Sand Huts and Salty Water

This chapter takes the twin phenomena of globalisation and the growth of the knowledge economy and shows how they impact upon education in the Middle East, particularly in the light of the involvement of supra-national organisations and global corporations. The arguments centre upon the development of a globalised knowledge economy within a world which is dominated by a post-Washington Consensus (Williamson 1993). This neo-liberal construct has significant consequences for state-mandated education systems since it has had the effect of further commodifying knowledge and its acquisition beyond an endeavour to satisfy a thirst for learning (Race 1998) to something which feeds a lust for earning (Gibbs 1989).

With increased access to vast amounts of knowledge, and with the cultural openness and technological advancements of the twenty-first century, the world has become a small village where the politics and economies of states affect one another. Dubai is no exception with the city's name becoming synonymous with globalization. It is with this in mind that Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government strives to embed the guidelines set forth by the UAE and to support the vision of its leaders for national growth. By preparing, qualifying and empowering tomorrow's leaders, and by strengthening government capacity in the UAE and the Arab world, our School aims to promote effective public policy through focusing on applied research and engaging the public and private sectors in the development process. Over the 12 years since its establishment in 2005, the School has proved its importance as a unique role model for academic institutions. The School works in close partnership with UAE government departments, combining applied research, training and education programs, and provides a platform for knowledge exchange. In order to achieve its mission, the School adheres to global best practices developed in collaboration with US-based Harvard Kennedy School that prepares leaders for democratic societies and contributes to finding holistic solutions to public problems. Such collaborations have enabled MBRSG to become the first research and teaching institution focused on governance and public policy in the Arab world. In this context, the School has taken on the task of disseminating the UAE's exceptional experience in governance and implementing the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The paper investigates the journey through which the educational system has evolved over the years since the time when education was conducted in its simplest form of Mutawa and katateeb .

International Journal of the …, 2011

Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, 1985

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Arabian Humanities, 2019

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controlled pedagogy. The joint historical and sociological angle through which the text addresses the complexities of education in modern Arab states complicates the conventional "periodization" of education (into the colonial, postcolonial, and development periods), which should itself be an object of interrogation rather than a frame of reference. The second collection remains within the space of the madrasa (a place of learning conventionally associated with moral cultivation), which it forcefully maps onto historical, socio-political, and economic configurations in Muslim societies, proving that the madrasa's position in networks of engagement is far from marginal or stagnant. This collection illuminates the multifaceted role of this institution in educating ethnic or gender minorities-or in some cases, entire rural and urban populations-in settings that have not been easily penetrated and researched thus far. Both works productively disturb the distinction between secular and religious education. If there is something at which both collections gesture, if not quite offer themselves, it is the necessity for further research on the experience of these educational institutions, as this is articulated from the participants themselves. As is often the case with educational research, an emphasis on the organizational realm overshadows-to a degree and not without exceptions-the experiential domain, a domain that can bring more depth-through its very messiness and unpredictability-to sociological analysis. Trajectories of Education in the Arab World, edited by Osama Abi Mershed, debunks some of the myths around education in modern Arab states and calls for an awareness of the involvement of older and newer forms of imperialism in what are formally considered to be national educational structures. The collection is framed as a multi-vocal response to the first series of Arab Human Development Reports (AHDR), produced by the United Nations Development Program between 2002 and 2005. AHDR reports on education in "the region" deplore both the character of state-run mass education, which they consider stale and backward, and the weak connection education has with both individual social mobility and collective development aspirations-aspirations that are, incidentally, set out by the same organizations that produce these diagnostics. The collection underscores the tensions of assessment between these diagnostics and the technical solutions they put forward and a more historically informed and politically sensitive analysis of state education. Most contributions set out to demonstrate that education, in the various settings of what is delineated by the UNDP as "the region," constitute,