 4 in the elementary level, and Grade 9 in the intermediate level. On the whole, the language used in the textbooks was predominantly masculine.
Stereotyping was also present in the pictures and photos. Out of the 39 pictures related to gender roles, 37 showed men in positions of power in the three branches of government—judicial, legislative, and executive—and in the army. Even when women were present in the educational and cultural domains, the pictures did not always reflect equality and women’s representation was full of stereotypes.
Regarding public and cultural roles, gender was almost equally treated. Pictures showed women participating in the public domain in various activities. For instance, they were shown participating in environmental events, conferences, and doing voluntary work. This was most common in the books for younger grades and gradually decreased as books became more male dominated in the secondary level. For instance, in Grade 10 only 4 out of the 26 pictures featuring public social activities showed women participating in public life.
Cosmetic bias and pictorial unreality were also observed in images of women and their roles. For example, in an attempt to show gender equality, one of the textbooks showed a picture of female soldiers doing an office job. However, there was no discussion of any challenges that encounter women in achieving equality in the career domain. The photo also did not reflect the reality of female soldiers in the field, who continued to be a minority with their role mainly restricted to office responsibilities.
Women were not the only marginalized group when examining human rights. Other groups such as refugees, disabled, and migrant workers were also overlooked in the discussions on human rights. The Lebanese civics textbooks reflect the awareness model identified by Tibbitts (2002), which is restricted to general ideals that are not contextualized or analyzed in-depth to examine who enjoys and does not enjoy these rights, and obstacles and challenges that might undermine HRE. Yet in order to be able to fully identify the model of HRE in Lebanon it is essential to analyze the pedagogies of teaching human rights in the civics textbooks.
Pedagogy of teaching human rights
The designers of the 1997 curriculum claim to have adopted a constructivist learning theory. However, the analysis of the instructions, content, activities, and assessments related to human rights shows a predominantly didactic approach to teaching these rights. The lesson objectives focus mainly on knowledge and attitudes while the skills are almost missing. When mentioned, rights are often stated without any discussion or problematization. There are no cases of these rights being analyzed and discussed in a critical way. Students are never asked or encouraged to engage with these rights critically or even to explore what could undermine or prohibit the actualization of human rights or how these rights are manifested in their lives.
The condition of these rights in Lebanon and how Lebanese laws support or undermine them are also unexamined. Hence rights appear as abstract values not as practical and achievable objectives. Obstacles and challenges that might undermine rights are absent from the textbooks. Although a few examples of violations of these rights were observed in the textbooks, these were not presented as violations of rights. For example, some of the textbooks provided pictures showing child labor, yet no link was made between child labor and children’s rights. The textbooks also failed to examine what may undermine the implementation of rights.
Textbook activities related to human rights revealed an equal emphasis on gathering and recalling information and voicing an opinion. Although the textbooks ask students to state their opinion it does not put a criteria for expressing these opinions. Table 4 summarizes the type of activities around human rights.
Pedagogy of teaching human rights.
The textbooks also included activities related to the school or the surrounding environment. For example, there were activities asking students to conduct investigations of human rights in their local neighborhoods, which shows that the textbooks attempted to implement elements of the Transformational model of HRE as defined by Tibbitts (2002). However, studies of civic education classroom practices show that rote learning dominates teaching and learning in Lebanese schools (Akar, 2006, 2007; Shuayb, 2012). Moreover, assessment is another indication of the type of teaching and learning.
Assessment of human rights
A few assessment activities related to human rights were observed in the textbooks. Some of them encouraged students to identify some rights in their local community but did not ask students to explore obstacles to the implementation and practices. And for the official exams, which all Lebanese students take in Grades 9 and 12, questions about rights were restricted to recalling information around some of the rights, primarily elections and freedom of expression. Although both the official exams and the assessment included in the textbooks encouraged students to express an opinion, the criteria for evaluating these opinions were not provided.
