Parallel Session Proceedings »
5.4.3 Paradox of Giftedness and Asperger’s Syndrome: A Case Study in a Private School in Dubai
As per its underpinning philosophy, the Special Education Department of the United Arab Emirates considers that “uniqueness” is the common characteristic of all pupils. In other words, each child has his own educational needs. Thus, those needs should be granted in an environment where he can develop emotionally, intellectually, physically and socially. Since 2010, based “School for All” initiative, the Ministry of Education has been working hard to optimize the education of students with special education needs and disabilities. However, gifted education, part of special education, is still marginalized. Moreover, twice-exceptionality does not even exist as a separate category of students in any official document released by the Ministry of Education. Twice-exceptionality of a student requires support for both his giftedness and his learning difficulties. Due to the lack of guidance from the Ministry of Education, teaching, learning, and assessment of a twice-exceptional learner present more challenges to educators. As a result, the education of such student could be jeopardized. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how schools fulfill the special education needs of twice-exceptional learners. The qualitative case study provides the researcher with the opportunity to thoroughly examine the status of Khalifa, a twice-exceptional learner of Asperger’s Syndrome, enrolled in a local private school in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In the study, the purpose is to investigate the effectiveness of the role that the Special Education Needs and Disabilities department and teachers are playing, in developing his giftedness while coping with his case of Asperger’s syndrome. The findings are presented based on thematical comparative analysis of the semi-structured interviews with the Head of Special Education Department and the science teacher of that student. To enhance the trustworthiness of this qualitative research, the researcher conducted a document analysis of the Individual Educational Plan and science lesson plan sample. The document analysis of secondary data is used to assess the validity of the data collected from the semi-structured interviews. Based on the research findings, some recommendations are presented for both the school and the Ministry of Education. Further research in that field is suggested as twice-exceptionality is a new field of study in the UAE and in the world.