understanding the lived experiences of saudi arabia's female early childhood educators

231 Pages·2017·1.22 MB·English

COMPOSING JOURNEYS:
UNDERSTANDING THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF
SAUDI ARABIA'S FEMALE EARLY CHILDHOOD
EDUCATORS
by
Balsam Alrasheed
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
Doctor of Education
in
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
(Educational Leadership and Policy)
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
(Vancouver)
May 2018
© Balsam Alrasheed, 2018
Abstract
Within the country of Saudi Arabia, all early childhood education (ECE) teachers in both public
and private schools are female. Despite this demographic fact, there has been little academic
study into their professional journeys, challenges, and ambitions. This study brings the voices of
these women forward. Through the methodological technique of “portrait” based narrative
inquiry inspired by cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, and building on the
framework of Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, this study explores how six
female educators working in Saudi Arabia's ECE have entered the field and negotiated their
professional journeys throughout the years.

In this study I argue that the narratives composed from the six women I interviewed illustrate the
complexities and contradictions that underpin Saudi Arabian ECE. The study reveals the
overwhelming influence of patriarchal norms, policies, and practices in Saudi Arabia and how
they intersect to shape the capacity of women educators to bring about social change, as well
as a restating of what it means to be a Saudi Arabian citizen, as daughters, siblings, wives,
mothers, and educators. These narratives challenge the perception of Saudi Arabian ECE as an
environment filled with apathetic teachers who are completely dominated by patriarchal systems
and unable or unwilling to engage productively in discussions of reform. At the same time, these
narratives offer a window into the world of subordinated women and the marginalization of their
pedagogical thought, particularly in an educational system that is frequently trapped in
centralized policies and where professional opportunity and upward mobility for women are
often limited. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the prospects and
contributions of ECE in Saudi Arabia are subsequently examined.
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Lay Summary
The goal of this work is to advance academic understanding of female educators working in
Saudi Arabia's Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector. A gap exists in the current literature
with respect to the ways in which women within Saudi Arabia choose ECE as a career and
navigate through the profession. This work analyzes the lives of six women in an effort to
embrace the complexity of their lived experience in the ECE profession and in terms of their
larger social and political interactions in Saudi Arabia. It is the author's hope that by listening to
the women who make up the backbone of Saudi Arabia's ECE system, their insights and
experiences will emerge as valuable; this in turn may shed light on ways in which the nation can
continue to improve the quality of its ECE by offering women an opportunity for greater
participation across civic and social spheres.
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Preface
This dissertation is the original, unpublished, and independent work conducted by the author,
Balsam Alrasheed.
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Table of Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................ii
Lay Summary............................................................................................................................iii
Preface.......................................................................................................................................iv
Table of Contents.......................................................................................................................v
List of Tables...........................................................................................................................viii
Acknowledgments....................................................................................................................ix
Dedication..................................................................................................................................x
Prologue.....................................................................................................................................1
1 Introduction............................................................................................................................4
1.1 The Links between Women and Saudi Arabian ECE Policy.............................................7
1.2 Embracing, Not Marginalizing, the Complexity of an ECE Teacher's Life ........................9
1.3 Significance of the Study................................................................................................11
2 Review of Literature.............................................................................................................15
2.1 The Mixed Objectives of Saudi Arabian ECE .................................................................16
2.2 The Demographics and Size of Saudi Arabia's ECE Workforce.....................................21
2.3 Complications Faced by Females as Part of the Saudi Arabian Workforce....................23
2.4 Complications Faced by Female Teachers ...................................................................29
2.5 Additional Obstacles to Quality Education and Curriculum Modification.........................31
2.6 An Emergence of Dissenting Voices and Expansion of Women's Rights........................36
2.7 Approaching the Notion of Child-Centredness in Saudi Arabian ECE.............................38
2.8 A Framework for Understanding Saudi Arabian ECE Teachers and Their Lives ............41
3 Theoretical Framework........................................................................................................43
3.1 Approaching ECE as an Ecological System...................................................................43
3.2 Critiques of Ecological Systems Theory and Suitability to Saudi Arabian ECE ..............51
3.3 Formulation of Research Questions ..............................................................................57
4 Methodology........................................................................................................................59
4.1 An Overview of Narrative Inquiry and Its Suitability to the Research .............................60
4.2 Limitations of Narrative Inquiry as a Methodology .........................................................66
