Recently Immigrated Teachers Entering Into a New School System: Challenges and Possibilities

• In Event: 77.058 - MTCC Roundtable Session 36
  In Roundtable Session: 77.058-6 - Teaching in a Global Context

Abstract

This study examines a group of immigrated teachers in their initial phase of professional integration in a new country. The current shortage of teachers in schools in many European countries has given rise to policy for professional integration of immigrant teachers. This paper takes the “Fast-track for recently immigrated teachers” in Sweden as a case study to examine how a group of participants negotiates institutional conditions when positioning themselves as teachers in a new school system. Analysis of focus group interviews, observations and a minor questionnaire indicate three intertwined challenges immigrated teachers face: norms and values, teaching and employment. The paper’s contribution is to visualise the relationship between institutional conditions and individual actions in the process of professional integration.

Authors

• Anki Bengtsson, Stockholm University

• Larissa Mickwitz, Stockholm University