Table Of ContentEducation
Technology
Policies in the
Middle East
Globalisation, Neoliberalism
and the Knowledge Economy
Michael Lightfoot
Education Technology Policies in the Middle East
Michael L ightfoot
Education
Technology Policies
in the Middle East
Globalisation, Neoliberalism and the Knowledge
Economy
Michael Lightfoot
Edera
Balzan, Malta
ISBN 978-3-319-33265-9 ISBN 978-3-319-33266-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-33266-6
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P
REFACE
The narrative, based upon a case study of an education technology project
in the Arabian Gulf, analyses the manifestations and the limitations of the
“neoliberal imaginary” in policy enactment and in describing and analys-
ing education reforms in the Middle East. The account seeks to address
the paradoxes and confl icts inherent in the neoliberal policy formations
in an Arab world where the trajectory towards modernism has been rapid
and recent, and where neo-colonial interventions continue to colour the
landscape. Neoliberalism is, as Shamir (2008:3) puts it,
a complex, often incoherent, unstable and even contradictory set of practices
organized around a certain imagination of the “market” as a basis for the
“universalisation of market-based social relations”, with the corresponding
penetration, in almost every single aspect of our lives, of the discourse and/
or practice of commodifi cation, capital-accumulation and profi t-making.
Within this context, and in the light of the increasing globalisation of
education policy (Rizvi and Lingard 2010), this account looks at the ways
in which education policy makers in the Middle East have sought to meet
the perceived needs of the knowledge economy (KE). The research seeks
to evaluate the role played by educational technology in policy making
as part of the reform process and the subsequent policy enactment (Ball
et al. 2012). A particular indicator for the success of the policy reforms
is their impact upon the development of the particular students’ skills
most strongly identifi ed with the KE (Bell 1973; Lorenz and Lundvall
2006; Peters 2010). The case study provides the basis for more general
v
vi PREFACE
inferences to be drawn from other Arab states which are at a similar stage
in education reform and development. These states have in common a
stated policy intent of seeking to promote a local and regional KE and
to increase the contribution, which the outputs from this KE can make
towards their gross domestic product (GDP) and national wealth. The
study uses a qualitative research design and an ethnographic approach in
order to provide a contextualised commentary and an analysis of the key
drivers behind the education reform programmes and the enactment of
policy suites, which have been characterised as “Big Policies, Small World”
(Ball 1998). The ethnographic approach is aimed at gaining an insight
into the factors that have infl uenced the policy makers and the confl icts
experienced by those tasked with enacting it.
Through conducting interviews with elite policy makers and stake-
holders, complemented by institutional-based research, the study seeks
to address the ways in which educational technology policy 1 in govern-
ment schools plays a part in the enactment of education reforms and how
government policy aspirations are played out in practice. In particular, the
following research questions are addressed:
(1) What is the nature of the reforms and what do policy makers wish to
achieve through the promotion of educational technology in school
curricula? For example, what do policy makers and other stakeholders
perceive the link to be between educational technology and the devel-
opment of the KE?
(2) What are the drivers for these reforms at an international, national,
and local level, and which are the principal organisations, for example,
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), World Bank (WB)?
(3) Within the context of these traditional Muslim societies are there any
inherent contradictions and confl icts between the beliefs and tradi-
tions of the population and the development of “21st Century curri-
cula” which are orientated towards visions of globalisation and the
KE?
In addressing these questions, the study is located within a number of
contemporary theoretical frameworks, that is, neoliberalism, in the con-
text of the globalisation of public policy making as articulated by Ritzvi
and Lingard (2010); the debates about the nature of the KE in the context
PREFACE vii
of Peters’s analysis (2010); and the contemporary thinking about educa-
tion policy making, informed by the work of Stephen Ball (1998) and
Roger Dale (2000) relating to the marketisation of education and a trans-
formationalist narrative. The foundation underpinning the empirical part
of the research uses an approach based upon grounded theory, coupled
with an interlocking theoretical framework as follows: critical theory as
an all- embracing framework for analysis within which the problems of
structure and agency in policy enactment are explored using the lenses of
structuration (Giddens 1991) and new institutional economics (Ciborra
and Navarra 2005).
The study seeks to explore the mismatch that, as Ritzvi and Lingard
(2010) and others (Hartley 2003) have observed, the types of pedagogy
required to achieve the creativity and original thinking associated with the
KE may not necessarily be produced by the ways in which educational
technology policies are operating at a school level. It has been argued that
much deeper institutional reform and more rigorous analysis of current
practice, rather than speculating about technology-enriched educational
futures, are necessary for this to happen.
NOTE
1. Throughout this account, I have preferred to use the term “educational
technology” as opposed to the more common abbreviation “ICT,” for
information and communication technology; however, for contextual
reasons, “ICT” appears in the text from time to time. This small, but signifi -
cant, stylistic point is made in an attempt to employ an objective and neutral
vocabulary which is, as far as possible, free from neoliberal neologisms. The
interpolation of the letter “C” (for “communication”) in between the
industry standard “IT” for information technology is a product of a par-
ticular neoliberal imaginary. The origin of the abbreviation can be traced to
the policy formations of the UK New Labour government in the 1990s
(see Chap. 3).
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to the following people who have helped and supported me
during this book’s long journey, over six years, across two continents and
in fi ve countries:
In the UK, at the UCL Institute of Education: To Neil Selwyn, my fi rst
supervisor, who helped to launch me on this odyssey, but who has now,
himself, departed for foreign shores; and, from the UCL Knowledge Lab,
to John Potter, Jane Perryman, Martin Oliver, and Gwyneth Hughes, all
of whom who have helped to pilot this study safely into port. To Graham
Browne, the former principal, and the staff and students at Estover
Community College, Plymouth—now known as the Gate Academy.
In Jordan, at the Jordan Education Initiative: To Haif Bannayan,
Osama Obeidat, Ziad Jouaneh, and Wes Snyder.
In Dubai, at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority: To
Peter Carpenter, Jameela Al Muhairi, and Suzanne Selim.
In Bahrain, at the Quality Assurance Authority for Education and
Training and the University of Bahrain Teachers College: To Kevin
Corrigan, Chris Green, Ian Haslam, Hanada Taha-Thomure, Dan Kirk,
and Suhaib Abdullah.
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