The Arab World’s unique school-based reform project

Funded by the Arab Thought Foundation, and launched in 2007 on the basis of a memorandum of understanding signed between the Foundation and the American University of Beirut, TAMAM is a collaborative school-based educational reform project involving selected schools in the Arab World. 

An ideal opportunity for profound and sustainable change
Contrary to conventional reform efforts that impose or import reform, TAMAM is structured to promote “bottom up change with top down support”. It aims at analyzing the process of school improvement to identify enhancing and hindering factors and then communicates their findings to policymakers. TAMAM’s flexible design enables it to be responsive to the dynamic nature of school reform while recognizing and honoring cultural context. Its name derives from its purpose: it consists of the initials of “school-based reform” in Arabic (al-tatweer al-mustanid ila al-madrasa).

A new paradigm for school reform
TAMAM presents a new paradigm for school reform in the Arab World: developing a theory for long-term educational change grounded in school practices while building capacity for improvement. Too often, practitioners and scholars work in separate contexts - sometimes even at cross-purposes - despite the fact that they both aim at improving education quality. The need to link academia and school is critical, a need to which TAMAM is responding. Simply put, TAMAM is sowing the seeds for autonomous organically grown school-based reform.

A community of practice
TAMAM is building a community of practice connecting schools, universities, and ministries of education. The project was initially launched in 3 private schools in each of three countries (Kindgom of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Lebanon), and was later joined by 3 government schools in Lebanon. The project was initiated by Dr. Sally Al Turki, Dr. Saouma BouJaoude, and Dr. Murad Jurdak. Currently, an AUB team that includes Dr. BouJaoude, Dr. Jurdak, Dr. Rima Karami, and Ms. Mary Saad oversees the ongoing development and implementation of the project. The AUB team is joined by Dr. Zalpha Ayoubi as the public schools coordinator and assisted by a group of AUB research assistants. Representatives from universities and ministries of education in the three countries participate and support all the project activities.

A long-term project with secure funding
TAMAM has secured long-term funding from the Arab Thought Foundation. TAMAM’s financing is also distinct: its budget expenditure decisions are educationally-driven, made by a university team of educational experts. It is the first education research and development project to earn funding by the Arab Thought Foundation.

Professional development that changes habits of mind
TAMAM is building school practitioners’ capacity with inquiry and reflective skills and empowering them with new habits of mind. By liberating themselves from the mentality of learned passivity, practitioners are prepared to become active learners and knowledge producers. Over-dependence on experts to initiate and drive school improvement efforts, as project participants are beginning to realize, is viewed as insufficient.

Creating transformation in school culture
By working directly with school practitioners and expanding their perception of team work potential, TAMAM is transforming school culture. Collaboration, open sharing, de-privatization of practice, systematic documentation of experiences, and gathering evidence for decision-making and planning are only some of the competencies project participants are being coached to acquire. Such activities empower practitioners with the knowledge and motivation needed to take action and initiate improvement.

Reflection for learning and action for the university team
TAMAM is a project in which reflection for learning and action is meant to be critical, creative, and on-going. This reflection helps TAMAM’s team of AUB professors and researchers gain new insights as they monitor the process of school improvement. Such insights inform their actions toward building capacity for school-based reform as well as their efforts toward developing an evidence-based theory of school reform. Ongoing reflection is thus serving as the root for capacity development, decision-making, and theory formation.

An effort that is gaining interest and momentum
For TAMAM, schools’ dedication to stay with the project and to include more people has been an excellent indicator of success. Schools’ ongoing participation, entailing spent time and effort, proves that they recognize the value of actively acquired skills and the depth of changes that can result from them. Even innovative schools that had received various forms of prior training found TAMAM training to be a unique and entirely new experience and gave them skills and insights that enabled them to look at their practice critically.