Characteristics of the international educator and the strategic role of critical incidents

The purpose of this paper is to extend Bunnell's (2016) thesis that international education teachers (IETs) are forming a 'global educational precariat'. The paper draws upon interview data from a larger study of international teachers in two international schools in Shanghai, China. In order to substantiate and develop Bunnell's thesis, narrative inquiry was employed as a guiding methodology, which ensured that data analysis remained rooted in the participants' lived experience but also allowed for triangulation, thereby enhancing validity. Findings confirm Bunnell's thesis by highlighting a lack of agency, financial insecurity, and the marginalisation of professional identities as common experiences of IET precarity. The findings also challenge the notion of a global educational precariat by arguing that it may be more appropriate to conceptualise IETs in terms of a localised educational precariat rather than a global class in and of itself. The paper ends by sketching a research agenda that would involve comparing teachers' experiences in different types of international schools in China and other contexts.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: International Education Teachers As An Educational Precariatmentioning

confidence: 99%

International Education Teachers’ Experiences as an Educational Precariat in China

Poole

2019

“…Importantly, this dissonance does not necessarily produce negative outcomes. On the contrary, research studies have found that it is through experiences of dissonance and disequilibrium that increased intercultural awareness among students and faculty often materializes (Allan, 2002; Savva, 2015 and 2017A). In the case of teachers, research has found that the experience of dissonance can produce definitive changes in actual teaching methods used in classroom settings (Savva, 2017B).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

International-Mindedness: Deviations, Incongruities and Other Challenges Facing the Concept

Savva

Stanfield²

2018

Self Cite

This article examines the developing discourse of international-mindedness and the problematic nature of its theoretical foundation alongside its actual manifestation in international school settings. In particular, it explores the discord between international-mindedness as a benevolent form of character development compared to international-mindedness as an opportunistic form of social and global mobility. Against this competing backdrop, the article also looks to identify distinct features that differentiate the concept of international-mindedness from other more established ideologies, including those related to interculturalism, multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism. The assumption that international-mindedness is perpetually situated within a moral code of conduct is challenged and analyzed critically, along with implications for schools.

“…Previous attempts to develop typologies of international school teachers (e.g., Hardman, 2001; Garton, 2000) have been critiqued (e.g. Savva, 2015) for being ‘insufficiently nuanced to capture this group’s motivations and identities’ (Bailey & Cooker, 2019, p. 129). Fortunately, the last few years have seen a growing interest in the lives and experiences of teachers in international schools (Arber et al, 2014; Bailey, 2015; Blyth, 2017; Bunnell, 2016, 2017), which could be likened to something of an international school teacher turn in the field of international education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing International School Teacher Identity from Lived Experience: A Fresh Conceptual Framework

Poole

2020

This paper responds to Bailey and Cooker’s (2019) paper entitled ‘Exploring Teacher Identity in International Schools: Key Concepts for Research’ in which the authors offer a typology of international school teachers based on interviews with non-qualified teachers. This paper builds upon the typology of international school teachers by offering a framework for researching international school teacher identity. The framework is illustrated by interview data with an expatriate teacher in a Chinese Internationalised School, both of which remain under-researched. Chinese Internationalised Schools typically cater to local middle-class elites and offer some form of international curricula, such as the International Baccalaureate Diploma, alongside study of the Chinese national curriculum. Rather than utilising a priori teacher types derived from existing typologies, the framework utilises teachers’ lived experiences to inductively construct a ‘snap-shot’ of their teacher identity. Drawing upon postmodern approaches to teacher identity, identity is conceptualised as an ongoing dialogic process. Interview data with an international school teacher called Tyron (a pseudonym) is utilised in order to take the reader through how the framework is intended to be put into practice. The framework is an alternative approach to researching international school teachers that guides researchers away from labelling teachers by observation and instead looks at what they do and their histories. Moreover, this approach involves both the researcher and the teacher, and not, as is typically the case, only the researcher.