Teaching Interculturally in Qatar: Local Ethics, Communication, and Pedagogies.

Globalisation, Societies and Education, 2023

This study explores critical challenges for global citizenship education (GCE) in Qatar. This study contributes to Global Citizenship Education (GCE) studies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. It reimagines cultural practices as pedagogical strategies to reorient students into global awareness and intercultural views, as stated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In effect, the study draws attention to the pivotal role of education in nurturing a global ethical outlook by achieving a balance between local culture and global citizenship. The aim is to infuse the educational system with myriad social and family ethics in a way that vehemently transcends local specificities. It examines intercultural ethics within the Islamic and Qatari settings. How can intercultural practices born from the Qatari Islamic culture develop global citizenry? The study identifies two Qatari shared values that advocate for an intercultural understanding of global citizenship. More specifically, it examines specific intercultural practices, such as Al-Nafla and Al-Majlis, beyond the local level to endorse ethical responsibility toward global citizenship.

Teaching Interculturally in Qatar, 2025

The International Journal of Diversity in Education, 2022

Many of the teaching professionals who choose to work internationally arrive having little knowledge of the opportunities, expectations, and challenges of teaching abroad. Transnational educators traverse the often labyrinthine paths of teaching and learning where culturally different ideologies collide, co-exist, and in some cases, merge. The study presents a close look at the lived realities of transnational educators and what international teaching and learning look like within the Arab Gulf nation of Qatar. Transnational educators (a cultural rather than a geographical distinction) must understand socio-cultural differences that can impact successful teaching and learning outcomes. A qualitative focus group process and analysis were used to uncover and identify these faculty members’ perceptions concerning their teaching experiences at this American university branch campus in which Western faculty teach an American curriculum, in English, to predominantly Arab students. The findings articulate the benefits and challenges of international teaching and guidance for transnational teachers or faculty considering this career option. These educators perceive that their Arab students are not unlike the students in their home campuses. Still, distinct cultural differences must be understood and negotiated, including closer faculty-student interactions, more intense family obligations for students, and stronger cultural reasons to avoid academic risk-taking. Faculty also perceived that differences in the behaviors and attitudes amongst these students have changed over time. These results have implications for teaching, learning, and developing an international teaching practicum.

2012

2016

This sociocultural linguistic study explores gender roles within the Qatari community emphasizing masculinity-femininity in terms of education, marriage, interdependence-independence and from different perspectives, including religion and traditions. More specifically, it focuses on the ways whereby gender roles associated with male and female Qatari students in intercultural communication courses in a university in Qatar are negotiated between them and their two female instructors from the US and Greece. Qatar has come under the spotlight due to its successful bid to host World Cup 2022, resulting in the diversification of its population, a fact that renders intercultural communication a sine qua non for a smooth co-existence of everybody who lives and works in the country. Falling under the scope of the “education for intercultural exchange” stream of the conference, our aim is to contribute towards the development of good practices related to teaching “exchange of information bet...

Teaching Interculturally in Qatar: Local Ethics, Communication and Pedagogies , 2024

International schools in Qatar have invested resources to establish an educational framework that promotes diversity and intercultural understanding. These schools follow a curriculum that is different from the curriculum set by the Ministry of Education in Qatar. While Qatari families enrol their children in international schools to enhance employment prospects and English proficiency, concerns exist about potential impacts on national identity. This chapter aims to study the design and implementation of a curriculum disseminating national cultural values in Qatar’s international schools. The discussion focusses on how international schools in Qatar can attain a balance between promoting cultural diversity and nurturing a sense of national identity and heritage among students. The purpose is to explore strategies, challenges, and benefits of integrating national cultural values, examine their effects on students’ identity formation, and understand their cultural heritage. The following axes are examined: curriculum design and content, implementation challenges, impact on students’ identity and cultural heritage, and balancing cultural diversity and national identity. The chapter aims to provide insights and recommendations for educational policymakers, curriculum designers, and educators on effectively incorporating national cultural values into the curriculum to nurture students’ identity and heritage in a globalized world.

McGill Journal of Education, 2014

Journal of Arabian Studies, 2018

This ethnographic study focuses on the ways whereby gender roles associated with male and female Qatari students in intercultural communication courses in a university in Qatar are negotiated between them and their two female instructors from the US and Greece. Our aim is to contribute towards the development of good practices related to teaching "exchange of information between members who are unalike culturally" (Berry et al., 2011, p. 471) by arguing that an efficient way of overcoming misunderstandings between instructors and students is to engage in a pedagogical approach, which we call "dialogical infotainment", and which serves the ultimate goal of sharing various types of power in order to sharpen our cultural sensitivity and subsequent tolerance and respect for each other's gender role-related peculiarities.