Between global and national prescriptions for education administration: the rocky road of neoliberal education reform in Qatar

Utilizing a framework derived from institutional analysis, this paper examines the implementation of Qatar's education reform initiative dubbed "Education for a New Era - ENE," This initiative transferred all public schools in Qatar into Charter Schools, called "Independent Schools," starting 2004, and granted them broad decision-making authorities in pedagogical, managerial, and financial matters. By 2016, however, education administration reverted to centralized control. This study argues that the ENE initiative included contradictions that impeded the achievement of its main goals. Furthermore, the initiative was caught between global and national prescriptions for education and its role in society, which raised bureaucratic as well as popular resentment against it.