Article Critique on Dickinson and Le Roux’s

“Why do Emirati males become teachers and

how do cultural factors influence this decision?”

Name

University

ARTICLE CRITIQUE ON DICKSON AND LE ROUX’S 2012 STUDY 2

The article critique follows the approach suggested by Behrens and Rosen (1994) where an

article summary is followed by a critical analysis.

Article Summary

Martina Dickson and Johann Le Roux conducted a study in 2012 focusing on Emirati males as

teachers for their graduate studies at the Emirates College for Advanced Education, United Arab

Emirates (UAE). The title of their study was “Why do Emirati males become teachers and how

do cultural factors influence this decision?” Their research objective was to identify influencing

factors to Emirati males in pursuing a Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree (Dickson and Le

Roux, 2012). This research is culture-specific to a particular nation, the United Arab Emirates.

This is a relevant and timely study because only 14% of UAE primary teachers are male

(UNESCO, 2011), and a significant portion of this are foreign nationals. In the emirate of Abu

Dhabi (in the general context of the study), only 50 primary teachers are male in 2012. The six

graduating students could add to this minimal population. Clearly, the percentage of Emirati

male primary teachers is minimal in UAE. In this context, the study attempts to answer the

questions: (1) what are the deterring factors for Emirati males in entering the teaching profession

and (2) what are the possible ways to encourage them into taking this career path.

Data collection was done through interviews with six Emirati nationals who were pursuing a

Bachelor of Education degree program in a particular higher education institue in UAE. This

number was already the maximum since the respondents were the only graduating students for

their course. A semi-structured interviewing method was used so that the interviewees can

narratively explain their thoughts, and at the same time, interviewers can ask further probing

questions. During the twenty to thirty minutes of interview, notes were recorded by hand and

ARTICLE CRITIQUE ON DICKSON AND LE ROUX’S 2012 STUDY 3

transcribed later. As a form of check, the transcribed notes were sent to the interview for

approval that the statements were indeed his intended thoughts.

On the question of “Which factors influenced their decision to enroll on the Bachelor of

Education program?”, only one out of six had genuine interest in the teaching career. Four of the

respondents chose primary BEd program only due to chance and availability. Out of these four

students, only one stated that he enjoyed the course he enrolled in and wanted to finish it. The

remaining respondent chose education due to family influence (her mother wanted him to be a

teacher).

Next question is “How did their Emirati social context (namely family, friends and others) react

to their course choice?” Due to the patriarchal nature of communities in the UAE, people try to

equate fatherhood with how well they can provide the needs and wants of their family. Two

respondents stated that their family and friends were not against their degree, but were also not

actively supporting it. The remaining four stated that their family and friend disagree with their

chosen career path.

The last question asked is “In the students’ opinions, how could more Emirati males be attracted

into BEd programs and the teaching profession?” Five ways were suggested: (1) increase in

stipend, (2) job guarantee after graduation, (3) lesser work hours, (4) improved basis on

promotion and recognition and (5) positive student perception of male teachers. With this study,

teacher training institutions, school, and the UAE government can implement proper actions to

increase and retain college male BEd students. There is evidence that there is no correlation

between studying a teaching degree and becoming a teacher because none of the research

respondents have the powerful desire to teach upon graduation. This will be a challenge to higher

ARTICLE CRITIQUE ON DICKSON AND LE ROUX’S 2012 STUDY 4

education institutions since they can improve their approach and curriculum to not only motivate

the BEd students to stay with the program, but also to apply it later in life.

Critical Analysis

The theoretical implications of the study relates to previous studies cited in the literature review

of the paper. UAE being a patriarchal society sees men as providers and protectors of their

families. Because of this, there is a need to improve the benefits of going to this program and

pursue it as a career for life. Initially, the respondents chose the BEd program by chance or

availability, and this is an important aspect the Abu Dhabi Educational Council can act upon.

This is an opportunity to improve advertising activities, social and learning environment, and

even the curriculum. This is to address the performance gap between girls and boys studied by

the National Admissions and Placements Office (NAPO, 2009). Their data suggested that mean

scores of girls exceeds that of boys significantly. This may be partly due to the small portion of

male teachers in UAE. Primary and secondary male students do not have a role model to look up

to. A male Emirati teacher serves as a good example that male students can identify to and

emulate. It was noted that the respondents’ friends belittle their future profession due to the

lower salary, less promotion opportunities, more workload and stress. However, this was also

counteracted by internal group support (the six respondents are friends) which prompted the

respondents never to quit and stay with the program. This teamwork is unique to the respondents

as a social group.

