October 5, 2025 • 27 mins
Salma and Leisa explore how to build classrooms in the UAE where every student feels seen and valued, and where local culture is integrated alongside global learning. Practical steps, candid reflections on bias, and clear guidance on using AI as a co-creator make this a toolkit for real change.
• agreeing on a shared definition of culturally responsive practice
• recognising and reflecting on bias through confidential prompts
• creating learner profiles to understand language, history, and needs
• auditing libraries and curricula for representation and local relevance
• balancing Emirati identity with global exposure
• contrasting UAE inclusion with US/UK contexts and public school dynamics
• using AI critically as a co-creator, not a content consumer
• prioritising critical literacy, collaboration, and academic integrity
• designing teacher PD that matches context and future skills
Meet Salma: Dr Salma Waly, an Arab American 40 Under 40 honoree, is an award-winning global educator and EdTech leader dedicated to building inclusive, future-focused learning communities and expanding opportunity. With 20 years of experience across higher education, international schools, corporations, start-ups, and NGOs, she brings a global perspective shaped by work in the United States, Asia, the GCC, Africa, and South America. Her culturally hybrid identity fuels her commitment to equity and inclusion, ensuring all learners feel valued. Currently based in the UAE, she is an assistant professor at Sharjah Education Academy, founder of Universal Narratives LLC, and host of the Universal Narratives Podcast.
Teach Middle East Magazine is the premier platform for educators and the entire education sector in the Middle East and beyond. Our vision is to equip educators with the materials and tools they need, to function optimally in and out of the classroom. We provide a space for educators to connect and find inspiration, resources, and forums to enhance their teaching techniques, methodologies, and personal development. We connect education suppliers and service providers to the people who make the buying decisions in schools.
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Hosted by Leisa Grace Wilson
Connect with Leisa Grace:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
You are listening to the Teach Middle East Podcast.
Connecting, developing, andempowering educators.
SPEAKER_01 (00:17):
Hey, this is Lisa Grace coming back with another
episode of the Teach Middle EastPodcast, and this one is my
pleasure to welcome Salma Wali,and she is an assistant
professor at the SharjaEducation Academy, a place I
know quite well.
Hello, all my friends at theSharja Education Academy, Dr.
Hunada and the crew.
(00:39):
How are you?
It's a good time to discuss whatwe're about to discuss, which is
creating inclusive learningspaces in our schools.
What does that look like?
How do we do it?
Where do we start?
Salma, welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_02 (00:55):
Hi, Lisa.
Very excited to be here.
I have been listening to yourpodcasts and I just love the
wide range of topics as well asthe different types of
expertise, different backgroundsthat you spotlight in your
podcast and the Middle EastTeach Middle East podcast.
Just a quick introduction.
As Lisa mentioned, I work atCharger Education Academy.
(01:17):
I train teachers currently inthe Emirate of Charger and other
Emirates as well.
I come to the work of inclusivepractice and cultural responsive
practice because of my ownpersonal experiences, being a
third culture kid, a daughter ofexpats who lived in different
parts of the world and thenimmigrated to the US.
(01:38):
And I've always been like theone who's different in so many
different settings and so manydifferent spaces.
And so I feel like this kind oflike hybrid identity of mine
kind of just comes to thesurface every time I'm faced
with challenges in our schoolsin terms of including students,
making sure that their voicesare heard, they're being
(02:00):
accommodated.
There is actual substantialefforts to include everyone, not
just by saying we do so, but byactually doing things.
And so I'm very excited aboutthis topic, inclusive practice.
And yeah, we're looking forwardto just discussing this more
with you today.
SPEAKER_01 (02:20):
Brilliant.
So we've got 30 minutes, sowe're gonna pack a lot of value
in this because classroomsaround the UAE look like the
world.
Meaning we've got students fromall over the world with varying
backgrounds, varying needs.
And so my first question reallyis tell me a little bit about
(02:41):
what you've observed as you'vegone to different classrooms.
Like, what have you observed interms of inclusive practice that
you think we need to be awareof?
SPEAKER_02 (02:50):
What I have observed is that, as you said, there is
so much diversity in ourclassrooms.
We are home to over 200different nationalities, the
UEE, and we have so manydifferent languages and cultures
represented in our classrooms,yet there seems to be a lack of
understanding among a lot ofteachers of what cultural
(03:11):
responsive practice really is.
Teachers are verywell-intentioned and they want
to support students, but thereisn't a unified kind of
professional developmentframework that would assist
teachers in finding ways tosupport all learners.
There are, as I said, so manydifferent languages in our
classrooms as well.
(03:31):
Yet we do not really haveenough, I would say,
multilingual programs in ourschools.
And so we only accommodate somestudents, but not everybody
else.
Home languages are not alwaysrepresented.
We are trying to do that, butagain, there are issues with
staffing, with finances, withmaking sure that we hide the
(03:53):
right caliber to support ourstudents.
And so these are all concernsthat I'm seeing.
There is also another challenge,which is really balancing that
global aspiration with localculture and identity.
Because we also have a lot ofstudents who are Imorati
students, for example, in ourinternational schools, who are
(04:13):
studying different curricula andprograms imported from other
countries.
But then what are the teachersreally doing to create that
balance so that they're able todevelop their Imarathi identity
while also develop the skillsthat are needed to support the
UEE, an amazing country that ismoving from being an oil-based
economy to being verydiversified in terms of the wide
(04:38):
range of economies that we'reinvolved in, as well as a center
and a hub for innovation and AIinternationally.
So that balance is also verymuch needed.
I would say the issues would bejust addressing the needs of the
wide range of languages andcultures that we have, lack of a
unified system for trainingteachers on cultural responsive
(05:00):
practice and leadership as well,because there is a need to focus
on how we can train our leaders,international educators, to be
cultural responsive also interms of creating school
cultures that accommodate allteachers, all families, all
students, regardless of whatbackground they're coming from.
