Policy-driven expansion and implementation gaps: a document analysis of Chinese language education in UAE public K–12 schools

This study examines the current state and development of Chinese language education in the UAE's public K-12 schools, addressing the gap in systematic, cross-validated document analysis of this rapidly expanding programme by using qualitative document analysis of multi-source materials. The study identifies four interrelated characteristics: (1) policy-driven expansion, embedded in diplomatic strategies and the ‘Hundred Schools Project,' shifting from rapid growth to consolidation; (2) developed curricula and textbooks but weak vertical articulation with higher education; (3) a fully expatriate teaching workforce facing supply, workload, and intercultural adaptation pressures, making teachers' intercultural communicative competence (ICC) structurally central; and (4) regional imbalances, with Abu Dhabi concentrating the majority of schools and learners. The findings imply that sustainable development requires evidence-informed governance, enhanced teacher support, vertical learner pathways, regionally differentiated planning, and explicit ICC attention. This study provides an empirically grounded analytical framework, rooted in the Gulf context, for understanding policy-practice gaps, and offers methodological and conceptual implications for evaluating language policies and theorising teachers’ ICC in multilingual societies.