To conclude, this analysis of the teaching, learning and assessment of HRE in civic textbooks shows the predominance of the value awareness model with limited opportunities to engage critically with these concepts or to reflect on their impact on students’ lives. In contrast, countries such as Argentina and Costa Rica, where human rights is at the core of citizenship education whether on the macro and micro levels, have adopted a transformative approach (Suárez, 2008).
Peace education in civics textbooks
The other theme examined in the content analysis of the civics textbooks was peace education. The post-civil war curriculum emphasized rebuilding, social cohesion, and reconciliation and adopted citizenship education as one of its main aims. Peace education and conflict management were endorsed in the aims of the general curriculum as well as in the aims for the specific civics subject. However, in the textbooks, peace education was only discussed explicitly in two grades. Textbooks for Grade 8 taught about conflict management and dialogue amongst family members. In the Grade 10 textbook, one chapter focused on conflict management and one focused on war and extremism. Although the textbooks addressed a variety of conflicts including armed conflict caused by war, physical conflict between individuals, verbal violence/conflict, structural conflict, family and inter-generational conflict. The textbooks highlighted the need to solve, control and manage conflict effectively and peacefully. However, the textbooks overlooked conflict and violence in schools and amongst young people, and only mentioned in passing in one sentence violence and discrimination against women. The socio-economic and cultural factors that might result in conflict are not discussed under the causes of conflict but appear much later in the lesson on violence under the heading “social violence.”
Dialogue was discussed in the textbooks directly in one lesson in Grade 10, as part of the conflict unit, and was mentioned as part of other lessons in Grades 4 and 8. However, some aspects of dialogue, which were not defined as dialogue, appeared in all grades in scenarios and activities. Dialogue mainly occurred in the textbooks in the context of community, family, and conflict resolution, diversity and school. Dialogue appeared most widely in discussions between different members and across sectors of society, for example young people, neighbors, and politicians. It was also extensively examined in the family context, particularly in the lower grades.
However, mention of dialogue in the school was almost absent. The school would have been a natural setting, as dialogue is pervasive in every aspect of students’ daily lives (e.g. student–teacher, student–student/s, students–administrators). Dialogue in schools most often takes place amongst students or between students and teachers. However, despite the predominance of this type of dialogue in school, it was almost entirely absent from the intermediate and secondary textbooks. Even though each lesson usually started with a “dialogue” between the teacher and the student, the students were not asked to reflect on the quality of such dialogue or the obstacles that might cause an impediment. Although such dialogue-related activities certainly reinforce dialogue as a common practice in the classroom, and by extension in daily life in general, they also reinforce certain power hierarchies within dialogue, by privileging the teacher who is in position of power to direct the dialogue with the student.
The textbooks also revealed a socio-economic stereotyping within the teaching of dialogue. For example, several pictures depicted “calm and reasoned dialogue” as an attribute of a middle class family (e.g. a calm dialogue between a father and a son) or European-looking affluent people (in formal dress, wearing a suit and tie). By contrast, violent conflicts were represented using working class individuals reflected in the clothes they were wearing. These pictures appeared with a caption that qualified the conflict represented as a “violent conflict” or a “calm dialogue.” The most common value highlighted in dialogue was “strengthening relationships,” whilst the least highlighted value was “justice and equity.” This could be partly due to the approach adopted toward conflict, which was primarily concerned with violent conflict and its direct causes while overlooking structural and more long-term causes of conflict, such as inequity and injustice.
The main partners presented in the textbooks when referring to dialogue were politicians. This reflects the importance authors placed on political dialogue and conflict. Other participants included in the textbooks were family and school.
The emphasis on different partners in dialogue differed across grades. For instance, in the elementary level, family featured 43 times followed by students, which indicates the importance of this topic for students at this age. The category of politics and politicians, however, increased as the child moved to higher grades, where politicians became the dominant partner in dialogues in the intermediate and secondary level textbooks.
