Complexity of the Contexts - Features of Private Tutoring and Units for Comparison in the GCC Countries of the Middle East

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk

Private supplementary tutoring, widely known as shadow education, is increasingly visible across the globe, yet it has attracted limited attention in English-language research in the Middle East. This article maps key features of shadow education and explains how contextual forces shape it across the six GCC members—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Drawing on Arabic and English literature, it highlights the value of multiple comparison units.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

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Abstract

Introduction and Theoretical Framing

Context as a Key to Understanding Education

The Bray & Thomas Cube and Multilevel Analysis

Focus on the GCC and Comparative Scope

Member Countries and Diversity

Comparison with Other World Regions

Complexity of the Contexts: Features of Private Tutoring and Units for Comparison in the GCC Countries of the Middle East Mark Bray East China Normal University & The University of Hong Kong Anas Hajar (ﺃﻧﺲ ﺣﺠّ ﺎﺭ) Nazarbayev University ECNU Review of Education 2024, Vol. 7(1) 42–65 © The Author(s) 2022 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/20965311221113350](DOI: 10.1177/20965311221113350)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/20965311221113350)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe) Abstract Purpose: Private supplementary tutoring—widely known as shadow education because of the ways in which it mimics regular schooling—is increasingly visible across the globe. The Middle East is no exception, though the phenomenon has received relatively little attention in the English-language literature. This article maps some key features of shadow education, identifying ways in which contextual forces have shaped it. Design/Approach/Methods: The article focuses on patterns across and within the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. It draws on literature in both Arabic and English and shows the value of multiple units of comparison. Findings: Private tutoring has a long history as a signiﬁcant phenomenon in some GCC countries, but in others developed more recently. Some governments have had active policies to dampen the phenomenon, but with little success. Factors in the complex dynamics include social, economic and cultural forces. Corresponding author: Mark Bray, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China. Email: mbray@hku.hk Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as speciﬁed on the SAGE and Open Access page ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). Originality/Value: The article assembles literature from around the region, noting both commonalities and diversities among GCC members. It contributes to the global literature by providing the regional mapping from this speciﬁc part of the world and by showing comparisons with other world regions. Keywords Cultural forces, Gulf Cooperation Council, Middle East, policies, private tutoring, shadow education Date received: 28 February 2022; revised: 1 June 2022; accepted: 6 June 2022 At the outset of the 20th century, Sir Michael Sadler (1900, p. 309), widely viewed as a key historical ﬁgure in the ﬁeld of comparative education (Phillips, 2020), stressed the importance of context for understanding the nature of education. In an oft-quoted phrase, he wrote (p. 310) that: In studying foreign systems of Education we should not forget that the things outside the schools matter even more than the things inside the schools, and govern and interpret the things inside. In the same vein, a century later Crossley and Jarvis (2001, p. 405) stressed in the journal Comparative Education “the signiﬁcance of context, at all levels and in many forms,” and particularly the tensions between the global and the local. Both works also highlighted the importance of historical analysis.“A national system of Education,” wrote Sadler (1900, p. 310),“is a living thing, the outcome of forgotten struggles and difﬁculties and ‘of battles long ago,’” and in echo, Crossley and Jarvis (2001, p. 406) stressed “the importance of a sense of history in understanding our various worlds.” The present paper, taking these

FAQs

What is “shadow education” in this article?

Shadow education refers to private supplementary tutoring that mimics regular schooling patterns. The article treats it as an increasingly visible phenomenon in the Middle East.

Which countries are included in the GCC focus?

The six GCC members studied are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

How does the article analyze shadow education?

It draws on Arabic and English literature and emphasizes multiple units of comparison. It also uses multilevel analysis informed by the Bray and Thomas cube alongside historical and contextual dimensions.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk