A critical analysis of education policy in turbulent times

A comparative study

Bibliographic Data

ID12928618
AuthorsKhalid Arar (0000-0003-4094-966X, corresponding author), Abdelaziz Zohri (0000-0002-9037-3710), Ibrahim Alhouti, Youmen Chaaban (0000-0002-3708-3722), Rania Sawalhi (0000-0002-6629-7607), Soheil S Salha (0000-0003-2791-9925)
Year2023
Volume16
Issue2
Pages117-138
Publication date2023-04-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePower and Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1757-7438 • E-ISSN: 1757-7438
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/17577438231168965
OpenAlexW4366270694
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited22

This study is a qualitative investigation of education policies and decision making during COVID-19 pandemic in five Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) countries: Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Qatar. It aims at scrutinizing how these countries responded to the education disruption caused by the pandemic between February 2020 and July 2021 and how they managed the resulting turbulence. We also investigate the extent to which these decisions were equitable and innovative. Data were collected from Ministerial notes, media content, and international organizations reports about the situation of education in the region. Walt and Gilson’s (1994) policy analysis triangle and the Cynefin framework ( Kurtz & Snowden, 2003 ) guided the objectives and the analysis of the data. Findings revealed that these countries muddled through the education policy at the beginning of the pandemic, centralized decision making, and faced difficulties to implement online and distance learning. In the second phase, most of these countries tried to save education, but were halted by structural challenges. Some differences were witnessed among these countries in how they have dealt with the evolving crisis. However, some similarities have also been noticed at the levels of context, process and actors. The decisions taken often lacked innovation and led to less equitable outcomes. The discussion of the findings has some implications for education policy and education management in turbulent times in the MENA region

Content analysis · Context (archaeology · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Economic growth · Economics · Education policy · Geography · Higher education · International education · Pandemic · Policy analysis · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Disaster Management and Resilience · Law · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Social Work Education and Practice

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