The personal struggles of ‘national’ educators working in ‘international’ schools: an intercultural perspective

Savva, Maria

doi:10.1080/14767724.2016.1195728

Cited by 32 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…For example, Tyron's and Robert's narratives clearly showed evidence of the international teacher as a denizen or a global migrant, whilst Nora's narrative presented being an international teacher in terms of permanent liminality, which leads to anxiety and a sense of uncertainty. These findings support previous research studies (Savva, 2015(Savva, , 2017 that focus on the difficulties of teaching in international schools. Another significant finding is the prevalence of what could be called a 'them and us' discourse which is most vividly seen in Robert's and Nora's narratives, in which school leadership is positioned as the negative part of a binary opposition.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Although not necessarily qualified to teach internationally, IETs tend to be qualified teachers in their own countries, possessing for instance Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in the UK or a teaching certificate in the US (Hayden, 2006). Typically, the reasons given for why teachers choose to relocate from national to international teaching contexts include burnout, due to long hours and pressure (Bunnell, 2014;Hayden, 2006), wanting to discover the world (Savva, 2017), increased personal and professional opportunities (Bailey, 2015), and an ideological motive to 'make the world a better place' through the embodiment and promotion of international-mindedness (Hill, 2012).…”

Section: Defining International Education Teachersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent articles (Bailey, 2015;Blyth, 2017;Bunnell, 2016Bunnell, , 2017Burke, 2017;Cavendish, 2011;Halicioglu, 2015;Poole, 2017Poole, , 2018Savva, 2015Savva, , 2017 and books (Arber, Blackmore, & Vongalis-Macrow, 2014;Minor & Duncan, 2017) that explore IETs may offer some suggestions. This burgeoning literature tends to be either practitioner-or researcher-focused.…”

Section: International Education Teachers As An Educational Precariatmentioning

confidence: 99%

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International Education Teachers’ Experiences as an Educational Precariat in China

Poole

2019

Jnl of Research in Internatl Education

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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.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Defining International Education Teachersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: International Education Teachers As An Educational Precariatmentioning

confidence: 99%

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International Education Teachers’ Experiences as an Educational Precariat in China

Poole

2019

Jnl of Research in Internatl Education

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“…Moreover, the main premise of that paper, that some types of teacher (mainly native English-speaking and Western-trained) are seemingly preferred to others in international school recruitment, implied a degree of positive discrimination that still warrants attention, and some theorisation. Recent comment about the ‘White Anglophone hegemony’ (Savva, 2017: 583) shows that the topic is still ripe for critical discussion, as does recent auto-ethnographical evidence (Blyth, 2017). The issue of differential contracts and the differing, hierarchical treatment of ‘local’ and ‘expatriate’ teachers has been raised (Hayden and Thompson, 2020: 3) as one that needs a re-think, whilst Hatch (2020: 12) has recently argued the case for revisiting differentiated contracts and preferential perks in favour of ‘overseas hire’ educators (what he calls the ‘elephant in the room’) in international schools.…”

Section: The Historical Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring enduring employment discrimination in favour of British and American teachers in ‘traditional international schools’

Bunnell

Atkinson

2020

Jnl of Research in Internatl Education

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Volume 2 of this journal included an article (Canterford, 2003) which discussed ‘segmented labour markets’ in ‘international schools’. Using an economics lens, that paper investigated the predominance of British and American educators, concluding that a form of discrimination existed which was driven by demand-side factors. In particular, Canterford identified a labour market dominated by British and American actors, asserting that ‘requirements discriminate very effectively against teachers from certain areas of the world.’ Our paper re-visits and advances Canterford’s discussion, and argues that not only does there still seem to be a reliance on native English-speaking Anglo-American actors in what might be described as ‘traditional international schools’, but there is a further need to move beyond economic theory towards the application of a sociological one. By applying Pierre Bourdieu’s Social Field Theory we show how positive discrimination in favour of native English-speakers from certain Western/Global North nations can occur within a discrete level of activity, creating a condition that is evident yet most often misrecognised. A complex set of doxa endures within the arena, beginning at recruitment level and continuing within curriculum-delivery and teacher-retainment levels. We show how the field in general possesses a normative belief-system that promotes division within the labour market, yet at the same time makes it seem natural, legitimate, and ‘legal’. This situation, the nomos, is a powerful, structural condition that helps make positive discrimination in favour of British and American actors seem so fundamentally normal as to remain, for the most part, unremarked. The topic still requires substantially more investigation and validation. However, by theorising it, and thus better confronting it, we can arguably begin to deal with it.

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“…That paper focuses on a sub-set of teachers in the rapidly growing body of 'International Schools', namely 'young Anglo-Saxon' educators. 1 The complex arena of 'International Education' that involves pre-university English-speaking 'International Schooling' (rather than non-English speaking 'National Overseas Schooling' such as the role of Japanese schooling in Singapore: Toh 2020) has begun to attract scholarly attention in recent years, amidst substantial changes in both scale and nature, and the challenge of being a teacher in an 'International School' has been previously discussed in this journal (Savva 2017). Although the 'International School' continues to defy exact and consensus definition (Hayden 2011), and has long-been seen as an 'enigma, eluding accurate description' (Salter 1999), it is acknowledged that they are in the main, schools delivering a curriculum in English outside an English-speaking country (Brummitt and Keeling 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing the notion of teaching in ‘International Schools’ as precarious: towards a more nuanced approach based upon ‘transition capital’

Poole¹,

Bunnell

2020

Globalisation, Societies and Education

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In this followup paper, we take the notion of 'precarious privilege' as the starting point for theorising an emerging concept derived from our recent research into teachers' experiences of turnover in the field of International Schooling. We call this concept 'transition capital', which encompasses a newer 'positive sociology' approach, imagining the social reality of being a teacher in an International School setting as being a mixture of both the negative and positive. We believe that the concept of 'transition capital' complements the notion of 'precarious privilege' by recognising the paradoxical nature of the teacher experience. It also attempts to go beyond it by showing how the positive and the negative are dialectical in nature. We also seek to flesh out the burgeoning concept of 'transition capital' by explaining its origins in the notion of 'resilience capital' and sketching a future research agenda.

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The personal struggles of ‘national’ educators working in ‘international’ schools: an intercultural perspective

Cited by 32 publications

References 31 publications

International Education Teachers’ Experiences as an Educational Precariat in China

International Education Teachers’ Experiences as an Educational Precariat in China

Exploring enduring employment discrimination in favour of British and American teachers in ‘traditional international schools’

Developing the notion of teaching in ‘International Schools’ as precarious: towards a more nuanced approach based upon ‘transition capital’

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