Educational administration challenges in the destabilised and disintegrating states of Syria and Yemen: the intersectionality of violence, culture, ideology, class/status group and postcoloniality in the Middle East

This chapter examines internationalising the educational administration field to include countries classified as conflict zones by international agencies, and the conditions under which school communities operate. To achieve this, a new type of intersectionality theory is proposed that includes the conditions and factors of ‘collapsed’ or ‘disintegrating’ states like Syria and Yemen experiencing high levels of conflict and humanitarian crises. The purpose of this chapter is threefold in covering populations rarely represented in the literature: 1) conditions in Syria and Yemen and the region that are extreme and life-threatening where trauma is systemic and access to resources and infrastructure is limited or no longer exists; 2) identity-based, Western-based intersectionality theory modified to include educational experience in high conflict zones characterised by extreme violence and human rights violations; 3) recommendations and guidelines developed for education by the UN and NGOs during crisis and wartime, and the difficult circumstances of reconstruction after sufficient peace is established.