Pedagogies of peace education
In the managing conflict unit, the textbook designers adopted a prescriptive approach to conflict management by including a list of steps to be taken including avoidance, occupying oneself with entertaining activities, accepting and accommodating, getting involved in conflict and violence, dialogue and compromise, and finally cooperation to find a solution. The unit quickly moved on to offer another list for dealing with conflict, for example peaceful protests, demonstrations, lobbying, respecting and listening to others, taking responsibility, cooperating and being fair without discussing or analyzing the alternatives. The unit concluded with a narrative discussion of the role of mediators in resolving conflict, without explaining the challenges that would be encountered by a mediator or examples of mediation. Further, the assessment activities included in the civics textbooks lacked analytical and critical thinking. For example, the textbooks did not ask students to argue their point of view or to defend it and explain the underpinning rationale.
The lesson objectives for the unit dealing with conflict resolution in Grade 10 aimed to develop students’ understanding of the causes, the process and possible ways of dealing with conflict. They addressed knowledge, skills and attitudes. However, the textbook adopted mainly a didactic approach to teaching conflict resolution. The whole unit was descriptive and offered a shallow understanding of conflict. It failed to engage students in any form of analytical or critical thinking. Problems as well as solutions were presented as lists with limited application to real life settings. Only a few real life scenarios were presented, and these did not cover conflict at the school level. The Lebanese context, especially the civil war, was also missing from this unit, although armed conflict in other parts of the world was mentioned. The majority of the activities related to conflict asked students to recall specific information mentioned in the unit, in addition to discussing and conducting research around conflict.
The approach that the textbook adopted in discussing dialogue (its components and obstacles to dialogue, and the role of human rights as the starting point for dialogue) was primarily descriptive in addition to some questions on a conversation between a father and his son. The questions encouraged the students to observe the tone of the discussion, whether it could have a positive effect or not. Although the lesson began with an analytical discussion, the remainder of the unit was descriptive and lacked analysis of its content and conditions. However, the activities at the end of the lesson engaged students in conducting inquiry in their local area or school and encouraged discussion, analysis and role-play.
To conclude, despite the crucial importance of peace education, conflict and violence management and dialogue in the Lebanese context, the curriculum called for only five hours of instruction on conflict and violence management (in Grade 10) and one hour in Grade 8. Because the textbooks rarely discussed dialogue directly, it is difficult to infer the pedagogy adopted in the textbooks in teaching it. Dialogue is not a competence that was highlighted in the Lebanese civics textbooks. It was only directly discussed in a few units, mainly related to family. The textbooks did not encourage any kind of activities that could promote peace building. The approach for teaching pedagogy is descriptive and did not engage students in much analysis. Students are taught theoretical information about peace education without having opportunities to practice or implement these values. Although the majority of students in Lebanese schools are from the same sect, participating in activities that can bring together children from different sects or social, geographic, and economic backgrounds is crucial for promoting social cohesion.
Discussion and conclusion
The content analysis of the civics curriculum showed that human rights, and peace education to a lesser extent, are both endorsed in the general aims and objectives of the 1997 curriculum. Although human rights are also highlighted alongside nationalism and patriotism in the aims for the civics subject, peace education is not featured in the aims for civics. The aims of citizenship education in the Lebanese curriculum share many commonalities with other curricula around the world, including those for Turkey, which emphasized international human rights and local identity, nationalism, and patriotism (Ince, 2012). These contrasted with Argentina, for instance, where a human rights ethos is at the heart of the aims of citizenship education.
When the Federal Education Law establishes that the education system needs to make possible the holistic development of men and women, the document utilizes several referents: education for democratic life, environmental conservation, health, love, work, and respect and defense of human rights. (MCE, 1995: 332, cited in Suárez, 2008: 490)
Interestingly, in Palestine citizenship education places emphasis on human rights and less on nationalism and patriotism (Firer and Adwan, 2002; Nordbruch, 2004).
