Education, Justice, and Memory: On the History and Practice of Teaching Identity in Jordan
 

Across two related projects in Jordan, the Institute for Critical Thought developed curriculum and pedagogical tools for reckoning with violence and displacement, then translated that work into educator-facing training and durable public resources. The projects treat pedagogy as a formative practice: a carefully designed learning environment where historical understanding is cultivated through language, literature, and locally grounded modes of expression, with space for participants to work through difficult material with intellectual rigor and personal voice.
 

1) Raising Awareness About the Challenging Past in the Middle East

​

This project developed a complete educational experience to support communal engagement with the violent past in the Middle East, with Jordan as a key site for this work. ICT designed a curriculum that approaches violence, displacement, and collective memory through indigenous history, literature, and language, ensuring the material remains grounded in the region’s inherited resources of meaning rather than relying on imported frames alone.

​

Curriculum and pedagogy development
ICT developed a curriculum for teaching the violent past through close engagement with historical materials and literary texts, paired with a pedagogy that emphasizes careful interpretation, discussion, and reflective practice. The program was designed to help participants move beyond surface narratives toward deeper historical comprehension, without reducing learning to technical “skills” or abstract moral lessons.

​

Arabic seminars for local communities
ICT delivered seminars in Arabic for community members in and around Amman. The learning experience was intentionally intimate and discussion-based, giving participants the tools to name difficult histories while also attending to the emotional and ethical texture of the subject matter. The seminars encouraged participants to experiment with forms of expression that do not simply repeat official language, including reflective and creative writing that allowed history to be approached with nuance, voice, and care.

​

Outputs
The project produced a set of outputs designed for sharing and adaptation. These included a policy-oriented report and an anthology of participant writing. Alongside these, ICT consolidated the curriculum and pedagogical approach in a form that could inform future educational efforts in Jordan and the wider region.

​

2) Pedagogy in Practice: Training Educators in the Arab Region

​

Building on the earlier EdJAM project, Pedagogy in Practice translated curriculum insights into an educator training program designed for wider use across learning contexts. The purpose was to strengthen educators’ capacity to teach difficult histories through a humanities-based approach, and to provide practical tools that can travel beyond a single cohort or institution.

​

Educator training program design
ICT designed an Arabic-language training program that equips educators to teach the violent past through indigenous history, literature, and language. The training emphasizes how pedagogy can hold together factual complexity, ethical responsibility, and interpretive openness, especially when the past remains politically sensitive or emotionally charged.

​

Seminars and training sessions
ICT implemented educator seminars in Arabic that modelled the approach in practice. Participants worked with texts, cases, and discussion prompts, and produced guided reflections that demonstrated how difficult history can be taught without collapsing into ideology, sensationalism, or silence. The sessions also offered adaptable teaching tools such as facilitation guides, sample lesson sequences, and reflection prompts that educators can apply within different institutional settings.

​

Regional collaboration and shared learning
The project drew on dialogue with regional counterparts to sharpen its relevance and strengthen comparative insight. This exchange ensured the training remains responsive to the diverse historical and institutional realities educators face across the Arab region, while preserving a shared commitment to rigorous humanities-based pedagogy.

Public resources and durable outputs

To ensure the work remains usable beyond the training cycle, ICT produced a publicly shareable training manual and a policy report. The manual is designed as a practical resource that combines conceptual grounding with concrete classroom and seminar tools, including prompts, activity designs, and guidance on facilitating discussion with care.