New Zealand relies on overseas teachers to fill approximately 30% of annual vacancies (Ministry of Education, 2006). 41% of these cohort were teaching in Auckland when this study was conducted (Ministry of Education, 2001, 2003). As only 7% were new to teaching, it is likely that they bring a wealth of teaching experience to New Zealand classrooms. In 2002 New Zealand introduced a new school-leaving qualification, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), which includes a literacy strand in all subjects (Taylor, 2001). This thesis aims to investigate the needs, perceptions and insights of overseas teachers in Auckland regarding the literacy requirements of the New Zealand secondary curriculum. In this qualitative study, interviews were carried out with ten teachers who had been teaching in Auckland between one and six years and who had all previously taught overseas. Interviews were also carried out with two literacy leaders as part of the research. Key challenges that emerged were the incorporation of the NCEA literacy requirements in discipline areas; catering for the needs of students who speak English as a second language; dealing with the challenges of teaching literacy across the curriculum and subject specific language; finding and developing relevant resources and sourcing professional development relating to literacy teaching. Findings revealed there were two categories of teachers – teachers who were very aware of the literacy needs of their students and those who were less aware. Teachers from England and South Africa were very aware of the varied literacy needs of New Zealand students and had received professional development in this area. Other teachers seemed less aware of the literacy demands of their students, the curriculum or their own professional development needs. This study also reveals that recognition and provision for the professional needs of newly arrived teachers from overseas seems to vary. There is very little research on the experiences of immigrant teachers in New Zealand; this study helps to clarify the issues which these teachers face, particularly with regard to the dual challenges of teaching students with ESL and the expectations that all teachers will include literacy in their approach to teaching, which is part of the NCEA curriculum.

This dissertation is a critical ethnography of teachers working abroad in an American/International school (ASC/pseudonym) located in the People’s Republic of China. The study focuses on the teacher abroad identity process of EC-12 teachers who moved from their country of origin to work in the PRC from 2008 to 2011. The three-year study serves as a snapshot of the formation of the teacher abroad identity. The theoretical framework include theories of identity in figured worlds (Holland et al., 1998), symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1991), and language as mediator that served to answer three questions: 1) How does a teacher’s biography relate to the experience of working in an American/International school in China? 2) How does a first-time teacher at ASC recreate and negotiate her/his personal and professional self understandings? 3) What role does language play in the making of the teacher abroad identity at ASC? The study follows an interpretivist approach to explain, understand, and unveil the figured world of teaching abroad from the perspective of the participants’ and data analysis by the researcher. Data includes participant observation, interviews, observations, and field notes collected while closely following four teachers who portrayed the making of the teacher abroad identity. The researcher became a teacher abroad at the same school to fully immerse herself in participant observation. The inclusion of document analysis, interviews, and field notes, serve as validation and triangulation of the process. A reflexive approach to data analysis was followed at all times for trustworthiness of the study. Findings suggest that teaching abroad is a complex figurative world. Teacher abroad identity is created at the intersection of the social, personal, emotional, professional, and linguistic spaces. A major finding reveals that individuals who are hired overseas and teach abroad for the first time have to learn new ways to cope with unexpected landscapes brought by living in new country, and by teaching students from a plurality of nationalities, languages, and races. Teachers experience mostly a transformation at the personal level, but the transcendence at the professional level in the classroom is limited. / text

New Zealand relies on overseas teachers to fill approximately 30% of annual vacancies (Ministry of Education, 2006). 41% of these cohort were teaching in Auckland when this study was conducted (Ministry of Education, 2001, 2003). As only 7% were new to teaching, it is likely that they bring a wealth of teaching experience to New Zealand classrooms. In 2002 New Zealand introduced a new school-leaving qualification, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), which includes a literacy strand in all subjects (Taylor, 2001). This thesis aims to investigate the needs, perceptions and insights of overseas teachers in Auckland regarding the literacy requirements of the New Zealand secondary curriculum. In this qualitative study, interviews were carried out with ten teachers who had been teaching in Auckland between one and six years and who had all previously taught overseas. Interviews were also carried out with two literacy leaders as part of the research. Key challenges that emerged were the incorporation of the NCEA literacy requirements in discipline areas; catering for the needs of students who speak English as a second language; dealing with the challenges of teaching literacy across the curriculum and subject specific language; finding and developing relevant resources and sourcing professional development relating to literacy teaching. Findings revealed there were two categories of teachers – teachers who were very aware of the literacy needs of their students and those who were less aware. Teachers from England and South Africa were very aware of the varied literacy needs of New Zealand students and had received professional development in this area. Other teachers seemed less aware of the literacy demands of their students, the curriculum or their own professional development needs. This study also reveals that recognition and provision for the professional needs of newly arrived teachers from overseas seems to vary. There is very little research on the experiences of immigrant teachers in New Zealand; this study helps to clarify the issues which these teachers face, particularly with regard to the dual challenges of teaching students with ESL and the expectations that all teachers will include literacy in their approach to teaching, which is part of the NCEA curriculum.

In recent times there has been an increase in global migration of workers in many sectors. The teaching profession has not been immune to this and there is a growing number of teachers moving to other countries to work. In this mixed methods study, I have investigated how teachers from overseas experience their transition to working in Sweden. I sought to find out what overseas teacher induction looked like in Sweden and whether this was done in a systematic way.    Previous research in Sweden has tended to treat teachers from overseas as a single, homogenous group. It has focused mainly on the experiences of those teachers who partake in formal teacher education programs in Swedish universities. However, during this study, it became apparent that there is a significantly large group of teachers from overseas who do not access such programs and have no access to any form of systematic introductory period. Yet under the current system this group can work in Swedish schools and in many cases obtain the Swedish teaching license.   A mixed methods approach allowed me to investigate this problem from different perspectives. Such an approach enabled me to investigate not only to what extent teachers new to Sweden had access to systematic introductory training but also how the teachers experienced their introductory period. Drawing on research concerning overseas teachers from other countries and interviews with overseas teachers in Sweden, I have identified that there is a need for these teachers to undergo a more formal induction period as well as some key areas of training that should be included in such a program.