Aleya James

Nicole Shammas and Aleya James showcase a series of successful virtual international exchanges (VIEs) between HCT - Dubai Women’s Campus students and Japanese university students. The presenters demonstrate the effectiveness of VIEs for developing both language and intercultural competency.
The presenters discuss the importance of inter-cultural intelligence in preparing students for a multicultural work-place. Despite Emirati students living in an extremely multi-cultural society they rarely interact as social equals with cultural ‘others’. VIEs afford students this unique opportunity.
Using video footage and student feedback the presenters show how VIEs provide rich teaching and learning opportunities; by using culture as a springboard, relationships develop and language improves motivating students to perform at their best.
Finally, the steps for running a successful VIE are outlined for participants.
The presentation demonstrates that the authenticity of VIEs and inter-cultural experiences have a high impact which benefits both teachers and students alike.

Increasing numbers of TESOL professionals are now considering enrolling, or are enrolled in doctoral degrees. In this presentation we address many questions prospective doctoral students have. We offer insights based on our own current experience as doctoral students and gathered from an action research project involving current doctoral students at the Higher Colleges of Technology - Dubai. This will be a hands-on interactive presentation where participants will contribute to the findings.
Given that questions concerning ‘academic expectations’ are high on the agenda of prospective doctoral students, we explicitly address this by providing sample Ed.D assignments for participants to deconstruct. We provide marking criteria and authentic feedback to illustrate factors that can contribute to achieving academic success.
In addition to exploring academic expectations we also discuss such issues as the PhD versus EdD question; the contrasting structures of a variety of Ed.D programmes; the time and financial commitment; the need to have a strong research interest; how to capitalize professionally through presenting and publishing; issues related to further study in the Gulf region, as well as practical suggestions for staying sane in the process!
Participants will leave with a realistic impression of what doing a doctorate entails and have an understanding of the required knowledge and skills for achieving  success at the doctoral level.

This presentation demonstrates how teacher care and ensuring students feel that they matter is fundamental to student engagement and motivation, leading to increased academic achievement and developed self-efficacy. To support this argument, the research draws on the theoretical philosophies of Noddings’ Care Ethics and Maiers’ TED talk, You Matter; both demonstrate a positive correlation between teacher care and student motivation. This study, based in a UAE tertiary institution, explores the motivational factors which influence Emirati women and examines the underlying discord between the expectations of these women and western educated expatriate faculty. Findings indicate the philosophy of care is imperative in developing intrinsic motivation for Gulf female students, thus making them feel significant and valued becomes one of the biggest challenges facing expatriate teachers. This paper offers practical suggestions on how to leverage the student-teacher relationship to bolster students’ success at all levels: academically, professionally and personally.

This paper addresses an issue currently debated across a rapidly globalizing academic world and which has so far received scant attention in the Gulf Region; the multi-faceted question of research ethics.  It considers the unique ethical challenges faced by educational researchers who employ qualitative research to investigate gender-related issues in the Arabian Gulf. The GCC presents an extraordinary research context due to the social demographics of the educational sector in that educational research related to the citizens of the region is often carried out by non-GCC citizens.

We contend that a qualitative approach is better equipped to unravel the complex and often paradoxical gender-related concerns than large-scale studies conducted at academic, national and international levels. A qualitative approach facilitates a focus on the voices, experiences, self-discovery and cultural negotiations made by women themselves, however, this undertaking presents an array of ethical challenges. 

From our base in the UAE we employ a critical approach to investigate these challenges.  Data collected from interviews with Emirati and non-Emirati educational researchers working in the federal education sector is described and analysed. Ethical dilemmas are addressed according to each researcher’s ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious background.  Questions of disclosure, reflexivity and self-censorship; methodological choices; and the politics and ethics of researching the Other are considered. The rarely explored elements of in-group/out-group dynamics are found to play a significant role. We conclude by observing that the ethics of researching gender and other social issues in education remain largely neglected in this context as existing ethical guidelines do not adequately reflect the specificities of the socio-economic culture and political conditions experienced by researchers in the Gulf.

This paper was inspired by Maier’s 2011 TED Talk in which she demonstrates the success of her everyday classroom practice entitled “You Matter”. Thus motivated, we begin with a brief overview of research that demonstrates a positive correlation between teacher investment/support and student motivation, engagement and achievement.  We draw on the theoretical philosophies of Noddings’ care in education (2012), Biesta’s work concerning subjectivity (2006) and research  identifying motivation and engagement as crucial to academic success. We explore teacher support through the ethical concepts espoused by Noddings who, in a departure from traditional views of teacher support, posits caring as a fundamental aspect of education, with the notion of teacher/student as carer and cared-for at the core.
We assert that once students experience teacher care and feel that they matter a positive cycle is triggered leading to both academic and personal success.  We report a case-study from a UAE tertiary institution which explores the implications of teacher care and ‘mattering’. Students express a strong resonance with Maier’s TED Talk, describing how the talks’ themes play out in their own lives. Our findings indicate the philosophy of care is imperative for this group of students: making them feel they matter is one of our biggest challenges as teachers.