The State of Positive Education in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Abstract

As part of Vision 2021 and the National Strategy for Wellbeing 2031 (Emirates News Agency, 2019), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has begun the journey of implementing positive education (PE). As a facet of positive psychology, PE focuses on school-based interventions and programs that target student well-being to ensure that youth are developing skills that contribute to their happiness and support their well-being (White et al., 2017). However, this approach is relatively new in the UAE, and much still remains to be learned about the most successful way to implement and evaluate it. The course of PE implementation in the UAE is similar to the implementation of other approaches targeting student well-being across the globe, namely social-emotional learning (SEL). Much like PE, SEL is viewed as an umbrella construct that focuses on developing specific competencies related to emotional intelligence in children and adults that impact their well-being (Elias et al., 1997).