This book explores the development of the first cohort of students to complete a new teacher education degree in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As part of this exploration, it offers a way of thinking about teacher formation as a dynamic process of identity development within an evolving community of practice. It draws on insights from recent work in discourse theory to account for the co-construction of knowledge, identity and community, and to recognize the inescapably political nature of the meanings through which identity and community are constructed. In addition, the book offers insights into the ongoing processes of educational, social and cultural development, in a country located in a part of the world that is of immense geopolitical significance, yet at the same time is both under-researched and often subject to stereotyping and caricature. Finally, the book suggests some possible directions for future research to provide greater understanding of language teacher education that may have resonance for teacher education more widely.

Within the context of increasing globalization, the Middle East is critical to any understanding of our contemporary world. Home of much of the world's oil reserves, and hence central to global energy issues, as well as unwitting host to the conflicts that have in many ways become the litmus test of East–West relations, including the Israeli–Palestinian struggle and more recently the invasion, and subsequent fracturing, of Iraq, the region assumes a significance that far outweighs its geographical size or population.