Consequences of neoliberal traits in curriculum design; English influences and the implementation of moral education in schools in the United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT

Testing explanations of ‘neoliberalism in education’, this article explores whether neoliberal policy facilitates curricula that include moral development for the ‘common good’, or whether unintended consequences actually eviscerate the very nature of moral education. England’s contribution to curriculum design in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has set planning within broadly accepted ‘market’ philosophies drawn from the ‘reforms’ of the 1980s. Reactionary implementation of moral education as an additional separate, statutory and tested subject into an already crowded curriculum in the UAE raises questions over authenticity, relevance and quality. The global economic and diplomatic influence of the UAE is high and rising, with similar trends for other economies in the region. However, as elsewhere, issues about inclusivity, equality, diversity, identity and wellbeing are pressing curricula content, particularly around values in personal, social, moral, environmental and economic responsibility, and ‘the historical record’. Building upon lessons in the authoritative account, Development of moral education in the UAE: lessons to be learned (Pring, R. 2018. “Development of Moral Education in the UAE: Lessons to Be Learned.” Oxford Review of Education. doi:10.1080/03054985.2018.1502169), the paper seeks reconciliation away from ranked performance measures and compartmentalised subject additions and towards greater cross-curricula integration, critical thinking and moral action.

KEYWORDS:

• Neoliberal education policy
• performativity
• UAE
• moral education
• curriculum design and implementation
• values-based learning
• wellbeing

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Kevin Corrigan, Andrew Pilkington, Frances Bannister and Barry Hynes for their editorial advice, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The main agencies of accountability and regulation referred to are:

• UAE Ministry of Education (MoE) for government schools, (UAE Ministry of Education 2019)

• Abu Dhabi Education and Knowledge (ADEK) for private schools for Abu Dhabi; Knowledge and Human Development Agency (KHDA), Dubai Knowledge, through the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB) for Dubai; and Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA) for private schools in Sharjah (the MoE, ADEK, KHDA and SPEA extend their remits across the other four emirates in the UAE with the cooperation of those emirates, namely Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Kaimah and Umm al Quwain), (UAE 2018)

• Ofsted as the non-ministerial department of the UK government that inspects services providing education and skills, including schools in England, (Ofsted 2020).