“No politics zone” : critical approaches to education research in the Arab Gulf States

Abstract

This special issue emerged from a virtual panel hosted by the Centre for Culture, Identity, and Education at the University of British Columbia 2021. The focus of the panel came about through discussions the three editors had in relation to their area of study – education policy in three different Arab Gulf states – Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. While International Development Organizations (IDOs) have marketed policy reform as a way for “developing countries” to “catch up” with the developed world, often, these policies ignore the political context in which they unfold. This special issue argues that even amid all the reforms adopted across the Arab Gulf States (AGS), there have been things impossible to change, red lines impossible to cross, and also exceptional cases of change in what is deemed impossible contexts. This issue seeks to expose what remains undiscussed in this drive for reform in these postcolonial contexts and the inherited political and social structures that the policies overlook. Hence, this issue attempts to capture the contextual changes and continuities in each context where “injustice, oppression, and destruction caused by capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy” continues manifesting in our educational spaces (de Sousa Santos, 2018, p.1). [excerpt]