Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education Vol. 23, No. 1, 2002

Educational Expansion and the Mediation of Discontent: the cultural politics of schooling in the Arab states*

ANDRE´ ELIAS MAZAWI, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

This paper probes the socioeconomic and political processes underlying the expansion of schooling in the Arab states. The paper, which does not report new data but rather critically reviews studies published so far, argues that both development and modernisation approaches, as well as class reproduction theories remain largely unable to account for the complex web of factors affecting educational expansion in the Arab states. These theories fail to point to the articulation of multi-level processes ultimately shaping the social and cultural underpinnings of educational expansion. Moreover, these theoretical approaches, beyond their paradigmatic differences, have conŽned Arab civil societies essentially to the structural outcome of state policies. Consequently, processes of civil dissent and resistance and their effects on educational expansion are naively conceptualised in terms of ‘forces of tradition’ versus ‘forces of change’. The community-based, and conict-laden power conjunctures shaping educational expansion in the Arab states have been largely left outside the analysis and the voices they represent often discarded. To probe the argument, Žrst, the paper outlines the major macro-structural and historical factors affecting levels of literacy and access to educational resources in different Arab states. Secondly, published Želdwork research undertaken by others into community-based settings is examined in order to explore points of articulation between state policies, civil society processes and their sociopolitical and cultural effects on patterns of educational expansion. Thirdly, within the frame of a concluding discussion, the major implications are discussed and possible research paths are pointed to. ABSTRACT

Introduction The present paper probes, in a comparative approach, the socioeconomic and political underpinnings underlying the expansion of schooling in the Arab states.1 The paper critically reviews studies and analyses already published. The review aims to redress the imbalance found in the literature dealing with the Arab states between the overemphasised modernising effects of schooling, and the more marginalised civil society processes ultimately affecting educational expansion. The point of departure of the present paper is that schools represent ‘terrains’ (or arenas) mediating—through their structures, contents and dynamics—what others have * Editorial note: This article was submitted to Discourse in June of 1999. ISSN 0159-6306 print; 1469-3739 online/02/010059-16 Ó DOI: 10.1080/0159630022012304 2

2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd

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termed as ‘identity politics’, classiŽ ed by Davies and Guppy (1997, p. 455 ) as ‘the struggles among groups for recognition, accommodation, and validation of their symbolic representations and world outlooks in institutions’. These two authors have also argued that ‘[i]dentity politics have spawned a revival of ethnicity ad localism, with an attendant revival of particularism and attachments to local cultures and traditions’, noting that ‘[t]his revival cannot be considered autonomous and individualised responses of isolated communities’. Rather, ‘[c]ommentators have likened the worldwide revival of fundamentalism in its myriad forms as a response to global culture—largely a commercial culture of Western origin—and its perceived threats to identity and heritage’. Hence, they conclude that ‘[s]chools have become a prime arena for these culture wars because they can promote or erode a group’s cultural identity’ (Davies & Guppy, 1997, p. 455 ). Applied to developing states, the above contention implies that the ‘modernising’ or ‘globalising’ effects of school systems act ultimately as proxies of multi-level and con ict-laden sociocultural and political processes, rather than as a mere expression of social progress and transition to modernity (cf. Fa¨gerlind & Saha, 1983; Larrain, 1989, pp. 1–17; Taylor, 1979, pp. 3–41 ). Most importantly, the concept of ‘identity politics’ also implies that the expansion of schooling is closely associated with a rise in political contestation of the established order. It may be argued that in deeply divided societies an expanding public education is likely to bolster attempts by local communities and marginalised groups alike to uphold their cultural frames of reference, whether by devising alternative educational platforms, or through attempts to act directly on public education by instrumentalising its provision towards broader political gains. Such a dialectical dynamic boosts educational expansion along a multiplicity of institutional forms. Yet, it also plunges the school into the realm of ethnic politics and their cultural expressions. 2 Hence, state systems—or, more precisely, state-entrenched elites—are not the sole corporate actors determining educational expansion. Rather, civil society processes constitute an integral part of educational change and cannot be left outside the equation (see Davies, 1999; Gillborn, 1994). Thus, if the consolidation of the contemporary state is perceived by established elites as possible through the subordination of mass schooling, it is also necessary to view how the expansion of school systems mediates social processes that, at times, jeopardise the dominant position of state-entrenched elites, or disclose resistance to their policies. This double-bind dynamic affects the outcomes of educational policies and the extent to which the acquisition of educational resources is perceived as pertinent by different social groups (Archer, 1984; Craig & Spear, 1982a, 1982b; Fernandes, 1988; Ramirez & Boli, 1987; Ray, 1988). On this very issue, studies of educational expansion in the Arab states have remained largely silent, with a few outstanding exceptions mainly by anthropologists (see e.g. Eickelman, 1985; Starrett, 1998). Deeply immersed in modernisation, human capital and development narratives or in policy-oriented speculations (see e.g. Ansari, 1985; Birks & Rimmer, 1984; Massialas & Jarrar, 1983, 1991; Tansel & Kazemi, 2000; Zawdie, 1995), studies have highlighted essentially the structural outcomes of state policies (Mazawi, 1999 ). Others have investigated the school’s reproduction of social inequalities and authoritarian patriarchal systems (Al-Saeed et al., 2000; El Hachem, 1989; Haidar, 1997). Massialas and Jarrar (1991, pp. 144–145 ) observed in this respect that ‘the values of the patriarchal family are replicated in the school’, and that the ‘Arab classroom teaches reverence to authority Ž gures and complete submission to their will; it teaches not to question traditional sources of knowledge and wisdom; and it teaches cooperation, not competition’.

