Matthew Clarke

Set in the rapidly changing world of the contemporary United Arab Emirates and bringing together detailed linguistic analysis with cutting edge social theory, this book explores the development of the first cohort of students to complete a new Bachelor of Education in English language teaching, theorizing the students’ learning to teach in terms of the discursive construction of a teaching identity within an evolving community of practice. Both a study of the influence of issues such as gender and nationalism in language teacher education in the Middle East, as well as of the power of discourse and community in shaping identity, this book will be of relevance to anyone working in teacher education as well as to those with an interest in theorizations of discourse and identity.

This book has been written with the intention of taking the reader through the process of preparing a Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). The book's presentation reflects the natural progression of identifying the deficiencies commonly found in widely used income-based measures of sustainable well-being; putting forward an alternative measure of sustainable well-being, such as the GPI; explaining how the GPI has been constructed and calculated; presenting and analysing the results of our study; drawing policy conclusions; acknowledging some of the criticisms directed towards the GPI (and defending it in the process); and, finally, concluding with a brief summary.