Editorial

Citation

Pounder, J. and Gallagher, K. (2011), "Editorial", Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, Vol. 4 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebs.2011.34904baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, Volume 4, Issue 2

The papers in this edition of Education, Business and Society (EBS) are linked by a focus on education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) context. One theme is teacher education beginning with Suzanne Littlewood who explores the outcomes and value of a final year action research project in a teacher education curriculum. Khadar Bashir-Ali’s study highlights the relevance of the community of practice notion and socio-cultural theory to teacher education. Moving from teacher education to the student, Celine Kamhieh, Ayesha Al Hammadi, Nada Al Hammadi, Iman Nawfal, Athra Al Zaabi and Khulood Khalfan focus on the reading habits of female Emirati university students and to some extent dispelling the idea that Arabs do not read. Again with a focus on the student, Shamma Al Naqbi studies the effectiveness of mind mapping as a method of helping students plan effectively for a writing task under assessment conditions. John Raven’s contribution takes a look at Emiratization and suggests improvements for the Emiratization of the teaching sector in the UAE. Finally, Tim Martin and Michael O’Brien discuss the inevitable tension between local responsiveness in an educational curriculum and the requirements of international accreditation. We hope you enjoy this edition of EBS which is the first to focus exclusively on the education aspect of the EBS triad.

From this issue, Kay Gallagher takes over the co-editorial baton from Matthew Clarke. We thank Matthew Clarke for his sterling work in steering the journal thus far, and we look forward to the continuing success and further growth of EBS: contemporary middle eastern issues under the co-editorship of Kay Gallagher alongside our founding co-editor, James Pounder and our editorial assistant, Tariq Elyas. Kay Gallagher has been a teacher, a school principal, a teacher educator, a researcher and a leader in education in Ireland and the UAE for many years. She currently teaches in the Faculty of Education in the University of Hong Kong, where her research interests include educational change, language-in-education and teacher education.

James Pounder, Kay Gallagher