Or, How to Conceptualise Complex Educational Change in the uAE ?

1. Western Doctoral Programmesas Public Service, Cultural Diplomacyor, Intellectual Imperialism?

2. Considerations of a CanadianTeaching Educational Management & Leadershipin the United Arab Emirates

3. Or, How to Conceptualise Complex Educational Change in the uAE? • Multi-dimensional: economic, political, religious, cultural, educational, familial, etc. • Highly dynamic: UAE one of most rapid & profound changes in World History • Unique features: Emirati culture, geopolitical position • High level of multiculturalism: 80+% immigrant workforce; 202 nationalities

4. Dedicated to my EdD students,One and All

5. Dubai – 40 years ag0

6. Dubai - now

7. Myths to Dispose of:Women in the UAE • They drive • Are increasingly in workplace (although glass ceiling) • Travel abroad (many regularly) • 80% Emirati grad students women • Assertive in doctoral seminar (sometimes a force of nature) • UAE is a (relatively) uxorious society

10. Mgmt, Admin & Leadership: historical Complexity Tribal Traditions Colonial Heritage Western Education & Consultancy Post-Unification Monarchy (ShaikhZayed)

11. Multidimensional Construction of critical Metaphors: An Interdisciplinary Field of Critical Concepts

12. Initial Theoretical Scaffolding Weberian Value-orientation & Ideal Typing GoffmanMicrointeractionist Metaphors Saidian Humanistic Critique of Orientalist Hegemony Bourdieuian Intellectual Field

13. Levels of A Personal Voyage from West to Middle East Pedagogical Experiential Political

14. Ideal typical method a la Weber • “Ideal”: analytical (not normative or empirical) • One-sided accentuation & synthesis of diffuse, discrete, present & absent concrete individual phenomena • Arranged into unified analytical construct (Gedankenbild)

15. Social Interaction Metaphors of Goffman • Contextual shaping of human interaction • Dramaturgical presentation of self with others • Self & identity shaped, reshaped in the process • Groups & larger structures rest upon this basis

16. Orientalism as Imperialism in Said • Stereotyped individual characteristics of “orientals”: sensuality, despotism, aberrant mentality, inaccuracy, backwardness • ‘Locale requiring Western attention, reconstruction, even redemption’ • Constructed through scholarship, industry, “pioneers” to the Orient – now transplanted uni’s & programmes

17. Intellectualism as Symbolic Power: Bourdieu • Cultural capital • Intellectuals - creators of symbolic power • Reproduction of self-perpetuating hierarchies of domination • Shaping of politics through symbolic power • Political economy of symbolic interests, power (violence), capital power structures (habitas, fields)

18. The Three Attitudinal Metaphors • Public Servant • Cultural Diplomat • Intellectual Imperialist

20. Ideal Traits of Public Servant, Mandarin Class • Derived from Weber • Patrimonial traditionalism combined with charisma

21. Values • Substantive rationality (higher order political end values) • Aspires to gentlemanly ideal • Traditional ethos governing life & circle of contacts • Ethos: “official duty” & “public weal”(the public interest) • „Lives for the state, rather than from the state“

22. Authority & Role • Personal qualities: resilience, independence of mind, intellectual prowess, sound judgement & discrimination, loyalty, integrity • Through „moral courage“ „speak truth to power“ • Responsibilities tied to legitimacy of ruling elite (individual ministers of cabinet) • Protected by anonymity • Oversees national interests for political authority

24. Characteristics of Ideal Diplomat • Derived from Freeman, Arts of Power: Statecraft & Diplomacy (1997) • Patrimonial traditionalism combined with instrumental, legal-rationality

25. Values • Strategic state interests (security, econ, political) • Strategic & tactical master in international arena • Power ethos & formal, informal networks (overt & covert) • Ethos: Manoeuverability through exaction, accommodation, appeasement, coercion, etc. • Lives for the state, rather than from the state

26. Authority & Role • Medium of communication between states • Authority to speak as representative & pursue state interests • Scholars: informal diplomats of countries & disciplinary traditions • Universities: site of formal & informal diplomatic activities & agent of foreign policy (sometimes: unwittingly, hidden curriculum, extension Cold War role)