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Studies, however, tend to conceptualise the expansion of schooling in Arab societies as associated with structural strains due to their transition from ‘conservatism’/ ’traditionalism’ to ‘modernity’ (see Al-Saeed et al., 2000; Christina et al., 1999, p. 355). Much less research effort has been invested in understanding the extent to which educational expansion in Arab societies is linked to the emergence of competing political agenda, and the extent to which the context in which expansion occurs mediates not just reproduction but also civil resistance with far-reaching sociocultural and political implications (Eickelman, 1992; Farag, 1994; Faust et al., 1991; Starrett, 1998).3 In the present paper it is argued that development and modernisation approaches, as well as class reproduction theories, remain largely limited in their account of the complex web of factors affecting the expansion of schooling in the Arab states. Both approaches fail to point to the articulation of multi-level processes ultimately shaping the social and cultural underpinnings of educational expansion. It is further argued that these theoretical approaches, beyond their paradigmatic differences, have conŽ ned Arab civil societies essentially to the structural outcome of state policies. Consequently, processes of civil dissent and resistance and their effects on educational expansion are naively conceptualised in terms of ‘forces of tradition’ versus ‘forces of change’ (see the typology elaborated by Massialas and Jarrar [1987 ]). The community-based and con ict-laden power conjunctures shaping educational expansion in the Arab states have been largely left outside the analysis and the voices they represent often discarded. Critical aspects of sociopolitical dissent and contestation in Arab societies are thus decontextualised and dismissed from an analysis that, hence, addresses symptoms as if they were underlying causes (Eickelman, 1992, p. 643). As stated, the present paper does not report new data, but rather reviews existing research on education in the Arab states. First, the aim is to point to major macrostructural and historical factors affecting levels of literacy and access to educational resources in different states. Secondly, the paper reviews published Ž eldwork research undertaken into diverse community-based settings. The aim is to explore points of articulation between state policies, civil society processes and their underlying sociopolitical and cultural effects on patterns of educational expansion. Thirdly, in the frame of a concluding discussion, the major implications of the above dynamics are discussed and possible research paths are pointed to. Educational Expansion and the Rise of Public School Systems The expansion of educational services in the contemporary Arab states occurred initially during post-independence periods (1920s –1970s ). The expansion of schooling met with the basic barriers imposed by high illiteracy rates, estimated at 80–95% at the start of the 1940s. In some rural areas, illiteracy estimates in general, and among women in particular, could well have reached around 99%. Historical factors, cultural belief systems and practices, as well as explicit colonial policies, all cumulatively contributed to the maintenance of marginal rates of literacy. In Algeria, Egypt, Sudan and Palestine, for instance, colonial policies directly contributed to a large extent to sustain or otherwise reproduce marginal rates of literacy, as far as this was functional mainly to the bureaucratic needs of the imposed colonial systems, or as part of colonial attempts to prevent or suppress the formation of national movements (Starrett, 1998; Szyliowicz, 1973; Tibawi, 1956; Williamson, 1987). State policies in a post-independence period were largely directed towards the promotion of an integrated economy and the training of an indigenous local professional

