Be(com)ing and the International Teacher

Abstract

Despite the growth of international schools and the increasing demands for teachers, there remains a dearth of knowledge regarding teachers and their development of praxis within an international setting. Within the study, praxis is understood as the entire skills, knowledge and experience teachers draw upon when developing their work – a process grounded in reflexivity. Praxis moved the static understanding of doing work, by enabling work and practitioner as an ongoing process of becoming. The current study seeks to shed some light into this space. In particular, it aims to explore why and how secondary school teachers become ‘international', and the impact such development has on their praxis. It also seeks to explore how teachers, as front-line workers, position themselves within the discourse surrounding international schools as artificers of a global elite driven by a Western, globalist agenda. An emergent theme is the centrality the International Baccalaureate plays for international teachers.