Understanding Women Teacher Transnational Migration: A Narrative Inquiry From Southern Africa

Abstract

In this article, we explore and seek to understand transnational teacher migration from the narrative expressions of two women who migrated from their home countries to another southern African country. The data are complemented by a self-constructed narrative of a woman who left her home country. Framed through Appreciative Inquiry, the study observes that all individuals, organizations, and institutions are powered by positive thought and have some good or something that works well for them at some point. The data generated from two narrative expressions were analyzed through narrative analysis with emerging themes presented. In addition, data were complemented by a coconstructed narrative of a woman who gave up her career aspirations to migrate with the family. With the latter, the situation got more complicated when the husband untimely passed away. Issues such as gender discrimination and socialization as well as imaginations of positive futures do play a role in women teachers’ transnational migration decisions. We conclude that transnational women teacher migration should be understood within its own socially constructed, relativist ontology and subjectivist epistemology, which may be influenced by the power of appreciative, positive thought.