28. Essence of Imperialism • Derived from Max Weber • (disenchanted) Entrepreneurial rationalism

29. Values • Economic Hegemony • Formal rationality; suppresses value issues, indifference to ends • Entrepreneur, “leadership,” or consultancy ideal (mercentary competitive self-interest) • Ethos: efficiency & technical effectiveness • Lives from the state, rather than for the state

30. Authority & Role • Personal qualities: impersonal rules, objective competence, business-style mgmt, goal-oriented accountability • Adherence to entrepreneurial leadership & obedience to political authority • High mobility between private & public sectors • Technical managerial elite („new nomenklatura,“ „technical intelligentsia“ or „consultocracy“) • Value-for-money, cost-effectiveness & market testing • Aims at strategies of control • Are „doers“ rather than „thinkers“

31. I. Personal Level: Existential, Phenomenological, Hermeneutic

32. The Metaphors Culturally Embodied

33. Abaya Complex • Does it close one’s world – negative Western stereotype

34. Abaya “Unveiled” • Or, does it open a new world?

36. Attitudes to abaya corresponding to metaphors • As Clothing • As Ceremonial Costume • Abaya Untouched (untouchable?) • Two Solitudes • Public Servant • Cultural Diplomat • Intellectual Imperialist

37. Dimensions of The Personal Values Identity Professional Qualities Social Interaction

38. Public Servant(as foreign academic) • Values: local culture dominates; serves new state’s strategic goals • Identity: participant-observer (lives in liminality) • Social Interaction: immersion, engagement • Professional Qualities: international standards ethno-hermeneutically reconstructed to meet local terms of respect

39. Cultural Diplomat • Values: representative of one’s own & local culture; mediates between 2-state strategic goals • Identity: retains nationality – engages with local • Social Interaction: mediated style of presentation of Self • Professional Qualities: represents “home” qualities of professionalism

40. Intellectual Imperialist • Values: home values exclude local values • Identity: unchanged, in tension with local conditions • Social Interaction: socialising locals into foreign patterns • Professional Qualities: replacing indigenous conceptions

41. II. Pedagogical Level: Hermeneutic, Interactional, Legitimating, Reproductive

42. Dimensions of The Pedagogical Scholarship Curricular Principles Teaching Styles

43. Additional critiques • Friere: colonisation through language (ontological & epistemological reconstruction) • Giroux: hidden curriculum • Habermas: communicative action • Said: no clash of civilisations • Et alia

44. Public Service • Inclusive Synthesised Scholarship: dialectically mutually informing intellectual history • Combined Western-Arab curriculum aimed at UAE national goals & independence • Recombinant teaching style inclusive of arab communicative interaction, sociability, temporally structured around calls for prayer

45. “Lost History”: The West’s Adoption of Arab Scholarship • Al-Khalili, J. (2010) Pathfinders: Golden Age of Arabic • Science • Crone, P. (2005) Medieval Islamic Political Thought • Freely, J. (2009) Aladdin’s Lamp: How Greek Science Came to • Europe Through the Islamic World • Lyons, J. (2009) The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs • Transformed Western Civilization • Masood, E. (2009) Science & Islam: A History • Morgan, M. (2007) Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of • Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists • O’Leary, D. (2003) Arabic Thought and Its Place in History

46. synthesised Scholarship Common Heritage: e.g., Plato, Aristotle (history, politics, sociology, cultural analysis) Arab Scholarship: e.g., Al-Farabi, Al-Ghazali, IbnKhaldun, Islamic Humanist tradition Western tradition built upon Arabic: e.g., Renaissance scholars, Weber, Heidegger

47. Cultural Diplomacy • Dialogue between traditions or Attempt to subjugate arab scholarship: knowledge transfer unequal bi-directional • Aims at educational reformserving international & local goals • Tolerance of teaching style diversity

48. Intellectual Imperialism • Exclusive use Western scholarship • Knowledge transfer uni-directional • Almost exclusive use western curric creating UAE dependency • Emiratis aren’t taught UAE history (“golemisation” of history & scholarly trad’s) • Arab scholars used to illustrate western adoption • English-language replacement of Arabic (religious implications) • Globalised educ with strong market model: Hidden curriculum of capitalism & consumerism

49. III. Political Level: Entente, Rapprochement, or Global Monopolism?

50. Dimensions of The Political Socio-cultural Impact Sovereignty Globalisation/ Commercialisation The “Reproductive” Role of Educational Institution