And the third issue would bebalancing local and global
(05:20):
cultural and heritage.
SPEAKER_01 (05:21):
Yeah.
I want to go back a bit.
I think for our listeners, weneed to define what culturally
responsive classrooms orteaching means.
What does it mean to beculturally responsive?
SPEAKER_02 (05:34):
Yeah, I would say, like simply put, it would be
making sure that every studentfeels seen, heard, all their
voices matter.
They see themselves in thecontent that they engage with
and with the books that are intheir classrooms.
Teachers understand theircultures, heritage, they see the
differences as assets ratherthan deficits in their learning.
(05:58):
And so they capitalize on that.
Also, just being open to thefact that there are so many
different ways of knowing, somany different ways of learning.
Family engagement can lookdifferent in different places
around the world.
And so just holisticunderstanding that every child,
every family that comes to ourschool is unique in the way that
(06:20):
uh the approach teaching andlearning.
And as an educator, what Ishould do is try to learn more
about the students and thefamilies that I'm working with.
It's not easy sometimes because,as I said, we're a very
international uh country withteachers from all over the
world.
And sometimes, as I said, mostof our educators, if not all,
(06:42):
are extremely well-intentioned.
But sometimes there is a lack ofexposure and understanding of
what it means to be working in amulticultural, multilingual
setting.
And as I said, because of thosemissing frameworks for training
our educators, educators feellike they're not really sure
what to do.
You know, they're really facedwith so many challenges,
curriculum demands,administrative demands, but also
(07:04):
families that are verydifferent, students who have
very different needs thanothers.
Uh so I would say cushionresponsive practice is just
keeping in mind that all of thisis normal and we are learning on
the go.
We're trying to find ways to getto know each other as humans,
first and foremost, and then aseducators getting to know our
families and our students.
SPEAKER_01 (07:26):
Yeah.
I can hear people in my like,you know, my listeners in my
head sometimes I can hear thequestion they may have.
And I think one of the questionsthey may have is what frameworks
do we need to put in place?
Like, how do we go about doingthis practically?
Because as you said, manymajority are well-intentioned.
(07:46):
They want to make sure theirclassrooms are culturally
inclusive spaces for all.
What can they do?
Give me some practical tips.
SPEAKER_02 (07:56):
Yeah.
Firstly, we we need to reallydevelop a shared understanding,
like define what we mean, as youasked earlier, by cultural
responsive practice.
What do you really mean bycultural responsive education?
What does it mean to create aninclusive classroom?
So having a shared understandingis very important.
And developing that sharedunderstanding through reading,
(08:17):
through looking at examples fromall over the world, what's
happening, how accommodating ourstudents, et cetera.
Another component of it would bejust trying to think outside of
myself, outside of my comfortzone.
So it would be more like uhimplicit bias, really, and uh
how my own notions, my own normson understanding of things
(08:38):
impact the way that I work withothers.
And uh what I can do as aneducator in order to separate
myself from my own beliefs whenI'm working with others in order
to be able to accommodate theirneeds.
So that would be the secondpart.
It's not easy, but like what Ihave seen happening in other
parts of the world would bereally like very confidential
(09:00):
written narratives where you'regiven a prompt as an educator
and you have to reflect on theseprompts and just reflect on what
you're writing, like how youremotions come into play when
you're working with specificpeople.
And what can you do?
How can you be very deliberateabout taking actions to avoid
acting in a certain way inspecific situations because it's
(09:20):
coming from a place of bias orlack of understanding?
And if there is understanding,what can you do in order to fill
that gap?
Where can you find theseresources in order to be able to
develop a better understandingof how things are happening in
other parts of the world, othercultures, among other like
students who are coming fromdifferent backgrounds, family
(09:41):
backgrounds, etc.?
Stage two would be reallypractical strategies of what can
you, like very small steps thatyou can use in the classroom in
order to create a more inclusivesetting.
It starts with just getting toknow more about your students,
surveying their needs, right?
In the beginning of the schoolyear, interviewing them, getting
to know about their families,uh, maybe having some kind of
(10:03):
less a system of documentingcertain facts, certain details
about every student, how theylearn, how they do things, where
they went to school before.
Was it like a formal likeschooling experience, or what
was it interrupted?
Was there any kind of crisismaybe?
Because we have a lot ofstudents who are also refugees.
(10:24):
We have a lot of students whoalso come from war-torn zones.
So, what are we doing in orderto understand where they're
coming from?
What are topics that they wouldbe okay to talk about?
And what are things that Ishould stay away from?
How can I coordinate with otherpeople in my school in order to
provide the services that theyneed?
Who else would be a good personto collaborate with in my school
(10:46):
building?
Does anybody else speak thelanguage?
Is there another person in myschool that comes from the same
culture that can educate me asan educator about, you know, how
to tackle certain issues with uhcertain students?
That's one thing.
The other thing would be reallylooking at the materials that
I'm using in the classroom andthinking, how responsive are
(11:07):
these to the needs of mystudents?
We know that our students usematerials from all over the
world.
We have different programs andcurricula in our schools in the
UE.
But we also have students whohave never been to these places.
And so, how can they relate tocertain experiences?
My daughter was reading recentlyabout interstates in the US.
(11:27):
She's in an American systemschool, and I'm like, she can
relate to that because she'sbeen in these places, in these
situations, and she knows whatthat is.
But if a child has been raisedin a different country or in the
UE, how is that engaging?
How is that responsive to theirneeds?
There are topics that we have tomodify or change or connect to
our local cultural and heritage,as I was saying earlier.
(11:50):
Like, okay, I'm gonna teach themabout engineering or
architecture in other countries.
Why not connect it to what'shappening in Dubai, for example,
in our local communities, in ourbackyard, really?
And then making sure that werepresent all our students in
the materials that we use.
