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• CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION THE CASE OF REGGIO EMILIA APPROACH IN DUBAI

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  Fatemeh Faroughi

  Ilona Fekete-Dabney

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  Although the term “culture” is a controversial term and there is no unified meaning that is accepted by all, societies deal with culture in every aspect of day-to-day life and interactions. The dilemma of how to introduce or accept a culture or cultural norm in a society, especially a society that is regarded as multicultural, is felt more intensely. Within international schools and specifically, in the multicultural society of countries such as the United Arab Emirates, this cultural diversity is clearly visible. On the other hand, the world-known and famous Reggio Emilia approach which has been successful in numerous Western countries has found its way to pre-primary education in the UAE. This paper will look into the implementation of the Reggio Emilia approach in the culturally diverse society of the UAE compared to Italy and other Western countries. The aim is to see if the important aspects of the Reggio Emilia approach such as teachers as researchers, children as citizens with rights, the role of the environment, curricula as long-term projects, and finally, parents as partners in education enterprise, are indeed implemented in the Reggio Emilia nurseries in the UAE. Or could it be the case that due to the cultural diversity of the UAE this implementation in its full and exact sense is not possible and nurseries in the UAE are only inspired by the approach?