Navigating Borders and Classrooms: A Phenomenological Exploration of Teachers' International Professional Experiences

Abstract

There has been an increase in teacher migration by the effect of globalization and internationalization. Teacher migration affects the education policies of home and host countries. This phenomenological study aimed to analyze experiences of migrant teachers in international level. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 migrant teachers selected using snowball sampling. Content analysis was used to analyze the interview data. As a result of the content analysis, two themes were obtained: ‘Pre-migration process’ and ‘post-migration professional life’. Cultural differences between home and host countries were observed as effective on professional adaptation of the participants. The findings indicate that the participants complained about the challenges they had to deal with in adaptation process such as negative attitudes of their colleagues and marking while they stated teaching abroad was positive for their professional development. In this regard, some formal arrangement may be designed by policymakers to make migrant teachers’ adaptation process easier.