TY - JOUR
T1 - International Schools in China and teacher turnover
T2 - The need for a more nuanced approach towards precarity reflecting agency
AU - Bunnell, Tristan
AU - Poole, Adam
PY - 2021/6/18
Y1 - 2021/6/18
N2 - The under-theorized arena of “English-speaking International Schooling” continues to grow and morph. The continuous growth seems paradoxical in light of the well-established view that the arena is an insecure and precarious working environment characterized by short-term contracts and subsequent high rates of annual turnover per school. We investigate this paradoxical situation in Asia Pacific, where a newer and large body of “Non-Traditional” models are beginning to appear. Here we ask: “what coping strategies do teachers adopt to survive, and even thrive on, the precarity as experienced by the short term contract?”. Our study of three teachers in the under-researched arena of “Chinese Internationalised Schools” in Mainland China reveals and explores how they plan their transitions both within and from school-to-school strategically, taking advantage of insecurity and precarity rather than merely being the victims of it. We develop a new concept of “transition capital”, which encompasses a newer, more nuanced approach, imagining the social reality of being a teacher as being a mixture of both an isolated “global educational precariat” and a member of a privileged “global middle class”, with much agency. Turnover offers an accumulation of resilience through experiences, which in turn are empowering and advantageous in the long-run.
AB - The under-theorized arena of “English-speaking International Schooling” continues to grow and morph. The continuous growth seems paradoxical in light of the well-established view that the arena is an insecure and precarious working environment characterized by short-term contracts and subsequent high rates of annual turnover per school. We investigate this paradoxical situation in Asia Pacific, where a newer and large body of “Non-Traditional” models are beginning to appear. Here we ask: “what coping strategies do teachers adopt to survive, and even thrive on, the precarity as experienced by the short term contract?”. Our study of three teachers in the under-researched arena of “Chinese Internationalised Schools” in Mainland China reveals and explores how they plan their transitions both within and from school-to-school strategically, taking advantage of insecurity and precarity rather than merely being the victims of it. We develop a new concept of “transition capital”, which encompasses a newer, more nuanced approach, imagining the social reality of being a teacher as being a mixture of both an isolated “global educational precariat” and a member of a privileged “global middle class”, with much agency. Turnover offers an accumulation of resilience through experiences, which in turn are empowering and advantageous in the long-run.
KW - China
KW - international schools
KW - precarity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108600187&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02188791.2021.1940840
DO - 10.1080/02188791.2021.1940840
M3 - Article
JO - Asia Pacific Journal of Education
JF - Asia Pacific Journal of Education
SN - 0218-8791
ER -