The Politics of Education Reform in the Middle East: Self and Other in Textbooks and Curricula

Education systems and textbooks in selected countries of the Middle East are increasingly the subject of debate. This volume presents and analyzes the major trends as well as the scope and the limits of education reform initiatives undertaken in recent years. In curricula and teaching materials, representations of the “Self” and the “Other” offer insights into the contemporary dynamics of identity politics. By building on a network of scholars working in various countries in the Middle East itself, this book aims to contribute to the evolution of a field of comparative education studies in this region.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Release date: Jun 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9780857454614

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INTRODUCTION

Achim Rohde and Samira Alayan

Mapping Education Reforms in the Middle East

A growing number of studies focusing on education systems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) were published in Western academia during recent years, reflecting international agendas for educational development, or debates triggered by political developments since 9/11 concerning the values taught in schools in Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. By assembling a collection of case studies scrutinising recent education reforms and textbooks in selected Middle Eastern countries, specifically with regard to history and social sciences, the present book thus contributes to a body of research that is located in a highly politicised context.

Much debate and widespread criticism about education systems of MENA countries have followed the publication of the Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) series between 2002 and 2006 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Bank’s MENA development report of 2008 entitled The Road Not Travelled: Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa. These reports have pointed to low and unequal standards of and limited access to education in Arab countries as main reasons for their relative poverty. Of course, differences are noted between the rapidly developing and well-off oil economies of the Gulf and those countries of the MENA region which are not as blessed by a wealth of natural resources, and where high fertility rates create pressure on the national labour markets. In these reports, the line of argumentation has generally favoured economic indicators and quantifiable levels of socio-political ‘modernisation’ as measuring sticks for the effectiveness of a country’s education system. Wide-ranging reforms in three interrelated areas are suggested as a remedy against the perceived educational underdevelopment prevalent in the region: Securing access to education by physically expanding the existing education systems and by opening them to hitherto disenfranchised social groups like girls and children with special needs, is seen as the first important area or reform. Secondly, improvements in the quality of education are promoted through curriculum reforms, the introduction of state-of-the-art didactic approaches to teacher-training schemes and textbooks, and the introduction of information technology at schools. The third aspect refers to education system management. Instead of clinging to what is perceived as static and overly centralised public education systems, as has long been the rule in most MENA countries, the reports favour decentralising education system management as a means to improve the accountability of the system, combined with calls to introduce market elements like public-private partnerships and incentives for excellence for both teachers and students. Seen through the lens of human capital theory, the pre-dominant paradigm among educationalists in the era of neo-liberal globalisation, education constitutes a crucial resource contributing to the development of a country. Building a ‘knowledge society’ through education therefore becomes a top priority of policy planners in any country.

In this vein, an important line of educational research thus focusses on the modernisation and development of education systems in various world regions in the era of globalisation, including the Middle East, reflecting the agendas of international agencies concerning quality education and human resource development. Some of these works offer a bird’s eye perspective, rather than in-depth case studies presented within a regional Middle Eastern context (The Emirates Center 1999; Vavrus and Bartlet 2009). Other edited volumes in this context are more eclectic and focus on a variety of topics related to education, from Islamic education to post-conflict reconstruction to the empowerment of women through education (Griffin 2006; Brock and Levers 2007).

At the same time, education is also viewed as an important socialising factor that influences the formation of individuals as enlightened state citizens who are capable of independent and critical thinking. In this sense, quality education is understood in much of Western scholarship as a potential antidote against authoritarian governmentality, religious extremism as well as enmity towards ‘Others’, and as a precondition for the emergence of democracy or ‘good governance’. In MENA countries, the existing education systems are generally seen as part of the problem, rather than the solution, of these issues that are identified as continuities prevailing in the region. Partly as an effect of 9/11, increasingly polarised discourses that situate a so-called ‘Western civilisation’ against the ‘Muslim world’ have become influential. Numerous calls have been made in the West to reform not only the didactics but also the contents of curricula and textbooks used in MENA countries, particularly in the humanities and social science disciplines as well as in religious education, as narratives transmitted to students in such materials were said to promote mythical transfigurations of the national/religious ‘Self’ and intolerance towards (Western, non-Muslim) ‘Others’.

