The project “School Textbooks in the MENA Region” was established in 2016 with the aim of strengthening the focus on textbook reforms in the Middle East and North Africa at the Georg Eckert Institute for Textbook Research. The project encompasses research and transfer activities. In the frame of the project, the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig conducts applied, multidisciplinary research into textbooks and other educational material in North Africa and Middle East countries, connecting with a network of researchers and experts in the field of education based in the whole region. Due to the centrality of religion as a core topic for educational reforms and political discussions in the region and beyond, the discussions of researchers joining the network are especially focused on changes in the representation and teaching of Islam in different subjects with an emphasis on textbooks for religious instruction in public schools. Diversity and environmental challenges have been core topics in the frame of the project too. In the last years, the network has gathered researchers and educators from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and Yemen. The Institute regularly organizes meetings and academic events, which provide a platform for discussion and join cooperation. Despite the difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemics in recent times, the activities of the network keep running.
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Events
2021: Workshop “Towards a Joint Paper on Religion and Textbook Reforms in the MENA Region”
The workshop gathered experts from Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Syria and Turkey and provided the participants with a platform to work together on a project for a joint publication on the topic of religion and textbook reforms in the MENA region. The workshop offered space for discussion on the empirical content of an envisioned publication (focusing on the country-cases of expertise of each of the participants), theoretical framework, structure and future agenda for collaboration. The workshop, held on July 15, was organized by the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig. Due to restrictions posed by the COVID pandemic situation to international travels, the workshop took place online.
2020: 33rd International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI 2020)
In 2020 the GEI proposed and organised two roundtables in the frame of the 33rd ICSEI. The topic of the annual congress was “Education, Youth Empowerment, and Sustainable Development: Areas of Collaboration between the Global South and North to Improve Education Quality”. The congress, hosted for the first time in Africa, gathered policy makers, researchers, civil society leaders and practitioners to develop shared priorities for collaboration between the global North and South focused on improving education quality for all. The participants at the roundtable discussions organized by the GEI provided insights into recent and ongoing textbook reforms in several MENA countries and in Germany, considering data from textbooks, curricula and teaching manuals as well as political documents and media debates about textbook revisions. The discussions focused on changes in the representation and teaching of Islam in different subjects with an emphasis on textbooks for religious instruction in schools. The congress took place in Marrakesh on 6-10 January 2020 and was hosted by the Moroccan Center for Civic Education (MCCE) in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Training, and Scientific Research, and the Regional Council of Marrakech-Safi Region.
2019: Workshop “Religion and Textbooks Reforms in the Arab Countries: The Challenges of Textbook Research”
The workshop provided the space to discuss the (changing) role of curricula, school textbooks and other educational media in the Middle East and North Africa. The purpose was to analyse, compare and discuss how school textbooks from various countries of the region depict religious and societal diversity. The cases of Palestine, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan were discussed thanks to the insights and contributions of experts working in educational institutions in the MENA region, who gathered at the GEI. The workshop provided a platform to discuss further opportunities to collaborate in research and education between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It took place from September 29 to October 2, 2019, at the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig (Germany) and was organized by the GEI.
2017: Religion and Textbook Reforms in Arab Countries
Following a workshop on diversity and environmental challenges in 2016 this meeting was held on Octobre 1 and 2, 2017 in Casablanca with the aim to discuss recent and ongoing textbook reforms in different Arab countries. A focus it put on changes in the representation and teaching of Islam in different subjects but with an emphasis on textbooks for religious instruction in schools.
In some Arab countries, textbooks are constantly revised, others engage in a reform of curricula and textbooks in the light of Islamic extremism and with the aim to counter the radicalization of young citizen. This raises questions on what is changed in order to fight extremism. What educational contents are newly evaluated as problematic? How are these textbook revisions discussed in politics, media, society and among educators? How can we possibly evaluate the effectiveness of such reforms? How are reforms viewed in other Arab countries? Are they perceived as necessary and adequate tools to counter radicalization?1 and 2 October 2017
Idou Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco
Conference languages were English and Arabic2016: REPRESENTATIONS OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
An international conference on textbooks in the Arab world was held on 20 and 21 November 2016 in Cairo. Delegates discussed the representation of religious diversity and environmental issues in textbooks for political and social studies which reflect ideas of citizenship, social cohesion and societal diversity in particularly noteworthy ways. The conference aimed to promote dialogue on education reform and textbook revision in the region, create links to previous projects run by the GEI in this arena and provide a space for the development of ideas for future cooperation in research.
The conference based its discussions on analysis of textbooks and curricula from the relevant countries which engage with topics of significance to political and cultural debate and communication within the region and between it and Europe. We hope the dialogue with researchers from the Arab world for which the conference provided a forum will generate inspiration for researchers to engage with matters of diversity and environmental issues in German-language textbooks.
20 and 21 November 2016
German Science Center Kairo, El Saleh Ayoub Street 11, Zamalek, Egypt
Conference languages were English und ArabicYou can view the programme of the conference here.
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Publications
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Nijmi Edres (2021): "Religion, ideology and nation-building in Jordanian curricula for the teaching of Arabic language". Languages Cultures Mediation 8(2), p. 81–100.
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Riem Spielhaus und Ahmad Shehata (2020): ‘Ägyptische Schulbücher: Ein Umsturz kommt selten allein’. zenith 2020 (2), p. 92–93.
- Tobias Ide, Abdulkhaleq Alwan, Khalil Bader, Noureddine Dougui, Maysoun Husseini, Elarbi Imad, Farouk Gaafar Abdel Hakim Marzouk, Amany M. Taha Moustafa und Riem Spielhaus (2018): ‘The Geopolitics of Environmental Education: An Analysis of School Textbooks in the MENA Region’. Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society 10 (2), p. 64–83.
Ongoing publication projects
Currently, the MENA network experts are working on the publication of a peer-reviewed article in English and a volume in Arabic on Religious education in North Africa and the Middle East
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