Elizabeth Buckner

Access to Higher Education in Egypt: Examining Trends by University Sector

Access to higher education in Egypt is expanding in both the public and private sectors. Using a nationally representative sample from the Survey of Young People in Egypt, this article is able to disaggregate patterns of access by both demographic group and university sector. Findings suggest that access in the public sector is governed strongly by performance on exit exams and is growing most rapidly for women, rural youth, and middle-class Egyptians. In contrast, access to private universities is growing most rapidly for males, youth in Cairo, and the top wealth quintile. Although far from equal, continued expansion of the public sector will likely promote greater inclusiveness, while expansion of the private sector may exacerbate wealth and regional inequalities.

Syria's next generation: youth un/employment, education, and exclusion

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the educational and employment opportunities of Syrian youth. It examines findings from a number of nation‐wide surveys of Syrian youth to investigate the educational and labor market conditions Syrian youth face amidst economic and social changes.Design/methodology/approach – The study summarizes numerous nation‐wide surveys conducted by Syrian and foreign organizations concerning the employment and educational opportunities of Syrian youth and their attitudes to their future opportunities and other social and economic issues.Findings – The study finds that class gender and regional background significantly impact the educational and employment opportunities available to Syrian youth. It also finds that Syrian youth express real concerns about their living conditions and future opportunities.Practical implications – The study argues that future research on Syrian youth must disaggregate findings by background and demographic characteristics. It also argue...

Language Drama in Morocco: Another Perspective on the Problems and Prospects of Teaching Tamazight

Abstract In ‘Language Policy in Morocco: Problems and Prospects of Teaching Tamazight’, Mohammed Errihani (Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 11, 2006) examines the status of Moroccos new language policy to teach Tamazight in elementary schools. This article theorises about many of the implementation problems that Errihani finds. It argues that the Tamazight language policy is riddled with problems because it was designed by the monarchy as a political tool meant to garner support from diverse audiences rather than as a language education policy sincerely intending to teach Tamazight. The analysis considers both economic and educational data on the status of the Imazighen in Morocco as well as qualitative fieldwork conducted in late 2004 in two rural villages outside of Tafraoute, a Tamazight-speaking village in the south of Morocco. While affirming the importance of Tamazight for all Moroccans, it argues that there exists another very real, yet often overlooked, benefit of teaching Tamazight, for both Amazigh students and the nation as a whole: the educational potential of mother language education.

Storytelling Among Israeli and Palestinian Children in the Era of Mobile Innovation

Existing literature in educational technology and media has tended to overlook the larger role educational institutions play as socializing forces, which instill children with national identities and values. Recognizing the important role schools play in forming children’s characters and perspectives on social problems, this article advocates a research agenda that focuses on how educational technologies serve as tools to combat larger social issues such as peace, health, and poverty through innovative approaches to traditional curricula and schooling. Focusing specifically on the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, this article specifies a model for global, mobile stories that strive to develop cross-border awareness and promote a sense of global identity. This study presents findings from the collection of 185 stories from Palestinian youth, and suggests avenues for future research at the intersection of education, technology, and innovative approaches to solving social problems.

Cheating or cheated? Surviving secondary exit exams in a neoliberal era

Cheating on exams is a rampant and highly developed practice among youth in the Arab world, often involving elaborate networks, advanced technology and adult authorities. Rather than viewing cheating as mere laziness or immorality, this article interrogates the social meanings of cheating by comparing the practices and discourses of cheating on high-stakes high school exit exams – the tawjihi in Jordan and the Baccalauréat in Morocco. Using informal networks to obtain higher grades, and thereby better futures, cheating is one way youth contest the putative meritocracy of the state to reclaim a sense of control over their lives. Ironically, cheaters develop twenty-first century skills of collaboration, networking and creativity outside the school in order to evade the nation’s formal system of educational sorting. We argue that cheating illuminates the declining effectiveness of the public school in the nation-building project and the simultaneous emergence of the outcomes-oriented ‘neoliberal student’.

The growth of private higher education in North Africa: a comparative analysis of Morocco and Tunisia

ABSTRACT This article examines the growth of private higher education (PHE) in two North African nations: Morocco and Tunisia. It draws on interviews with policy-makers and university officials to understand similarities and differences in the nations’ experiences with PHE. It argues that both nations’ official embrace of privatization was in part because PHE was packaged as part of World Bank loans and supported by local entrepreneurs who viewed PHE a lucrative market. Yet, it also finds that the commitment to universal and free university enrollment and strong support for public higher education, a legacy of French colonial rule in both nations, has, thus far, resulted in low demand for PHE and has also led to stalled implementation of PHE policies. Secondly, the article points to the importance of initial models of private universities in each nation as important in explaining differences in the status of PHE in each nation.

From education for peace to education in conflict: changes in UNESCO discourse, 1945–2015

ABSTRACT Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the global education community has focused significant attention on the promotion of education in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, embodied in the growth of a new sub-field called Education in Emergencies. This article points out the surprising distinction of this new sub-field from the more established and closely related field of peace education. It examines United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) documents for insight into the changing global ideas that have facilitated the shift in focus from peace to conflict. Empirically, we draw on a quantitative content analysis of more than 450 UNESCO documents published between 1945 and 2015. We find that education for peace remains a constant, if evolving, concern in these texts, but that a powerful emphasis on individual rights has shifted the discursive focus away from inter-state relations and towards the educational needs of young people. In the documents, conflict is now theorised as a threat to education and peace is re-envisioned not just as the desirable outcome of education, but also as its pre-condition. We show how this ideational transformation has re-cast an expansive array of conflicts, natural disasters, and other emergencies as threats to education.