Using Diverse Picturebooks for Inclusive Practices and Transformative Pedagogies

Introduction

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has made noteworthy progress in recent years concerning legislation and policies to support the inclusion movement in the country. More specifically, UAE has passed two legislation policies pertinent to inclusive education: the Federal Law 2006 and 2009 and Dubai Law no. 2. These regulations paved the way for the inclusion of many school-aged children with special educational needs (referred to as “students of determination” in the UAE) in general education classrooms. In fact, the change in terminology from people with disabilities to people of determination (POD) or the determined ones had been enforced in 2017 throughout the country (Government.ae, 2017). This is meant to highlight the students’ strengths rather than their weaknesses (Gaad, 2019) and has also led to a transformation in the education sector with Abu Dhabi and Dubai leading the inclusion initiatives in the country (Gaad, 2019) as can be seen in the Dubai inclusive education policy framework, for example (KHDA, 2017). Thus, today’s classrooms must now demonstrate that their diverse student population include students of determination with a range of needs (Gaad, 2019).

Although these differences can be a rich source of learning for all learners, they can also create challenges among students. According to research, many students enter schools holding misconceptions and stereotypical views about persons they perceive as different. For instance, Ostrosky et al. (2015) reported that children without disabilities have misconceptions about students with disabilities. This is also evident in the UAE where despite the inclusion movement and an increased number of students with disabilities in the general education classroom, teachers and students are found to hold negative attitudes toward students with disabilities (Elhoweris & Efthymiou, 2020).

The same issues are faced by gifted and talented students who are often misunderstood by their peers and teachers, especially those who are considered double minorities, that is, being gifted and are culturally and linguistically diverse or coming from disadvantaged backgrounds (Garces-Bacsal, 2021; Stambaugh & Ford, 2015) and students with dual exceptionalities (gifted students with disabilities or learning disorders) (Gomez-Arizaga & Conejeros-Solar, 2021). Hence, there is a clear and evident risk of children of determination, gifted and talented students, and culturally and linguistically diverse learners (whose first language is not English or the language of the dominant cultural majority - and are often labelled as English Language learners – see Nguyen, 2012) – referred to in this paper collectively as students with exceptionalities - being marginalized and socially rejected without adequate support that would facilitate a sense of belonging with the larger school community (Otrosky et al., 2015).