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labour force. Notwithstanding this, the recruitment of the needed human capital was very much affected by the lack of a sufŽ ciently broad literate infrastructure. In this context, literacy campaigns, the expansion of formal schooling and the establishment of higher education institutions had to operate simultaneously. According to Massialas and Jarrar (1983, 1991 ), this exerted considerable structural strains on planning priorities, the allocation of national resources, the quality of training programmes and the economic viability of many school and higher education systems (see also Al-Saeed et al., 2000 ). In the mid-1990s, Arab states exhibited still relatively high illiteracy rates, though literacy rates have systematically increased since the early 1950s. UNESCO (1995 ) statistics show that, depending on the state concerned, between one-Ž fth and one-half of a state’s population was estimated to be illiterate. Illiteracy rates are still much higher among women and among inhabitants of rural areas, with women in rural areas exhibiting the highest illiteracy rates. Literacy rates among adults (15 years of age and over ) in all Arab states combined were estimated at 56.8% (68.4% for males and 44.2% for females ). Notwithstanding this, Arab states ranked higher than most developing countries on this measure (UNESCO, 1995, p. 19 ). Literacy policies in many Arab states, while reducing the percentage of illiterates in the general population, did not altogether succeed, with some exceptions, in reducing their absolute number. UNESCO estimates show that in spite of a net decrease in the percentage of illiterates during the period 1970–1990, the absolute number of illiterates in many cases rose during that same period. In some states the absolute number of illiterates increased by about 27%, such as in Egypt. In other states, the increase was more dramatic and attained almost 51% in Sudan and over 92% in Kuwait. Yet, the same estimates suggest that the increase was signiŽ cantly more moderate during the period 1980 –1990, and stood, in most cases, at half the increase of the whole 1970–1990 period. Natural demographic increase, paralleled by insufŽ cient expansion of primary or basic educational services, constitutes an important impediment to a decrease in illiteracy rates and in the absolute number of illiterates. In Egypt, as a matter of example, one UNESCO (1995, pp. 30–31) report observed that, while literacy rates among adults are ‘estimated to have increased from 40 to 51% in the 1980–1995 period, the absolute number of illiterate adults (both males and females) increased from nearly 16 million to nearly 19 million over the same period’. Fergany (1994, p. 19 ) concluded his empirical study on this issue by stating that ‘Egypt Ž nds itself in an absolute setback compared to Arab countries, and in a still greater one compared to the rest of the third world as far as girls’ literacy is concerned. In other words, compared to the Arab and other third world countries, Egypt registers a setback in the eradication of female illiteracy and in the primary schooling of girls.’ The expansion of formal schooling was much affected by this basic set of parameters. The ‘democratisation of education’, in the sense of broadening access of various social groups to educational resources, became a major feature of educational policies in most Arab states (Massialas & Jarrar, 1991 ). By the mid-1990s, enrolment of the 6–11 age group in all Arab states was about 83.9% for males and 71.6% for females. For the 12–17 age group, percentages stood at 59.2 and 47.1, respectively (UNESCO, 1995, p. 36 ). These statistics imply that actual access to formal schooling is still not universal, in spite of state policies to the contrary. SigniŽ cant inequalities of educational opportunities still persist mainly between urban and rural regions, but also between various social groups along gender and socioeconomic lines. While females have signiŽ cantly improved their school-life expectancies in many Arab

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states, they still have a signiŽ cantly more restricted set of educational opportunities compared with males. For instance, between 1965 and 1992, females improved their school-life expectancy by 7 years in Jordan, 4.8 years in Syria, 4.4 years in Egypt and 3.7 years in Iraq. The respective Ž gures for males were 3.9 years in Jordan, 1.1 years in Syria, 3.5 years in Egypt and 0.9 year in Iraq (UNESCO, 1995, p. 41 ). Yet, in most Arab states school-life expectancy and school survival remain signiŽ cantly higher for males compared with females (UNESCO, 1995, p. 38). Investment in education varies between Arab states, being largely conditioned by their GNP, economic structure, foreign hard currency indebtedness and dependency upon International Monetary Fund (IMF ) and World Bank structural adjustment policies (see e.g. Tansel & Kazemi, 2000). For some states, such as Algeria, UNESCO statistics show that governmental expenditure on education amounted in 1993 to about one-Ž fth of all governmental expenditures and to 7.2% of the GNP. In other North African Arab states, such as Morocco, government expenditure on education constituted about 26.7% of all governmental expenditures and about 5.8% of the Moroccan GNP in 1992. By contrast, for Sudan, a country with an annual per capita GNP not exceeding US$300 (1986 ) and already overburdened by external debts and internal political fragmentation and instability, expenditure on education constituted about 9% of all government expenditures and 4.8% of the Sudanese GNP in 1980. Gulf states, by contrast, were able since the start of the 1970s to invest a considerable percentage of their signiŽ cantly higher GNP in the provision of educational services due to revenues from oil exports (between 2% in the UAE and 6.1% in Kuwait in 1993 ). This wide range of investment capabilities of the different Arab states not only conditions the quality of educational provision in each state, but also affects the broader relevance of formal schooling to social mobility. In almost all Arab states, public education remains free of charge and subsidised by the state. Some have observed that the provision of social welfare services, including education, is an integral part of the state’s policy to ensure its legitimacy and maintain the dominant position of its elites and their repressive hegemony (Kamrava & Mora, 1998, pp. 904–908). This is especially so with regard to access of holders of educational credentials into state bureaucracies (Shaw, 1996 ). In this respect, several writers have investigated the close linkage existing in several Arab states, such as Egypt, Syria, and the Gulf region, between educational credentials and entry to the state bureaucracy. Such a linkage, as in the case of post-1952 Egypt, is ofŽ cially endorsed, and higher education graduates were, until very recently, secured jobs within state apparatus (Hargreaves, 1997; Sanyal et al., 1982 ). In the Gulf states, the ability of nationals to secure access to educational credentials, and especially higher education degrees, is an important resource for their entry into state positions (Ghabra, 1997). One of the surprisingly more marginalised aspects of education in Arab states concerns the scarce attention within the relevant research literature given to the effects exerted by political con icts, wars and economic instability on national educational systems, their expansion and viability. More often than assumed, political con icts have destabilised and hampered the operation and efŽ ciency of educational systems in Algeria (Cheriet, 1996 ), Iraq ( ’Allaq, 1997 ), Lebanon (Oweini, 1998), Palestine (Rigby, 1995 ) and Sudan (Graham-Brown, 1991 ). The direct effects of context-speciŽ c political and economic circumstances were largely felt in terms of dramatic downward  ows in school enrolment and literacy rates, and an increased shortage in teachers, textbooks and basic educational materials. Moreover, many indications suggest that in such deeply divided and internally fragmented societies, educational institutions have become powerful tools in the mobilisation of the younger generations into the con ict (Africa and Human Rights Watch,

