From Disabling Concepts to Enabling Policies: Rethinking Inclusion of Students with Special Needs in Dubai’s Private Schools
Date
2019-09-19
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Abstract
Inclusion of students with special needs in schools is an area that has gained attention in the city of Dubai over the last decade. Educational practitioners and policy-makers call for more inclusive practices across Dubai’s schools, including the private sector. Through this study, I sought to examine the phenomenon of how inclusion of students with special needs is understood, implemented, and enforced across private schools in the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The purpose of this study was to examine, through interviewing private school administrators and policy-makers in Dubai’s education sector and by analyzing policy and legal documents, what inclusion means to key agents, which in turn affects its enforcement (by the government authority) and its implementation (by the private school administrators and practitioners). Using constructivist grounded theory methodology, data were collected through policy documents, strategic plans, surveys, and intensive interviews. After the data were coded and analyzed, five key findings emerged that explain that inclusion is implemented and enforced through: (a) the social model of inclusion in Dubai, (b) curriculum modifications, (c) strategic partnerships, (d) availability of resources and capacity building, and (e) enforcement of accountability in private schools. I build upon the overarching themes that direct to the medical model being disguised as the social model, the colonization of inclusive practices in Dubai, and the lack of teacher education in Dubai that affects the pedagogical practices. Recommendations include increasing quality teacher education programs offered by higher education institutions in Dubai, involving former teachers and practitioners who have experience working in Dubai’s education sector, and lastly, focusing more on reculturing rather than restructuring for inclusion to be more effective in Dubai.
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Keywords
Inclusion, Social model, Dubai, Special needs, constructivist grounded theory
Citation
Usman, F. M. (2019). From Disabling Concepts to Enabling Policies: Rethinking Inclusion of Students with Special Needs in Dubai’s Private Schools (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.