M. Picard

Saudi Arabian educational history: impacts on English language teaching

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the history of education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its impact on modern teaching practices. It explores the relationship between traditional practices, teacher identity and English language teaching within an increasingly complex context.Design/methodology/approach – The authors undertake a critical review of education in Saudi Arabia utilising critical reflexivity and their local social knowledge as a means of interrogating practice, research of the field, and related texts.Findings – The paper indicates a direct link between historical teaching practices in early Saudi Arabia and the current teaching of English. It suggests the concept of “hybridity” as one way for local English teachers to construct identities that meet the contextual challenges.Practical implications – This paper has implications both locally and internationally. It provides insight into teaching practices preferred by teachers and students in an Arabian context. Th...

Critiquing of higher education policy in Saudi Arabia: towards a new neoliberalism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the impact of 9/11 on education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The authors take a historical approach in order to speak more broadly about higher education policy in Saudi Arabia and show how the post 9/11 context of education in Saudi Arabia has led to a new paradigm in educational policy, which has moved away from what McCarthy et al. call “safe harbors” in schooling and education.Design/methodology/approach – The authors first define neoliberalism and then describe its manifestations and impact on the Saudi Arabian educational context, particularly post‐9/11. The authors also describe the arguments against adopting a neoliberal approach and suggest a new neoliberalism that addresses the needs of a glocalized Saudi higher educational community.Findings – A neoliberalism paradigm has been adopted by education policy writers and university academics. In addition, the university learners have enthusiastically embraced neoliberalism and globaliza...

“PhD, meet QPR”: The quality in postgraduate research conference and the development of doctoral education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the relationship between the quality in postgraduate research conference (QPR) and the developing doctoral education agenda, as well as serving as an introduction to this special edition of the International Journal for Researcher Development. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a conceptual and rhetorical approach. Findings – The paper argues that, over its two decades of existence, the QPR conference has been at the forefront of developments in doctoral education and has also influenced practice and policy in the area. Originality/value – The paper is the first to review the QPR conference and its place in the development of doctoral education.

A coordinated framework for developing researchers’ intercultural competency

Background and context In keeping with global trends, there is a national imperative in the terrain of higher education in South Africa to increase the percentage of university students studying at the postgraduate level (RSA DHET 2012). With this comes mounting pressure to increase the throughput rates of postgraduate students in the country’s universities for economic, social and political reasons, and critically in order to maintain and further what has become known as the ‘knowledge project’. However, as a result of the inequities of the apartheid era, the higher education arena is faced with a complex and diverse student population (Quinn 2012) and ever-increasing student numbers (Snowball & Sayigh 2007) as it attempts to grapple with issues of epistemological access, redress and quality. To date, there is evidence to suggest that our higher education system is failing the majority of students, at both the undergraduate and the postgraduate levels (Letseka & Maile 2008; Scott, Yeld & Hendry 2007). Higher education in South Africa, therefore, must be understood to speak to both the ‘knowledge project’ and the issue of social justice, as without a sustained emphasis on the latter, the country will have failed in its mandate to engage in equal and equitable transformation of the higher education system.IntroductIon: AcAdemIc mobIlIty While the concept of the wandering scholar is not new, the speed and frequency of academic mobility have rapidly gained momentum in the 21st century (Kim 2009). Linked to the notion of the ‘borderless’ university (Cunningham et al. 1998; Hearn 2011; Watanabe 2011), scholars today expect to study and work in more than one country, to present their research at international conferences, and to collaborate with colleagues from all around the world. The result is a multicultural academic workforce in many universities for whom boundaries between national cultures are increasingly being erased and where all members require high levels of intercultural competence.

Spoken register and Iraqi students in an English for academic purposes program

This article reports on the survey results of a longitudinal study over the period of a year and a half into the perceptions of and use of academic register in spoken discourse by 52 Iraqi students at an Australian university in two English for academic purposes (EAP) programs. The results of this study indicate that the participants valued the preenrolment course, and believed that it assisted them in the development of spoken register due to its content and explicit focus on register. The participants appeared to value the English for academic purposes component of their bridging course less in terms of satisfaction with content and instruction in general. However, the explicit focus on register in the bridging English curriculum appeared to affect satisfaction levels with this component of the instruction positively. There was also a clear correlation among variables related to satisfaction with content, satisfaction with instruction, motivation to use spoken register and perceived proficiency in relation to native and non-native speakers. The qualitative data in the survey and interviews indicate that the respondents came to a greater understanding of the varieties of register possible when speaking, and how to use those registers appropriately. They describe how the use of appropriate register is related to daily tasks as well as specific academic tasks and genres. This data supports content-based instruction around specific tasks and activities when teaching spoken register and other EAP content. It also supports the literature which suggests that adults tend to favor practical learning activities and materials. We therefore suggest that EAP courses that consist of various stages should be carefully designed to become sequentially more disciplinarily and practically focused to provide the students with the disciplinary and generic academic English skills and content they require.