Teacher Agency and Adaptive Teaching Styles in Chinese Language Curriculum Implementation in the UAE

This literature review examines how teachers mediate Chinese language curriculum implementation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with particular emphasis on teacher agency, adaptive teaching, institutional conditions, learner diversity, and programme sustainability. Chinese language education in the UAE has developed rapidly from a specialised offering into a nationally supported school subject. However, policy expansion alone does not guarantee coherent curriculum implementation, as teachers remain central to translating policy expectations into meaningful classroom practice. Evidence from comparative research on Chinese as an additional or foreign language and on language curriculum reform indicates that teacher adaptation is shaped by professional biography, identity, pedagogical beliefs, relationships with colleagues, school leadership, curriculum materials, and perceptions of learner needs. Adaptive teaching is therefore better understood as a negotiated form of curriculum enactment rather than either straightforward policy compliance or unrestricted teacher autonomy. While adaptation may enhance contextual relevance and learner responsiveness, it may also narrow curricular purposes when teachers operate under inadequate preparation, limited resources, weak institutional support, or strong accountability pressures. UAE-specific scholarship has provided useful evidence on programme expansion and perceptions of Chinese language and culture, but classroom-based research on teacher agency and adaptive teaching remains comparatively limited. Important gaps concern teachers’ lived experiences, classroom enactment, curriculum and assessment practices, learner outcomes, professional learning, and longitudinal development. The review argues that sustainable Chinese language education in the UAE requires a balance between curriculum coherence and contextual flexibility, supported by context-sensitive teacher education, school-based professional communities, relevant curriculum resources, and evaluation systems that recognize purposeful adaptation as an integral component of implementation.