In this article, Thea Renda Abu El-Haj shares her research on how a group of Palestinian American high school youth understand themselves as members of the U.S. community, of the Palestinian American community, and of communities in Palestine. She argues that, for these youth, coming to terms with who they are has a great deal to do both with how they view themselves and how Palestinian Americans are viewed in the imagined community of the United States, especially after September 11, 2001. Her research reports on the tensions these youth face as they deal with school issues, like pledging allegiance to the U.S. flag, teacher harassment, and disciplinary sanctions related to being framed as “terrorists,” that affect how they think about citizenship and belonging. Given the complex way these and other youth experience belonging, Abu El-Haj ends with a call for a greater commitment to, and a more nuanced understanding of, citizenship education.

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Thea Renda Abu El-Haj is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Theory, Policy, and Administration at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Her research focuses on transnational immigration and citizenship education, concepts of educational justice manifest in policy and practice, and critical analyses of race, gender, class, and disability in schooling. She recently published Elusive Justice: Wrestling with Difference and Educational Equity in Everyday Practice (2006), and “Race, Politics, and Arab American Youth: Shifting Frameworks for Conceptualizing Educational Equity” in Educational Policy (2006).