Palestinian Teachers Describe What Sustains and Erodes Their Wellbeing Under Occupation

A phenomenological study published in Discover Psychology has examined how Palestinian teachers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem experience wellbeing under military occupation, identifying both the factors that sustain them and those that wear them down. The research, led by Ibrahim Aqtam and colleagues, addresses what the authors describe as a fundamentally understudied dimension of occupational health in conflict-affected settings, since most existing research on teacher wellbeing emerges from contexts of relative stability. The study was guided by positive psychology and structural violence theory.

Using a phenomenological design, which aims to capture lived experience in depth, the researchers recruited 23 Palestinian teachers through purposive and snowball sampling. Participants were drawn from four distinct geographic zones: urban West Bank areas designated as Area A, rural West Bank areas within Area C, East Jerusalem, and UNRWA refugee camps. Data collection combined semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and narrative frames in a methodological triangulation approach.

The teachers identified four main supporting factors for their wellbeing. The first was collective resilience and peer solidarity, which the researchers describe as pedagogical sumud. The second was professional identity and moral purpose.

The third was community recognition and the cultural value placed on education, and the fourth was adaptive coping strategies developed by the teachers themselves. Participants reported that strong collegial bonds, community appreciation, and a sense of professional mission significantly enhanced their wellbeing. Against these supports, the study documented five significant hindering factors.

Teachers described geographically differentiated trauma exposure, meaning that the nature and intensity of hardship varied across the four zones sampled. They also reported institutional fragmentation and inconsistent support systems, checkpoint-related stress and mobility restrictions, curriculum constraints that produced professional ethical distress, and material insecurity. According to the participants' accounts, daily exposure to checkpoints, administrative fragmentation, threats of forced displacement, economic precarity, and systemic constraints on professional autonomy severely diminished their wellbeing and their capacity to teach effectively.

The geographic structure of the sample reflects the fragmented reality that the authors say shapes Palestinian educators' lives, including prolonged military occupation, territorial fragmentation, movement restrictions, and differential legal systems. Because the study is phenomenological and based on 23 participants recruited through purposive and snowball sampling, its findings represent the documented experiences of this group rather than statistically generalizable estimates for all teachers in the occupied Palestinian territory. The authors frame their contribution as connecting teacher wellbeing to both psychological and structural analysis.

The supporting factors they identified, such as solidarity, moral purpose, and community recognition, sit within the positive psychology framework, while the hindering factors, including mobility restrictions and institutional fragmentation, are understood within structural violence theory as conditions imposed by the broader political environment rather than as individual shortcomings. Where collegial bonds and community appreciation operated, teachers described their wellbeing as significantly enhanced. Where checkpoints, displacement threats, and constraints on professional autonomy were part of daily life, participants perceived severe erosion of both their wellbeing and their ability to teach effectively.

The study indicates that promoting support-related factors while addressing occupation-induced hindering factors can ultimately enhance both teacher experiences and educational outcomes in protracted conflict contexts. For the educators who took part, the findings document a professional life lived under conditions few occupational health studies have examined, and they offer a structured account of how teachers in the occupied Palestinian territory describe coping with, and being worn down by, their circumstances.

Subject of Research: Teacher wellbeing under military occupation in the occupied Palestinian territory

Article Title: A phenomenological inquiry into supporting and hindering factors of Palestinian teacher wellbeing under military occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem

Article References: Aqtam, I., Shouli, M., Khaled, H. H., Al-Korum, S., & Shouli, K. (2026). A phenomenological inquiry into supporting and hindering factors of Palestinian teacher wellbeing under military occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Discover Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44202-026-00958-3

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44202-026-00958-3

Keywords: teacher wellbeing, Palestinian teachers, West Bank, East Jerusalem, military occupation, phenomenology, positive psychology, structural violence, occupational health, conflict-affected settings, qualitative research, phenomenological