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1995 ). The lack of any meaningful educational policy and the breakdown of basic educational services and development schemes further accentuate already existing regional and class-related disparities. Civil Society, Local Communities and Educational Expansion The emergence and expansion of public school systems in the Arab states have not therefore been devoid of inherent contradictions. The preceding review clearly suggests that given geographic, socioeconomic, cultural and ethnic multi-level cleavages within Arab societies, the expansion of public school systems drained into them increasingly powerful loads of con icting interests. This was more so because the expansion of public schools meant the marginalisation, if not the state’s actual expropriation and appropriation, of community-based patterns of education, such as the largely ungraded and loosely coupled madrasa, kuttab, zawiya or khalwa types of education, which were organised around and in relation to religious institutions (see Al-Radi et al., 1998; Grandin & Gaboricau, 1997; Lynch et al., 1992; Tibawi, 1972; Wagner, 1993 ). It also meant the imposition of a paradigmatic alternative, namely, the graded, uniform and state-controlled public school system. Such a transformation is not a mere ‘modernisation’, ‘structural change’ or ‘transition’. It rather expresses a more basic, often radical and certainly con ictloaded, transformation of the existing bases of power, the determination of new sources of authority (political and social) and the deŽ nition of what valid (and therefore politically connoted ) knowledge is. This is largely true in the case of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Sudan and the Maghreb states.4 With respect to Egypt, Starrett (1998, p. 9) conceptualises this process in terms of ‘functionalisation’, which he deŽ nes as a ‘translation in which intellectual objects from one discourse come to serve the strategic or utilitarian ends of another discourse’. In this sense, Starrett (1998, p. 10 ) argues, for instance, that the ‘functionalisation’ of Islamic discourse within Egyptian public schools has enabled state-entrenched elites to put Islam ‘consciously to work for various types of social and political projects’ with far-reaching counter-implications. Peninsular Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE are also cases in point. In peninsular states as well, the creation and expansion of state apparatus, mainly since the late 1960s and early 1970s, was heavily associated with local rivalries and political competition. It necessitated the reconceptualisation of earlier (religious) patterns of education, their reorganisation under diverse forms of state supervision as part of their ‘functionalisation’ in ways consonant with the state’s ability to maintain and manage various con ictual processes while maintaining its legitimacy (see Al-Misnad, 1985; El-Sanabary, 1992). In many of these states, special arrangements had to be found to accommodate the kuttab or madrasa settings already in operation, institutionalising their operation within a broader state-controlled system of education. In some instances, such as in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria, but less so in Lebanon, redeŽ ning the state’s position on and relation to private, largely Western parochial schools was also indicative of the interests at stake, with far-reaching implications for the ability of local communities to access or maintain an alternative education to that offered by the state.5 Thus, the very expansion of public school systems was part of a comprehensive social, political and economic transformation of the power structures regulating intergroup relations in many Arab societies. This also implies considerable resistance and opposition by groups that perceive the state’s increasing monopoly of educational services as jeopardising their own position within the broader power structure. The case of

