The GCC’s Historical Struggle to Define National Identity Through Education

As the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states race to revise their school curricula and reinforce their respective national identities through education, it can be tempting to view this as a recent strategy borne of globalization anxieties. In reality, though, this trend is decades in the making. The effort to shape a sense of national belonging through schooling dates to the early years of state-building in the Gulf. Long before TikTok and transnational youth culture challenged state narratives, popular foreign ideologies—communism, socialism, Western liberalism, Muslim Brotherhood, and variants on Arab nationalism such as Nasserism and Ba’athism—competed for dominance in Gulf schools. The monarchical governments, nervous about the impact of such ideas, were thus urged to oversee textbook production and teachers’ instructions inside classrooms. The education field in the Gulf states has long served as a political battleground where identity, authority, and legitimacy were negotiated and fought over.

The Gulf’s Long History of Ideological Education

Before the founding of modern education in the Gulf, successive generations were educated through the kuttab system, which entailed reading the Qur’an, writing, and developing moral and social discipline. Teachers embodied authority and enforced disciplinary measures that mirrored broader tribal power structures. Learning through rote memorization prioritized obedience over creative thinking. While most teachers may not have consciously linked this pedagogy to the reproduction of the power structure, obedience, also framed as showing respect for the elderly, reproduced a social order built on submission to hierarchy and tradition in these settings. This experience cultivated a model for how future state-sponsored education would be mobilized to shape loyal citizens.

With the discovery of oil and the emergence of modern states in the mid-1900s, education was among the first areas to become a priority in the nation-building process. Funded by oil wealth, state-led education became a visible symbol of forward-looking aspirations. Yet beneath the surface, deeper power struggles were unfolding. Many GCC states relied on foreign teachers and curricula—often from Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, the countries most influenced by Arab nationalist ideologies at the time.

An ideological clash between politically active teachers and conservative Gulf rulers was only a matter of time. Arab nationalism, with its emphasis on secularism and anti-imperialist struggle, posed a threat to the foundations of the monarchies and their Western alliances. Teachers became unintentional—and sometimes intentional—ideological agents, challenging the state’s narrative of authority. Classroom materials celebrated figures like former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and even included anthems and symbols from foreign nations. The monarchs viewed this as a threat not only to their political survival but to the emerging national identity they sought to cultivate within the education system.

Fighting Ideology With Ideology

The education sphere soon became a space where external ideologies and domestic power dynamics played out. In the 1950s and 1960s, while still under nominal British rule, Qatar saw several rapid turnovers in education leadership. Directors and teachers were replaced not only for competence, but also for ideological alignment with the leadership. For example, when Arab nationalist sentiment surged, Qatar’s leadership shifted toward Muslim Brotherhood-aligned figures, who promoted a religious counter-identity in the classroom. This, too, brought political backlash and instability. What emerged was a pattern of politicizing the education field as a mechanism to strategically curb one ideological current with another.

This trend of politicization was hardly unique to Qatar. In Saudi Arabia, education was also used as a buffer against Arab nationalism and other secular ideologies. The Saudi state empowered conservative religious authorities to oversee textbooks, ensuring that religious teachings reinforced the monarchy’s legitimacy. When these teachings in turn led to religious extremism and international criticism, the Kingdom reoriented its curriculum to emphasize “moderate Islam,” patriotism, and loyalty to leadership. Similarly, in the UAE, education reforms have focused on national identity and civic values while promoting global competitiveness. State narratives around tolerance and coexistence are embedded within school programs, but always within boundaries that reaffirm state control.

Another dimension of the identity struggle played out in the sphere of girls’ education. Initially seen as a threat to traditional values and family structures, girls’ schooling required both a royal decree and a religious fatwa to become acceptable across society. Even then, it was rolled out cautiously, with some schools operating unofficially to allow space for retraction. Girls’ education marked not just a shift in policy, but a broader ideological battle: could the state develop without disrupting the social fabric and order?

Similar anxieties emerged across the region. In Saudi Arabia, a series of protests during the early 1960s against women’s education in the city of Buraydah demonstrated the level of societal resistance and skepticism. In Kuwait, public debate often centered on whether educating women would make them less desirable for marriage or disrupt gender dynamics. These cases underscore how education was never seen as an unalloyed good, but as a cultural battleground. The political approval of women’s education across the Gulf was often dependent on religious justifications and careful framing that emphasized their roles as future mothers and moral vessels.

A New Generation Confronts the Same Problem

Fast forward to the present, and the motivations behind curriculum supervision remain strikingly similar. In today’s world, the GCC states are no longer fending off Arab nationalism; they are instead preoccupied with global digital influences, liberal values, and transnational youth culture accessed through social media and other media outlets. In response, governments have revised textbooks, embedded values that promote loyalty, and emphasized national heritage. The education field continues to be seen not just as a public service, but also as a strategic tool for creating a sense of belonging in the face of rapid globalization.

The UAE has introduced character-building courses and AI literacy as part of its education reforms, all while reinforcing themes of national pride. Saudi Arabia’s and Qatar’s Vision 2030 includes education objectives aimed at fostering loyal citizens who can contribute to these states’ economic and global aspirations. Across the Gulf, the curriculum is not just a pedagogical tool, but a cultural and political one. In essence, the modern approach deliberately and strategically intertwines educational achievements and economic success as central pillars of the citizen’s national duties.

The history of education in the Gulf reveals that today’s identity-focused curriculum reforms are part of a much older state-building strategy. From the discipline of the kuttab to the ideological challenges of the mid-20th century, Gulf states have long viewed education as a primary arena for shaping citizens. While today’s challenges may look different, with ideologues on popular social media platforms instead of Arab nationalists in the classroom, the stakes remain the same: political legitimacy, cultural coherence, and continuity of power. The question now is whether the state can continue to impose identity from above in a world where Gulf youth are constantly creating their own from below. This tension between decisionmakers and youth in the Gulf is likely to endure.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gulf International Forum.