This paper critically examines the pervasive structural and institutional racism faced by Palestinian Americans within the landscape of U.S. higher education. Utilizing Critical Race Theory (CRT) as the guiding analytical framework, the research aims to unravel the nuanced manifestations of discrimination and illuminate the intricate interplay of historical, geopolitical, and policy-driven factors that shape the contours of Palestinian American lives in academia. The central thesis of this study revolves around the assertion that the unique challenges faced by Palestinian Americans in higher education result from a complex interplay of structural racism, institutional discrimination, and systemic biases perpetuated by U.S.-Israel relations. The research contends that these facets collectively contribute to an anti-Palestinian ethos, impacting educational experiences, academic freedom, and the broader campus climate. Methodologically, the paper addresses the intricacies of structural and institutional racism. The analysis begins by delineating the distinctions between structural and institutional racism, emphasizing their interconnectedness and impact on the lives of Palestinians. Historical overviews, policies, geopolitical influences, and U.S. support for Israel are systematically examined to unveil the political economy generating anti-Palestinian bias. This approach provides a foundation for understanding the system-wide challenges faced by Palestinian American higher education students. The exploration of U.S.-Israel policies further underscores the depth of structural racism, unveiling the historical and ongoing relations between the two nations. By delving into the financial, military, and political support extended by the U.S. to Israel, the research exposes the intricate web of geopolitical factors influencing discriminatory practices that marginalize Palestinian voices. Emphasis is placed on the role of pro-Israel lobbying groups, their significant financial contributions to politicians, and the resultant impact on U.S. policies, particularly in the context of higher education. In addressing systemic challenges within academia, the research employs CRT to analyze the unique experiences of Palestinian American students, encompassing academic discrimination, censorship, and violence. The de facto support for Israel on college campuses is scrutinized, with a focus on how power dynamics and external pressures shape university policies, contributing to an environment that marginalizes Palestinian narratives and limits academic freedom. This paper concludes by synthesizing the findings, emphasizing the racialization, structural and institutional racism, and systemic discrimination that uniquely shape Palestinian American educational experiences. The application of CRT emerges as a crucial tool for dissecting these complexities, advocating for transformational changes in the American higher education system to promote inclusivity, academic freedom, and social justice.

Since October 7, 2024, numerous scholars and students have encountered mounting institutional pressure stemming from their pro-Palestinian activism and advocacy. This trend has been paralleled by a concerning escalation of Islamophobia across Europe, manifesting in discriminatory rhetoric and policies disproportionately affecting Arab and Muslim communities. Regrettably, this issue has transcended borders, extending its reach into Spain, despite the country's historical support for pro-Palestinian movements and the significant role civil society organizations have traditionally played in shaping public discourse. In Spain, the rise of Islamophobic and anti-migrant narratives has contributed to the exacerbation of discriminatory attitudes and political polarization, intersecting with discussions on various social justice issues such as gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and efforts to counter hate speech and hate crimes. Civil society organizations (CSOs), once integral to academic debate and political dialogue, now find themselves increasingly isolated, amplifying tensions between institutions and marginalized communities. Furthermore, the media's portrayal of Arab communities often perpetuates biased perspectives, further complicating efforts to foster inclusive discourse. This paper seeks to delve into the Spanish context, examining it across multiple levels of analysis, from national policies to local dynamics. It will explore the intricate relationship between academic institutions and CSOs, shedding light on the challenges faced by scholars and activists engaged in Palestinian studies or related fields within Spanish universities. By addressing these issues, the paper aims to stimulate critical reflection and dialogue, fostering a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding academic freedom and social justice in contemporary Spain

One of the most significant global issues in the last few decades has been the continuing increase in the number of forcibly displaced individuals around the world. Around 114 million individuals were considered displaced by the fall of 2023 (UNHCR, 2023). The majority of these individuals originate from the countries of Syria, Venezuela, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Palestine. As human rights organizations have also noted, over 40% of the world's displaced are children under the age of 18. As world conflicts continue, children’s health, safety, and education will continue to be vulnerable. The education of displaced children should be of imperative consideration around the world. Education is considered a fundamental human right and should be guaranteed internationally for the achievement of the 4th objective of the sustainable development goals by 2030. Meanwhile, war related trauma, has shown a great impact on cognitive effective processes that are necessary for the healthy development of children. The probability of refugee children experiencing traumatic events is constantly increasing and their development is impacted through poor academic performance and low self-esteem. In this paper, I emphasize the importance of education for refugee children through inquiry learning lessons that facilitate understanding, engagement, empowerment and dialogue to promote discourse in refugee children’s identity formation. The literature provides evidence that education is an essential part of a refugee child’s identity formation and is considered a root for hope and dignity. I review literature on the challenges and risks refugee children face in wartime through a critical lens, supported with data from UN agencies such as the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (ANRWA) as well as other empirical studies to illustrate how conflict suppresses children’s development and academic achievements. I hope to present the need for a more critical conscious pedagogy for the future of refugees through an educational framework that implements a transformative and emancipatory approach to develop agents for change in a more humane world. Education can preserve the power of marginalized groups to initiate hope for a universal form of justice. Refugee children deserve more attention, but often they are overlooked by political objectives.

