Building and Preserving Human Assets: A study conducted in four selected private and public schools in Abu Dhabi

Abstract

The aim of the current research is to shed the light on the professional shortage problems influencing the faculty preservation in some chosen schools in UAE. To improve the present condition of such faculty preservation in the mentioned schools, the research proposes some strategies for this concern. The research depends on an interpretive paradigm to examine the viewpoints of the faculty staff with more than one-year experience in the chosen schools to examine the study problem and seek its solutions. In progress, the study has demonstrated a consultation of numerous researches from the relevant literature. Semi-structured questionnaire and telephone interviews have been used to collect the viewpoints of the faculty members. The content is analysed to point out and categorize the developed topics out of the qualitative empirical data created from both the semi-structured interviews and questionnaire. The research has pointed out a variety of institutional, personal and work-related elements that may relate to faculty preservation in the chosen schools in UAE. The relatively high ratio of compensation, the friendly practices of the management and administration, the productive environment of research and the positive qualities of the institution all have appeared to be vital elements to ignite the faculty members to work enthusiastically in the said schools. Additionally, the research also approaches the faculty members in matters of personal discrepancies based on experience, gender and academic title. In this concern, the study realises that the female faculty members look at job security as more crucial than their male colleagues. It is also revealed that the new, and young, faculty members have much more concern about the unfairness and bias behaviour of the management, the unavailability equal chances of higher education and professional development than their experienced counterparts. Hence; the findings of this research show that it is imperative for the faculty members of the chosen schools to be supported with sufficient funds, the essential facilities and the proper time to accomplish their economic needs and to make their wish to seek higher education possible for their professional development. However, the study limitations to only targeting members of faculty in the chosen business schools with a minimum of one year of work in their educational establishments and to the geographical limitations, where the researcher had to conduct the semi-structured interviews via phone. To wrap it up, schools are the nurturing environment of the intellectuality of our most precious element: our children; the seeds of the future. It is said: plant well to harvest well.