Educational Change in the Arab Context: Examination of Curriculum Frameworks

• In Event: Highlighted Session: The Power of Protest in Educational Transformation and Reform in the Middle East North African Context

Proposal

Rationale
The opposite face of the power to protest is the power to silence and maintain the status quo and the best mechanism to cultivate either of them is through schooling. Since the protest movements of Arab youth in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2011, silencing seems to be the case especially using political power and imprisoning activists on the left and right of the political spectrum. The question of “powerful knowledge’ was introduced by Young in (2009) especially the distinction between school knowledge and everyday knowledge that students are exposed to (Young, 2015). However, this area of knowledge is unexplored in MENA and the extent to which education systems contribute to the discourse of the ruling knowledge is an open one in MENA as we have very few studies exploring this issue. This presentation shares the analysis conducted to closely examine public curriculum frameworks and the sets of goals and outcomes in kindergarten through 12 grade schooling in four locations, namely, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt, and Palestine as case studies. It builds on theoretical and empirical research suggesting that curricula are influenced by social, political, and economic conditions as well as the motivations of the global private sectors (Gericke, 2022). In areas of instability such as MENA, the utilization of the curriculum to promote change, transformation, or keep the status quo is of interest to local as well as global interest groups that attempt to control the educational messages of the curriculum (Verger, et. al. 2017).
This presentation examines the K-12 curriculum messages, especially the most recent reiterations following the Arab spring and its political aftermath. To do this, the presentation draws on content analysis of public documents articulating the standards for education in each of the four countries and examining the embedded values and messages. The curriculum framework is the first public document that policy makers put forward to declare their intentions and plans for the curriculum and for teaching and learning in general. Examining these is important to give value to intentions and more importantly to hold governments accountable. This presentation makes recommendations regarding the declared messages of the curriculum framework and its authenticity and ways to implement the goals in the various contexts. The curriculum framework must be reflected in each school and classroom, which is not common in the MENA region.
Some scholars claim that there is a decline in curriculum goals and many countries are downgrading the expected levels of knowledge from learners, partly, due to the global solutions to local problems trends (Priestley, 2011; Steiner-Khamsi, 2012)). Others argue that the new curriculum models do not make a distinction between theoretical and practical knowledge which impacts students’ disciplinary knowledge especially those calling for 21st century skills that are generic and not content specific (Young 2009). There are four types of curricula that address the theoretical and practical aspects of the curriculum. One is the ‘intended curriculum’, which ministries and education policy makers design to determine the goals of the learning experiences especially what goes into textbooks, etc. The ‘implemented curriculum’ is what is taught in the classroom and the ways it is conveyed to students through instructional tools and methods. The ‘attained curriculum’ is what the students learn and get out of it. The fourth kind is the ‘hidden curriculum’ focusing on the values and beliefs stemming from the intended and implemented curriculum. This presentation focuses on the examination of the intended curriculum in the mentioned location.
Methods and Data Sources

As an educator, we are probably typical in usually zooming into textbooks, photos used, and pedagogy and rarely paying attention to the public declared and intended goals of the curriculum. For this presentation, the most recent frameworks were attained by researching official ministry sites and reaching out to authors of the documents. Jordan (2020) has the most recent national curriculum framework and Egypt (the framework seems to be copyrighted and unavailable yet) while Yemen (2013) and Palestine (2016) may be outdated and in need of revisions. We used a thematic approach which aimed at identifying and analyzing patterns of meaning (themes) using desk reviews and taking a qualitative data analysis approach (Gavin 2008; Braun & Clarke 2014). We conducted a search for words and expressions that may be utilized in a public document about education and the curriculum such as “peace”, “the other”, “tolerance” and “democracy”. We also conducted a search with the key word “the learner” to examine the way the students were addressed and prioritized.

Initial Results
The curriculum frameworks examined revealed multiple attempts to align with the sustainable development goals (SDG 4) declared by the United Nations which focuses on improving quality of education. This is specifically mentioned in the document from Jordan (2020). The general language of the frameworks is one of tolerance, values, global citizenship, and preservation of Islamic teaching and principles. In Jordan, for example, the rights and duties of women are written as the rights and duty of “a Muslim woman belonging to Islam.” Further education, as expressed in the curriculum frameworks, aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning. The messages are focused on promoting logical and objective ways to think about knowledge and respond to economic and social evolutions. To raise a new generation who are proud citizens and have a high sense of belonging. In both, Yemen and Palestine, the Palestinian liberation and defeating Zionism are mentioned as one of the goals of education but not in the Jordanian framework. The theme that is in common in all is the value of the Arabic language and belonging to the pan Arabism as a second best after belonging to the country. The presentation will contribute to thinking about educational reform and ways to localize and promote the power to protest.

Authors

• Ilham Nasser, Creative Associates International Inc.

• Nora El-Bilawi, GMU