ABSTRACT
Teacher quality is at the center of national policies worldwide related to improving education quality. The topic of education quality is not new to global educational discourse, yet the focus on individual teacher quality as a key requirement for achieving national education quality indicates a permanent shift in the global discourse. Most Arabian Gulf states are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which is a pan-Gulf union of countries focused on improving the economic and socio-political status of the region and member countries. The rationale for establishing teacher certification requirements in national education systems worldwide is often linked with discussions about and expectations to define, estimate, and measure teacher quality. The existing literature on international comparisons of teacher quality have predominantly focused on teacher education and certification. Results from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) indicate that although 90 percent of teachers sampled in participating educational systems completed a teacher training program.
