literature review on education reform in the uae

Literature Review on Education Reform in the UAE

A. Matsumoto

Mar 13, 2019

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International Journal of Educational Reform

Key Takeaway : The UAE struggles to align market-driven academic goals with dominant cultural paradigms, highlighting the need for future research on education reform.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a wealthy and relatively new country attempting to achieve top tier global status in education. A literature review of education reform efforts in the UAE reveals remarkably limited research on the subject. Existing studies show the a country is struggling to align market-driven academic goals with dominant cultural paradigms. A transition away from a reliance on a formerly lucrative petroleum industry raises the stakes of their academic outcomes. This literature review uses terms explored in Comparative Education such as policy borrowing to explain the government’s approach to reform, and suggests areas for future research.

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Language policy in higher education in the United Arab Emirates: proficiency, choices and the future of Arabic

Original Paper
Published: 08 April 2020
Volume 20 , pages 215–236, ( 2021 )

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literature review on education reform in the uae

Afaf Al-Bataineh ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0929-4530 1

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This article explores the linguistic tension resulting from the English-medium instruction policy at a state university in the UAE. The article is informed by a critical theoretical approach that views language policy from the vantage point of both Arabic and English. It argues that, contrary to the stated national and institutional goals, the current language policy and its implementation are depleting the linguistic capital of the nation. Data drawn from multiple sources show that English-medium instruction is incompatible with the students’ low levels of proficiency in English; that the implementation of the institution’s bilingual policy is geared towards the development of English only; and that a monolingual conceptualisation underpins institutional practices, thus contributing to Arabic language loss in the education domain. The article proposes that higher education in the country be linguistically diversified in order to achieve the goals of higher education and to protect the linguistic rights of local citizens.

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Al-Bataineh, A. Language policy in higher education in the United Arab Emirates: proficiency, choices and the future of Arabic. Lang Policy 20 , 215–236 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-020-09548-y

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Issue Date : May 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-020-09548-y

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Education Reform in the UAE: An Investigation of Teachers’ Views of Change and Factors Impeding Reforms in Ras Al Khaimah Schools

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A number of educational reforms were initiated in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2006. Abu Dhabi spearheaded these reforms by setting up the Public Private Partnership (PPP) School Improvement Project in 2006. In cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), the Ministry of Education (MOE) engaged private education providers to share international best practices and improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools across the emirate of Abu Dhabi (Thorne, 2011). In 2007, Dubai launched Madares Al Ghad (Schools of Tomorrow) in collaboration with the MOE, and forty- four schools across the Emirates were targeted for training, professional development, and reform (Farah & Ridge, 2009). The primary goal was a move from rote learning to learner-centered education by employing a new curriculum, assessment framework, and teaching methodology. Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi assumed executive functions in Ras Al Khaimah in 2003. Part of his vision for developing the emira...

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Early childhood is a critical period in our social, cognitive, linguistic, emotional, and self-regulatory development, and extensive research has been conducted on children’s overall developmental processes, influencing factors, and their lifelong impacts. Research suggests the over-arching significance of supporting children’s early development through caregiver-child communication, social interactions, and play. Such interactions and opportunities for development in children’s early years are critical for later academic achievement and well-being. Moreover, the positive long-term effects of high-quality early childhood education (ECE), in particular on children’s development, as well as the economic, social, and cultural development of communities on a larger scale, have been extensively documented.In the Arab Gulf region, especially in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), little research has been done to document and analyze ECE quality, practices, and their impacts. This case study focuses on the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, investigating the scope of programs and their quality, challenges, and opportunities for growth and improvement. The study found and documented extreme variations in the quality of early childhood education centers (ECECs) in the emirate and highlights the need to improve ECE policies, practices, and facilities by adopting recognized international standards, best practices, and support structures. This paper goes on to present data-driven policy recommendations to improve the quality of ECECs in Ras Al Khaimah and the greater UAE.

Policy Paper No. 6

Over the course of one academic year, the author documented the experiences of new first-year male Emirati students at a college of higher education in a rural location of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using the metaphor of a cultural border crossing, he found that the congruency between the pre-dominantly Arabic life-world associated with Emirati families and government schooling and the largely dominant Western/English language culture in institutes of higher education was broadly related to the students’ self-perceived level of preparedness for academic study and the competence of Emirati students in their second language, English. Four types of border crossing experiences were described – smooth, managed, difficult, and impossible – with easier and smoother crossing experiences associated with close congruency between the two different cultures. Suffering from the effects of neo-indigeneity, absent parents, poor secondary school experiences, and a disempowering ‘rentier effect’, the author found that the failure of male Emirati students to make satisfactory border crossings to college life initiated a process of departure manifested by high absenteeism leading to eventual withdrawal. This occurred more frequently with students placed in the lower levels of an academic bridge program where cultural and linguistic ‘discomfort’ were felt the most - 66% of the new students left college during the year with a staggering 97% drop-out rate in the lowest level alone. Mainly Western teachers who developed a classroom culture based on ‘warm demandingness’ and caring rapport-building appeared to have the most positive impact upon the students. The development of students’ soft-skills in a new experiential learning program was assessed using a Mental Toughness Questionnaire which surprisingly produced lower post-test scores, indicating greater self-awareness and honesty. A key emerging question asks - whose interests are being served (or not) by compelling first-language students to cross cultural borders into higher education colleges and asking them to study using the dominant second-language of English?

Susan Kippels , Soha Shami

In the face of rising demand for private schooling in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, a lack of affordable schooling options, monopolistic behavior of private education providers, and unpredictable government regulations have created a complex and unequal education sector. This research employs a mixed methods comparative approach to explore the ways in which private education providers navigate the regulatory schooling environments and assess the impact on education stakeholders in the UAE and Qatar. The study finds that there are considerable socioeconomic differences in terms of who has access to schooling and that a growing for-profit education sector may be deepening existing inequities in both countries, leaving poorer expatriate families only able to access low-quality education or in the worst cases, unable to access education at all. The promise of non-profit providers as a viable alternative to ensure access is explored.