Corporatisation of Education: Performativity and its Impact on Saudi Female ELT Teachers’ Performance and Identity

Abstract

This thesis offers an examination of the introduction of performance management systems and other audit mechanisms imported from the business world to monitor and control teachers and teaching in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In this paper, I attempt to explain the phenomenon of performativity as one of the manifestations of neoliberal ideology at a macro level. I trace its origins back to the 1970s and link it to other major international economies such as WTO, IMF, and the World Bank. Adopting a critical qualitative research model (CQR), I examine the demands of performativity, how Saudi female English language teaching (ELT) teachers perceive them, and their impact on performance and identity. I took a qualitative approach, deriving data largely from epistemic interviews, participants’ classroom observations and field notes. The examination of existing scholarship, which assimilates performative mechanisms into a narrative of efficiency and productivity, reveals a mismatch within the reality of Saudi public schools. Sociopolitical theories are used in the analysis stage as an analytical tool to position the issue in a wider sociopolitical context.