There is a tendency in ourbooks, and what I mean by books
is like really our schoollibraries, our classroom
(12:12):
libraries to have charactersthat come from certain parts of
the world and do not representeverybody in the classroom.
And there is really a growingbody of literature, like
children's literature, that hasdiverse characters.
On voice, they call itliterature for children.
Characters who are black andbrown and handicapped and
(12:32):
multicultural kids, bilingualkids.
It doesn't always have to beanimals or white characters.
It has to look like ourstudents, the demographics that
we work with in our classrooms.
And that's one way we can helpour students feel that they're
actually valued, they are seenand appreciated.
One last strategy would bereally in terms of like
(12:55):
leadership, just being verystrategic about our hiring as
well.
We need to diversify who ourteaching for is, like who we
have in our schools and ourleadership as well, so that
students have role models tolook up to, because they need to
see people that look like themwho are very successful and
accomplished in order to bemotivated.
(13:16):
Otherwise, it always feels like,for lack of like a better
description, like thesuperiority, like some people
are more superior, they havemore knowledge than me.
We want to make sure thateverybody feels that they're
seen, they have an opportunity,they have a path to success, uh,
just like everybody else.
So these are just some practicaltips.
SPEAKER_01 (13:36):
Those are some great tips, actually.
How do we balance?
Because when you were talkingabout the material that we used
and stuff, how do we balancegiving students something that
relates to their culture thatthey can relate to versus
exposing them to new ideas andnew things?
SPEAKER_02 (13:56):
I don't think, I mean, we have to balance by
making sure that we're doingboth, honestly.
Like we have to expose them tonew ideas, of course, as much as
possible, given that theseideas, again, are culturally
appropriate, because reallybeing culturally responsive is
also understanding the hostcountry and its culture and
(14:16):
making sure that we're selectingtopics that are appropriate for
the culture where we're working.
One thing that I shifted myunderstanding of cultural
responsive practice is that whenI came here to the UI, cultural
responsive education looks verydifferent than how it looks in
other parts of the world.
It's very different.
Like the issues that we look at,for example, issues of
multilingualism, issues of allthese different curricula that
(14:37):
we have in our schools, etc.
It's very different.
It's a very unique examplecompared to, let's say, the UK
or the US, where culturalresponsive practice means
something very different basedon race and identity, etc.
It's very different here in theUE.
And so as an educator, I try toeducate myself on what is
actually culturally responsivepractice in this country, what
(14:58):
is really relevant to thiscountry, my host country.
Get to know more about thecountry where I'm working.
And then I have to just find thebalance to introduce whatever
ideas I think are relevant tothe students that are, again,
culturally responsive,appropriate with the culture,
and in the same time make surethat I am connecting that with
their local culture and heritageas well.
(15:20):
And, you know, we want tobroaden their understanding of
global issues as well, becausewe especially in international
schools, we want them to bewell-rounded, we want them to be
able to work in differentsettings, go and study abroad,
etc.
So it's very important for themto have that exposure, but at
the same time, we need to havethat solid understanding of who
(15:40):
I am, the value that I bring,and that my voice is really
important in the process aswell.
SPEAKER_01 (15:46):
Yeah, I was just thinking when you said there was
a difference.
I'm wondering what thedifferences are that you've
noticed between, let's say, howcultural responsive practice is
in maybe the US where you wentto school, and here.
What did you notice?
SPEAKER_02 (16:03):
One area, for example, would be like the whole
issue, like in the US, culturalresponsive practice is really
associated a lot withimmigration, for example, like
the rights of immigrant studentsin our public schools.
And sometimes we have studentswho have not obtained their
legal status yet, but they arepart of our public schools.
And so we have to accommodatetheir needs as well, but they're
(16:27):
also dealing with a lot ofshifting dynamics outside of the
classroom, the socio-politicalclimates, and the role or the,
like I would say, the impact ofwhat's happening outside the
classroom with what's happeninginside the classroom.
So, how can teachers reallynavigate this space of creating
safe spaces for all studentsdespite what's happening outside
the classroom?
(16:47):
It actually in 2016, Iinterviewed educators in New
York City to just learn abouthow they create spaces of
healing and spaces of safety intheir classrooms, given what was
happening in the country at thattime.
And it all focused on mentalhealth education, really,
(17:08):
because teachers felt that theydid not have enough resources in
their schools, for example, tosupport students in terms of
mental health, uh well-being,social, emotional well-being, et
cetera.
And so many of them went andobtained these certificates to
be able to support theirstudents because of lack of
resources, for example.
Students were very scared, forexample, to go home to find out
(17:29):
that certain family members weredetained or arrested, et cetera.
So these are issues in the US,for example, and other parts of
the world that are verydifferent than here.
And also we talk about likepublic schools in the US.
It's extremely different thaninternational schools here.
Like that the kind of studentsthat we have, the families that
we have in our schools, it's avery different demographic than
what you find in other parts ofthe world.
SPEAKER_01 (17:51):
Yeah, that makes actually a lot of sense because
where I taught in the UK, therewere a lot of um refugee kids
and Roma kids, and the dynamicsare, yeah, they're different
from here.
But still important that weunderstand that we have to
create spaces that are inclusivefor all students.
(18:13):
I want to shift gears a littlebit because there is a lot of
talk about the use of technologyand the use of AI, etc.
Is this helping or hinderingcreating culturally responsive
classrooms?
SPEAKER_02 (18:28):
Well, I think it's a very big topic.
That's like a topic for anotherpodcast episode.
But I believe that it depends.
In a country like the UE, it canbe a force for good for sure,
because we have a lot ofresources to use as educators.
The biggest concern would be tomake sure that our teachers are
(18:50):
co-creators rather than justconsumers of the content that is
generated using artificialintelligence.
So we know that a lot of thecontent that we generate
sometimes is biased or it's notrepresentative of the wide range
of demographics that we have inour schools.
