UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Schooling the State: Educators in Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan: c. 1890-c. 1960 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6qb9m3w6 Author Falb Kalisman, Hilary Bell Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Schooling the State: Educators in Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan: c. 1890-c. 1960 By Hilary Bell Falb Kalisman A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Beshara Doumani, Co-chair Professor Thomas W. Laqueur, Co-chair Professor James Vernon Professor Raka Ray Spring 2015 Copyright 2015 by Hilary Bell Falb Kalisman All rights reserved Abstract Schooling the State: Educators in Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan: c. 1890-c. 1960 by Hilary Bell Falb Kalisman Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California Berkeley Professor Beshara Doumani, Co-chair Professor Thomas W. Laqueur, Co-chair This dissertation examines the links between education and political culture by analyzing government-employed educators during the formative period of nation-state creation in the Middle East. It argues that a dearth of qualified personnel, coupled with local support of education, allowed educators in the government schools of Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan, to act as privileged intermediaries, backed by both the states that employed them, and by their societies. Educators’ status as popular and scarce civil servants encouraged them to participate in anti-government protests while remaining government employees. The aggregate consequences of educators’ ability to protest without losing their posts included ideological flexibility, the sidelining of educated groups from armed rebellions and the maintenance of non-representative regimes. Their stories articulate how local civil servants, frequently at the lowest levels of colonial bureaucracies, shape administration and governance. During the late Ottoman period, educated individuals participated in a culture of petitions and negotiation, which connected civil servants and the Ottoman state. The British military and Mandate administrations incorporated Ottoman laws regarding education, as well as Ottoman- founded institutions and Ottoman-trained personnel into the educational systems of the Mandates. This continuity between British and Ottoman policies, institutions and personnel perpetuated Ottoman-era modes of interaction between educators and the governments that employed them. British policy makers feared anti-colonial rebellions on the part of an educated unemployed, like uprisings that had taken place in both India and Egypt during periods of British control. Therefore, British officials in Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan restricted government schooling, particularly at upper levels, to a select few. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the region, and the League of Nations’ requirements to prepare the Mandates for eventual independence, resulted in local and international demand for government-sponsored education. This situation of scarcity and need granted educators a privileged position vis-à-vis their employers. Educators used their rare status to manipulate and petition their governments, while rising through the ranks of the civil service. In so doing, they evinced a broader notion of agency than simple resistance to colonial domination. 1 Educators also theorized and articulated a variety of political ideologies, particularly during the interwar period. Educators’ experiences as students and their relationships to their governments as well as their birthplaces and families shaped their concepts of political affiliation. The American University of Beirut (AUB) in particular functioned as a hub of pan-Arabism for educators; students from throughout the region met, studied, and learned to protest while at AUB. Their academic credentials permitted AUB graduates to put their philosophies into practice, as teachers, authors, administrators and later ministers throughout the Mandates. However, self-avowedly nationalist educators, even at their most extreme, overwhelmingly remained employed by their governments in some capacity despite their rebellious reputations. Educators’ need to work within the government, to keep their present jobs, and the desire of local communities to preserve education and to safeguard their children’s futures reinforced teachers and administrators’ incorporation into government service. In the late 1950s, three factors threatened educators’ intermediary role. These factors denigrated teachers’ social and economic status, and pushed them towards collective rather than individual action. Mass education reduced the scarcity of teachers; their formerly rare educational qualifications became more common, and less valuable. Standardization, through rigid modes of inspection and national examinations that dictated children’s future careers, reduced educators’ ability to teach beyond the prescribed curriculum. Repressive measures on the part of each government also limited the intermediary position teachers had previously enjoyed. The concurrent hardening of national borders reduced the fluidity of political affiliations once open to the Mandates’ inhabitants. From the late 1890s through the late 1950s, educators and former educators leveraged their scarcity. As both teachers and government ministers, they influenced the young minds of the region within and beyond the classroom. Their favored status lasted until colonial restrictions on education lessened, and mass education eroded their capacity for bargaining with their governments. The stories of these teachers and administrators underscore the importance of local civil servants to the functioning of imperial, colonial and independent governments. Their rebellions from within the government bureaucracy demonstrate how government education as an institution can simultaneously shore up and impair the authority of its state. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Educators and the Ottoman Legacy 18 Chapter 2: Colonial Prescriptions and Local Adaptations: Educators in the 1920s 45 Chapter 3: Crossing Borders: Bursary Scholars at the American University of Beirut 89 Chapter 4: Nationalist Educators and Others’ Revolts 115 Chapter 5: The Professional Teacher: Educators in the 1940s and 1950s 153 Conclusion 201 Bibliography 212 i Acknowledgements: For their advice, assistance, criticism, encouragement, commiseration and support I offer my thanks: Nora Barakat, Sarah Cramsey, Hannah Farber, Zoe Griffith, Samantha Iyer, Ashley Leyba, Callie Maidhof, Radhika Natarajan, Doug O’Reagan, Celine Pisner, Tehila Sasson, and Julia Shatz. Professor Benjamin C. Fortna for sponsoring me, and the Mellon Foundation for stepping in to fund my research, when congress wouldn’t. Professor Sami Zubaida, Emile Cohen, and Dr. Zainab Saleh for their advice and assistance. Thank you to the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq and the Sultan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California Berkeley for allowing me to return to London to continue my research. Professors Louay Bazzi, Nadiya Slobodenyuk and Lisa Arnold, especially Louay for his incredible hospitality, as well as Professor Sanjoy Mitter for his continuing influence on his advisees. I would also like to thank the kind staff at the American University of Beirut archive as well as those at the Institute for Palestine Studies. Professor Michael Fischbach for his assistance, Hani Hourani, Mrs. Ni'meh at the Museum of Schoolbooks in al-Salt, as well as the principal, students, teachers and museum staff workers. At the Ministry of Education, Dr. Sami Salaita, and the staff of the archive section of the Human Resources department provided invaluable help, conversation and tea. Lucine Taminian from the American Academic Institute in Iraq for her connections and encouragement. Helena at the Israel State Archive was always kind and willing to help. Professors Shmuel Moreh and Sasson Somekh, as well as Dr. Zvi Yehuda and Dr. Noga Efrati helped me incorporate Iraqi history into my project. Professors Motti Golani and Elie Podeh for their logistical support. The Kalismans also gave me several homes away from home and some very perceptive comments on my project, especially from Tamar, Hadas, Uri, Moran, Yael, Amir and Raya. Mabel Lee at the University of California Berkeley, without whose help the department would not survive. The National Academy of Education for their generous fellowship and the camaraderie of other fellows. My committee members: Professor Raka Ray for her intuition and her help expanding my project’s contribution. Professor Laqueur for his insightful edits, clear perspective, questions and kindness. Professor Vernon for pretty much everything and Professor Doumani for pushing me beyond what I thought were my limits. Yael Elmatad and Ellie Browne for combining socializing with exercise. Alexis May for encouraging me, Abigail Cohen for her unwavering support whether or not she knew or cared what I was studying. My sister Alison for her commiseration, help and analysis of “the cup.” My parents, Peter and Karen Falb for their support and patience putting up with the difficulties of life and writing. I would especially like to thank my mom for reading the entire dissertation. ii Philip Taubman