Bassel Akar
Biographic Data
| ID | 4389439 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bassel Akar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bassel |
| FAMILY NAME | Akar |
| SIGNATURE | AKAR B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Notre Dame University – Louaize |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5300-6348 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Disrupted Institutional Pathways for Educational Equity in Conflict-Affected Nations
Areas and systems affected by compounded crises, protracted conflicts, and structural violence often struggle to reform education for social reconstruction. At the forefront, we observe tireless and ambitious ventures among donor agencies, government institutions, and international and local organizations. However, in many of these cases, we also witness deepening political gridlock, stagnation, and marginalization that undermine the progress of …
School leaders and teachers’ agency
This study examines how school-based practitioners in Lebanon enacted their agency during COVID-19 and other simultaneous crises that closed schools for a period longer than one scholastic year. Lebanon is a conflict-affected, lower- to middle-income country. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 12 school-based practitioners in Lebanon, we examine (1) their agentic manifestations and (2) factors that appeared to have empowered or inh…
History and Justice
Agencies of Public History
Citizenship education for environmental sustainability in Lebanon
Governments around the world have expressed various degrees of commitment to promoting approaches to environmental sustainability through their national curricular aims. Critical and dialogic pedagogies can support learning for environmental sustainability, but teachers in countries affected by armed conflict struggle to facilitate such pedagogies as they drive students to accurately recite information published in textbooks. In this study, we in…
Citizenship education in conflict-affected areas and nation-states
Government agencies and civil society organisations in nation-states and areas affected by conflict strive to develop citizenship education programmes to empower children as agents of change. However, the pedagogical culture within these contexts demands that children memorise information provided by higher authorities and avoid sensitive and controversial issues. Such practices disempower children. This article presents two arguments. First, it …
Citizenship Education in Conflict-Affected Areas
Citizenship Education in Conflict-Affected Areas examines the practices of learning and teaching citizenship in Lebanon, and explores the implications of the research findings for those working in other sites affected by conflict. Bassel Akar analyses rich empirical data, such as semi-structured interviews with teachers and open-ended survey packs with children in classrooms, which reveal conflicts in notions of citizenship and pedagogical approa…
Reframing approaches to narrating young people’s conceptualisations of citizenship in education research
Large-scale quantitative studies on citizenship and citizenship education research have advanced an international and comparative field of democratic citizenship education. Their instruments, however, informed by theoretical variables constructed in Western Europe and North America mostly measure young people’s understandings of a predefined construct of democratic citizenship. Recent studies that report on young people’s descriptions and interpr…
Influences of nationalisms on citizenship education
The development of education policies is in many aspects driven by nationalist aims, especially when demonstrating postcolonial autonomy. In the case of Lebanon, Arab and Lebanese forms of nationalism have framed education policy development when transitioning out of the French mandate to an independent republic and during pan‐Arab movements against colonialism. Following 15 years of armed conflict (1975–1990), the reformed national curriculum fo…
Learning active citizenship
Education for active citizenship continues to be a critical response for social cohesion and reconstruction in conflict-affected areas. Oftentimes, approaches to learning and teaching in such contexts can do as much harm as good. This study qualitatively examines 435 students’ reflections of their civics classroom learning experiences and their existing conceptualisations of good citizenship. The majority of students revealed notions of citizensh…
Teaching for citizenship in Lebanon
Exploring the challenges and practices of citizenship education in National and Civic Education grades ten and eleven in Lebanon
Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Lebanon's pluralisms of multiconfessional and multicultural communities continue to sway the nation to and fro between conflict and post-conflict statuses. Since 1946, however, leaders in government and education have focused on citizenship education as a fundamental vehicle for social cohesion, justice and peace. Understandings of citizenship that teachers and students have as well as their ex…
Teaching for citizenship in Lebanon
Reframing approaches to narrating young people’s conceptualisations of citizenship in education research
Large-scale quantitative studies on citizenship and citizenship education research have advanced an international and comparative field of democratic citizenship education. Their instruments, however, informed by theoretical variables constructed in Western Europe and North America mostly measure young people’s understandings of a predefined construct of democratic citizenship. Recent studies that report on young people’s descriptions and interpr…
Citizenship education for environmental sustainability in Lebanon
Governments around the world have expressed various degrees of commitment to promoting approaches to environmental sustainability through their national curricular aims. Critical and dialogic pedagogies can support learning for environmental sustainability, but teachers in countries affected by armed conflict struggle to facilitate such pedagogies as they drive students to accurately recite information published in textbooks. In this study, we in…
Influences of nationalisms on citizenship education
The development of education policies is in many aspects driven by nationalist aims, especially when demonstrating postcolonial autonomy. In the case of Lebanon, Arab and Lebanese forms of nationalism have framed education policy development when transitioning out of the French mandate to an independent republic and during pan‐Arab movements against colonialism. Following 15 years of armed conflict (1975–1990), the reformed national curriculum fo…
