Exploring the Perceptions of Egyptian Hotel Management Educators Toward Teaching Alcohol Service

Abstract

Most of the food and beverage syllabi taught in institutions offering hospitality education cover alcoholic beverages service. Besides teaching this theoretically, practical training on bar work may be provided to give students the needed practical experience preparing them to real work life. However, "alcohol in the class" has been argued as a controversial topic. Teaching alcohol in a country with a Muslim majority could be a sensitive issue. Whereas Islam prohibits not only alcohol drinking, but handling as well. This presents a contentious issue for those educators responsible for delivering this course. This paper opted to explore how academics perceive teaching alcohol, a topic that was not studied before. An Arabic questionnaire was distributed to a number of educators in public and private universities and institutions delivering hospitality education. The survey covered some personal and background questions, in addition to the survey drinking history, attitudes toward teaching of alcohol service, self-perception of religiosity. Results indicated a difference between male and female educators' attitudes toward teaching both alcohol service classes and laboratories. However, a correlation between religiosity and attitudes toward teaching is not evident. Furthermore, a significant association between career advice and perceptions of importance of service classes was found. Similarly, the association between career advice and perceptions of importance of service laboratories proved to be statistically significant.