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post-independence Algeria remains pertinent to brie y illustrate the argument. Cheriet (1996, p. 9 ), writing about Algeria, has argued in this respect that state-entrenched elites, ‘in their bid to construct a new individual and a new society’, perceived the development of a culturally diversiŽ ed educational system as a means to coopt elites of various sociolinguistic and cultural traditions. However, by so doing, Cheriet continues, ‘nationstate builders in Algeria have inadvertently caused the demise of their own legitimation devices’. Within this context, the current Algerian civil war placed the educational system, and particularly universities, at the forefront of the mediation of civic dissent and the transformation of existing power structures (Cheriet, 1996, p. 13). According to others (Abu-Absi, 1984; Burgat, 1988; Chevit, 1994; Moatassime, 1992; Sebaa, 1996 ), it further meant a radical shift in the cultural politics underlying educational policies, especially with respect to the Arabisation of school and university curricula.6 It is also possible to ponder on the cases of Lebanon and Egypt. In these two cases—though within largely different contexts—school systems mediate the formation or reproduction of competing social and political constructs. In Lebanon, the largely private provision of educational services, within the context of a weak(ened ) public system, contributed to strengthening the association between speciŽ c socioeconomic indicators, type of education pursued and social opportunities. Such a process further intensiŽ ed primary con icting and colliding sectarian cleavages strengthening the school’s role as reproducer of particularistic social and cultural identities that considerably overlap distinct political constituencies (Charafeddine, 1996; Wehbe´ & El Amine, 1980 ). On this point, El Hachem (1989, p. 99 ) poignantly observed that we can see two main educational elements in the production and reproduction of plurality in Lebanon: Ž rst, confessional schools, and second, family and social in uences. Reinforced by geographic segmentation both these elements play important roles in the indoctrination of youth along sectarian lines, and thus both contribute to reinforcing inter-communal differences. In this way Lebanon has developed an identity as a patchwork of incompatible sociocultural and socioreligious semi-independent communities. In Egypt, by contrast, the over-subordination of the public school system to regulations and control of state apparatus leads to the gradual formation of a community-based web of loosely coupled, but ideologically identiŽ able, Islamic, private or other formal and informal educational settings (Herrera, 1998; Starrett, 1998). This institutional web stands, too often, in considerable opposition to (if not direct competition with) the state’s control over the deŽ nition of educational policies and the provision of educational services. According to Starrett (1998 ), it invites ‘radical criticism and increases the hunger for religious resources that cannot be met solely by the public sector’. In a scholarly tour de force, Farag (1994 ) retraced how educational discourses are deeply rooted in the broader mediation of regional, ideological, political and class-related cleavages. Painstakingly analysing a wide array of Egyptian newspaper reports (both local and national), she skillfully reconstructs competing narratives about education, their vehement clash in given sociopolitical circumstances, and divergent social and cultural interpretations they acquire in given power constellations between state-entrenched elites and various opposition groups. Quite differently, in Oman, Palestine and Yemen, the expansion of schooling mediated at times different modalities of civil dissent and political contestation. For example, a Ž eldwork-based anthropological study carried out by Chatty (1996 ) in Oman is quite revealing in terms of the activism of marginalised nomad communities in their persistent

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attempts to provide educational resources for their children. Chatty documents how Bedouin women afŽ liated to the Harasiis tribe undertook a radical reorganisation of their mobile households in order to secure their girls’ access to a newly built remote school As no school dormitories were provided for girls in spite of repeated Harasiis demands to that effect, several Harasiis women undertook a radical reorganisation of their camp, split households and relocated them near the school so that their daughters could overcome the difŽ culties of distance and attend school. Chatty also shows the extent to which such innovative behaviour of Harasiis women was still met with conservative attitudes on the part of the urban expatriate (Egyptian) male headteacher, who ‘explained that it was unbecoming for two such mature girls to be in the same place as adolescent boys’ (Chatty, 1996, p. 161). In this sense, Harasiis women have been shown to promote their daughters’ education much more actively than previous studies would lead to us to believe. Chatty (1996, p. 163 ) sums up: The assumption that Harasiis families would not permit girls to board has been proven to be based on misunderstandings of the tribe, its men, its women, and, most pointedly, its children. The way government policy was initially interpreted tended to exclude these girls from the beneŽ ts of education, and even hinted at a physical segregation of the sexes that the Harasiis themselves never required. The fact that education now fully extends to both girls and boys is a tribute to the spirited efforts of a handful of women and their supportive spouses. Harasiis women, through a concerted cooperative effort to help themselves and their daughters, really have been able to demand formal schooling. At another level this action clearly reveals that women as they view themselves—and as their men regard them—are actors, with the power to determine their own needs and those of their families and the authority to control their lives and those of their children. Chatty’s study demonstrates that the drive towards educational expansion can be identiŽ ed also within marginalised communities,7 and as such departs from centralist accounts of educational expansion. The latter have mainly narrated how, in different contexts, state policies towards nomad societies have affected their transition to modernity while, at the same time, integrating them into mainstream society. Within this type of account, the lower academic achievement of pupils of nomadic origin in general, and girls more particularly, has been attributed essentially to cultural factors related to their society’s traditionalism (see e.g. Ben-David, 1994 ) and family structure (Al-Krenawi & Lightman, 2000; cf. Elbedour et al., 2000 ). In her account, Chatty therefore breaks with the discourse and assumptions of modernisation and development theories. She clearly shows that marginalised communities are able to contextually generate, and institutionally sustain innovative modes of behaviour with respect to the consumption of educational resources. Elsewhere, on the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip, starting from late 1987 onward as part of the Intifada (Uprising ), loosely coupled and largely clandestine community-based educational settings challenged the closure of educational institutions by the Israeli military apparatus. Banned and outlawed by the Israeli military, such activism offered alternative and empowering political platforms to Palestinians, through which civil dissent against Israeli occupation was further promoted (Mahshi & Bush, 1989; Rigby, 1995, pp. 15–33 ). In this respect, the Palestinian case illustrates the ability of individuals and groups to pursue the implications of their own perceptions of sociopolitical reality, actively promoting their own socialisation and education (Mazawi,

