Do Palestinian Lives Matter in Teacher Education?

Centering an Anti-Zionist Commitment in (Early Childhood) Teacher Education

Authors

  • Lilly Padía Erikson Institute

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v17i1.187100

Keywords:

Palestine, teacher education, anti-Zionism, pedagogical integrity, andragogy

Abstract

Many self-proclaimed “social justice” teacher educators remained silent on Palestine prior to, during and following October 7th, 2023, citing ‘not knowing enough about the conflict’ to absolve themselves of the responsibility of addressing the genocide–and the ongoing settler colonial apartheid state. In teacher education, this compulsory Zionism is particularly troubling, especially for teacher education programs and faculty who claim to follow the foundations of critical race theory and culturally sustaining pedagogies. This tension begs the question: Do Palestinian Lives Matter in Teacher Education? I explore instances of compulsory Zionism in teacher education institutions and introduce teacher candidates’ quotes to demonstrate why this compulsory Zionism is harmful to us all. Building on FaithCrit (the intersections of Faith and Critical Race Theory in Education) to conduct an autoethnographic analysis, I introduce a teaching framework I call ‘Pedagogical Integrity’ to demonstrate how teacher educators can implement anti-Zionist turns in teacher education–and why it is imperative that we must engage them.

Author Biography

Lilly Padía, Erikson Institute

Lilly Padía, PhD, is an assistant professor at Erikson Institute. Her scholarship explores liberation for children, families, and communities through the intersections of  disability, language, and race. She collaborates with classroom teachers, children, and family members to create frameworks and curriculum for culturally sustaining bilingual inclusive education. Her scholarship has been published in journals such as Race Ethnicity and Education; Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability; and Theory Into Practice. Her new book, Teaching Beyond Spoken Words: Communicating With Bilingual Nonspeaking Children in the Classroom was published in 2025 by Teachers College Press.

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Published

2026-02-17

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Palestinian Liberation in Education: Solidarities and Activism for a Free Palestine

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Lilly Padía

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