It kind of celebrates dominantcultures and dominant languages
(19:15):
while alienating other culturesand languages, etc., because of
the data sets that we use inorder to generate this kind of
information.
And so there is so much outthere, but it's a matter of
being able to utilize theseresources in a way that, again,
is culturally responsive.
How do we do that?
I would say, first and foremost,training on cultural, what is
(19:38):
really cultural responsivepractice.
So just going back to step one,developing that understanding of
what cultural responsivepractice is, what my roles and
responsibilities as an educatorare.
And then afterwards, navigatingall these AI resources to see
how I can be a co-creator,co-designer of the content that
I receive.
(19:59):
There is so much potential of,I've led sessions on like using
AI to lesson plan or, forexample, design materials, etc.
But I what I always tellteachers is that you have to use
your expertise and your judgmentas an educator who knows the
context of learning and theculture around you in order to
(20:21):
prompt AI properly to get theoutput that you want.
If we just go and generatesomething on AI, it's not
necessarily going to be relevantor responsive to the needs of my
students.
And so we need to also, after wedo the cultural responsive
practice training, we needtraining on really a discerning
(20:42):
user of artificial intelligenceor what we call critical
literacy, really, and medialiteracy as well.
And these are skills that I'mnot seeing yet in our teacher
education programs, for example,or professional development
frameworks, but they're reallyimportant at this time.
A time when there is so muchchange outside of the classroom
(21:04):
that is really impacting ourpractices inside the classroom.
In order to be well informed andnot do our students a disservice
by just avoiding AI altogether,we should be informed.
We should be trained on how touse it properly in order to
generate output that isappropriate for the needs of our
students.
SPEAKER_01 (21:24):
Yeah, you said something there about becoming
co-creators with AI.
Expand on that.
How do we as educators becomeco-creators?
What are we doing practically?
SPEAKER_02 (21:35):
What we do is we, first of all, I believe in
teaching your favorite AI tool,your values.
So I have been using AI for uhlike a very long time.
And I use it a lot for myplanning, for my preparation to
generate case studies, etc.
But it took a lot of time of metraining AI on what my values
(21:59):
are.
How?
How are you training it?
What are you doing?
I just provide like I justprompt it in such a way, like
for example, if I get a contentthat I think is very culturally
relevant or that is notappropriate for the students
that I'm working with, that oris not aligned with my values.
Or for example, one time Iremember AI generated a list of
(22:20):
resources for me, but completelymissed a very important resource
by a scholar of color.
And I was like, why is that oneomitted?
Like, why?
Oh, that was a mistake.
Here's the so sometimes younotice certain things, again, as
an expert who's been doing thiswork for some time that are not
(22:42):
relevant to the context, thatare not relevant to the needs of
your students, then you have toinstruct AI to change the way of
doing things in order togenerate the output that you
think is most appropriate foryour students.
So other things would bewhenever I see like any
instances of AI saying somethingthat does not align with my
(23:04):
beliefs of workingcollaboratively with others or
values such as something thatdoes not, for example, align
with my academic integrity, Iwould just call it out.
Like, you know, this is notright.
How can we change this to so nowwhatever I generate on AI most
of the time is extremelyrelevant to my needs as an
(23:26):
educator because I've been usinga lot of prompting with AI in
order to customize it so that itaccommodates me, the teachers
that I'm working with, thedifferent projects that I'm
engaged in, etc.
SPEAKER_01 (23:39):
Yeah.
So, I mean, we're coming down tothe tail end of the podcast, but
you train teachers.
So tell me, Sama, what are sometrainings that you think, and I
think you alluded to some of itbefore, but what are some
mandatory trainings that youthink teachers need in this time
for these students that we havein front of us right now?
SPEAKER_02 (24:01):
Actually, I'm I teach a course on future skills
and global competencies toteachers, graduate uh level
teachers.
And what we always say is wethink globally, but we act
locally.
We try to learn from what'shappening around the world, but
we contextualize everything, youknow, so that it fits in our own
classrooms, in our own schools,and in our own communities.
(24:24):
And again, we try to focus onall this.
We also say that we're preparingour students for a future that
we do not know.
We do not know how it's gonnalook like.
And so we should not be focusingso much on information.
We should be focusing more onthe skills that allow our
students to navigate all thesenew systems where information is
(24:44):
available.
It's just a matter of using thatinformation in a way that is
creative, innovative, and thatis going to develop the
communities where we live,really.
So, critical literacy, I think,is a crucial component of
teacher training that we are notreally seeing as much as we need
to in our programs.
(25:04):
Another area would be really howto utilize all these new
technologies and all these newresources to generate again
content that is relevant, and inorder to also be well informed
as an educator so that you'reable to use these resources to
support your students in theclassroom because our students
know a lot.
And sometimes they come andteach us things, right?
(25:24):
So we want to make sure we're upto date as well.
We cannot just throw everythingbehind us and say, oh, we're not
adopting these technologiesbecause our students need to
know these technologies.
And also just shifting themindset and understanding that
learning has to look a certainway.
Because we all learned in acertain way, but it looks
completely different now.
And the skills that our studentsand our own children show these
(25:49):
days are very different than theskills that we exhibited when we
were 10 or 11.
Like it's very different.
And so we have to understandthat our times are changing, the
needs of our societies arechanging.
And with that comes anunderstanding of how teaching
and learning should look likenow.
It should be very organic.
It should really be connected toall these technologies that we
(26:10):
have, and it should also befocused on the skills that
students need in order tonavigate an unknown future.
It's not really the information,it's really the skills as well
as the values.
So there are values that arereally needed now at our time,
which is, for example, academicintegrity, what it means to use
resources and create somethingout of these resources, values
(26:33):
of working together,collaboration, etc.
So focusing on these values iscrucial in order to prepare a
group of students who are ableto give back to their
communities.
