Education 2.0: Chronicles of Technological and Cultural Change in Egypt

doi:10.11647/obp.0489

Chronicles of Technological and Cultural Change in Egypt

Linda Herrera (editor)

Education 2.0 offers a compelling portrait of Egypt’s bold attempt to overhaul its public education system amid sweeping political and technological transformation. Drawing on extensive oral history interviews, this book traces the launch and rollout of the ‘New Education System’ initiated by the Ministry of Education in 2018, designed to modernize curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment in the digital age and change the ‘culture of learning’. The volume moves fluidly from macro-level state planning to the lived experiences of teachers and students, exploring the promises and pitfalls of top-down reform.

Conducted partly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the research captures Egypt’s first large-scale experiment with hybrid and distance learning. Interviews with key actors—from policymakers and tech developers to students and educators—reveal competing visions, unintended consequences, and the challenges of culturally transforming education systems in a middle-income country where private tutoring is rife, the sector is chronically under resourced, and politics overshadows policy.

This book is essential reading for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers interested in education reform, digital transformation, and the role of the state in shaping learning futures in the Global South. It is also an excellent case study for courses in Middle East studies and comparative and international education.

Endorsements

This book makes a very valuable contribution to the literature, offering a rich, multi-perspective and multi-level account of an ambitious reform effort in Egypt. It will be a useful resource for education researchers, policy makers, and graduate students in education and social policy fields in the country. The volume would also serve as an attractive case study to include in graduate courses in comparative and international education around the world.

Mark B. Ginsburg

University of Maryland-College Park

Contributors

Linda Herrera

(editor)

Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Linda Herrera, a social anthropologist with regional expertise in the Middle East and North Africa, is Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was Director of the Education 2.0 Research and Documentation Project in Egypt and served as an international education advisor. Her research deals with education and power, critical youth studies, technology and society, and international education development. Her books include, 'Educating Egypt’ (American University in Cairo Press, 2022), 'Global Middle East’ (with A. Bayat, University of California Press, 2021), 'Revolution in the Age of Social Media' (Verso, 2014), 'Wired Citizenship’ (Routledge, 2014), 'Being Young and Muslim’ (with A. Bayat, Oxford University Press, 2010), and ‘Cultures of Arab Schooling’ (with C.A. Torres, SUNY Press, 2006).

DOI

License

Copyright

Published On

ISBN

Language

Print Length

Dimensions

Weight

Media

THEMA

BISAC

Keywords

Education 2.0

Chronicles of Technological and Cultural Change in Egypt

Endorsements

Additional Resources

Contents

Contributors

Linda Herrera