Socio-cultural factors of teachers’ conceptions of knowledge: epistemic beliefs of Arab teachers

Abstract

This research investigates aspects of epistemic beliefs of pre-service and in-service teachers in the United Arab Emirates, and how these beliefs might be related to factors such as teachers’ gender, location (where they live), and the subject they teach (humanities vs. science). A standardized Arabic version of the Epistemic Belief Inventory was administered to a group of 35 pre-service teachers and 52 in-service teachers. The results indicated that in-service teachers had more sophisticated beliefs than pre-service teachers on Certainty of Knowledge, Omniscient Authority, and Innate Ability dimensions. Also, male teachers were found to be less sophisticated than female teachers and teachers from rural areas tended to think in a simpler way than teachers from urban areas. Although there was no main effect of subject, it significantly modified the effects of gender and location. The data showed the multidimensional nature of epistemic beliefs, and were discussed in the context of Arab/Emirati culture.

Keywords:

• epistemic beliefs
• education in UAE
• Arab culture
• epistemic beliefs and demographic variables

Notes

1. Part of the data presented in this paper were presented in the annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association, held in Singapore in November 2008.

2. The negative correlation indicates that students with low CEPA scores usually have a high (immature) EBI score.