SPEAKER_01 (26:42):
Yeah, and I also think learning to learn.
So maybe some courses foreducators on how learning takes
place and what it looks like,and how we help students to
learn how to learn.
I know that sounds like amouthful, but Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (27:02):
Yeah, because if you think about it, we've always
said that teachers arefacilitators of learning, but
sometimes we do not really do itthis way.
We really want to be the oneswho are telling students exactly
what to do and where to findinformation.
But with the exposure that wehave to all these resources
right now, it again, it's amatter of training them to be
able to be discerning users ofall these technologies, who are
(27:26):
able to navigate a wide range ofresources that are available for
them, make the most out of theseresources and create something
new because we also want them tobe creative.
We don't want them to justcompletely rely on what
technology has to offer.
SPEAKER_01 (27:42):
Yeah, brilliant place to end the pod.
Thank you, Sama.
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
It's a pleasure.
It's been brilliant having you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You are listening to the Teach Middle East Podcast.
Connecting, developing, andempowering educators.
SPEAKER_01 (00:17):
Hey, this is Lisa Grace coming back with another
episode of the Teach Middle EastPodcast, and this one is my
pleasure to welcome Salma Wali,and she is an assistant
professor at the SharjaEducation Academy, a place I
know quite well.
Hello, all my friends at theSharja Education Academy, Dr.
Hunada and the crew.
(00:39):
How are you?
It's a good time to discuss whatwe're about to discuss, which is
creating inclusive learningspaces in our schools.
What does that look like?
How do we do it?
Where do we start?
Salma, welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_02 (00:55):
Hi, Lisa.
Very excited to be here.
I have been listening to yourpodcasts and I just love the
wide range of topics as well asthe different types of
expertise, different backgroundsthat you spotlight in your
podcast and the Middle EastTeach Middle East podcast.
Just a quick introduction.
As Lisa mentioned, I work atCharger Education Academy.
(01:17):
I train teachers currently inthe Emirate of Charger and other
Emirates as well.
I come to the work of inclusivepractice and cultural responsive
practice because of my ownpersonal experiences, being a
third culture kid, a daughter ofexpats who lived in different
parts of the world and thenimmigrated to the US.
(01:38):
And I've always been like theone who's different in so many
different settings and so manydifferent spaces.
And so I feel like this kind oflike hybrid identity of mine
kind of just comes to thesurface every time I'm faced
with challenges in our schoolsin terms of including students,
making sure that their voicesare heard, they're being
(02:00):
accommodated.
There is actual substantialefforts to include everyone, not
just by saying we do so, but byactually doing things.
And so I'm very excited aboutthis topic, inclusive practice.
And yeah, we're looking forwardto just discussing this more
with you today.
SPEAKER_01 (02:20):
Brilliant.
So we've got 30 minutes, sowe're gonna pack a lot of value
in this because classroomsaround the UAE look like the
world.
Meaning we've got students fromall over the world with varying
backgrounds, varying needs.
And so my first question reallyis tell me a little bit about
(02:41):
what you've observed as you'vegone to different classrooms.
Like, what have you observed interms of inclusive practice that
you think we need to be awareof?
SPEAKER_02 (02:50):
What I have observed is that, as you said, there is
so much diversity in ourclassrooms.
We are home to over 200different nationalities, the
UEE, and we have so manydifferent languages and cultures
represented in our classrooms,yet there seems to be a lack of
understanding among a lot ofteachers of what cultural
(03:11):
responsive practice really is.
Teachers are verywell-intentioned and they want
to support students, but thereisn't a unified kind of
professional developmentframework that would assist
teachers in finding ways tosupport all learners.
There are, as I said, so manydifferent languages in our
classrooms as well.
(03:31):
Yet we do not really haveenough, I would say,
multilingual programs in ourschools.
And so we only accommodate somestudents, but not everybody
else.
Home languages are not alwaysrepresented.
We are trying to do that, butagain, there are issues with
staffing, with finances, withmaking sure that we hide the
(03:53):
right caliber to support ourstudents.
And so these are all concernsthat I'm seeing.
There is also another challenge,which is really balancing that
global aspiration with localculture and identity.
Because we also have a lot ofstudents who are Imorati
students, for example, in ourinternational schools, who are
(04:13):
studying different curricula andprograms imported from other
countries.
But then what are the teachersreally doing to create that
balance so that they're able todevelop their Imarathi identity
while also develop the skillsthat are needed to support the
UEE, an amazing country that ismoving from being an oil-based
economy to being verydiversified in terms of the wide
(04:38):
range of economies that we'reinvolved in, as well as a center
and a hub for innovation and AIinternationally.
So that balance is also verymuch needed.
I would say the issues would bejust addressing the needs of the
wide range of languages andcultures that we have, lack of a
unified system for trainingteachers on cultural responsive
(05:00):
practice and leadership as well,because there is a need to focus
on how we can train our leaders,international educators, to be
cultural responsive also interms of creating school
cultures that accommodate allteachers, all families, all
students, regardless of whatbackground they're coming from.
And the third issue would bebalancing local and global
(05:20):
cultural and heritage.
SPEAKER_01 (05:21):
Yeah.
I want to go back a bit.
I think for our listeners, weneed to define what culturally
responsive classrooms orteaching means.
What does it mean to beculturally responsive?
SPEAKER_02 (05:34):
Yeah, I would say, like simply put, it would be
making sure that every studentfeels seen, heard, all their
voices matter.
They see themselves in thecontent that they engage with
and with the books that are intheir classrooms.
Teachers understand theircultures, heritage, they see the
differences as assets ratherthan deficits in their learning.
(05:58):
And so they capitalize on that.
Also, just being open to thefact that there are so many
different ways of knowing, somany different ways of learning.
Family engagement can lookdifferent in different places
around the world.
And so just holisticunderstanding that every child,
every family that comes to ourschool is unique in the way that
(06:20):
uh the approach teaching andlearning.
