Transitioning to New Worlds: Challenges and Opportunities of Becoming International Teacher Educators

• In Event: The Authority of Introspection in Self-Study

Abstract

This self-study analyses the transition experiences of three teacher educators relocating to different countries. Using qualitative data sources including journal entries, email exchanges and interviews over a period of one year, the teacher educators set up a collaborative research project to help make sense of their new circumstances and discern insights about themselves, their pedagogical contexts, and the complexity of learning to teach across cultural contexts. Three categories of findings emerged from the data concerning the impact of their changed situations on their professional identities as teacher educators: (i) questioning priorities; (ii) adapting to different standards; and (iii) experiencing a diminished sense of self. Such findings are significant for informing cross-cultural teaching in teacher education.

Authors

• Amanda K. Berry, Leiden University

• Nathan D. Brubaker, Monash University

• Judy Joy Williams, Monash University