Indeed, numerous recent studies with a specific focus on education in the Middle East published in Western academia mainly scrutinise the ways in which Islamic institutions influence modern schooling or on the ways in which religion is being taught in the public school systems of Muslim majority countries. They discuss the evolution of modern secularised school systems in various such countries and the ways in which they superseded traditional Islamic schools, but also portray the perseverance and in some cases re-appearance of religious institutions in schooling (Doumato and Starret 2007; Hefner and Zaman 2007; Kadi and Billeh 2007). Despite the high quality of the studies assembled in these volumes, there is a certain tendency discernible in such works to limit the study of education in this particular region to the issue of religious education or the influence of religion on education.

Addressing the education systems of MENA countries mainly by focusing on their perceived deficiencies as compared to global standards or what is presented as such, as is visible in the globalised discourse on education reform dominated by international agencies, or over-emphasising the role of religion in Middle Eastern education systems risks being criticised for following the trodden path of Saidian Orientalism. As far as the editors of this volume are concerned, education in MENA countries should be addressed as a field of numerous struggles between different actors located in specific institutional and political-economic power matrices. The internal dynamics of educational and curricular policies pursued by state elites in the region differ widely and should not be subsumed under homogenising labels. Plus, the reform pressures exerted by international agencies and donors as well as their impact on the ground should be conceptualised as integral parts of the overall equation (Mazawi and Sultana 2010).

While there is a general consensus among experts from within the region as well as among outside observers regarding the deficiencies of most education systems in the MENA region in terms of their accessibility and quality, opinions differ widely on which measures need to be taken to ameliorate the situation. Thus, improving access to education by expanding the school infrastructure in countries of the region is seen as a necessity by all relevant actors. But whether this should be achieved through investments in public school systems or by fostering the expansion of private school sectors remains a debated issue. Some argue that seeking to re-mould education systems in Arab countries along a neo-liberal agenda of privatisation and deregulation principally serves the interests of transnational capital in Middle Eastern markets and thus infringes on the sovereignty of states in the region. Yet, already since the 1980s even the formerly ‘socialist’ Arab states have opted for a policy of economic and social disengagement, reflecting their integration into a capitalist world system, and private educational sectors have existed in most MENA countries throughout the twentieth century, often under the tutorship of European institutions like churches. The colonialist context, in which modern school systems were introduced in MENA countries and the economic dependence of many contemporary MENA countries from loans extended by international donor institutions, form important backdrops of contemporary debates regarding foreign interventions in the educational systems of these countries.

Particularly sensible in this context are curriculum reforms and textbook revisions promoted by international donor institutions. Reforms that support active learning and problem solving skills among pupils are regarded as crucial factors for influencing the quality of education in MENA countries, widely criticised for clinging to an outdated tradition of rote learning methods and teacher oriented didactics that prevent the emergence of pupils who are capable of independent and critical thinking. To some extent, the latter approach reflects the authoritarian governmentality still prevalent in countries of the MENA region. Post-colonial state elites of the region have invested large amounts of energy and resources in disseminating normative discourses of cultural authenticity, national identity and loyalty to the state among the populations residing in their territories. Public education systems have served as an important tool in this context. Therefore, promoting active learning and problem solving skills through education contains an implicit political dimension that is not always popular with Middle Eastern state elites, particularly in disciplines like History and Civic Education when it comes to the interpretation of continuities and still prevailing lines of conflict both inside the perceived national collective and concerning external ‘Others’.

Both secular nationalists and Islamists in MENA countries highlight what they perceive as dangers to the cultural identity of Arabs and of Muslims through the proposed curriculum reforms and alterations of textbook narratives. Some critical voices have stressed the necessity to nurture local, national and regional approaches to learning rooted in indigenous traditions of knowledge and its generational transmission to preserve the relevance of the education systems for domestic constituencies. While secular nationalists accept the universality of Western development models and merely reject what they see as the economic, political and cultural subjugation of the MENA region under European and American interests, Islamists reject the whole epistemic model of Western secularism and call for an Islamisation of all knowledge to regain what they perceive as the authenticity of Arab-Islamic civilisation (Starret 1998; Herrera and Torres 2006; Mazawi 2009). While curricula and textbooks used in countries of the region have been continuously altered by the governments in power, reflecting various and changing political agendas and domestic balances of power, external interventions on the level of contents of curricula and textbooks are quite easily rejected as illegitimate across the whole political spectrum.