And as an educator, what Ishould do is try to learn more
about the students and thefamilies that I'm working with.
It's not easy sometimes because,as I said, we're a very
international uh country withteachers from all over the
world.
And sometimes, as I said, mostof our educators, if not all,
(06:42):
are extremely well-intentioned.
But sometimes there is a lack ofexposure and understanding of
what it means to be working in amulticultural, multilingual
setting.
And as I said, because of thosemissing frameworks for training
our educators, educators feellike they're not really sure
what to do.
You know, they're really facedwith so many challenges,
curriculum demands,administrative demands, but also
(07:04):
families that are verydifferent, students who have
very different needs thanothers.
Uh so I would say cushionresponsive practice is just
keeping in mind that all of thisis normal and we are learning on
the go.
We're trying to find ways to getto know each other as humans,
first and foremost, and then aseducators getting to know our
families and our students.
SPEAKER_01 (07:26):
Yeah.
I can hear people in my like,you know, my listeners in my
head sometimes I can hear thequestion they may have.
And I think one of the questionsthey may have is what frameworks
do we need to put in place?
Like, how do we go about doingthis practically?
Because as you said, manymajority are well-intentioned.
(07:46):
They want to make sure theirclassrooms are culturally
inclusive spaces for all.
What can they do?
Give me some practical tips.
SPEAKER_02 (07:56):
Yeah.
Firstly, we we need to reallydevelop a shared understanding,
like define what we mean, as youasked earlier, by cultural
responsive practice.
What do you really mean bycultural responsive education?
What does it mean to create aninclusive classroom?
So having a shared understandingis very important.
And developing that sharedunderstanding through reading,
(08:17):
through looking at examples fromall over the world, what's
happening, how accommodating ourstudents, et cetera.
Another component of it would bejust trying to think outside of
myself, outside of my comfortzone.
So it would be more like uhimplicit bias, really, and uh
how my own notions, my own normson understanding of things
(08:38):
impact the way that I work withothers.
And uh what I can do as aneducator in order to separate
myself from my own beliefs whenI'm working with others in order
to be able to accommodate theirneeds.
So that would be the secondpart.
It's not easy, but like what Ihave seen happening in other
parts of the world would bereally like very confidential
(09:00):
written narratives where you'regiven a prompt as an educator
and you have to reflect on theseprompts and just reflect on what
you're writing, like how youremotions come into play when
you're working with specificpeople.
And what can you do?
How can you be very deliberateabout taking actions to avoid
acting in a certain way inspecific situations because it's
(09:20):
coming from a place of bias orlack of understanding?
And if there is understanding,what can you do in order to fill
that gap?
Where can you find theseresources in order to be able to
develop a better understandingof how things are happening in
other parts of the world, othercultures, among other like
students who are coming fromdifferent backgrounds, family
(09:41):
backgrounds, etc.?
Stage two would be reallypractical strategies of what can
you, like very small steps thatyou can use in the classroom in
order to create a more inclusivesetting.
It starts with just getting toknow more about your students,
surveying their needs, right?
In the beginning of the schoolyear, interviewing them, getting
to know about their families,uh, maybe having some kind of
(10:03):
less a system of documentingcertain facts, certain details
about every student, how theylearn, how they do things, where
they went to school before.
Was it like a formal likeschooling experience, or what
was it interrupted?
Was there any kind of crisismaybe?
Because we have a lot ofstudents who are also refugees.
(10:24):
We have a lot of students whoalso come from war-torn zones.
So, what are we doing in orderto understand where they're
coming from?
What are topics that they wouldbe okay to talk about?
And what are things that Ishould stay away from?
How can I coordinate with otherpeople in my school in order to
provide the services that theyneed?
Who else would be a good personto collaborate with in my school
(10:46):
building?
Does anybody else speak thelanguage?
Is there another person in myschool that comes from the same
culture that can educate me asan educator about, you know, how
to tackle certain issues with uhcertain students?
That's one thing.
The other thing would be reallylooking at the materials that
I'm using in the classroom andthinking, how responsive are
(11:07):
these to the needs of mystudents?
We know that our students usematerials from all over the
world.
We have different programs andcurricula in our schools in the
UE.
But we also have students whohave never been to these places.
And so, how can they relate tocertain experiences?
My daughter was reading recentlyabout interstates in the US.
(11:27):
She's in an American systemschool, and I'm like, she can
relate to that because she'sbeen in these places, in these
situations, and she knows whatthat is.
But if a child has been raisedin a different country or in the
UE, how is that engaging?
How is that responsive to theirneeds?
There are topics that we have tomodify or change or connect to
our local cultural and heritage,as I was saying earlier.
(11:50):
Like, okay, I'm gonna teach themabout engineering or
architecture in other countries.
Why not connect it to what'shappening in Dubai, for example,
in our local communities, in ourbackyard, really?
And then making sure that werepresent all our students in
the materials that we use.
There is a tendency in ourbooks, and what I mean by books
is like really our schoollibraries, our classroom
(12:12):
libraries to have charactersthat come from certain parts of
the world and do not representeverybody in the classroom.
And there is really a growingbody of literature, like
children's literature, that hasdiverse characters.
On voice, they call itliterature for children.
Characters who are black andbrown and handicapped and
(12:32):
multicultural kids, bilingualkids.
It doesn't always have to beanimals or white characters.
It has to look like ourstudents, the demographics that
we work with in our classrooms.
And that's one way we can helpour students feel that they're
actually valued, they are seenand appreciated.
One last strategy would bereally in terms of like
(12:55):
leadership, just being verystrategic about our hiring as
well.
We need to diversify who ourteaching for is, like who we
have in our schools and ourleadership as well, so that
students have role models tolook up to, because they need to
see people that look like themwho are very successful and
accomplished in order to bemotivated.
