Education Policies, Borrowing or Learning? An Exploratory Study on Six Arab Countries

• In Event: Interrogating the Truth in Educational Research in the Arab World: Perspectives From an Underrepresented Context

Abstract

Educational policies are seen as a political response to demands arising from its environment (Luhmman., 1990; Steiner-Khamsi, 2004). Writings about education policy making in the Arab region are very rare. The aim of this study is to explore the status of educational policy making in six countries: Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Morocco in order to understand the extent to which educational policies are borrowed, the reasons that drove each country to engage in the borrowing process, and the outcomes. The study will also investigate whether policy learning (Raffe & Semple, 2011) which is an integral part of the policy process was adopted by those countries. The study will consider two dimensions: the analytical; through understanding when, why and how policy borrowing occurs, and the normative; through exploring the outcomes (Steiner-Khamsi, 2016).
Theoretical Framework
This study will be directed by Dolowitz and Marsh’s (2000) conceptual framework which detailed the relationship between voluntary and forced transfer and their links to policy success and failure. The use of this framework suits the Arab region as it highlights the fact that policy borrowing does not inevitably lead to success. Further, the framework will help discuss the results in terms of why transfer happens? who is engaged? what is being transferred? from where do countries borrow? what are the different degrees of transfer? and what restricts or facilitates transfer?
Methodology
An ‘exploratory’ qualitative approach will be utilized specifically to provide answers to questions like: What approach each country adopted? What was the outcome of the borrowing process over the past two decades? What could be inferred? What are the future expectations, and why? A convenient sampling technique will be utilized, in which professors of educational policy or sociology of education along with officials from the Ministry of Education will be interviewed from each country. Data will be analyzed through establishing patterns and developing themes through the use of thematic analysis in each country (Creswell, 2013). Limitations of this study include difficult recruitment of officials for the interviews and inaccurate/biased responses as they might defend the policies adopted.
Findings and Significance
The findings indicate that adopting educational policies/practices from other countries is an integral part of the policy development process in the region from English and French speaking lending countries. Yet, as the Arab countries westernize or internationalize their education, the findings indicate that adaptations also happen to fit the policies/practices with the local context and the culture in each country. However, this did not prevent tensions and challenges. The social forces and factors and time were among the barriers which constrained the adaptation process, let alone the learning process.
The study concludes that educational policy borrowing is useful, but it should be a meticulous process that considers a host of factors including the development goals of each country, its local and historical educational context, as well as learning, adapting, and dumping policies, not just transferring.

Author

• Ali Ibrahim, United Arab Emirates University
  Presenting Author