International and Qatari Students’ Experiences of Educational Reform in the 21st Century

Qatar is situated on the Arabian Peninsula. It was once under British rule and was a low income country known for pearl oyster fishing. Over recent decades, Qatar has relinquished itself from British authority and has evolved into an independent state with substantial oil and gas revenues, placing Qatar’s Gross Domestic Product at $166 billion. Globally, it is recognised as one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Economic prosperity and expanding globalisation have resulted in an influx of foreign workers, forcing Qatar into an information and technology revolution that has impacted its education system and caused investment in several educational reforms. Hence, the study aimed to gauge whether the educational reforms adequately prepared international and Qatari students for the 21st century and whether they contributed to developing positive attitudes towards learning and achievement in a Qatari classroom. This research was designed as a qualitative enquiry that utilised a phenomenological case study approach within the social constructivism and social learning theory framework. The purposive sampling method was used to select thirty Year 12 participants: twenty Qatari and ten expatriate students. Data was collected through interviews, focus groups and classroom observations and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The study findings revealed that these educational changes have not been as successful as envisioned and have had no positive effect on Qatari classrooms. The results of this study addressed the lack of research available in a Qatari classroom. They suggested that more research is needed into Qatari scholars to provide comparable data for future exploration.