(13:16):
Otherwise, it always feels like,for lack of like a better
description, like thesuperiority, like some people
are more superior, they havemore knowledge than me.
We want to make sure thateverybody feels that they're
seen, they have an opportunity,they have a path to success, uh,
just like everybody else.
So these are just some practicaltips.
SPEAKER_01 (13:36):
Those are some great tips, actually.
How do we balance?
Because when you were talkingabout the material that we used
and stuff, how do we balancegiving students something that
relates to their culture thatthey can relate to versus
exposing them to new ideas andnew things?
SPEAKER_02 (13:56):
I don't think, I mean, we have to balance by
making sure that we're doingboth, honestly.
Like we have to expose them tonew ideas, of course, as much as
possible, given that theseideas, again, are culturally
appropriate, because reallybeing culturally responsive is
also understanding the hostcountry and its culture and
(14:16):
making sure that we're selectingtopics that are appropriate for
the culture where we're working.
One thing that I shifted myunderstanding of cultural
responsive practice is that whenI came here to the UI, cultural
responsive education looks verydifferent than how it looks in
other parts of the world.
It's very different.
Like the issues that we look at,for example, issues of
multilingualism, issues of allthese different curricula that
(14:37):
we have in our schools, etc.
It's very different.
It's a very unique examplecompared to, let's say, the UK
or the US, where culturalresponsive practice means
something very different basedon race and identity, etc.
It's very different here in theUE.
And so as an educator, I try toeducate myself on what is
actually culturally responsivepractice in this country, what
(14:58):
is really relevant to thiscountry, my host country.
Get to know more about thecountry where I'm working.
And then I have to just find thebalance to introduce whatever
ideas I think are relevant tothe students that are, again,
culturally responsive,appropriate with the culture,
and in the same time make surethat I am connecting that with
their local culture and heritageas well.
(15:20):
And, you know, we want tobroaden their understanding of
global issues as well, becausewe especially in international
schools, we want them to bewell-rounded, we want them to be
able to work in differentsettings, go and study abroad,
etc.
So it's very important for themto have that exposure, but at
the same time, we need to havethat solid understanding of who
(15:40):
I am, the value that I bring,and that my voice is really
important in the process aswell.
SPEAKER_01 (15:46):
Yeah, I was just thinking when you said there was
a difference.
I'm wondering what thedifferences are that you've
noticed between, let's say, howcultural responsive practice is
in maybe the US where you wentto school, and here.
What did you notice?
SPEAKER_02 (16:03):
One area, for example, would be like the whole
issue, like in the US, culturalresponsive practice is really
associated a lot withimmigration, for example, like
the rights of immigrant studentsin our public schools.
And sometimes we have studentswho have not obtained their
legal status yet, but they arepart of our public schools.
And so we have to accommodatetheir needs as well, but they're
(16:27):
also dealing with a lot ofshifting dynamics outside of the
classroom, the socio-politicalclimates, and the role or the,
like I would say, the impact ofwhat's happening outside the
classroom with what's happeninginside the classroom.
So, how can teachers reallynavigate this space of creating
safe spaces for all studentsdespite what's happening outside
the classroom?
(16:47):
It actually in 2016, Iinterviewed educators in New
York City to just learn abouthow they create spaces of
healing and spaces of safety intheir classrooms, given what was
happening in the country at thattime.
And it all focused on mentalhealth education, really,
(17:08):
because teachers felt that theydid not have enough resources in
their schools, for example, tosupport students in terms of
mental health, uh well-being,social, emotional well-being, et
cetera.
And so many of them went andobtained these certificates to
be able to support theirstudents because of lack of
resources, for example.
Students were very scared, forexample, to go home to find out
(17:29):
that certain family members weredetained or arrested, et cetera.
So these are issues in the US,for example, and other parts of
the world that are verydifferent than here.
And also we talk about likepublic schools in the US.
It's extremely different thaninternational schools here.
Like that the kind of studentsthat we have, the families that
we have in our schools, it's avery different demographic than
what you find in other parts ofthe world.
SPEAKER_01 (17:51):
Yeah, that makes actually a lot of sense because
where I taught in the UK, therewere a lot of um refugee kids
and Roma kids, and the dynamicsare, yeah, they're different
from here.
But still important that weunderstand that we have to
create spaces that are inclusivefor all students.
(18:13):
I want to shift gears a littlebit because there is a lot of
talk about the use of technologyand the use of AI, etc.
Is this helping or hinderingcreating culturally responsive
classrooms?
SPEAKER_02 (18:28):
Well, I think it's a very big topic.
That's like a topic for anotherpodcast episode.
But I believe that it depends.
In a country like the UE, it canbe a force for good for sure,
because we have a lot ofresources to use as educators.
The biggest concern would be tomake sure that our teachers are
(18:50):
co-creators rather than justconsumers of the content that is
generated using artificialintelligence.
So we know that a lot of thecontent that we generate
sometimes is biased or it's notrepresentative of the wide range
of demographics that we have inour schools.
It kind of celebrates dominantcultures and dominant languages
(19:15):
while alienating other culturesand languages, etc., because of
the data sets that we use inorder to generate this kind of
information.
And so there is so much outthere, but it's a matter of
being able to utilize theseresources in a way that, again,
is culturally responsive.
How do we do that?
I would say, first and foremost,training on cultural, what is
(19:38):
really cultural responsivepractice.
So just going back to step one,developing that understanding of
what cultural responsivepractice is, what my roles and
responsibilities as an educatorare.
And then afterwards, navigatingall these AI resources to see
how I can be a co-creator,co-designer of the content that
I receive.
(19:59):
There is so much potential of,I've led sessions on like using
AI to lesson plan or, forexample, design materials, etc.
But I what I always tellteachers is that you have to use
your expertise and your judgmentas an educator who knows the
context of learning and theculture around you in order to
(20:21):
prompt AI properly to get theoutput that you want.
