Samira Alayan

Dr., studied sociology of education and criminology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her area of research was "Arab Education in Israel; Examination of Good and Significant Learning Experiences from the Viewpoint of Arab Students in Israel". She also studied  education leadership at the Mandel School for Development of Professional Leadership, Jerusalem. From 1996 to 1998, she worked as a lecturer in criminology and social deviancy at Al-Quds University. From 1997 to 2005, she worked as a teacher/lecturer and teacher trainer in the David Yellin Teacher's College, Jerusalem. She has been working as a research fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem since 2004. Her field of research is the education system for Arab Palestinians in Israel.

She has been working as a research fellow at the Georg Eckert Institute since July 2006.

Projects

At the Georg Eckert Institute Dr Alayan works on the analysis of history and civics textbooks and the curricular of  various Arab countries, for instance Jordan, Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon, aiming at starting a dialogue between Germany and the Arab world through education. The project's purpose is to analyse how the image of the self and of "the other" is introduced in textbooks. Additionally, the project takes a look at education reforms in the Middle East. The project aims to promote an exchange of perspectives and narratives between Europe and the Arab world. Since 2010 she has been working in cooperation with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on a project dealing with ‘heroes” in the German and  Israeli textbooks.

Publications

• Alayan, Samira and Naseema Al-Khalidi “Gender and Agency in History, Civics, and National Education Textbooks of Jordan and Palestine”, The Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society. Berghahn Journals Press. New-York, Vol 2, N 1.Pp 78-96. 2010.

• Alayan, Samira and Gad Yair, “The Cultural Inertia of the Habitus: Gendered Narrations of Agency amongst Educated Female Palestinians in Israel”, Accepted to British Educational Research Journal, vol. 36, no. 5. Pp.831-850, 2010.

• Alayan, Samira and Gad Yair, “Paralysis at the Top of a Roaring Volcano: Israel and Schooling in East Jerusalem”, Comparative Education Review vol 53, no 2, 2009.

• co-editorship with Martin Beck, "Palästinensische Gebiete", in: Sigrid Faath (eds.), Politische und gesellschaftliche Debatten in Nordafrika, Nah- und Mittelost. Inhalte, Träger, Perspektiven, Hamburg: Deutsches Orient-Institut, pp. 137-146, 2004.

• "Jüdisch-palästinensische Koexistenz im Staat Israel", in: Orient-Journal, Vol. 5, No 2, 2004, pp. 26-27

• "Arabic - My Language, My Culture", in: Elon, K. und Markovitz, D. (eds.), Hakivun Mizrach (The Direction - East) - Journal of Culture and Literature, Bimat Kedem Publications, 2003 (Hebrew)

• "Manifestations of the Humane Approach in the Training of Teachers in the Arab Community", in:Alcaram, Collection of Articles in the Field of Education, Publication of the David Yellin Teacher's College, 2002 (Arabic)

• "Teaching Centers in the Wake of the New Changes Taking Place in the Educational Process", in:Alcaram, Collection of Articles in the Field of Education, Publication of the David Yellin Teacher's College, 2001 (Arabic)

• "Entry to the Subject of Learning Centers", in: Alcaram, Collection of Articles in the Field of Education, Publication of the David Yellin Teacher's College, 2000 (Arabic)