Keywords

1 Introduction

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has always been interested in developing the education system to achieve global educational standards, and it has sorted Education as a primary priority. The UAE government followed several steps to promote inclusive Education within the seven emirates. Also, it has released many laws and legislation to protect the rights of students with special needs and disabilities and guarantee them educational rights in the regular school setting (Anati, 2013). Moreover, the United Arab Emirates inclusion education philosophy aims to protect the educational rights of students with special conditions and guarantee their opportunity to enroll in a regular school setting (Gaad & Almotairi, 2013). In 2006 the UAE initiated the first federal law, number 29, to protect the rights of people under the special educational needs umbrella, including their social and educational rights, and ensure the best services are provided to them (Gaad, 2010). Furthermore, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Dubai had implemented an initiative called the “School for All” in 2010, which states that all students with special needs and disability have equal rights in education in a mainstream school setting, regardless of any disability and conditions may have (Sheikh, 2015). As a result, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) and MOE implemented the Dubai Inclusive Policy framework in 2017. Which provides all education providers, local supervisors, and policy-makers with clear guidelines and standards to empower and support the students of determination (SEND) within a regular classroom setting (KHDA 2017).

Furthermore, inclusion in education encourages fairness and gives equal rights to all children despite any abilities and disabilities; all children are equal and have education rights in the mainstream classroom setting with the proper support (Gaad & Almotairi, 2013). Inclusion is defined as a process that considers and responds to the unique needs of all students by increasing communication and participation in learning (UNESCO 2020). Additionally, equity in education stems from the principle of inclusion, which asserts that all students, regardless of their unique needs or impairments, have the right to an education in a typical classroom environment (Gaad & Almotairi, 2013). Moreover, the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recognizes the value and need of integrating children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) into mainstream schools (Keis, 2020), designated as People of Determination (POD) in UAE.

1.1 Definitions of Key Terms

First term is Special Educational Need and Disability (SEND): “when a student has special needs related to a specific impairment, which requires the school to intervene to provide the proper support in accessing the school setting and curriculum and reduce any potential related to the disability in a regular school setting with peers with same age “(KHDA 2017, p.8). Second term is Inclusive classroom: is a class where all the students within the classroom accept each other despite their differences. Moreover, it offers an opportunity to put the students in small groups according to their ability to understand that they are doing different classwork (Jeremy, 1999). Thus, inclusive practices must be done by teachers within the regular classroom setting.

1.2 Study Purpose

The study focuses on determining whether the school’s teachers and support staff adopted and effectively implemented the SEND inclusion policy or not; for this purpose, interviews were conducted with the school’s teachers for data collection. The primary question leading this research is: To what extent do the school’s teachers and support staff adopt and effectively implemented the SEND inclusion policy? However, it is essential to split the major research question into several sub-questions to make the analysis process clear and help to facilitate a systematic approach to the paper; the following are the research sub-questions: (Q1) What does the inclusion policy entails? (Q2) To what extent does the school’s teachers and support staff adopt and effectively implemented the inclusion policy? (Q3) What are the recommendations to improve inclusive education in the school? The investigation process focuses on three areas which are curriculum modifications, assessment differentiation, and teacher’s professional development.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Inclusion in Education

Inclusion in education requires changing the mindset of society (Acedo et al., 2009). So, education for all means education for everyone without exception (Anati & Ain, 2012). Achieving this is everybody’s responsibility to prepare teachers and provide them with the appropriate professional development. School teachers and support staff must be given the tools, training, and equipment to achieve the inclusion policy aims. However, inclusive education means every learner with special needs should feel welcome, safe, accepted, happy, and valued in the mainstream educational setting despite his or her disability. In inclusive education, the children within the same classroom help and interact with each other (Jeremy, 1999), making the image very clear for students with special needs to feel welcome and essential. All the mainstream schools must ensure that all unique and determined learners (SEND) have equal opportunities for high-quality Education to develop students’ best potential, they must be included in the regular classroom setting regardless of their differences (KHDA 2017). Moreover, the inclusive policy focuses on minimizing the academic gaps for SEND learners by accommodating their needs in the classroom, which is for all without exceptions (Ainscow, Booth & dydon 2004). The term “equity in education” means everybody has equal educational rights (Gaad & Almotairi, 2013).

