The rhetoric and reality of aid: promoting educational technology in Egypt

This paper examines a US foreign aid project to promote use of new technologies in Egyptian education. Though the project sought to improve teaching and learning, an examination of implementation indicates how goals of Westernization ended up taking precedence. These included a focus on bringing Egyptian educators to the US and on showcasing US hardware and software. This underlying emphasis on Westernization weakened the project’s potential contribution to educational improvement. However, grass roots Egyptian teacher educators found ways to assert their own voices in the project through small-scale and locally appropriate uses of technology.