International Schools in China and teacher turnover: the need for a more nuanced approach towards precarity reflecting agency

Abstract

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.