The Impact Of Inclusion Of Students With Special Needs

INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview Through this study, I seek to explore 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 is to better understand, through interviewing private school administrators and policy makers in Dubai’s education sector and by analyzing policy and legal documents, what inclusion means to these key agents which in turn effects its enforcement (by the government authority) and its implementation (by the private schools). The main conflicting issue that has given rise to this research topic is that inclusion of students with special needs is not a consistent practice†¦show more content†¦I anticipate that the knowledge generated from this study will contribute to Dubai’s reforming education policies. This chapter begins with a brief background of the UAE, followed by an overview, and then the context and background of this study. Following that is further explanation of the research problem and purpose, along with the research questions and an introduction to my proposed research design. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the significance of the study along with my assumptions as the researcher, personal factors that have lead me to this topic and ending with definitions of some key terms related to this study. Background of UAE Situated on the Arabian Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia and north of Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has grown from a small federation in the Middle East into a modern metropolitan nation in the region. The UAE is comprised of seven cities, also known as Emirates : Abu Dhabi (Capital city), Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah, and Ajman. Each emirate is governed by a hereditary ruler (Figure 1) who jointly formed the Federal Supreme Council, which is the highest legislative and executive body in the country. The President of the UAE, who is also the ruler of Abu Dhabi, is Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Islam is the dominant religion of the UAE and Arabic is the official language. 1.2 UAE