Education systems and textbooks in selected countries of the Middle East are increasingly the subject of debate. This volume presents and analyzes the major trends as well as the scope and the limits of education reform initiatives undertaken in recent years. In curricula and teaching materials, representations of the Self and the Other offer insights into the contemporary dynamics of identity politics. By building on a network of scholars working in various countries in the Middle East itself, this book aims to contribute to the evolution of a field of comparative education studies in this region.

Sarhan Dhouibwas a Research Fellow at the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research, Germany in 2008-09, and is currently Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of Kassel University, Germany. He co-editedAl-Islah at-Tarbawi fi-sh-Sharq al-Awsat(with Samira Alayan and Achim Rohde, Dar al-Shurouq, 2010). He was editor of Volume 59 ofConcordiaabout current Arabic-Islamic philosophy and laureate of the Goethe-Instituts Newcomer Award for Philosophy in 2011.

List of Maps
List of Tables

Introduction
Achim Rohdeand Samira Alayan

Chapter 1. Educational Reform in the Arab World: Directives, Mechanisms, and Challenges in Lebanon, Syria, and Oman
Nemer Mansur Frayha

Chapter 2. Education Reform in Oman: Evolution of Secondary School Curricula
Salha Abdullah Issan

Chapter 3. Educational Developments in Jordan from the 1950s until Today: Stages and Characteristics
Mohammad Khalil Abbas

Chapter 4. Major Trends of Educational Reform in Egypt
Iman Farag

Chapter 5. On the Impossibility of Teaching History in Lebanon: Notes on a Textbook Controversy
Massoud Daher

Chapter 6. History Textbooks in Egyptian Schools: A Tool for the Representation of Collective Memory
Atef Botros

Chapter 7. Different Layers of Identity in Lebanese Textbooks
Jonathan Kriener

Chapter 8. The Philosophical Foundations of Education and the Range of its Implications for the Content of Civic Education Textbooks in Jordan
Mustafa Abu al-Sheikhand Yasser al-Khalailah

Chapter 9. Gender Images in Jordanian Textbooks in the Subject Field of Social Education
Naseema al-Khalidi

Chapter 10. Images of Europeans in Jordanian Textbooks
Qasem al-Newashi

Chapter 11. History Curricula and Textbooks in Palestine: Between Nation Building and Quality Education
Samira Alayan

Chapter 12. Bridging Conflicts through History Education? A Case Study from Israel/Palestine
Achim Rohde

Notes on Contributors
Index