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1998 ). The Palestinian case also suggests that, under speciŽ c political circumstances, educational resources may be perceived as relevant tools for the mediation of broader resistance against state apparatus. In such cases, ‘educational expansion’ is politically connoted in the sense that it re ects essentially resistance and opposition rather than cooptation within state-sponsored systems (see e.g. Badran, 1980; Mazawi, 1994b; Nakhleh, 1979 ). Quite differently, in post-1990 uniŽ ed (the national-oriented North and the socialistoriented South) Yemen, the parliamentary debates over the 1992 Education Bill were indicative of the intensive power struggles between the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) and the Yemen Reform Grouping (YRG ). The YSP managed a successful parliamentary vote, in spite of Islamist opposition, in view of creating a secular educational programme for the uniŽ ed state. The programme stressed a broader citizenship afŽ liation for all Yemenis, while discarding primary tribal and other sectarian solidarities. However, beneath the surface the YSP was also seeking to end YRG control over the ‘scientiŽ c institutes’, which were state-funded Islamic institutions. In many respects, the struggle over the 1992 Education Bill served as a signiŽ cant power test between the YSP and YRG and other groupings over the drafting of the Yemeni constitution and election law (Kostiner, 1996, p. 29 ). The Yemeni case sheds light on the internal con icts underlying power struggles among state-entrenched elites. The latter are far from presenting a monolithic and uniŽ ed mode of behaviour. Rather, state policies in general, and educational policies in particular, express antagonistic outcomes of a political system too often fragmented internally (on state–civil-society relations in Yemen, see Carapico [1998]). The above cases suggest that the expansion of schooling systems in the Arab states cannot be reduced to the sum total of state-initiated policies. Rather, expansion re ects, in addition, a wide array of intervening factors related to civil society processes. The latter are associated with the ability of various social groups to generate and devise alternative platforms within the broader transformation of power structures regulating intergroup relations. Building on Appadurai’s (1996, p. 184 ) notion of ‘context generative’ changes, it is therefore possible to argue, using his words, that the communities presented above ‘produce contexts against which their own intelligibility takes shape’. For researchers this ‘provides the beginnings of a theoretical angle on the relationship between local and global realities’ underlying the expansion of schooling among various social groups in Arab societies. Conclusion Macro-structural research on the expansion of schooling in the Arab states is largely policy driven, and depicts an omnipotent and centralised state system that regulates various aspects of the public provision of education (see e.g. Christina et al., 1999; Massialas & Jarrar, 1983, 1991; Tansel & Kazemi, 2000 ). Educational expansion is accounted for in terms of the emergence of state apparatus in the post-independence period and as the outcome of state-building policies. Community-level ethnographic studies suggest, however, that educational expansion in the Arab states operates within a multifaceted context that mediates its ultimate political and cultural implications. Beyond geographic particularities, the expansion of schooling is affected, in addition, by factors closely associated with community-based processes. In many respects it may be argued that educational expansion eventually channels, under speciŽ c sociopolitical circumstances, modes of civil participation in state systems characterised by limited