Actors in this highly contested terrain are the post-colonial state elites who tend to value education not least of all for its socialising function of producing loyal state citizens willing to submit to centralised and often authoritarian government control. Such approaches were prevalent in countries like Ba‘thist Iraq and Nasserist Egypt, both of which played a crucial role in the expansion of education in the region, and are still visible today in these and other countries including Syria, Saudi-Arabia and Jordan. The Palestinian education system that has been set up in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) since the mid 1990s displays all the characteristics of a centralised education system serving a state and nation building agenda, but at the same time it operates under the constraints of the ongoing Israeli occupation (Hovsepian 2008). It is thus not altogether surprising that calls for the decentralisation of education system management, are viewed with a degree of scepticism by most state elites in MENA countries. Even the Gulf Emirates with their wide ranging education reform projects that in many aspects conform with neo-liberal international agendas, still cling to a centralised education system management (Brewer and Goldman 2009; Bashshur 2009). It remains to be seen, whether and to what extent the ‘Arab Spring’ revolutions and uprisings against authoritarian rulers that sweep the region since 2011 will impact on developments in the educational sector.

Israel, too, has long followed a strongly normative approach to education in order to mould a diverse immigrant society into an Israeli nation, and despite important liberalisations and a drive towards decentralisation and privatisation of education system management since the 1990s, many aspects of this educational agenda of its formative years are still visible today. A notable exception in this context is Lebanon, which is characterised by weak state structures and a tradition of communal autonomy that does not exist in most other MENA countries. Lebanon serves as an example of a parliamentary democracy of a special type – consociationalism – in which high public offices are proportionally reserved for representatives of the different religious communities in the country. In post–civil war Lebanon of the 1990s, the government reinstated a centralised national curriculum, but schooling practices are widely decentralised, as the school system consists of numerous and semi-autonomous sectors. Similar developments seem to unfold in post-2003 Iraq, where the formerly strong and centralised state has been greatly weakened, and numerous regional and communal actors have emerged whose agendas preclude the effective rebuilding of Iraq’s still formally centralised education system (Tikriti 2010). Remarkably, the Israeli education system displays some similarities to the Lebanese one; it is divided into several sectors that enjoy varying degrees of autonomy, reflecting the consociational approach Israeli state elites have adopted in the educational sector in order to minimise tensions between the various social milieus that constitute Israeli society.

Composition of the Book

This book aims to build on and expand the existing body of research and contribute to the political and scholarly debates sketched out above by offering a broad perspective on the evolution of education systems and textbooks in selected countries of the Middle East. The book takes stock of major trends in the area of school education and textbook development in various countries of the region. It assesses the scope and the limits of educational reform initiatives undertaken in recent years in some of these countries, with an eye towards the dynamics of identity politics reflected through representations of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ in curricula and teaching materials in use, especially in the humanities and social studies disciplines (History, Geography, Civics) that are considered crucial for the development of pupils’ identities and worldviews. Focus also fell on the degree of independent critical thinking fostered among pupils through the curriculum of these disciplines. We regard understanding the content and functions of textbook narratives as well as the dynamics of educational reforms implemented in various MENA countries in recent years as a pre-condition for engaging in a constructive and informed debate about whether and to what extent, not only educational policies, but also textbook narratives could or should be changed.

Most authors assembled in this volume are local scholars and educational experts working in various functions in the region itself and are thus able to write from an insider’s perspective on the issues at stake. Some are scholars of Arab origin who are currently residing in Europe and address their respective case studies from within Western academia. Two contributions have been authored by outside observers specialising on different aspects of the subject matter. The articles assembled in this book were all written before the start of the ‘Arab Spring’ and consequently do not relate to these developments. They are products of high level research and case studies into specific countries of the region. Some of them are summarising the scholarly and practical work of a lifetime dedicated to the study and the shaping of educational policies and teaching materials. By building on a network of scholars working in various functions and countries in the region, this book aims to contribute to the evolution of a field of comparative education studies in the Middle East that draws on local perspectives and expertise.

