OPEN FILE The politics of educational transfer and policymaking in Egypt Ali S. Ibrahim Published online: 20 November 2010 Ó UNESCO IBE 2010 Abstract For the past two centuries, western modern education has informed education policies and practices in Egypt. However, few researchers have analyzed the historical or current politics of educational transfer in this country. This article investigates the ways in which foreign transfer has influenced Egyptian education, both historically and currently. It concludes that current Egyptian education is a product of inappropriately adapted foreign transfers coupled with domestic interest in spreading education with little attention to its quality. Egypt has recently received considerable support from the international commu- nity and has been influenced by global educational discourses. Yet, its educational reforms have met little, if any, success as they have been introduced into a system with charac- teristics that are historically ingrained and resistant to change, and into a contested context of competing interest groups and a climate of mistrust. The result is a disoriented education system full of problems. Keywords Education policymaking Á Educational transfer Á Egypt Á Donor community Introduction Since the early nineteenth century, western modern education has informed educational policies and practices in Egypt. However, very little research has analyzed the historical or current politics of educational policymaking in relation to educational transfer in this country; this study is an attempt to fill that gap. Educational transfer in Egypt, during the last two centuries, is viewed as having occurred during four periods delineated by political and social transformations: during the reign of Muhammad Ali and his grandson Isma’il (1805–1879), under British occupation and during the semi-independence period (1882–1952), under the socialist reign of Nasser (1952–1970), and since the ‘open door’ policy of Sadat (1970–2010). I divide my discussion of educational transfer into two A. S. Ibrahim (&) Faculty of Education, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, P.O. Box 17551, United Arab Emirates e-mail: ibrahim6@gmail.com 123 Prospects (2010) 40:499–515 DOI 10.1007/s11125-010-9173-3