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participatory opportunities. In other words, educational settings—qua societal ‘Ž elds’ (Bourdieu, 1984 ) or ‘contexts’ (Appadurai, 1996 )—enable distinct constituencies to attempt and act on the broader distribution of power by enhancing their access to public education, or, alternatively, by generating their own power base and devising educational settings outside the direct control of the state. Contextually situating the expansion of schooling in the Arab states enables therefore a more sensitive account of the social transformations involved, their cultural reinterpretation in diverse situations and their political implications for the broader power structure. At community level, modernisation and development approaches remain limited in their explanatory power. Their implied progress-entrenched metanarrative—as suggested by models of ‘world systems’ (Adick, 1992 ), ‘social transition’ (Massialas & Jarrar, 1987, 1991 ), ‘dual perception’ or even ‘parallel growth’ (Moghaddam & Taylor, 1985 )—expresses essentially an explanatory syntax that reproduces, by and large, a hegemonic Western politico-cultural and value-laden discourse. Elsewhere, I have argued at length that such models account for educational expansion in developing states in general, and in Arab states in particular, in terms of rationalising the discourse and perspectives of state-entrenched elites (Mazawi, 1999, pp. 335–338, 350 –352 ). Apple (1996, p. 42) has observed that beyond their ideological premises and assumptions, educational policies are deeply embedded in a society’s socioeconomic structure and political con icts. As such, they cannot be comprehended outside the immediate political and cultural context in which they are constantly formulated and negotiated. Thus, ‘contexts’ become critical to comprehend the interplay between state policies and local and global processes. Appadurai (1996, p. 187 ) has already stressed that ‘[c]ontexts are produced in the complex imbrication of discursive and nondiscursive practices’, with each context implying ‘a global network of contexts’. From this vantage point, what becomes clear is that the expansion of schooling in the Arab states cannot be reduced to its modernising effects or to nation-building processes or even to the mere reproduction of social stratiŽ cation. There is much more to add. The expansion of schooling plays a signiŽ cant role in a constant reformulation and transformation of sociopolitical power. By implication it generates interpretations of ‘tradition’ and ‘culture’ which enable competing groups to differentially frame schooling and educational resources and their perceived values (see e.g. Starrett, 1998). If that is the case, then focusing on the contribution of schooling to the ‘transition’ of Arab societies into modernity becomes largely an intellectual exercise in futility, and a misleading one, at best. The problematic does not lie so much between ‘forces of tradition’ versus ‘forces of change’, as has been suggested by Massialas and Jarrar (1987 ) and to a more limited extent by Khaleefa, Erdos and Ashria (1997 ) and others, but beyond such a unidimensional spectrum and the questionable disputes it raises. It rather lies, as Appadurai (1996 ) suggests, within the generative capabilities of individuals and groups to promote ‘locales’ through which they could negotiate or act upon the social and cultural underpinnings of the political order. At this particular junction, Davies and Guppy’s (1997, p. 455 ) contention on ‘identity politics’ is very relevant in order to grasp the fuller meaning of the expansion of schooling in the Arab states. Schools have much more to do with the mediation of civil discontent and the distribution of sociopolitical power than with the reductionist and redundant tale of traditionalism versus modernisation. Indeed, the cases reviewed in the second part of this paper—be they the Egyptian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Sudanese cases, or the Harasiis women in Oman, or the Yemeni debates over the 1992 Education Bill—all illustrate distinct dimensions of ‘identity politics’. In all these cases, schools—as locales,

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are associated with the generation of culturally framed and politically connoted modalities of discontent much more than they are with the external features of traditionalism and modernity. Whether one probes the emergence and expansion of various modes of Islamic or private education in Egypt, or the post-civil-war expansion of sectarian educational settings in Lebanon, or the community-based classrooms during the Palestinian Intifada, one is bound to acknowledge the association between educational expansion in each of these cases and the mediation of contextually situated sociopolitical dissent. This process occurs, however, in constant relation to cultural frames of reference (be they nationalist, religious or other ideologies ), mobilised to legitimise its various institutional outcomes. The Harasiis and the Yemeni cases strongly suggest that such a dynamic may be also mediated from within the public school systems. Accounting for the expansion of schooling necessitates therefore a reference to what McLaren (1988 ) calls ‘modes of subjectivity’ and the extent to which they are related to the drives, perceptions and actions of individuals and groups in relation to the acquisition of educational resources. What can the present review offer in terms of theoretical insights into the case of educational expansion in the Arab states? First, a comparative approach becomes essential if research is to gain some critical insights into the multiplicity and interwoven complexity of voices within a given geopolitical region, in this case the Arab states. Comparative studies reveal that in spite of their relative sociocultural homogeneity, there nonetheless exists a polyphonic and multifaceted web of circumstances resulting in divergent institutional and behavioural outcomes across the Arab states (Hovsepian, 1995 ). As far as the expansion of schooling in these states is concerned, its occurrence is necessarily conditioned by a wide array of contextual factors, in relation to which state-entrenched elites are only one of the parties involved. Secondly, McLaren’s ‘modes of subjectivity’ and the concept of ‘identity politics’ become critical theoretical tools if researchers are to break the vicious cycle of macrostructural and policy-oriented studies, so frequently upheld in studies of education in the Arab states and in third world states in general (see Saha, 1991, p. 249). This implies that educational expansion be conceptualised within a wider area of theoretical approaches, sensitive to the different levels of action in which expansion occurs. This also implies, in the words of Hey (1996, p. 360 ), that more attention is given to ‘people’s reactions and resistances inside homes, communities, schools and classrooms’ and how such contestation ultimately mediates patterns of schooling with counter-hegemonic implications for the broader distribution of political power. Acknowledgments The author acknowledges the thoughtful and helpful suggestions by both the editor Bob Lingard and anonymous reviewers. Correspondence: A.L. Mazawi, School of Education, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel. Email: [email protected] NOTES 1.

