Examining culturally responsive inclusive education practices in mainstream schools in the United Arab Emirates: A preliminary study to trial an evidence-based framework

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