If we just go and generatesomething on AI, it's not
necessarily going to be relevantor responsive to the needs of my
students.
And so we need to also, after wedo the cultural responsive
practice training, we needtraining on really a discerning
(20:42):
user of artificial intelligenceor what we call critical
literacy, really, and medialiteracy as well.
And these are skills that I'mnot seeing yet in our teacher
education programs, for example,or professional development
frameworks, but they're reallyimportant at this time.
A time when there is so muchchange outside of the classroom
(21:04):
that is really impacting ourpractices inside the classroom.
In order to be well informed andnot do our students a disservice
by just avoiding AI altogether,we should be informed.
We should be trained on how touse it properly in order to
generate output that isappropriate for the needs of our
students.
SPEAKER_01 (21:24):
Yeah, you said something there about becoming
co-creators with AI.
Expand on that.
How do we as educators becomeco-creators?
What are we doing practically?
SPEAKER_02 (21:35):
What we do is we, first of all, I believe in
teaching your favorite AI tool,your values.
So I have been using AI for uhlike a very long time.
And I use it a lot for myplanning, for my preparation to
generate case studies, etc.
But it took a lot of time of metraining AI on what my values
(21:59):
are.
How?
How are you training it?
What are you doing?
I just provide like I justprompt it in such a way, like
for example, if I get a contentthat I think is very culturally
relevant or that is notappropriate for the students
that I'm working with, that oris not aligned with my values.
Or for example, one time Iremember AI generated a list of
(22:20):
resources for me, but completelymissed a very important resource
by a scholar of color.
And I was like, why is that oneomitted?
Like, why?
Oh, that was a mistake.
Here's the so sometimes younotice certain things, again, as
an expert who's been doing thiswork for some time that are not
(22:42):
relevant to the context, thatare not relevant to the needs of
your students, then you have toinstruct AI to change the way of
doing things in order togenerate the output that you
think is most appropriate foryour students.
So other things would bewhenever I see like any
instances of AI saying somethingthat does not align with my
(23:04):
beliefs of workingcollaboratively with others or
values such as something thatdoes not, for example, align
with my academic integrity, Iwould just call it out.
Like, you know, this is notright.
How can we change this to so nowwhatever I generate on AI most
of the time is extremelyrelevant to my needs as an
(23:26):
educator because I've been usinga lot of prompting with AI in
order to customize it so that itaccommodates me, the teachers
that I'm working with, thedifferent projects that I'm
engaged in, etc.
SPEAKER_01 (23:39):
Yeah.
So, I mean, we're coming down tothe tail end of the podcast, but
you train teachers.
So tell me, Sama, what are sometrainings that you think, and I
think you alluded to some of itbefore, but what are some
mandatory trainings that youthink teachers need in this time
for these students that we havein front of us right now?
SPEAKER_02 (24:01):
Actually, I'm I teach a course on future skills
and global competencies toteachers, graduate uh level
teachers.
And what we always say is wethink globally, but we act
locally.
We try to learn from what'shappening around the world, but
we contextualize everything, youknow, so that it fits in our own
classrooms, in our own schools,and in our own communities.
(24:24):
And again, we try to focus onall this.
We also say that we're preparingour students for a future that
we do not know.
We do not know how it's gonnalook like.
And so we should not be focusingso much on information.
We should be focusing more onthe skills that allow our
students to navigate all thesenew systems where information is
(24:44):
available.
It's just a matter of using thatinformation in a way that is
creative, innovative, and thatis going to develop the
communities where we live,really.
So, critical literacy, I think,is a crucial component of
teacher training that we are notreally seeing as much as we need
to in our programs.
(25:04):
Another area would be really howto utilize all these new
technologies and all these newresources to generate again
content that is relevant, and inorder to also be well informed
as an educator so that you'reable to use these resources to
support your students in theclassroom because our students
know a lot.
And sometimes they come andteach us things, right?
(25:24):
So we want to make sure we're upto date as well.
We cannot just throw everythingbehind us and say, oh, we're not
adopting these technologiesbecause our students need to
know these technologies.
And also just shifting themindset and understanding that
learning has to look a certainway.
Because we all learned in acertain way, but it looks
completely different now.
And the skills that our studentsand our own children show these
(25:49):
days are very different than theskills that we exhibited when we
were 10 or 11.
Like it's very different.
And so we have to understandthat our times are changing, the
needs of our societies arechanging.
And with that comes anunderstanding of how teaching
and learning should look likenow.
It should be very organic.
It should really be connected toall these technologies that we
(26:10):
have, and it should also befocused on the skills that
students need in order tonavigate an unknown future.
It's not really the information,it's really the skills as well
as the values.
So there are values that arereally needed now at our time,
which is, for example, academicintegrity, what it means to use
resources and create somethingout of these resources, values
(26:33):
of working together,collaboration, etc.
So focusing on these values iscrucial in order to prepare a
group of students who are ableto give back to their
communities.
SPEAKER_01 (26:42):
Yeah, and I also think learning to learn.
So maybe some courses foreducators on how learning takes
place and what it looks like,and how we help students to
learn how to learn.
I know that sounds like amouthful, but Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (27:02):
Yeah, because if you think about it, we've always
said that teachers arefacilitators of learning, but
sometimes we do not really do itthis way.
We really want to be the oneswho are telling students exactly
what to do and where to findinformation.
But with the exposure that wehave to all these resources
right now, it again, it's amatter of training them to be
able to be discerning users ofall these technologies, who are
(27:26):
able to navigate a wide range ofresources that are available for
them, make the most out of theseresources and create something
new because we also want them tobe creative.
We don't want them to justcompletely rely on what
technology has to offer.
SPEAKER_01 (27:42):
Yeah, brilliant place to end the pod.
Thank you, Sama.
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
It's a pleasure.
It's been brilliant having you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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