Loyd, Daisy;
Garces-Bacsal, Rhoda Myra;
Aina, Clementina;
Butti Al Maktoum, Sana;
Ahmed, Amani;
Walker, Zachary;
(2023)
Examining culturally responsive inclusive education practices in mainstream schools in the United Arab Emirates: A preliminary study to trial an evidence-based framework.
Disability and the Global South (DGS)
, 10
(1)
pp. 2283-2306.
Preview |
Text
Examining culturally reponsive practices in the UAE - DGS.pdf - Published Version Download (368kB) | Preview |
Abstract
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has adopted ambitious policies and strategic plans to enable inclusive education in mainstream schools across the country. With the largest population of immigrant students of all countries and an ethnically diverse teaching workforce, there is a need to explore the extent to which teaching practices are not only inclusive but also reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of students with special educational needs in schools. This preliminary study trials the use of the Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy (CRTSE) scale as a tool to benchmark culturally responsive teaching practices for students with special educational needs in the UAE and identify areas for development. Data were collected from 24 teachers through a survey and semi-structured group and individual interviews and analysed using descriptive statistics and a systematic qualitative analysis. The findings suggest that teachers are using culturally responsive teaching practices. Teachers report higher frequency in creating an enabling learning environment and developing positive relationships but lower frequency in practices that involve specific cultural knowledge such as knowing how to differentiate the curriculum, instruction and assessment and use a student’s native language to meet the linguistic and learning needs of students. The interviews corroborated these findings and enabled vital contextual insights into the nature of cultural and linguistic diversity in mainstream classrooms in the UAE as well as specific examples from practice about how cultural and linguistic diversity intersects with special educational needs. Implications for practice and further research are considered.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Examining culturally responsive inclusive education practices in mainstream schools in the United Arab Emirates: A preliminary study to trial an evidence-based framework |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://disabilityglobalsouth.files.wordpress.com/... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License |
| Keywords: | Inclusive education; UAE; culturally responsive practices; teacher selfefficacy |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10178720 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