In the survey, all respondents agreed that an increase in stipend allowance can encourage more

male students to pursue the primary BEd program. Due to the patriarchal culture of UAE, young

Emirati men are presumed to contribute financially to their families. Another approach could be

ARTICLE CRITIQUE ON DICKSON AND LE ROUX’S 2012 STUDY 5

providing job guarantee after graduation, which is in a way similar to college sponsorship and

scholarships by private companies. I also agree with the additional stipend and job guarantee as

motivators, but I believe that this is not the solution to the problem of small percentage of male

teachers. I am an Emirate and used to be a psychology teacher. In my opinion, the author could

have asked the student respondents about the natural roles or responsibilities they undertake

because in a very wealthy environment, most families have servants, housemaids, and drivers.

The authors Dickinson and Le Roux just touched the surface of this issue. They mentioned

earlier how wealthy and supportive UAE government is. The role of males is changing since

females are emerging in the process. The nuclear families are apparently no longer relying much

for the male as the sole source of help.

Some suggested lesser work hours either by reducing the number of teaching periods or shorter

school days. This is to ease the workload of teachers and allow them more time for planning and

assessment activities. Another suggestion is the establishment of promotion and recognition

program. I have learned of competency-based performance evaluation (CBPE) in other countries.

Adopting CBPE based on a unified teacher competency standard similar to other countries can

boost teacher performance in general. Lastly, there is a need to turn around present perception of

primary and secondary students on male teachers. The teaching profession is a noble and

rewarding job and young students need to see it to bring about respect and encouragement to

would-be teachers. I am in support of the respondents in their take on better promotion and

recognition. This can be looked upon closely by the Abu Dhabi Educational Council.

Schools can advertise teaching opportunities so that the societal status of male teachers are

highlighted and encouraged similar to what is done by UAE military and police training

programs. There is growth area for young men in the education field. I firmly believe in an

ARTICLE CRITIQUE ON DICKSON AND LE ROUX’S 2012 STUDY 6

advertising/ marketing campaign of gender equality in education for both teachers and students.

Teaching does not discriminate gender. Through the years, the male teaching profession has been

occupied by expatriates from neighboring Arab countries and even from Europe and the United

States. In conjunction with this, a similar study conducted among Grade 12 male students was

proposed to assess deeply their perception of teaching as a future profession.

I agree with the author’s conclusions since I see the value of male teachers to the UAE society. It

is not just the male teachers, but also the female teachers as well. They are inspiration for the

youth. They help build the foundation of the four pillars of today’s education: learning to learn,

learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be. One thing that I like to change

differently if I were one of the researchers is setting up numerical data. The qualitative

evaluation and explanation helped a lot in discussing the main issues. However, I could have

given the respondents surveys whose responses are numerical in nature. For instance, the

questions on “Do you want to pursue a teaching job after graduation?” can be restructured into

“In a scale of one to five, what is the probability that you will apply for a teaching post after

graduation?” Also, I could have used a recorder in interviewing instead of manually jotting down

notes during the interview. This could have taken advantage of modern technology to increase

objectivity of the research.

ARTICLE CRITIQUE ON DICKSON AND LE ROUX’S 2012 STUDY 7

References

Behrens, L. and Rosen, L.J. (1994). Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum: Critique

Guidelines. Conoco Phillips Writing Center, University of Oklahoma.

https://www.ou.edu/content/writingcenter/paper/critique/jcr%3Acontent/rt_par/

download/file.res/CritiqueGuidelines.pdf

Dickson, M. & Le Roux, J. (2012). Why do Emirati males become teachers and how do cultural

factors influence this decision?. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf

Perspectives 9(2). http://lthe.zu.ac.ae

National Admissions and Placements Office (NAPO) (2009). Newsletter Issue VIII, October

2009. http://ws2.mohesr.ae/napo/NewsLetter/Newsletter%20Issue%208.%202009.pdf

UNESCO (2011). Indicators on Teaching Staff at ISCED levels 0-3. UNESCO Institute for

Statistics. Accessed 20 August 2012 at

http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=165