Near and Middle Eastern Journal of Research in Education - Volume 2015, Issue 1

This research is an exploratory, quantitative examination of the knowledge, understanding and promotion of teacher leadership in a public school in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Within Abu Dhabi education has become a top priority as it attempts, through a massive reform project, to develop a modern, innovative, world-class system which puts students first. Teacher leadership is thought to be one way in which a reform project can be supported and student learning can be improved. The participants in this study were drawn from an Abu Dhabi all-female primary school with both expatriate and Emirati teachers. Though some dissimilarities between the Emirati and expatriate teachers emerged, overall findings indicated that teacher leadership as it pertains to improving classroom practices through professional development was the focus and preference of teachers. However, they felt that teacher leadership was most commonly represented through teachers performing additional administrative duties. Therefore, professional development opportunities and structures must be developed to allow faculty, both Emirati and expatriate, to emerge as teacher leaders and positively impact school reform and student learning.

While numerous studies have been conducted on the impact of nicknames on students, these studies have focused on the effects of nicknames students have received in their lives. This study adopted a very unique and different design and asked female Kuwaiti university students to self-select a nickname of their own choice to be used in the classroom instead of their proper name. The students who volunteered to self-select nicknames and the students who did not were administered a structured questionnaire that was designed to gather data regarding the perceptions of the effects the self-selected nicknames had upon classroom performance. The analysis of the surveys revealed that the female students who selected nicknames reported that it improved their classroom performance. In addition, the females who did not select a nickname reported that it appeared to improve the classroom performance of those who choose a nickname.

The scholarship program in Qatar provides aid for students wishing to enroll in “top-ranked” universities around the world by supplying them with tuition, fees, board, and travel. The selectivity (high or low ranking, as determined by international ranking agencies) of the universities implies specific outcomes in terms of graduation and time of study at the university. In this study we attempt to understand how selectivity is related to education functional outcomes. Based on Qatari students enrollment in higher education programs around the world, students were bifurcated into high ranking or low ranking universities and whether they graduated or terminated in relation to specific functional outcome as in achievement (e.g. grade point average) and time of study in a program. A Kruskal-Wallis analysis was conducted using the selectivity of university as an independent variable and graduation status (whether they were terminated or graduated) on student university achievement and time of study. The finding showed the main effects for selectivity, bifurcated into ranked universities (top-1096 universities) and those non-ranked on university achievement. When the selectivity was narrowed by bifurcating students who were enrolled in highly ranked (top-200 universities) and those lower-ranked universities (below the top 200-ranked universities or non-ranked universities), a main and significant statistical difference was found for selectivity on university achievement and time of study. Surprisingly, those in the “top- ranked” universities were more likely to underperform than those in the lower-ranked universities. The findings suggest that students who enroll in high ranking universities were more likely to face difficulty in maintaining the high averages to continue. A greater insight and qualitative approaches is needed to understand Qatari student lower achievement in the top ranking universities around the world.

The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the challenges faced by a private university in the United Arab Emirates in balancing the specific needs of the country's educational system with the requirements of both national reporting measures and international accreditation. It highlights some critical issues, restraints and innovations in education reform.

A higher education system of quality is necessary for the evolution of a society. Yet, in an increasingly globalised world, when information regarding local culture and the local community is subsumed by standardised information required by international accreditation agencies, higher education institutions are tasked with matching the ambitious goals they have with very diverse local realities. In-depth interviews with administrators, faculty members and students resulted in narratives that shed light on what participants perceive as the challenges to achieving international standards in an environment with many local constraints.

Strategic questions are also posed as to what shape the development of a national higher education system should take. This is against the backdrop of a recent proliferation of branch campuses of foreign universities and private universities in the Gulf region in general, and the United Arab Emirates in particular, that are primarily self-funding.

This study provides recommendations to educational leaders and policy planners to arrive at plausible, meaningful solutions to the issue of taking into account often-neglected local contextual realities, to help provide for quality education to the local population while at the same time meeting international standards.