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Qatar Collarborative

Texas A&M University and Qatar University

Collaborative:

Qatar Teacher Education Program

Faculty in the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University has entered a collaborative partnership with faculty at the University of Qatar to develop a Post-Baccalaureate Primary Teacher Preparation Program. Participating faculty members include Dr. Dennie Smith (TLAC Department Head), Dr. Zohreh Eslami-Rasekh (TLAC professor), Dr. R. Malt Joshi (TLAC professor), Dr. Dawn Parker (TLAC professor), Dr. William Rupley (TLAC professor), Dr. Mark Sadoski (TLAC professor), Dr. Stephanie Knight (EPSY professor), and Dr. Patricia Lynch (EPSY professor). Dr. Douglas Palmer (Executive Associate Dean) serves as principal investigator. "This is an extraordinary opportunity for Texas A&M to expand its international presence and to provide educational and research opportunities for our faculty and students," said Texas A&M University president, Dr. Robert Gates. "It will foster greater understanding among future leaders in the Middle East and the U.S."

The projected project timeline follows a four-year plan:

2004-2005 Design and Development of Program Courses
2005-2006 1st Year Implementation of Course Sequence
2006-2008 2nd and 3rd Year Implementation Phase

The teacher education program was developed congruently with Qatar University and TAMU faculty. TAMU faculty in will teach classes in teacher education beginning in the fall of 2006 at the Qatar University.

In September of 2004, participating TAMU faculty members visited Doha, Qatar (see pictures below).

The plans for this Qatar project began not long after Texas A&M University and the Qatar Foundation took a bold, far-reaching step into the future by entering into a 10-year agreement to bring quality engineering education and research to Qatar in May 2003. The Texas A&M branch campus will be part of the 2,400 acre multi-institutional campus known as Education City. This city is Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Mis sned’s (Consort of the Emir and Chairperson of the Qatar Foundation) vision of the prototypical 21st century University, formed by inviting various institutions offering the best programs in their chosen fields to create a vision of a new educational zone which focuses on collaboration and integration of research and higher education programs.