The condition of education in Egypt is driven by the management of the socioeconomic sphere by successive regimes and their ideological and strategic directions. In the late Mubarak era, the three features of crony neoliberalization, a weak informalized state and a deficit of legitimacy shape the practices of everyday governance and legitimation examined in the schools. This chapter sketches the political and economic context of the late Mubarak era and the ideological transition from Arab socialism to neoliberal Islamism. It provides essential background on tracking, quality and equity in the education sector, especially as crystalized in secondary schooling, and outlines the historical evolution of nationalist and ideological narratives as reflected in textbooks and schools and the securitization and Islamization of education. Finally, it describes the key attributes of the research sites and respondents in the two phases of research before and after the uprising, the key methodological issues involved in conducting the research in schools, the selection and analysis of textbooks and the most significant limitations of the research.

The chapter presents the setting in which the FA was born and in which it developed over the years. The combination of the exhaustion of the ISI model, increasing political polarization and the height of the Cold War dramatically determined the political dynamics of the late 1960s and 1970s and engendered a context of increasing authoritarianism and political violence. The fight against increasingly repressive governments was a significant incentive for the new party. Public opposition to the neoliberal agenda of the different governments that succeeded the authoritarian regime (1971–1985) also contributed to the FA’s increasingly successful electoral. In 2005, the FA gained office and won three consecutive national elections with an absolute majority in parliament. It was one of the most successful parties of the so-called “left turn.” During its time in government, the party enacted structural reforms in various policy areas. In terms of socioeconomic reforms, the FA approved a tax reform, a health-care reform, and was one of the two parties of the “left turn” that enacted deep labor market reforms. The FA also pursued a distinctive progressive agenda in the region that led to the legalization of abortion, same-sex marriage, and the liberalization of cannabis use.