4.3 Phases of Research and Selection Criteria....................................................................67
4.4 The Process of Composing Narratives through Interviews.............................................70
4.5 Interview Questions .......................................................................................................73
4.6 Limitations of the Study..................................................................................................74
4.7 Ethical Considerations ...................................................................................................75
4.8 Description of the Participants........................................................................................78
4.9 Emergence of Themes and Composing Roles...............................................................80
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5 Findings................................................................................................................................84
5.1 Early Childhood and the First Steps into Early Childhood Education ............................85
5.1.1 Memories of the Early Childhood Home..................................................................85
5.1.2 Early Childhood Education through the Eyes of the Women as Children .............88
5.1.3 Steps into Saudi Arabian ECE as Young Professionals..........................................93
5.2 Classroom Challenges and Successes as Educators.....................................................98
5.2.1 Saudi Arabian ECE: From Theory to Practice.........................................................98
5.2.2 Negotiating ECE Curriculum: Strategies, Challenges, and Successes.................103
5.2.3 Finding Success beyond the Walls of the ECE Classroom ..................................105
5.3 Interactions with Educational Stakeholders..................................................................110
5.3.1 Thoughts on Fellow Teachers................................................................................110
5.3.2 Encounters with the Ministry of Education and Its Curriculum...............................114
5.3.3 Interactions with Parents.......................................................................................121
5.3.4 Moments of Successful Negotiations with Policy-makers......................................125
5.4 Personal Philosophy and Pedagogy.............................................................................128
5.4.1 Children’s Needs ..................................................................................................128
5.4.2 The Image of the Child .........................................................................................132
5.4.3 Learning from Students.........................................................................................135
5.5 Links to Womanhood, Motherhood, and Gender in Saudi Arabian ECE.......................138
5.5.1 Exploring the Notion of Males in Saudi Arabian ECE............................................138
5.5.2 The Importance of Solidarity among Women........................................................141
5.5.3 The Saudi Arabian ECE Teacher as a Wife and Mother........................................143
5.6 Personal Aspirations and Thoughts on the Future of ECE............................................146
5.6.1 Short to Medium-Term Personal Aspirations.........................................................147
5.6.2 Visions of Saudi Arabia's Future ECE...................................................................151
5.6.3 Is It a Good Time to Be an ECE Teacher?.............................................................154
5.6.4 Shaping Saudi Arabian Citizenry and Culture through ECE..................................156
6 Discussion..........................................................................................................................160
6.1 The Concept of ECE and “Women's Work” in Saudi Arabia..........................................161
6.2 The Difficulty of Challenging Patriarchy in Saudi Arabian ECE.....................................164
6.3 Dissent in ECE: Movement into and out of the Curriculum...........................................168
6.4 Visions of Success in Saudi Arabian ECE....................................................................174
6.5 Connections to Bronfenbrenner’s Theoretical Framework............................................177
6.6 Thoughts on the Nature of Power in Saudi Arabian ECE .............................................178
6.7 Significance of the Study, Revisited..............................................................................181
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6.8 Thoughts on the Relational Aspects of EdD Research ................................................184
6.9 Limitations of the Study................................................................................................185
6.10 Areas of Future Research ..........................................................................................186
6.11 Final Thoughts............................................................................................................188
References ............................................................................................................................189
Appendices............................................................................................................................215
Appendix A: Comparison of Child-Centered ECE Methods & Philosophies.........................215
Appendix B: Interview Data.................................................................................................218
Appendix C: Examples of Interview Questions....................................................................219

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List of Tables
Table 1: A summary of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems................................................ 51
Table 2: Description of the study participants..........................................................................80
viii
Acknowledgments
I want to give my most sincere thanks to my advisory committee: Dr. Marilyn Chapman, Dr.
Linda Farr Darling, and especially Dr. André Mazawi for his insights and clarity in helping me
along my journey in the research and writing of this dissertation.
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Dedication
This work would not have been possible without the passion and support of so many others who
helped me to find my path. I want to thank my husband, Mohammed; my children, Bader and
Yaser; my parents; my siblings, Maysoon, Abdullrahman, Basma, Abdalmjeed, Abdulaziz, and
Omar; and all of my nieces and nephews for surrounding me with love and support.
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