Critical Pedagogy in the TESOL Teacher Education in the United Arab Emirates: Possibilities and Challenges

The Department of English Seminar Series presents Critical Pedagogy in the TESOL Teacher Education in the United Arab Emirates: Possibilities and Challenges.

The study examines the possibilities and obstacles to the adoption of a critical approach to English language education in the UAE. Three main elements of critical pedagogy in language teaching have been suggested: cultural representation in the curriculum, perception of global English (es), and local and global issues.

Within an action research methodology, six secondary public schools from three emirates were selected to include in the study. The pre-action research stage included questionnaires, interviews and class observations. An action plan and intervention followed this first phase of data collection. The intervention plan was informed by Freire's 'Conscientization' approach, Shor's (1992) generative themes, and Heaney (1995)'s codification and problem-posing methods of teaching. The results indicate that while teachers showed interest and even enthusiasm about critical pedagogy, they were aware of a number of obstacles and challenges in applying it in their classrooms.

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