The paper discusses the expansion of access to school in the Arab states. The term ‘Arab states’ refers to countries formally afŽ liated to the League of Arab States. The present paper refers mainly to Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia, Saudi

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A. E. Mazawi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen (North and South uniŽ ed since 1990). Their combined territories extend over some 12 million km2 with a population amounting to slightly over 220 million inhabitants at the start of the 1990s. Arab states vary considerably in the size of their populations, their social structure, and the volume of their economies. The expansion of schooling in Israel is an interesting case in point, to illustrate the argument. Peled (1998) studied the rise of El ha-Ma’ayan Sepharadic school network, associated with the Shas party, as an empowering alternative to public education. Shas’ constituency comprises mostly socioeconomically less established strata within Jewish society, of Middle Eastern and North African origin. The emergence of Shas, and especially the expansion of its school network, is strongly associated with perceived traits of Sepharadic culture and heritage and their mobilisation into a culturally embedded political platform. Their emergence clearly represents an example of ‘identity politics’ managed through the structuration of an alternative educational system in view of consolidating a distinct constituency. By contrast, Palestinian citizens of Israel seem to exhibit a different strategy. While bolstering community institutions at the national level since the mid-1970s, no alternative school system (including a university) has been established so far, though the issue of an Arab university in Israel remains highly debated. Currently, the state-managed public school system and public Israeli universities remain the mainstream venues for Palestinians in Israel. Regarding the formal school system, repeated demands were put forth stressing the need to accommodate the cultural and national background of Palestinian pupils (Mazawi, 1994a, 1997). Notwithstanding this, since the late 1980s some culturally speciŽ c educational platforms have emerged among Palestinians in Israel, mainly Islamic religious training institutions associated with various political currents. These have rather been more instrumental in reinforcing intra-social power politics vis-a` -vis other groups within the Palestinian polity in Israel (Mazawi, 1997, p. 33). In both cases, it should be noted, the end result is further expansion of educational provision, yet through greater fragmentation and the emergence of a kaleidoscopic myriad of institutional outcomes, each rooted in a different cultural frame of reference. On the spirited debates and controversies regarding state–civil-society relations in the Arab states, compare the positions of Ayubi (1995), Ibrahim (1995, 1996), Ismail (1997), Kamrava and Mora (1998), and the various papers edited by Norton (1995). While some have supported the existence of civil society in the various Arab states, others have expressed doubts as to its very existence. An interesting case study was carried out during the early 1980s in the ‘Allan area of Jordan (WaÊ hlin, 1982). The case study reconstructed the introduction and expansion patterns of public schools among essentially rural and nomad communities. The study reveals the scope and intensity of the social transformations that took place in this area, especially following Palestine’s partition in 1948 and the exodus of Palestinian refugees into this area. Other processes were related to the establishment and differential expansion of public schools for boys and girls. The Ž ndings show that the state gradually monopolised and standardised educational provision, at the expense of eradicating previously existing community-based kuttab settings. The study also documents ‘how eagerly education was sought, at least by some parts of the population’ (WaÊ hlin, 1982, p. 66). See also Eickelman’s (1985, pp. 161–180) case study and his description of the decline of community-based education in Morocco and the expansion of public education. By contrast, Haeri (1997) addressed the appropriation of symbolic cultural capital through the differential acquisition of literary Arabic in Egypt. In many Arab states, Arabisation of school curricula and the imposition of Arabic as the language of instruction reveal the extent to which the state has monopolised the mechanisms of cultural production, by implication situating the school at the juncture of competing conceptions of culture and tradition. For instance, Abecassis (1994) studied the cultural politics and institutional change of foreign (mainly Western) schools in pre-1952 Egypt. By contrast, Al-Burak (1985) narrated the emergence and political roles of schools serving the Jewish and Iranian communities in Iraq. His narrative, though heavily ideologised and deterministic in scope, nonetheless reveals the intensity of political con icts involved around the operation of such schools between the Iraqi state and various local communities. It also depicts the effects of broader geopolitical con icts—with the Zionist movement on the one hand and with the Iranian Islamic regime on the other—on the ability of the Jewish and Iranian or Shi’a communities in Iraq to maintain and operate these schools. Arabisation policies are powerful mediators of ethnico-cultural con icts in the Maghreb states and Sudan, or, though quite differently, in Lebanon and Syria. In the Maghreb states, and particularly Algeria, the language issue (a structural residue of colonial regimes) has acquired highly sensitive political ramiŽ cations that extended far beyond the school and the university. As Cheriet (1996) rightly noted with regard to Algeria, the imposition of Arabic, for instance, does have comprehensive implications for the social opportunities available to social groups who do not master the Arabic language. The same can be said

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about Arabisation policies in Sudan (Douglas, 1986; Taha, 1990). In Syria and Lebanon, the language issue is rooted in a different problematic, but one that nonetheless mediates divergent political and ideological constructs (Badinjki, 1994). Similar observations were often reported on the margins of other studies. In her review of educational expansion in rural Palestine in the 1940s, Miller (1985, p. 186 fn. 22) notes that in many impoverished rural localities, where the mandatory government did not open or Ž nance schools, villagers would erect the school building and maintain teachers at their own expense. Melitz (1995) reports the same practice among Bedouins in Israel following that state’s institution in 1948. Some tribes would build and maintain schools at their own expense while pressuring the government to expand educational provision. Be´not (1972, pp. 18–19, 19 note 7) referred to some African societies where villagers would institute a regional fundraising, extending beyond village limits, in order to Ž nance the studies of one of their children.

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