Conference Program

A key question in the philosophy of caring education is how to resist education that obscures our shared humanity and reproduces violent patriarchal cognition. The starting point of caring emphasizes that humanity is one interconnected web, and thus any rupture at one end resonates everywhere. We are inherently involved in dialectical relationships that demand navigating conflicts. Therefore, education rooted in care emphasizes human dignity through critical, reflective learning. It is essential for reconciliation and resistance to structural violence, as a compass’s trajectory.

The intricate paradigm that governs the conflicts in the Middle East, and in this abstract, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, requires a delicate and courageous vision due to the domination of structured violent patriarchy on either side. Reducing hatred and violence while promoting critical thinking is a primary challenge in education. This is especially difficult in the context of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict, in the era of the inflation of AI platforms and social media outlets’ false gaslighting information.

An education grounded in caring as a literacy challenges the perspectives of the patriarchal ruling class and illuminates the hidden agendas that sustain its power. The question is, how to do that? How can we expose the manipulative motivations that endanger lives by instigating violence and wars? How can education overcome the forces that distort learning, particularly in history and religion, to maintain conservative, patriarchal power? Caring literacy embodies emancipatory epistemological resistance to patriarchal domination through critical reflection grounded in the inherent trajectory of lived experiences that share a common humanity.

Hostile patriarchal forces, including those influencing social media and AI, intervene primarily to advance their own interests, complicating efforts to challenge them through widespread gaslighting. Caring literacy seeks to counter these violent barriers, offering hope to children by undermining dominating narratives through lived experiences. In the absence of caring leadership, caring orientation becomes an act of epistemological resistance to structured conservative patriarchy. This abstract, therefore, explores the ways in which caring literacy can resist hatred and violence across learning contexts, whether in PK–12, higher education, or non‑formal educational settings.

The process of deconstructing and reconstructing our knowledge based on ethos and myths is crucial to establishing emotionally attuned and caring learners and citizens. It is comparable to the challenge of learning a new language. It necessitates the nurturing of cognitive habits of perceiving safety and security in terms of human kindness. Caring literacy offers the humanization of the formidable ‘other’ beyond the strict framework that governs our consciousness. Caring literacy enhances our responsibility to the humanity of the formidable ‘other,’ e.g., Palestinians and Jews, in the amalgamation of content learning with the lived experiences of the learners. This approach makes the tight link between the personal and the public and political spheres and vice versa.

It is vital to add that although Jews and Palestinians are often seen as adversaries, there exists a unique shared humanity between them that should be fostered and maintained. Hence, education that emanates from caring literacy, that amalgamates philosophy with lived experiences, is vital.