“How Come All the Teachers Are White?” Exploring Globalization and Teacher Identity at International Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Traveling the Globe and Relating to the Other: International Curriculum in Time and Space

Abstract

This paper emerges out of a larger study that sought to understand how teacher identity is negotiated within international school teaching. Participants included teachers who were seeking their first positions at an international school, currently working abroad, and who returned to North America after completing overseas contracts. Data from 100 educators included 70 written responses and 30 interviews. Informed by the theoretical and methodological principles of narrative inquiry, the study explored how teachers story their lives as international educators. Dimensions of teacher identity that transcend nationality surfaced in this research. This presentation will explore the intersections of whiteness and teacher identity on the global educational landscape, and the implications for contemporary curriculum studies.

Author

• Marcea Ingersoll, Queen's University