image: Exploring education in the Middle East, this collection shows how global models are adapted—and sometimes contested—within local classrooms. Studies from Turkey to the Gulf examine shadow education, borrowed policies like STEM, teacher-led professional communities, and culturally rooted curricula, revealing a region actively negotiating identity between global trends and deep-rooted traditions.
Credit: Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, China
This feature examines how Middle Eastern education systems navigate tensions between global models and local cultures. Drawing on studies across the Gulf, Turkey, Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, and Iran, it explores shadow education markets, policy borrowing, teacher learning communities, culturally grounded early education, and classroom critiques of test-driven systems. Together, these perspectives show education as an ongoing negotiation, not simple adoption, shaping identity, equity, and future readiness across the region.
What does “world-class education” look like in a region steeped in ancient tradition? Across the Middle East, classrooms have become a stage where global education models meet deep-rooted local realities. This dance—sometimes a clash—between imported “scripts” and homegrown practices defines the region’s struggle to educate its next generation. Drawing on recent studies from ECNU Review of Education, this feature explores how teachers, policymakers, and communities walk this tightrope, balancing international benchmarks with cultural identity, innovation with tradition.
The Shadow of the Classroom
The global script of high-stakes competition and supplemental learning finds a vigorous, largely unregulated local market in the Gulf’s “shadow education” system. One article takes us into the world of private tutoring that mirrors and often rivals formal schooling in Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE (Bray & Hajar, 2022).
Long before tutoring apps and learning centers became global trends, these “shadow” systems were already shaping student futures. But why do families invest so heavily? The research points to social competition, exam pressures, and even teachers’ own economic incentives.
Governments have tried to regulate it, with little success. In many ways, the shadow education phenomenon reflects a deeper story about inequality, aspiration, and the limits of policy in rapidly changing societies.
Borrowed Policies, Local Realities
When the global STEM script arrived in Turkey, it encountered a local classroom reality dominated by university entrance exams—a mismatch that left school principals skeptical and straining to adapt, say Kulakoglu and Kondakci (2022).
Many administrators saw STEM as vaguely defined, poorly resourced, and ill-fitted to Turkey’s exam-focused system. “Not everything that works elsewhere fits here,” one principal remarked.
This isn’t just about STEM—it’s a cautionary tale about policy borrowing, and the importance of adapting global ideas to local contexts.
Teachers Learning Together
What happens when teachers form their own learning communities?
This study travels to Bahrain and Oman, where two private schools have built vibrant professional learning networks (Al Mahdi et al., 2022). Educators collaborate, share practices, and even open their classrooms to peers. These communities aren’t just about training—they’re about building trust, rethinking leadership, and creating cultures of continuous improvement.
In a region where teacher development is often top-down, these grassroots initiatives offer a powerful alternative.
Culture in the Kindergarten
While some initiatives focus on teacher collaboration, others tackle the challenge even earlier—in the earliest years of schooling. Perhaps nowhere is the balance more deliberate than in the UAE’s kindergartens, where a globally inspired early childhood framework is carefully infused with a local script of Islamic values and Arab heritage.
Alhosani (2022) shows that even as the UAE embraces international educational models, its youngest learners are gently rooted in Emirati culture. This delicate balance reflects a broader national project: preparing children for a connected world without losing sight of who they are.
Voices from the Classroom
Finally, the last study leads us to Iran, where teachers voice a clear critique: the national script is overly focused on testing (Tohidian et al., 2022).
Their plea? Teach English earlier. Introduce law and entrepreneurship. Move from testing to “training”—for life, not just for tests. These teachers aren’t just criticizing; they’re envisioning an education that builds dialogue, tolerance, and practical skills. Meaningful change often starts from those who know the classroom best.
Conclusion: A Region in Dialogue with Itself
Walking the tightrope between global scripts and local classrooms is not unique to the Middle East, but here the stakes are particularly vivid. It is a region simultaneously looking outward for models and inward for meaning.
There is no single story here, but many: of shadow economies, borrowed policies, teacher communities, cultural curricula, and grassroots calls for change. What emerges is a region deeply engaged in rethinking what education can and should be.
The stories gathered in this special issue remind us that education is never a simple transfer of “best practices,” but a continuous, often precarious, act of translation—one that will ultimately determine not only the future of its schools, but of its societies.
Ready to dive deeper? Explore the full articles for free via our open-access platform: ECNU Review of Education: Sage Journals
References
Bray, M., & Hajar, A. (2022). Complexity of the Contexts: Features of Private Tutoring and Units for Comparison in the GCC Countries of the Middle East. ECNU Review of Education, 7(1), 42–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/20965311221113350
Kulakoglu, B., & Kondakci, Y. (2022). STEM Education as a Concept Borrowing Issue: Perspectives of School Administrators in Turkey. ECNU Review of Education, 6(1), 84–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/20965311221107390
Al Mahdi, O., de Munnik, M., Meinen, L., & Green, M. (2022). Professional Learning Communities in Private Schools in Bahrain and Oman: Reflection on Two Cases. ECNU Review of Education, 6(3), 469–484. https://doi.org/10.1177/20965311221131583
Alhosani, N. (2022). The Influence of Culture on Early Childhood Education Curriculum in the UAE. ECNU Review of Education, 5(2), 284–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/20965311221085984
Tohidian, I., Khorsandi Taskoh, A., & Abbaspour, A. (2022). Urgent Changes to Be Made in Iran’s Primary Education: Voices From Teachers. ECNU Review of Education, 6(3), 485–497. https://doi.org/10.1177/20965311221085980
Journal
ECNU Review of Education