The question of SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) diasporic identity formation has been widely debated in area studies, ethnic studies, and the burgeoning field of Arab American Studies with scholars such as Sarah Gualtieri (2009), Nadine Naber (2012), and Neda Maghbouleh (2017) arguing that people of SWANA descent are racial minorities…

This study investigated the differences between Arab and American distance learners' preference in the 2 components of transactional distance (structure and interaction) and their relation to learners' self-efficacy and help seeking. The study sample consisted of 95 cases from each group (N = 190). Study results indicated significant differences…

In this chapter, critical race and expectancy violation theories are used to deconstruct students' resistance to a female faculty member of color, a Muslim Arab American who wears the traditional Islamic cover. The author provides a narrative of her teaching experience and some techniques she has used to face such resistance.

Preservice teachers read poetry by Langston Hughes and an Arab American student about being American, then composed and discussed their own poems. Poems helped them reflect on their own cultures and attitudes, thus developing a caring community of learners who valued diversity and human rights. Investigating cultural characteristics,…

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an especially entrenched ethno-national stalemate. The upsurges of violence in the Middle East provide flashpoints for tension among Arabs, Jews and other students on college campuses. The author presents methods for facilitating dialogue between these groups in the form of a psychologically informed,…

To what extent is American business education "hegemonic" in the Arab world? To answer this, the authors examine whether Lebanese people exposed to American-style business education share the values implicit in their textbooks and teaching resources. Finding evidence for such values among Lebanese business students and working people…

With more than a dozen American universities opening branches and campuses on the Persian Gulf, the oil-rich emirates of the Arabian peninsula are threatening to dethrone cities like Cairo, Baghdad, and Beirut as the academic centers of the Middle East. Wealthy, safe, and relatively stable, these emirates are vying to become the new intellectual…

As protesters across the Arab world demand an end to autocratic regimes that have drained universities of resources and suffocated critical thinking, scholars see some hope of an Arab renaissance and a new opening for American involvement. From the ancient Library of Alexandria to a new Islamic-arts museum in Qatar that holds 700-year-old…

This paper examines ideologies of American study abroad in politically and culturally "non-Western" countries. Drawing from the theory of orientalism (Said, 1978), we analyze how American public discourse on study abroad for learners of Mandarin and Arabic manifests an orientalist thinking, and how such macro discourse both produces…

Many countries are challenged by the need to build both capacity and quality simultaneously in order to meet the accelerating needs of their society. Should what already exists be renovated, or should new institutions be created? Innovate from within or from without? Or perhaps some combination of both? In the U.S., postsecondary…

Dubai has long competed with its wealthy Persian Gulf neighbors to become a regional hub of higher education. Yet its Knowledge Village, a collection of nearly 20 foreign-university campuses and local educational institutes, has been overshadowed by Qatar's Education City, which is home to the branch campuses of a number of high-profile American…

American university globalization has increasingly targeted and been courted by authoritarian states. While the reasons for these partnerships are manifold--including the ease of top-down large-scale monetary investment, "knowledge economy" development strategies, social engineering programs, and other corporate and imperial…

Since at least the early 1990s, Arab governments have made women's participation in higher education a priority. Across the region, young women fill the crowded lecture halls and bustling courtyards of universities. On many campuses, they outnumber men. But women's increased participation in higher education does not necessarily translate into…

The author recently served on a five-member international review panel for Saudi Arabia's National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment. The panel's mission was to evaluate the Arab Open University against the commission's accreditation criteria to determine if the university should be eligible for King Abdullah's national…

This paper describes an exploratory study investigating the impact of problem-based learning and clicker technology as active learning strategies at the American University of Sharjah Library, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Studies compared traditional and active learning classes. The present article maps the successes and challenges of these unique…