The volume is based on a research project that was conducted by the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research (www.gei.de) between 2006 and 2009, with financial support from the German Foreign Office. An Arabic version of this book was published prior to the present English one (Alayan, Dhouib and Rohde 2010), and most contributions to this book were originally written in Arabic. The volume thereby offers to Western audiences a glimpse on the ways in which education reforms and textbook revisions are discussed in the region itself. Readers will notice that some of the contributions assembled here focus on rather specific aspects of their respective topics and only reluctantly engage in discussions of the broader context. At times, the critical outlook of the various case studies seems somehow hidden behind quantitative methodology. Indeed, the academic culture in most MENA countries differs from Western academia, not least of all due to the varying levels of political repression and infringements on the freedom of speech that until now have been prevalent in the region. Still, the studies assembled in this volume contain original research and offer a range of critical perspectives on the education reform policies and textbook revisions pursued in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Syria and Israel/Palestine. The volume thus does not cover the whole MENA region, and important countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Algeria and others are not addressed. The composition of the book reflects the range of working relations with scholars and educational experts from the region, which the editors were able to establish as part of their work at the Georg-Eckert-Institute. By translating these studies into English, we aim to broaden the dissemination of this research and thus contribute to an informed dialogue between Western and Arab scholars and experts.

The book is organised along two major themes. Several articles focus on educational development and reform policies undertaken by various countries in the region during recent decades (chapters 1–5). In addition, the book presents a number of case studies analysing textbooks and curriculum reform initiatives, including comparative studies regarding representations of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’, in various countries of the region (chapters 6–12). In the opening chapter of this volume, Nemer Frayha provides a panorama view of the education reform policies undertaken in recent years in Lebanon, Syria and Oman. A Lebanese educationalist who has worked in elevated positions in all three countries, Frayha is in a unique position to reflect on and compare the various education reform policies implemented in three widely different countries of the region that to some degree delineate the social and political parameters that shape educational systems in the region: Lebanon, with its high degree of internal diversity and a history of communal and religious strife, displays many of the features that characterise the social composition of other countries in the region, albeit in a unique and rather accentuated way. Syria is until now a survivor of the authoritarian single party Arab nationalist systems that sprung up in the wake of decolonisation. While it has successfully guarded an important degree of political autonomy and set out on a path of cautious domestic reforms, its educational infrastructure is outdated and ineffective and in need of reform. For this purpose the country depends on external funding by international donors, raising questions as to how the interests of the regime and those of external donors will meet in order to improve the educational system. Oman represents an example for the wide ranging educational development schemes implemented in the Gulf emirates. Oman has been a latecomer to a rapid process of modernisation that began in countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the 1960s. Only after 1971 were educational reforms initiated to build a knowledge society which includes all Omani nationals. However, the political system did not change in its basis. Until today it is an absolute monarchy that does not allow the establishment of political parties. The enlightened monarch holds final decision-making control in all sectors of society. How this state of affairs impacts on educational development, is among the questions discussed by Frayha.

Further elaborating on this issue, Salha Abdullah Issan, in chapter 2, deals with the latest phase of curriculum development in the secondary level (grades 11 and 12) of the public education sector of the Sultanate of Oman, its fundamental principles, goals and specific features. The study examines if and to what extent it meets the needs of learners and of the local, regional and global communities. The study thus aims to evaluate the education reforms implemented in Oman, particularly in the area of curriculum development, to show how this experiment was carried out and the extent to which it is similar to and conforms to state policies and directives in the field of education.

Similar to the Gulf emirates, Jordan is considered by many experts as a success story in terms of its educational development. Unlike Oman, Jordan is a country without important natural resources, and it has therefore relied heavily on external funding by international donors for building its education system. Accordingly, its policies have conformed to international agendas for educational development, but Jordan has until today resisted calls for a decentralisation of education system management, reflecting the authoritarianism of the ruling monarchy. In his article, Mohammad Khalil Abbas portrays the main stages and developments regarding elementary and secondary education that have occurred in Jordan from the 1950s until today, examining them from quantitative and qualitative perspectives and listing a number of challenges waiting to be addressed by future reforms.

