Educational Tracking as a Colonial Tool in Lebanon

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 15. International Schooling and Outcomes

Abstract

While educational tracking often uses subjects or ability as its differentiating factors, this paper looks at how various educational programs from around the world can be used to create different tracks in less developed countries, specifically in Lebanon. This paper explores the idea that there exists an oppressive colonial educational tracking system that gives advantage to Western education programs over local ones from developing countries. Thus, I adopt Social Conflict Theory as a guiding framework for this study with an emphasis on neocolonialist and Orientalist understandings of the matter at hand. A look at entry requirements and achievements in CMC, a private Catholic Lebanese school with different educational programs will guide this inquiry. The paper concludes with a call to move away from the outcome of this tracking system with the aim of fortifying the local educational systems and centering cultural pedagogies in the curriculum.

Author

• Marc Tohme, New York University