ABSTRACT
In the context of a series of educational policy reforms over recent years, including the Bahrain Vision 2030 and the ten-year 2014–2024 National HE Strategy and Skills plan, this chapter argues that neoliberalism has become a buzzword for nation building in Bahrain. Specifically, taking into account broad political and economic shifts towards a more globalised knowledge economy, the language of which is English, social and demographic shifts and regional and global influences on local policy, it shows how ‘international policy borrowing’ has produced ‘political incoherence’ (Hayes Mansour, 2017) in terms of English language learning as well as social inequalities within and between actors, while the government plays the role of front runner in development terms.
