Between the Jordanian and the Palestinian Homelands: Jordan Textbooks as a Tool for Creating a National Identity

Abstract

One of the important aspects in the research of modern nation-building nowadays is the study of the educational system and school textbooks.

This article discusses the school textbooks in history and civics courses in the elementary and secondary schools of Jordan during 1964-1994, and shows that the changes in the narratives manifested in the school textbooks were influenced by the political, ideological, and national needs of the Jordanian regime in the mentioned period. This was especially true in light of the Palestinian component in the Jordanian society that presented not only a national-ideological, but also a physical and existential, challenge to the integrity of the kingdom. The article shows how, in light of the developments in the Palestinian arena, the school textbooks reflect an attempt on the part of the Jordanian regime to forge a national Arab and Jordanian-Palestinian identity up to the end of the 1960s. Since the beginning of the 1970s, emphasis has been placed on a separate Jordanian territorial identity. The basic premise of the article is that school textbooks make it possible to create an imaginary national heritage, since Jordan itself is a young and somewhat artificial entity established after World War I by a decree of the British government. This heritage is not unified and permanent, but rather responds to changes in the historical and political circumstances in the Jordanian, Jordanian- Palestinian, and Arab arenas.