The Rich Promise of Bilingual Education in UAE K–12 Government Schools

Abstract

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) adopted a policy of bilingual education (Arabic and English) in many Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K–12) government schools in 2007. Initial reaction to the bilingual reform was mixed, and 15 years after its inception, it is time to review the progress of this sweeping and ambitious bilingual school reform. After contextualising bilingualism in relation to tensions concerning linguistic and cultural identity, the chapter charts the history of education in the UAE, from less-formal systems to bilingual programmes. This chapter will explore the perceptions of change through the lens of the teachers implementing the programme by drawing on interview data gathered from three Emirati teachers using a constructivist phenomenological approach. These teachers appear secure in their Emirati but also multifaceted identities, happy to embrace both Khaleeji and English in the public sphere, together with translanguaging practices.