Learning active citizenship
Education for active citizenship continues to be a critical response for social cohesion and reconstruction in conflict-affected areas. Oftentimes, approaches to learning and teaching in such contexts can do as much harm as good. This study qualitatively examines 435 students’ reflections of their civics classroom learning experiences and their existing conceptualisations of good citizenship. The majority of students revealed notions of citizensh…
Disrupted Institutional Pathways for Educational Equity in Conflict-Affected Nations
Areas and systems affected by compounded crises, protracted conflicts, and structural violence often struggle to reform education for social reconstruction. At the forefront, we observe tireless and ambitious ventures among donor agencies, government institutions, and international and local organizations. However, in many of these cases, we also witness deepening political gridlock, stagnation, and marginalization that undermine the progress of …
Exploring the challenges and practices of citizenship education in National and Civic Education grades ten and eleven in Lebanon
Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Lebanon's pluralisms of multiconfessional and multicultural communities continue to sway the nation to and fro between conflict and post-conflict statuses. Since 1946, however, leaders in government and education have focused on citizenship education as a fundamental vehicle for social cohesion, justice and peace. Understandings of citizenship that teachers and students have as well as their ex…
Exploring the challenges and practices of citizenship education in National and Civic Education grades ten and eleven in Lebanon
Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Lebanon's pluralisms of multiconfessional and multicultural communities continue to sway the nation to and fro between conflict and post-conflict statuses. Since 1946, however, leaders in government and education have focused on citizenship education as a fundamental vehicle for social cohesion, justice and peace. Understandings of citizenship that teachers and students have as well as their ex…
Teaching for citizenship in Lebanon
Learning active citizenship
Education for active citizenship continues to be a critical response for social cohesion and reconstruction in conflict-affected areas. Oftentimes, approaches to learning and teaching in such contexts can do as much harm as good. This study qualitatively examines 435 students’ reflections of their civics classroom learning experiences and their existing conceptualisations of good citizenship. The majority of students revealed notions of citizensh…
Reframing approaches to narrating young people’s conceptualisations of citizenship in education research
Large-scale quantitative studies on citizenship and citizenship education research have advanced an international and comparative field of democratic citizenship education. Their instruments, however, informed by theoretical variables constructed in Western Europe and North America mostly measure young people’s understandings of a predefined construct of democratic citizenship. Recent studies that report on young people’s descriptions and interpr…
Influences of nationalisms on citizenship education
The development of education policies is in many aspects driven by nationalist aims, especially when demonstrating postcolonial autonomy. In the case of Lebanon, Arab and Lebanese forms of nationalism have framed education policy development when transitioning out of the French mandate to an independent republic and during pan‐Arab movements against colonialism. Following 15 years of armed conflict (1975–1990), the reformed national curriculum fo…
Citizenship Education in Conflict-Affected Areas
Citizenship Education in Conflict-Affected Areas examines the practices of learning and teaching citizenship in Lebanon, and explores the implications of the research findings for those working in other sites affected by conflict. Bassel Akar analyses rich empirical data, such as semi-structured interviews with teachers and open-ended survey packs with children in classrooms, which reveal conflicts in notions of citizenship and pedagogical approa…
Citizenship education in conflict-affected areas and nation-states
Government agencies and civil society organisations in nation-states and areas affected by conflict strive to develop citizenship education programmes to empower children as agents of change. However, the pedagogical culture within these contexts demands that children memorise information provided by higher authorities and avoid sensitive and controversial issues. Such practices disempower children. This article presents two arguments. First, it …
Agencies of Public History
Citizenship education for environmental sustainability in Lebanon
Governments around the world have expressed various degrees of commitment to promoting approaches to environmental sustainability through their national curricular aims. Critical and dialogic pedagogies can support learning for environmental sustainability, but teachers in countries affected by armed conflict struggle to facilitate such pedagogies as they drive students to accurately recite information published in textbooks. In this study, we in…
History and Justice
School leaders and teachers’ agency
This study examines how school-based practitioners in Lebanon enacted their agency during COVID-19 and other simultaneous crises that closed schools for a period longer than one scholastic year. Lebanon is a conflict-affected, lower- to middle-income country. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 12 school-based practitioners in Lebanon, we examine (1) their agentic manifestations and (2) factors that appeared to have empowered or inh…
Disrupted Institutional Pathways for Educational Equity in Conflict-Affected Nations
Areas and systems affected by compounded crises, protracted conflicts, and structural violence often struggle to reform education for social reconstruction. At the forefront, we observe tireless and ambitious ventures among donor agencies, government institutions, and international and local organizations. However, in many of these cases, we also witness deepening political gridlock, stagnation, and marginalization that undermine the progress of …
Political science (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy (10 works) · Citizenship (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Pedagogy (8 works) · Global Education and Multiculturalism (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Politics (6 works) · Psychology (6 works)