The first years of teaching are well known as being the most challenging of new graduates' careers, corresponding to the highest attrition rates. Numbers of novice teachers leaving the profession during the first three years are universally high. The challenges faced by novice teachers vary from struggling with classroom management issues to coping with lesson planning, to name just two. In Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, novice Emirati teachers face additional dimensions to these challenges, in that they are joining public schools which are undergoing substantial educational reform. They are also in the minority as Emirati English medium teachers, working among mainly Western teaching staff. We interviewed a group of Emirati primary school teachers during their first year of teaching. It was found that they had faced multiple challenges, some of which are universal among novice teachers, such as managing student behavior and learning to cope with their new workload. However, they also faced additional unique challenges, such as navigating inter-cultural relationships with colleagues, and balancing their new working lives with their demanding home lives.

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The educational status of Emirati women in the United Arab Emirates has developed rapidly over the last five decades, with females now outnumbering males in higher education institutions. Marriage and motherhood often take place during the years of undergraduate study for women, particularly for those from families who retain Emirati cultural traditions of relatively early marriage and childbearing. This study analyses the role which spouses play in their wives’ pursuit of education, using the theoretical gender and development lens to explore whether a transformation of power relations within the marriage takes place for the growth in female participation in higher education to occur. Spousal behaviours are identified and categorized through the gender and development lens as either enablers or constraints to women’s empowerment and participation in higher education, and potential reasons for these behaviours surrounding gender relations are discussed.

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