PowerPoint Presentation

Western Doctoral Programmes as Public Service,

Cultural Diplomacy

or, Intellectual Imperialism? Considerations of a Canadian Teaching Educational Management & Leadership

in the United Arab EmiratesMulti-dimensional: economic, political, religious, cultural, educational, familial, etc.Highly dynamic: UAE one of most rapid & profound changes in World HistoryUnique features: Emirati culture, geopolitical positionHigh level of multiculturalism: 80+% immigrant workforce; 202 nationalities

Or, How to Conceptualise Complex Educational Change in the uAE?Dedicated to my EdD students,One and AllDubai 40 years ag0

Dubai - now

They drive Are increasingly in workplace (although glass ceiling)Travel abroad (many regularly)80% Emirati grad students womenAssertive in doctoral seminar (sometimes a force of nature)UAE is a (relatively) uxorious society

Myths to Dispose of:Women in the UAE

Mgmt, Admin & Leadership: historical ComplexityColonial HeritageTribal TraditionsPost-Unification Monarchy(Shaikh Zayed)Western Education & ConsultancyMultidimensional Construction of critical Metaphors:An Interdisciplinary Field of Critical ConceptsInitial Theoretical ScaffoldingGoffman Microinteractionist MetaphorsWeberian Value-orientation & Ideal TypingSaidian Humanistic Critique of Orientalist HegemonyBourdieuian Intellectual Field12Levels of A Personal Voyage from West to Middle EastExperientialPedagogicalPoliticalIdeal: analytical (not normative or empirical)One-sided accentuation & synthesis of diffuse, discrete, present & absent concrete individual phenomenaArranged into unified analytical construct (Gedankenbild)

Ideal typical method a la WeberContextual shaping of human interactionDramaturgical presentation of self with othersSelf & identity shaped, reshaped in the processGroups & larger structures rest upon this basisSocial Interaction Metaphors of GoffmanStereotyped individual characteristics of orientals: sensuality, despotism, aberrant mentality, inaccuracy, backwardnessLocale requiring Western attention, reconstruction, even redemption Constructed through scholarship, industry, pioneers to the Orient now transplanted unis & programmes

Orientalism as Imperialism in SaidCultural capital Intellectuals - creators of symbolic powerReproduction of self-perpetuating hierarchies of dominationShaping of politics through symbolic powerPolitical economy of symbolic interests, power (violence), capital power structures (habitas, fields)Intellectualism as Symbolic Power: BourdieuPublic Servant

Cultural Diplomat

Intellectual ImperialistThe Three Attitudinal Metaphors

Derived from WeberPatrimonial traditionalism combined with charisma

Ideal Traits of Public Servant, Mandarin ClassSubstantive rationality (higher order political end values)Aspires to gentlemanly idealTraditional ethos governing life & circle of contactsEthos: official duty & public weal (the public interest)Lives for the state, rather than from the state

ValuesPersonal qualities: resilience, independence of mind, intellectual prowess, sound judgement & discrimination, loyalty, integrityThrough moral courage speak truth to powerResponsibilities tied to legitimacy of ruling elite (individual ministers of cabinet)Protected by anonymityOversees national interests for political authority

Authority & Role

Derived from Freeman, Arts of Power: Statecraft & Diplomacy (1997)Patrimonial traditionalism combined with instrumental, legal-rationality

Characteristics of Ideal DiplomatStrategic state interests (security, econ, political)Strategic & tactical master in international arenaPower ethos & formal, informal networks (overt & covert)Ethos: Manoeuverability through exaction, accommodation, appeasement, coercion, etc.Lives for the state, rather than from the stateValuesMedium of communication between statesAuthority to speak as representative & pursue state interestsScholars: informal diplomats of countries & disciplinary traditionsUniversities: site of formal & informal diplomatic activities & agent of foreign policy (sometimes: unwittingly, hidden curriculum, extension Cold War role)

Authority & Role

Derived from Max Weber(disenchanted) Entrepreneurial rationalismEssence of ImperialismEconomic HegemonyFormal rationality; suppresses value issues, indifference to endsEntrepreneur, leadership, or consultancy ideal (mercentary competitive self-interest)Ethos: efficiency & technical effectivenessLives from the state, rather than for the state

