Stratified students, stratified teachers : ideologically informed perceptions of educational reform in Egypt

The study draws on focus group interviews with 12 teachers working in academic and commercial secondary schools in Egypt. Attention is given to these teachers’ perspectives on the implications of a 1997 educational reform, which proposed to convert many vocational/commercial schools to academic schools and to reduce the need for extra-school, private tutoring. The interviews were conducted during the implementation of the first phase of the reform in 2001, a period of a public debate regarding the possible consequences of this reform for students as well as teachers. Of particular interest are teachers’ perceptions of the reform’s likely impact on: (a) the quality of secondary education and the postsecondary educational and occupational opportunities for students from different socioeconomic backgrounds and (b) the social status and income for teachers working in different types of secondary schools. It is furthermore noted that teachers’ views of the effects of the reform differ depending upon (1) whether they conceive of schooling as promoting social mobility or social reproduction and (2) whether their ideologically informed conceptions of professionalism emphasize remuneration or the service ideal.peer-reviewe

Global discourses and educational reform in Egypt : the case of active-learning pedagogies

Educational reform is shaped by the ideas and actions of national actors but also by global (ideological, political, and economic) dynamics. This paper offers an analysis of the global discourses (words and practices) that helped to place notions of student-centred and active-learning pedagogies on the international education reform agenda, particularly since 1990. Additionally, the paper examines how these discourses interacted with educational reform initiatives in Egypt that were undertaken by Egyptian officials and educators, at times with project support from international intergovernmental and nongovernmental organisations. The paper concludes that comparative and international educators need to interrogate the variety of educational discourses operating at both the local/national and global levels, to examine the complex interactions that occur within and across these levels, and to analyse how such discourses are constrained or enabled by global political and economic developments, including the ideologies and practices of ‘democratisation’ and multinational corporate capitalism.peer-reviewe