History Education at Wartime: Lebanon in Focus

By Nayla Khodr Hamadeh November 2024

Lebanese Association for History

Since early September, Lebanon has borne witness to an escalation of war that has wreaked havoc across the country, leading to unprecedented levels of destruction and chaos. With over a million individuals uprooted from their homes and more than three thousand seven hundred lives tragically lost, the humanitarian toll continues to rise. 

Caught under intensive Israeli airstrikes, countless families had to abandon their homes in search of safety. As carpet bombing targeted southern Lebanon, many of our colleagues—teachers and their loved ones had mere moments to flee, leaving behind not only their homes but also their communities and cherished belongings. In their desperate attempt to escape, they found themselves ensnared in nightmarish traffic jams, where some remained trapped for over 24 hours with young children and the elderly. In a densely populated nation already hosting more than a million refugees, the quest for safe accommodation became an overwhelming ordeal amid one of the gravest economic crises in the country’s history. 

The displacement has particularly impacted educators, forcing them to abandon both their personal and professional lives in the chaos. Classroom essentials—books, laptops, lesson plans—were forsaken as teachers prioritised their survival. The road back to normalcy seemed distant, particularly as mid-September ushered in intensified bombing that extended from the southern suburbs of Beirut to the Beqaa Valley and even into other neighbourhoods within the capital. Civilians suffered immensely, residential buildings crumbled and lives were lost. Meanwhile, the international community regrettably continued to support Israel’s actions that targeted innocent lives, medical staff, media teams, and leading to the systemic destruction of over sixty towns and villages at the southern border, and unmeasurable destruction in many areas of Lebanon.

In the wake of these events, the Lebanese Association for History spent two months grappling with the shock before looking into the needs and challenges of history educators. Since mid-September, public schools in relatively safer areas were converted into makeshift displacement centers. After significant interruptions, some educational institutions finally began to reopen. However, the methods of teaching have been radically altered, oscillating between online, hybrid, and in-person formats. Disturbingly, around three hundred thousand children remain out of school, their futures dimmed by the shadows of conflict.

A recent focused survey conducted among twenty-five teachers delved into the myriad challenges they face. The prevailing sentiments of stress, fear, anxiety, fatigue, and a pervasive sense of instability, are reflective of a shared trauma that transcends individual experiences. Teachers expressed deep concerns about their current circumstances and future prospects, particularly for their children, while also contemplating the broader social, psychological, and economic implications of the war. The experiences among the teaching community are telling; Displaced educators have taken on the mantle of emergency teaching, often foregoing their subject specialisations, including history, to accommodate urgent educational needs. Those teaching in institutions that welcomed displaced students are trying to provide comfort amidst turmoil. While educators in relatively safer areas are striving to recover lost time; they foresee a significant setback of four to eight weeks of learning. 

In a landscape fraught with challenges, the tenacity displayed by Lebanon's educators is both commendable and heart-wrenching. The ongoing war has transformed their roles from educators to emotional anchors, navigating the precarious reality that their students face. The future of education in Lebanon hangs in the balance as the nation grapples with the devastating consequences of wart, echoing a desperate call for collective support and urgent action to rebuild lives and restore hope.

The teaching of history, already marginalized since the civil war, is being sidelined in many public-school classrooms to prioritize sciences and languages. Patricia, a teacher from Byblos,  poignantly remarked, “I feel as if we are combatants, fighting to preserve history as a subject and to ensure it provides a space for the analysis of the past.” In response to the ongoing crisis, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has introduced emergency regulations that include suspending history classes at various levels or reducing lesson hours. However, in the chaos of the current educational landscape, many of these emergency policies remain only partially enacted. “History education has long suffered from the repercussions of past conflicts; how can we expect it to thrive now?” lamented’Mirsal, an educator displaced from Tyre, in Southern Lebanon. Another colleague, displaced himself from Nabatiyeh in Southern Lebanon, expressed that he is finding it  increasingly difficult to separate his own experiences from what is happening to my country and the people around him.

This sentiment resonates deeply as educators navigate the complex reality of their circumstances. One teacher from Northern Lebanon, Intissar, said “I often find myself discussing contemporary events rather than historical ones, encouraging my students to express their current feelings creatively. This process has allowed me to uncover my students’ emotions and capacities, even as I grapple with needing to complete a prescribed curriculum.” In every session, students crave time to discuss their present circumstances, expressing a desire to link current events with historical contexts. As Mounira, a colleague from Beirut,  states, “They want to talk about today, this period, and its connections to past events.”

The consensus among teachers is a profound need for connection, recognition, and encouragement; They call for psychological support and training to effectively address their own traumas and have the ability to deal with the traumas of their students. They are aware that more challenges lie ahead in the aftermath of war, and they express a strong desire to be prepared for the journey forward.

Our response at LAH will be multi-faceted. In the initial phase, we are focused on providing psychological support for our team of facilitators, equipping them with tools and strategies to help teachers and students cope with their fears and anxieties. To foster emotional resilience, we will integrate social and emotional learning into all our planned activities. Additionally, we will soon launch a series of workshops aimed at supporting teachers as they navigate online and hybrid teaching environments. We also recognize the importance of strengthening teachers’ networks. Therefore, a variety of activities, primarily online, will be initiated to assist teachers by reactivating the networks that LAH has fostered since its inception. Our goal is to double our efforts in this area and enhance collaboration among educators. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the start of the civil war in April 2025, LAH, in collaboration with a consortium, is considering leveraging this significant event to promote a deeper understanding of the past. Linking the present to the past will be the theme of exhibitions, events, and conferences that we are planning for the spring. We aim to draw lessons from the experiences of the civil war to better address the current conflicts and work towards ensuring that they do not fracture our society.

As we deconstruct the past, reconcile the narratives, build dialogue, we at LAH in collaboration with a large civil society are working towards a sustainable peace in Lebanon.  Yet, the effectiveness of international efforts in not only ending the war but also resolving the underlying conflict remains uncertain. While quick fixes and ceasefires may provide temporary respite, they do not yield sustainable solutions necessary for fostering lasting peace in the region.