A common practice in the development of curricula and assessment for English as a second or foreign language uses the long-established normative sequence of morphosyntactic acquisition in first language (L1) learners to structure the scope and sequence for teaching of second language (L2) learners. However, less than two dozen studies exist regarding the acquisition of Arabic as a first language, and have been mostly in the field of speech language pathology, which is nascent in the Arab countries, and hampered by the dearth of linguistic research establishing norms of Arabic language acquisition. Nothing has been published since Omar (1973) on the question: In what relative order do toddlers acquiring Levantine colloquial Arabic begin to produce the components (morphemes) of verbs and verb-like structures that account for tense, gender, number and aspect? At approximately what age do these morphemes emerge? Existing studies have focused on normal and disordered phonological acquisition (Amayreh, 2003; Habib, 2014; Maamoun, 2016), in bilingual children (Paradis et al., 2021), in Gulf Arabic dialects (Ntelitheos & Idrissi, n.d.; Rakhlin et al., 2021), and in narrative markers (Rakhlin et al., 2020), lexical growth (Salama & Alansary, 2017), and semantics (Abd-Elmoneim et al., 2023). However, no studies of normative verb and verb-like morphological acquisition in the Levantine dialects, which include Jordanian, seem to have been published, and only one data set of Levantine child speech (in this case, Palestinian) is publicly available in the TalkBank CHILDES database (Nazzal, 2021). This study records monolingual Jordanian children aged 18 to 30 months interacting with their caregivers and the investigator during the summer of 2024, including both spontaneous production and response to audiovisual prompts focused on eliciting verb production. Verbs and verb-like structures (e.g. “to have” is not a verb in Arabic, but functions syntactically like a verb in sentences) are identified and a descriptive quantitative analysis looks for patterns of sequence and correlation to the ages of the children regarding their use of verbs and verb-like structures. Findings will provide an initial direction for research leading eventually to the establishment of a normative order of morpheme acquisition that could form the foundation for more effective Arabic as a Foreign Language curricula and assessment, and also contribute to establishing acquisition norms for the nascent Arab field of speech language pathology.

In 2016, the Supreme Leader of Islamic Republic of Iran made a series of controversial lectures, warning against the cultural encroachment in the space of private language academies. This study investigates the dynamics of private English language academies in Mashhad, Iran, employing spatial theories from Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau, and Turner’s concept of liminality, alongside the data gathered through participant observations and online interviews with educators and students. The findings indicate that these academies initially capitalized on spatial resources within certain upscale streets of Mashhad, which influenced the social space of these areas to create a foreign vibe that was also desired as a space of English language education. Lefebvre's theories on the production of space and de Certeau's ideas on spatial practice highlight a dialectic between the establishment of language academies and the intricate ways individuals navigate these environments, fostering perceptions of sophistication, education, political freedom, and authenticity. The relationships of location in the city, shape, age and availability of buildings, regulations and (mis)managements at the office of different presidents since the 1990s, Harasat and Locations Police as the disciplinary arms of the municipality, social norms of Urf as a normalizing power, the learners attending in different generations and familial backgrounds and social classes make these spaces hypercomplex in the way they are administered and navigated on the part of the academies’ authorities and the English language learners. I demonstrate how attending these private language academies has caused social mobility for the average middle-class student whose access to spaces and groups would otherwise not have been possible. I will also discuss the freedoms available in these classes and how they are produced, expected, navigated, negotiated, and reproduced in the milieu of policing and Urf. Through this exploration, the study illuminates the multifaceted ways in which private English language academies in Mashhad serve as sites of social, cultural, and educational negotiation and transformation, creating everyday experiences that help the individuals feel they are away from a completely Iranian society, i.e. in a liminal space between Iran and abroad. Thus, the space of these private academies maintains a divergence from what the educators and students experience in the national-curriculum education and the ideals of the Islamic Republic for educational spaces.