TITLE:
Rethinking Education in Emergencies: The Dialectic between Global Standards and Grassroots Innovation in Gaza
AUTHORS:
Ata H. Darwish, Mohammed F. Abuowda
KEYWORDS:
Education in Emergencies (EiE), Pedagogy of Resistance, Gaza, Grassroots Innovation, Epistemology, Resilience, Human Agency, Educational Decolonization
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.17 No.10,
October
19,
2026
ABSTRACT: This study critically examines dominant discourses on Education in Emergencies (EiE), arguing that bureaucratic, standardized approaches grounded in Western educational models often remain disconnected from the lived realities of communities experiencing protracted displacement and conflict as it may occur in Gaza. Rather than positioning Gaza as merely a site for technical educational recovery, the study reconceptualizes it as an epistemological laboratory in which new forms of case knowledge production and educational practice emerge under conditions of extreme adversity. Within this context, a pedagogy of resistance and resilience takes shape as local actors transform destruction, displacement, and material scarcity into alternative learning spaces that nurture collective agency and challenge conventional educational paradigms. The study addresses three central research questions: 1) To what extent do local, grassroots educational initiatives under siege and displacement challenge the dominance and applicability of international EiE frameworks? 2) How does resistance-based, indigenous pedagogy amidst infrastructure destruction help rebuild identity, restore human agency, and foster socio-emotional resilience? 3) How can international rights-based standards and local grassroots agency be synthesized into a contextualized hybrid framework for emergency education? The findings suggest that resilient educational practices cannot simply be transferred through standardized policy models; instead, they must be co-created through locally grounded knowledge, community participation, and context-specific innovation. The study concludes that the future of education in displacement settings depends on recognizing grassroots educational practices as legitimate sources of pedagogical knowledge and epistemological transformation.