2.2 Schools Toward Inclusion

Inclusion is “a process that helps reduce barriers to learning that limit learners’ presences, achievement, and participation.” Equity is “The education for all learners are equal” which means that every learner matters and matters equally (UNESCO 2020). The Salamanca Conference Statement (2020) concluded that: “Regular schools with inclusive legislation significantly more effective in creating welcome society, and guarantee equal and equitable education for all.”(UNESCO 2020). Furthermore, inclusive schools must reduce the barriers to learning and encourage students’ progress for all children within the inclusive classroom. Moreover, including all learners means including children with special conditions in the education system, which is an important strand within the international policy agenda, reflecting that inclusion is for all. Also, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008) states: “The inclusive education right includes a convey practices, culture, and policy in all educational settings by adapt or accommodate the various requirements for each student with special needs.”(UNESCO 2020).

3 Methodology

The methodology is the term when we find a problem and we want to find the appropriate solution. It indicates how the research was conducted (Taylor, DeVault & Bogdan 2015). This research followed the qualitative approach to investigate the effectiveness of inclusion policy implementation in one private school in Dubai. The qualitative approach allows an in-depth investigation of the topic to improve it (Gaad & Almotairi, 2013). So, this study is focused on how the teachers in the school perceive and implement the inclusion policy. Moreover, the qualitative approach depends on people’s behaviours, their actual perspectives, and the experience from their everyday lives (Taylor, DeVault & Bogdan 2015). However, this approach is the proper approach to research as it involves direct interaction between teachers and researchers in a realistic and natural situation. Moreover, it involves the data collected in the same participants setting (Taylor, DeVault & Bogdan 2015). Moreover, the qualitative methodology approach aims to understand and explore other people’s thoughts on human or social problems (Creswell, 2017). This chapter consists of four sections: first, the research site and access describe how the researcher collected the data. Second, the research participants. Third, data collection tools. Lastly, the data analysis.

3.1 Research Site and Access

This study was administered in one school that follows the American curriculum, the total number of students is 2,060, and the total number of teachers is 147. The school has its inclusion vision and mission, which directly align and emerge with the Ministry of Education’s vision and mission for inclusion. However, the researcher took permission from the school’s principals to access the official school inclusion policy document before the data collection. Furthermore, the researcher analyzed the school inclusion policy by focusing on five areas: SEND student identification, Progress monitoring and tracking, curriculum modifications and adaptation, Assessment accommodations, and teachers’ professional development sessions.

3.2 Research Participants

The total participants in this study were 3; two subject teachers and one school principal. The school has well-qualified teachers. Most of them have a bachelor’s degree in education. The below table represents the number of school staff participated in this study (Table 1).

Table 1 Study Participants (TNR 9pt)
Full size table

3.3 Data Collection Tools

The researcher followed the qualitative approach to gather data from the study participants and has used two instruments to collect the data: semi-structured interviews and official documents.

Official Documents

The researcher used three main sources. First, the Ministry of education federal law number 29 of the year 2016. Second is Dubai’s inclusive policy framework for school provision (2017). The third is the school’s inclusion policy document. Additionally, the researcher used semi-structured interviews accompanied by open-ended questions (Creswell, 2017).

Interviews

The interviews were conducted in a regular school setting, and participants were invited by email to confirm whether they could attend the interview or not. The researcher has prepared a Schedule for interviews which something essential to collect data faster (McNeill & Chapman 2005). However, all interviews were conducted on Microsoft Teams. During the interview, each participant had a chance to speak freely for 10 minutes, and the following questions were used to guide the participants during the interviews: (Q1) “How do you as an educator implement the inclusion policy?” (Q2) “What challenges do you face when implementing the inclusion policy?” (Q3) “What are your recommendations to improve inclusive school education?” (Q4) “How do the professional development sessions help you?”

3.4 Data Analysis

Data analysis is about gathering data and summarizing it to get the results (Creswell, 2017). All the data collected from the interviews and the official documents followed thematic analysis and were organized and analyzed using Microsoft Word.

4 Findings

4.1 Documents Findings

School SEND Policy

The document findings indicated that the school follows the guidelines provided by the MOE in the UAE to implement the inclusion policy. Moreover, all the school teachers collaborate to plan the lessons, and they keep in mind the needs of the SEND student in their classroom. However, they always differentiate the learning objectives to meet the student’s needs in the classroom. Also, there is intensive support from the inclusion department in supporting the teachers, and they have weekly meetings to monitor the student’s progress. The school believes that every child can learn. Its inclusion policy aims to provide effective intervention programs and services to SEND students that reflect the initial local and international standards to prepare them to become productive members of society (UNESCO 2020). The school mainly uses all the available resources to monitor the SEND students’ progress.