ValuesPersonal qualities: impersonal rules, objective competence, business-style mgmt, goal-oriented accountabilityAdherence to entrepreneurial leadership & obedience to political authorityHigh mobility between private & public sectorsTechnical managerial elite (new nomenklatura, technical intelligentsia or consultocracy)Value-for-money, cost-effectiveness & market testingAims at strategies of controlAre doers rather than thinkersAuthority & RoleI. Personal Level:Existential, Phenomenological, HermeneuticThe Metaphors Culturally Embodied32Does it close ones world negative Western stereotypeAbaya Complex

33Or, does it open a new world?Abaya Unveiled

Public Servant

Cultural Diplomat

Intellectual ImperialistAs Clothing

As Ceremonial Costume

Abaya Untouched (untouchable?)Two SolitudesAttitudes to abaya corresponding to metaphorsDimensions of The PersonalValuesIdentityProfessional QualitiesSocial InteractionValues: local culture dominates; serves new states strategic goalsIdentity: participant-observer (lives in liminality)Social Interaction: immersion, engagementProfessional Qualities: international standards ethno-hermeneutically reconstructed to meet local terms of respectPublic Servant(as foreign academic)Values: representative of ones own & local culture; mediates between 2-state strategic goalsIdentity: retains nationality engages with localSocial Interaction: mediated style of presentation of SelfProfessional Qualities: represents home qualities of professionalism

Cultural DiplomatValues: home values exclude local valuesIdentity: unchanged, in tension with local conditionsSocial Interaction: socialising locals into foreign patternsProfessional Qualities: replacing indigenous conceptions

Intellectual ImperialistII. Pedagogical Level:Hermeneutic, Interactional, Legitimating, ReproductiveDimensions of The PedagogicalScholarshipCurricular PrinciplesTeaching StylesFriere: colonisation through language (ontological & epistemological reconstruction)Giroux: hidden curriculumHabermas: communicative actionSaid: no clash of civilisationsEt alia

Additional critiquesInclusive Synthesised Scholarship: dialectically mutually informing intellectual historyCombined Western-Arab curriculum aimed at UAE national goals & independenceRecombinant teaching style inclusive of arab communicative interaction, sociability, temporally structured around calls for prayer

Public ServiceAl-Khalili, J. (2010) Pathfinders: Golden Age of Arabic ScienceCrone, P. (2005) Medieval Islamic Political ThoughtFreely, J. (2009) Aladdins Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic WorldLyons, J. (2009) The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western CivilizationMasood, E. (2009) Science & Islam: A HistoryMorgan, M. (2007) Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and ArtistsOLeary, D. (2003) Arabic Thought and Its Place in History

Lost History: The Wests Adoption of Arab Scholarshipsynthesised ScholarshipCommon Heritage: e.g., Plato, Aristotle(history, politics, sociology, cultural analysis)Arab Scholarship: e.g., Al-Farabi, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Khaldun, Islamic Humanist traditionWestern tradition built upon Arabic: e.g., Renaissance scholars, Weber, HeideggerDialogue between traditions or Attempt to subjugate arab scholarship: knowledge transfer unequal bi-directionalAims at educational reform serving international & local goalsTolerance of teaching style diversity

Cultural DiplomacyExclusive use Western scholarshipKnowledge transfer uni-directionalAlmost exclusive use western curric creating UAE dependencyEmiratis arent taught UAE history (golemisation of history & scholarly trads)Arab scholars used to illustrate western adoptionEnglish-language replacement of Arabic (religious implications)Globalised educ with strong market model: Hidden curriculum of capitalism & consumerismIntellectual ImperialismIII. Political Level:Entente, Rapprochement, or Global Monopolism?Dimensions of The PoliticalSocio-cultural ImpactSovereigntyGlobalisation/ CommercialisationThe Reproductive Role of Educational InstitutionMutually enriching, celebratory traditions, designed to sustain Emirati culture as priorityEstablishes distinctive Emirati scholarship & educationEducation to serve intellectual, cultural, religious, social, political and economic traditionsReproduction of modern Emirati social classes and status groups

Entente:Educational coalitions/ alliances between equals Multicultural society retaining its SolitudesSegregated education Western vs. IslamicWestern serving globalised & foreign interestsEntrenching tiered structure to society

Rapprochement:educational mutually beneficial evolutionNecrocapitalism dispossession modified to social or cultural death (Banerjee, 2008)Cultural & intellectual colonyCommodified educationReproduces foreign educational structures, governance, responsibilities, roles, practicesGlobal monopolism:exact educational market