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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Special Educational Needs
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1388334
This article is part of the Research Topic Education To Enhance The Inclusion Of All Learners View all 3 articles

Inclusive Attitudes: Typically Developing Students and Students with Disabilities in UAE Classrooms

Provisionally accepted
Samir Dukmak Samir Dukmak 1Eid G. Abo Hamza Eid G. Abo Hamza 1,2*Razan Alkhatib Razan Alkhatib 1Wid Daghustani Wid Daghustani 3
  • 1 Al Ain University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
  • 2 Faculty of Education, Tanta University, Tanta, Gharbia, Egypt
  • 3 Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Capital Governorate, Bahrain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Research on students' attitudes towards inclusive education in the UAE is limited, with a focus on qualitative investigations of parents and teachers. This study addresses this gap by developing the Students' Attitude Scale to measure attitudes towards inclusive education. We examined the impact of age, grade level, nationality, educational placement, and gender on inclusive education using a sample of 355 students from diverse UAE districts. Findings reveal that female students scored significantly higher than males on the scale. While Emirati nationals showed higher scores, the difference was not statistically significant. Notably, students in the "All Day in Regular Classroom with the Necessary Support" placement had higher scores. Grade level and UAE district did not significantly influence attitudes. Our study emphasizes the positive influence of gender and increased interaction with students with disabilities on fostering favorable attitudes towards inclusive education. These insights can inform efforts to enhance inclusive practices in the UAE.

    Keywords: Inclusive education, Educational placement, Grade, age, UAE

    Received: 19 Feb 2024; Accepted: 23 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Dukmak, Abo Hamza, Alkhatib and Daghustani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Eid G. Abo Hamza, Al Ain University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

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