Educational Alternatives: Expatriate Homeschooling Experiences in the United Arab Emirates

• In Event: Education, Place, and Inequality: Global Perspectives on Access and Opportunity

Proposal

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the size of the homeschooling community has grown as parents increasingly choose alternative education options for their children (AlDhaheri, 2024; Nandkeolyar, 2021). However, few studies have examined the growth and increase in the number of homeschoolers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) (see Nazar, 2024), particularly in the UAE context. Utilizing semi-structured interviews with 15 homeschooling families based in the UAE, this qualitative study provides insight into the UAE's homeschooling landscape, examining push and pull factors for parents to homeschool their children, in addition to families' perceptions of inclusive education. It further takes a closer look at the educational values that parents instill in their children, and how this shapes their attitudes toward learning and cultivating social responsibility. The data was inductively coded and thematically analyzed using the software MAXQDA. Based on our case study, the findings suggest that some parents in the UAE homeschool to tailor their children’s education to their needs, emphasize family and religious values, manage their children’s learning disabilities, and to move away from the formal education system. Accordingly, several families presented homeschooling as an alternative form of inclusive education that caters to children with disabilities or unique learning interests. Some key struggles that parents face while they homeschool include micro-level pressures on the family, social stigma, and obstacles to re-entry to formal education at the school level as well as in higher education domestically. In light of such challenges, we suggest facilitating the legal recognition of homeschooling, albeit with quality assurance measures, in addition to challenging social stigma and conducting further research on homeschooling in the UAE. Such research may raise awareness of the importance of inclusive dialogue in education and how educational alternatives such as homeschooling can play a pivotal role in catering to the needs of some students in a highly privatized and fragmented educational landscape.

Authors

• Janaan O Farhat, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research

• Rui da Silva, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research