Like Jordan, Egypt is also among the countries which have been implementing wide-ranging educational reforms in recent years, with considerable support by international donor institutions. Like Syria, Egypt has long been a standard bearer of Arab nationalism and anti-colonialism and has invested considerable energies in building its education system to serve its state- and nation-building agenda. Its recent reform policies included the introduction of market elements to the education system, but education system management remains largely centralised under the authority of the Ministry of Education. In her chapter, Iman Farag critically reflects on the underlying rationale and the implications for the educational system of the neo-liberal policies pursued by the Egyptian state in recent years, which in combination with its continuous authoritarianism lead to rather mixed results regarding the distribution of educational opportunities and the quality of the education system. The chapter was finalised before the start of the revolution that ended the rule of President Mubarak in February 2011 and thus does not discuss the impact these developments might have on Egyptian education. However, it seems that many issues raised in Farag’s chapter were among the factors that contributed to this uprising (see also Cochran 2008).

The following chapter by Massoud Daher further elaborates on the case of Lebanon and the post-conflict reconstruction efforts of the Lebanese government, which in the arena of education included efforts at re-establishing a centralised history curriculum to be taught at school in all sectors. Having participated in an expert commission set up by the government that developed a standardised history textbook series for use in all Lebanese schools, Daher recounts the failure of this initiative and reflects on the reasons that have until today prevented the introduction of a reformed and unified history curriculum in Lebanon. He presents various shades of the debate on this issue, and although for political reasons Daher appears to favour a unified history curriculum for all Lebanese schools, he is acutely aware of the problematic consequences of imposing a unified narrative on a highly diverse society like the Lebanese. The ambivalence visible in Daher’s account aptly reflects the vicissitudes and contradictions that education reform initiatives in post-colonial and post-conflict settings are likely to encounter, not only in Lebanon.

Turning to history and civics textbooks and textbook reforms in selected countries of the region, the book delves into recent debates concerning the politics of identity reflected in teaching materials of these countries as well as the values transmitted to students through such venues. Of particular interest in this regard is the degree to which the internal diversity of each society is reflected in textbooks, and how they relate to external Others. School textbooks are counted among those mass media that have a formative influence on the development of pupils’ sense of identity and perceptions of themselves. Didactically speaking, textbooks might present multi-perspective accounts of a given issue and thus foster critical and independent thinking among students, or they might aim at instilling in them a normative image of the truth as perceived by the powers that be. Against this background, the following chapters offer case studies that address relevant aspects of the subject matter by using a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches.

Atef Botros seeks to provide a methodological model to analyse Egyptian history textbooks through relying on theoretical concepts related to ‘Memory Studies’ and ‘Intertextuality’. For this purpose, Botros analyses Egyptian history textbooks from three different periods throughout the twentieth century and up to 2008. His study thus portrays the evolution of Egyptian history textbook narratives and the status quo prior to the toppling of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. It will be left to future research to address the changes that are likely to be introduced to Egyptian history textbooks as a result of the revolution. Botros does not examine the credibility of the presentation from the historical point of view, but rather observes the intertextual relationships and the differences in various reflections of the same historical event in the different historical periods in which the various textbooks were produced. The aim of this analysis is to understand the mechanisms behind the construction of the collective memory in order to establish a particular identity for a certain group.

Jonathan Kriener again takes up the intriguing case of Lebanon by analysing three different series of history textbooks used in different sectors of the compartmentalised Lebanese education system. Although the three analysed publications differ in some respects, they converge to a large degree in that they offer particularistic normative accounts that cater to specific communal groups within Lebanese society. Relating to the failed introduction of a unified history curriculum discussed by Frayha and Daher in this volume, Kriener argues that given the diversity of Lebanese society, a unified history textbook for all Lebanese schools makes sense only if it applies a comparative approach that provides different perspectives and trains students to understand them and distinguish them from one another.

The following three chapters of this volume focus on Jordanian history and civics textbooks from different angles. Given that Jordan is generally presented in the West as a successful example of educational development in the MENA region, these studies examine to what degree policy directives and strategic plans are actually implemented on the level of textbooks. Mustafa H. Abu-al-Shaikh and Yaser al-Khalayleh aim to discover the degree to which the philosophical foundations of education are reflected in national and civic education textbooks designed for higher elementary education in Jordan. A single theme was defined for the process of analysis. The collected data were then analysed statistically using SPSS computer software. Their analysis reveals that there is a divergence between the actual content of these books and what is required for the implementation of the foundations of Jordan’s officially sanctioned educational philosophy.

