Abstract
The United Arab Emirates and Dubai in particular have in recent years attracted an increased number of Western teachers for all educational levels, especially universities. As part of the orientation for a Western teacher before entering a classroom, the main differences between Western and Middle East culture are often highlighted without an effort to explain how these differences are manifested in students’ behavior in courses, or to suggest how the teacher could address them. This paper aims at helping current and future faculty in their professional practice by considering Emirati Arab cultural characteristics as well as strategies adopted by the author to cope with them. Such strategies have been successful, as her students´ evaluations and academic performance distinctions during the last two years have continuously shown.
Highlights
This paper is not about differences, but about similarities; or, better said, about little things that can help a Western university professor succeed in teaching Emirati undergraduate students
When I first arrived to teach at university in Dubai, I was given a faculty guide that frightened me more than oriented me, as it focused the main differences between West and Middle East, and in particular on cultural pitfalls
This paper is about how all this was achieved in an effort to integrate a Western teachers expectations with those of Middle Eastern students
Summary
This paper is not about differences, but about similarities; or, better said, about little things that can help a Western university professor succeed in teaching Emirati undergraduate students. Some things were expected, such as focus on religion, discussion taboos, or difficulties in English as a second language; and some less expected, such as that some female students were extremely offended by the fact that they were able to see the knees of a female teacher None of these hints that were supposed to guide my teaching practice were of any help. As an extension of English as a Lingua Franca in the UAEs everyday life, English has become the second main language of teaching, starting from primary to higher education (Randall & Samimi, 2010) This has led to an increased hiring of Western teachers at all levels of education. The studentsperceptions of the author’s teaching strategies are presented, as expressed through student comments in the university’s Student Evaluation of the Learning Environmnent (SELE) surveys
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