Research
The AUB team members are currently working on three studies:
“The TAMAM Project: Developing a culturally grounded model for building self-renewing schools”
This first study presents the TAMAM Project as a new reform attempt in the Arab world that combines research to development in bringing about and supporting school based initiatives for school improvement. It outlines the initiation stages of the Project from the perspectives of the Project initiators and participants. It also depicts the culturally specific factors that shaped the conceptualization and design of this Project. The main focus of the paper is a comparative analysis of the TAMAM Project to the current trends of educational reform in the Arab World. The paper concludes with a critical analysis of the Project in light of the international theoretical literature on school reform.
“Impact of collaborative action research on inquiry skills, habits of mind, and orientations toward action research and collaboration: The case of a school-based project in an Arab context”
This study investigates the impact of engagement of TAMAM school teams in collaborative action research experience on targeted elements of habits of mind, specifically inquisitiveness, reflection, and evidential decisions and on orientations toward action research and collaboration. The paper analyzes how this is mediated by the school and project contextual factors.
“Building capacity for school-based improvement in the Arab World: Challenges faced and lessons learned”
The third study examines the process of designing and implementing the professional development program adopted within the TAMAM Project by analyzing the challenges faced during the implementation stage and how they were addressed. The purpose of this paper is to generate recommendations to inform future attempts for professional development for school improvement based on the lessons learned from this experience.