Nassema al-Khalidi explores gender images regarding both women and men in contemporary Jordanian textbooks on the subjects of history, social education, national education and civil education. Her study shows that despite official declarations to the contrary, most history textbooks are characterised by the predominance and variety of male roles, in contrast to a minority of – stereotypical – female roles, thus indicating a strong bias towards males and a concentration on their roles specifically in the creation of history.

Qasem al-Newashi portrays the ambivalent images of Europe transmitted in Jordanian history, geography and civics textbooks, which alternate between positive references to Europe as a source of rational thought and technological innovation on the one hand, and negative representations of Europe’s imperialist domination and exploitation of the Arab nation, and Jordan in particular, on the other hand. According to al-Newashi, Jordanian textbook narratives paint a somewhat mystified and homogenising picture of Europe that does not encourage pupils to actually engage with and learn about this particular external Other, but rather turns Europe into a mere function of Jordan’s projected self-image. Displaying his own political inclination, al-Newashi ultimately calls for a regional Arab initiative on curricular reform with the aim of consolidating a secular and modernist Arab identity that is self-confidently engaging Europe on an equal footing.

The two closing chapters of this volume deal with education and textbooks in Israel/Palestine. This part of the MENA region has witnessed a particularly comprehensive development, with a Palestinian education system and curriculum being systematically devised from scratch by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) since the mid 1990s. In fact, this achievement remains one of the few more or less sovereign acts the PNA was able to push through under the constraints of the Oslo accords. Unsurprisingly, the Palestinian curriculum has been the focus of intense scrutiny by international donors wary of mismanagement of funds they had provided, while pro-Israel pundits habitually criticised the PNA’s Ministry of Education for fostering aggressive attitudes and hate against Israel among Palestinian pupils. The pro-Palestinian counter-argument in turn accuses Israel of systematically mis-representing or omitting Arabs and Palestinians and their historical connections to the land that both sides claim as their national territory.

In an attempt to return to a more sober and analytic mode in this heated context, Samira Alayan examines history curricula and textbooks for the preparatory and secondary levels of education and evaluates whether they succeed in developing a Palestinian national identity through their content and at the same time in maintaining the quality of the education. According to Alayan, the textbooks devised under the PNA’s auspices convey Palestinian history from a clear and distinctive national perspective, and focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict in a way that is opposed to Zionist thought, but not to Judaism as a religion. The study reveals that school history textbooks offer high-quality academic content to Palestinian students, but its teacher-oriented didactics remain ill suited for a student populace that is exposed to rather exceptional circumstances, which often require far more student-oriented approaches to teaching in order to be effective.

In the volume’s final contribution, Achim Rohde further develops this topic by examining also the Israeli education system and textbooks. Based on an analysis of the structural differences and similarities between Israeli and Palestinian history textbook narratives, his study discusses possibilities of using history education as part of a solution to the conflict, rather than as a means to prolong it. The chapter initially offers a comparative survey of the Palestinian and Israeli education systems and their development from the early twentieth century onwards, with a special emphasis on the evolution of history and civics curricula on both sides. The second part of this chapter discusses the potential and the limitations of a joint Palestinian-Israeli textbook project initiated by a bi-national NGO called PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East) that seeks to transcend the curricular limitations prescribed by the two Ministries of Education by developing a textbook which covers the history of the conflict from both an Israeli and a Palestinian perspective. While acknowledging the potential of this ‘dual narrative approach’ in the Israeli-Palestinian context, Rohde concludes by calling for a truly multi-perspective approach to the teaching of history that would more aptly reflect the diversity and interwoven character of the Israeli and Palestinian societies.

In conclusion, the collection of articles assembled in this volume offer in-depth investigations of the contested terrain of educational reforms and identity discourses transmitted through textbooks in selected MENA countries, namely Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Oman and Israel/Palestine. We thereby hope to contribute to an informed debate among scholars and experts regarding the issues at stake, and to inspire researchers to continue and expand our inquiry to additional aspects and other countries of the region.

References

Alayan, Samira, Sarhan Dhouib and Achim Rohde,