Students Identification and Progress Monitoring

The school follows the procedures provided by the MOE to identify the students with special needs, which are done by teachers’ collaboration with the school head of inclusion. The finding indicates that the teachers are responsible for and accountable for the students they teach. With the support of the Inclusion department, teachers implement the prescribed learning strategies to help students with SEND meet their learning goals. Teachers are also responsible for monitoring and tracking all students’ well-being and achievement progress with SEND in their classes. The inclusion team and teachers meet to review student well-being and achievement progress throughout the year to ensure that teaching is of high quality and differentiated is being applied appropriately. If monitoring and tracking identify that a student with SEND is not making the expected levels of progress, then the IEP team meets to review and discuss possible interventions.

Curriculum Modifications and Adaptations

Modifications change the curriculum or measurement of learning. These may include a reduced number of assignments or an alternative grading system. Modifications change “what” is learned and the content of the grade- specific curriculum, which may potentially reduce learning expectations. Adaption is a modification of the students learning outcomes. The finding indicates that the school teachers and head of inclusion decided whether the student needs curriculum modification or adaptation and all the details included in the student IEP.

Assessment Accommodations

The finding indicates that the school follow the procedure in modifying the assessments for all students with SEND, and all students receive modified assessments paper that fit their level.

Teachers’ Professional Development

According to many teachers’ feedback about the professional development sessions, the school provides PD sessions to the teachers to increase their awareness about the inclusion policy. Four interviews were conducted with school teachers, and all answers indicate that the awareness sessions provided by the inclusion department are few. However, in some way, sessions help them to stay updated according to new strategies and methods they can use with their students.

4.2 Interview Findings

In the implementation process, teachers play a vital role in building and developing their students’ academic skills within the mainstream classroom. Interviews were conducted with 3 participants. First, one of the school principals asked how she saw inclusive practices in the school, and she said: “We see that we are providing the best support for the SEND students to succeed. Also, we follow MOE and KHDA guidelines in implementing the inclusion policy.” That indicates that the school cares about the SEND students and implementation of the inclusive policy is effective.

The second interview was conducted with the math teacher; she has five years of experience teaching in mainstream schools. The interview questions focused on the curriculum modification and adaptation, challenges, and PD sessions provided by the school. She said: “I am always keen to collaborate with the inclusion support team to plan and differentiate the learning objectives for the SEND students, and I keep them updated about the students’ progress and challenges that might occur in implementing the plan.” Which indicates the intensive support provided by the inclusion department is effective. The third interview was with an English teacher with 14 years of teaching experience. Her interview questions focused on the policy implementation, challenges, recommendations, and PD sessions. She said, “The cooperation between our department and the SEND department has played a tremendous role in helping meet the needs of the students under the SEND umbrella. At the beginning of the year, the SEND department holds an informative meeting with inclusive class teachers. Important information about the students’ status and performance and expectations regarding planning and progress monitoring are shared with subject teachers so that necessary differentiation is implemented as soon as classes begin. My SEND students attend my classes and are pulled out during exams with one-on-one support.”

5 Discussion and Conclusion

The study investigated the effectiveness of implementing the inclusion (SEND) policy in one private school in Dubai. The researcher used the qualitative approach to collect the data, such as interviews and school inclusion policy documents. Most teachers understand the inclusion policy and how they must implement it, which goes back to the intensive support provided by the inclusion department. The results indicate that the school policy implementation is very effective, and teachers’ awareness of the inclusion policy is appropriate. But, they face difficulties in accommodating students’ needs in the classroom due to student number in the school as in each classroom, there are 29 students, so the teacher can’t give one-on-one support to the SEND student as she will be busy with the whole class. Also, the number of SEND teachers is few and inadequate for the number of SEND students. In curriculum modification, the support team acts as a backbone in supporting the teachers through the weekly meetings, which help them modify the curriculum and accommodate the assessment for their students. In terms of Challenges, the school has few numbers of inclusion support teachers. Moreover, the number of push-in sessions is very few as well. After discussing the results, several recommendations can be proposed for policy implementation to become more effective.

6 Recommendations

At the beginning of the study, the researcher found that the MOE and KHDA provide clear guidelines for the schools to implement Inclusive Education in practice to protect the education right of all SEND students. This study clearly showed that the school follows the guidelines provided by the Ministry of Education and KHDA. Moreover, all the teachers know the importance of including SEND students in the classroom academically, socially, and emotionally. However, due to the insufficient number of support teachers and the growing number of students in the classrooms, teachers cannot support SEND students regularly. Therefore, it would be better for the school to increase the number of SEND support teachers and pull-out sessions.