As for the civics textbooks, human rights is addressed in several grades starting with the child’s right to safety, family and protection moving to political and civic rights in the higher grades. Human rights are examined directly in the elementary level where the rights to life, safety and health are addressed. Other components of human rights appeared under citizen’s rights and responsibilities. There are many instances where human rights appear indirectly in the textbooks without necessarily being specified as such.
Lebanon’s fluctuation and, sometimes paradoxical, emphasis on both human rights and nationalism is common in the curricula of many countries, which fluctuate between global and local citizenship education. For example, Turkey’s curriculum developed in 1998 introduced human rights education yet at the same time nationalism and Turkish identity and pride continued to occupy the top priority in the Turkish curriculum and textbooks (Ince, 2012). Some argued that promoting human rights is only a vehicle to promote Turkey’s reputation and respectability on the international stage (Gok, 2003, cited in Ince, 2012: 125). According to the Turkish curriculum, ethnicity, language, and a common history are some of the components of Turkish nationalism while internal and external enemies are highlighted to bring Turkish people together. Ince (2012) argued that, “the current civics curriculum in Turkey merely creates dutiful citizens who obey state dictates (whether appropriate or not) and at best feel ambivalent towards tolerance.” Like Lebanon, Turkey does not tackle the differences amongst the various groups in the country. It favors a unified national republican identity for fear that pluralism might result in disintegration and promoting several identities. 1
Finally, the treatment of human rights in the textbooks fails to acknowledge women’s rights and the rights of disadvantaged groups, such as refugees, migrant workers, and people with disabilities. Regarding the presentation of women and rights, the civics textbooks include many biases and stereotypes of women in society. Any revisions of the citizenship curriculum and corresponding textbooks need to acknowledge the rights of varied groups in Lebanon. Otherwise, human rights education will be reduced to symbolic and poetic concepts that do not relate to the needs of diverse members of society.
Peace education is present in Lebanese textbooks in two grades and focuses on conflict resolution and dialogue. Although the emphasis on the citizenship agenda in the 1997 curriculum came as a result of the long civil wars in Lebanon, peace education including conflict management and dialogue are only examined in two units across all grades. The causes and methods for managing conflict are presented in a descriptive way. Similar to the Lebanese textbooks, Palestinian civic textbooks also include information about the atrocities of the war and the need to resolve conflict through mediation (Firer and Adwan, 2002). Yet, studies of peace education in Palestine and Israel revealed that despite the on-going conflict, participation in various peace education programs had a positive effect on the attitudes and perception of both parties toward each other (Salomon, 2004). They also led to more positive views of “peace” and a better ability to see the other’s side. However, it is important to note that peace education should go beyond textbooks and curricula, requiring tacking the structural roots of violence. Yet in this study we limited the focus to peace education in civics textbooks.
Perhaps the pedagogy followed in the textbooks in teaching the two concepts is what requires most attention. The pedagogies currently recommended are primarily descriptive and lack analytical and critical thinking and applied learning. Despite the fact that the constructivist approach has been adopted as part of the curriculum objectives, implementing this approach is almost absent from the civics textbooks and the writing style is very descriptive. Students are not encouraged to analyze pictures or photos. Although the textbooks encourage students to express an opinion in the assessment, the parameters for assessing students’ opinions are completely absent. Nonetheless the assessment requires students to analyze a text and deduce information in addition to providing factual information. Hence, the textbooks show that didactic teaching and unquestioned facts continue to dominate the textbooks. Moreover, the concept of civic education, which also necessitates the implementation of the behavioral and applied aspect of citizenship, is not encouraged in the textbooks.
To conclude, Lebanon is currently embarking on developing a new citizenship curriculum. While the previous curriculum developed in 1997 citizenship invested in human rights and peace education as two tools to promote social cohesion and reconciliation, there is a need to move into an active and applied active citizenship education for the future.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Khalil Makarai, Lara Abi Raad, and Mai Moghil for assisting with this study. The research reported here is a follow up to a study commissioned by UNICEF to analyze Lebanese civic textbooks.
Funding
The research reported here was a follow up to a study commissioned and funded by UNICEF.