The worldwide shift towards a knowledge society and information based economy requires educational policy makers to re-evaluate their understanding of the knowledge and skills students need in order to achieve national development goals. This shift has influenced curriculum development, teacher preparation, and the role of formal schooling in creating lifelong learners and an educational culture, which reflects both national development interests and global norms. The Arabian Gulf countries, which largely comprise the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries, include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Most of these Gulf countries have embarked on bold national experiments to pilot technology and teaching in their schools as a way to transition to knowledge societies. Their national interests and expectations have increasingly focused on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education and both the regional and global context in which Gulf societies, economies, and political systems operate.

The focus of this book is not whether schooling prepares youth for future work. Instead, the focus of this book is on how schooling for work has become a global phenomenon and a concerted project of nations. The importance of this phenomenon for schooling is that while there is often little direct empirical evidence linking schooling and the broader economy, there is an important link nonetheless. For example, the global triumph of capitalism through free-market trade and industry (even in officially socialist nations) is a testament to the overwhelming importance of economic competitiveness and labour market participation for individuals, communities, and nations alike. It is the national economy, however, which has the greatest potential impact on the largest number of individuals and their communities -- not vice versa. So, it is often at the national level where the most discussion, planning, and policymaking occur related to schooling for work. Why? Because the direction that the national economy follows dictates in many instances the direction that communities' and individuals' economic fortunes go within that nation. Readers will find that this book looks predominantly at global phenomena resulting from the interplay between nations.