Teaching for Forgiveness In Arab Schools Alliance for International Education Doha, 2012

1. Teaching for Forgiveness In Arab SchoolsAlliance for International EducationDoha, 2012 Ilham Nasser, Ph.D., George Mason University Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Ph.D., American University With special thanks to Ola Mahmoud and Trina Campbell for assistance with study For additional information contact Ilham Nasser at inasser@gmu.edu

2. Defining Forgiveness • Forgiveness is a sociocultural, cognitive, and spiritual construct. It addresses human behaviors, actions, and perceptions. Forgiveness is defined as: • “A deliberate process that transforms a vengeful, negative response into a positive one” (Maio, Thomas, Fincham, & Carnelley, 2008, p. 307). • A “willingness to abandon one’s right to resentment, negative judgment, and indifferent behavior toward one who unjustly hurt us, while fostering the undeserved qualities of compassion, generosity, and even love towards him or her” (Enright & Gassin, 1992, p. 99-100).

3. The Study • This study is part of a larger one in four Arab countries which aimed at exploring teachers’ views and reasoning about forgiveness in Middle Eastern context. • The goals of this study are to: • Highlight the importance of studying forgiveness as a way to promote cooperation and civil education amongst students. • Encourage a research agenda on civic education and forgiveness amongst teachers and in schools in light of the current political climate in many Arab countries. • Propose possible directions to teach for forgiveness in Arab schools, especially in developing methods and teachers’ skills to address the topic in classrooms.

4. Teachers’ Interviews • 87 teachers from four countries were interviewed: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine (West Bank) • Interviews were conducted on a voluntary basis with teachers who participated in the larger study of forgiveness attitudes and reasoning (500 participants) • Interviews in Egypt were conducted right after the Egyptian revolution. As a result special accommodations were made to encourage participation such as providing written responses to interview questions instead of audio taping and meeting in public places.

5. Methods and Analysis • Open ended interview questions were used • Focus on teaching aspects. Questions included: • What do you teach to address forgiveness in your classroom and how? • What motivates you to forgive? • Who are symbols and examples for forgiveness in your community? • What prevents you from forgiving and why? • Qualitative analysis was conducted using a “key concepts” analysis of the transcripts (Krueger, 2009). Two researchers conducted the analyses by individually reading through transcripts and gathering emerging responses for each of the questions.

6. Demographic Information

7. ResultsTeaching the Value of Forgiveness in the Classroom • Guidance and mediation • Role modeling • Student centered activities- cooperative learning, songs, poems, theatre • Teaching values- religious, social and historical • Direct instruction- discussion and examples

8. Motivation for Forgiveness • Faith and religious teaching • Empathy and human nature • Social harmony, love and peace • Culture, traditions, and national duty • Conscience- guilt feelings

9. Forgiveness Figures and Symbols • Agreement across countries that it is “very rare to find a living public figure in the Arab world that is a model for forgiveness” as one participant elaborated. • Emphasis on historical religious figures as symbols such as prophets and companions • Social and family figures such as community elders, parents, friends, and siblings were models.

10. Obstacles to Forgiveness • Across countries, several common themes emerged: • Intentionality and stubbornness • Harm to loved ones • Incidents of betrayal (lying, cheating, gossip, treason) • Insult to religion (god, prophets, holy books, blasphemy, and breaking religious boundaries) • Matters of honor and dignity • Personal and community rights including national rights • Repeated actions • Occupation of land (specific for Palestine).

11. Conclusions • Arab teachers find forgiveness to be an important theme to teach, model, and implement to help reduce behavior issues, bullying and violence. They claim to lack the skills, preparation, and resources • Teachers derive their ideas about teachings for forgiveness mainly from their religious identities. Nevertheless, they are eager to learn new and current ways and methods to address this topic in classrooms • Obstacles for forgiveness highlight strong views about personal, family, and community dignity and honor.

12. Conclusions cont. • The study highlights the importance of considering culturally and religiously sensitive tools and skills when providing guidelines for educators to teach for forgiveness and reconciliation. In fact, this study supports the approach of using religion as a positive vehicle to teach for forgiveness. • Despite some variations in teachers’ responses from the four Arab countries, this study suggests the ability to establish and develop an Arab curriculum on forgiveness that is appropriate for more than one country in the Arab world.

13. Implications of Study This study provides: • Guidelines and tools for educators to teach for forgiveness and reconciliation and implement appropriate and culturally sensitive programs in schools • Further awareness and sensitivity to the importance of examining emotional and cultural components involved in teaching for forgiveness

14. Implications of Study cont. • Insights on how to utilize religious teachings and traditions in teaching students about forgiveness • Strong support for a research agenda around forgiveness in the Arab world, especially developing appropriate measure tools and curriculum materials.

15. References Enright, R., & Gassin, E. (1992). Forgiveness: A developmental view. Journal of Moral Education, 21(2), 99-114. Krueger, R., Casey, M. A. (2009). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research (4thed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc. Maio, G. R., Thomas, G., Fincham, F., & Carnelley, K. (2008). Unraveling the role of forgiveness in family relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(2), 307-319.