Education management in the Middle East
The management of education and educational institutions have been a priority for the respective governments as well as the policy makers in the Middle Eastern region of the world. The educational institutions in this part of the world are relatively young as compared with their counterparts in Australia, Europe, North and South America. Furthermore, the literature coming from the Middle Eastern region is scarce as hardly any significant amount of research works have been carried out and published in international journals in the field of education and its management. It is against this backdrop that the special issue on “Education management in the Middle East” was conceptualized to provide relevant solutions to the key challenges as being faced by both the educational administrators as well as the policy makers in the Arab world. There are ten research-based articles in this special issue to develop new insights to solve the pressing problems as being faced by the administrators and the policy makers in the domain of education in the Middle East.
The first paper titled “Achieving metacognition through self-reflexivity” attempts to understand the achievement of metacognition through postmodern narratives. It has used reflexive self-awareness which is both intellectual as well as emotional process which involves the meditation of the self-as-subject with the self-as-object. This paper discusses several implications for the modern day management of the self in the context of the education and development.
The second paper titled “Cultural intelligence and leadership style in education sector” has been studied and discussed in the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It has brought to the surface the critical role as being played by the cultural intelligence to provide leadership in the education sector in the UAE wherein over 80 per cent of its population are the foreign nationals. The author of this paper has discussed several implications for the effective management of the educational institutions in the UAE.
The third paper is titled “Accounting education management as influenced by socio-economic transformations in the Middle East: the case of Jordan”. As the title of the paper suggests, the accounting education management in Jordan gets influenced by the socio-economic transformation which has significantly engulfed the Middle Eastern region of the world. Though the paper is based in the Jordanian context, but it has got significant implications for the Arab world wherein accounting education and its effective management is yet to come up to the world standard.
The fourth paper is tilted as “Building a sustainable higher education sector in the UAE” in a context wherein national institutions of higher learning competes with the foreign education providers but the idea of sustainability has not received its due importance. It is under this backdrop that this paper aims at providing deep insights to the policy makers and the administrators of higher education on how to develop and implement sustainable governance architecture to take care of the sustainability aspect of the higher education sector in the UAE.
The next paper is tilted as “Teacher-related factors in assimilation of technological change at schools: a case of an Arab school in Israel” is very much contemporary in the context of the Middle Eastern region of the world. The adoption and assimilation of new technology is key to the success of educational institutions all over the world but more so in the context of the Arab world wherein people’s resistance to change of any kind requires considerable time and efforts of the part of the school administration. This paper has identified as well as dealt at length how to manage teacher-related factors issues when the school administration adopts and desire to assimilate technological change as a way of life to be an effective and productive educational institution.
The sixth paper is titled “Teaching effectiveness attributes in business schools: an international comparative study”. It is based in a context wherein attributes of teaching effectiveness as one of the key elements to the success of institution in the field of business education. This paper has discussed critical implications for the business education institutions. It is believed that the paper has got to offer relevant solutions to key issues facing the business schools in the Middle East.
The next paper titling “Distributed leadership and school effectiveness in Egypt and Oman: an exploratory study” is a comparative inquiry of two countries. This paper discusses the intimate linkages between distributive leadership and school effectiveness in the context of the Arab culture. It has discussed several key implications for making school effective by leveraging the art of distributive leadership.
The following paper is titled “Graduate attributes and employability skills: graduates’ perspectives on employers’ expectations in Oman” and based in the context of the Gulf region of the world. This paper is very much contemporary as the organizations across industry in the Gulf region face huge difficulty to find graduates who are skilful. This paper offers research-based solutions to the perennial problems of the industries in the Gulf in particular and the Middle East in general.
The penultimate paper is titling “Teacher’s turnover intentions: examining the impact of motivation and organizational commitment” is very much relevant in the present context of the Gulf region. The paper discusses about how to arrest turnover intentions of teachers through interplay of organizational commitment and teachers’ motivation level. The paper also explains in details about the implications of the study in the light of the past research works.
The last paper titling “Role of school leadership and climate in student achievement: the mediating role of parental involvement” is aimed at exploring and understanding student success in schools across the UAE. It suggests that both school leadership and its culture impact the student achievement. At the same time, the paper also explains an important mediating role of parental involvement onto the linkages between school leadership and culture on the one hand and the student achievement on the other hand.
I hope that these ten papers on the theme of “Education management in the Middle East” are timely and relevant to the educational administrators and the policy makers. It is hoped that the readers of this special issue will like it as it has to offer both theoretical and practical insights for brining excellence in educational institutions across the Middle East. I am fully sure that this special issue of the IJEM will prove to be a kind of pioneer of offering research-based solutions to the key challenges of making educational institutions effective and sustainable in the Middle East.
