Becoming a new type of teacher: The case of experienced British-trained educators transitioning to the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme abroad

Abstract

This paper investigates the experiences of six British-trained teachers who moved from teaching GCSE in state-funded schools in England to teach in two separate English-speaking well-established traditional international schools in Northern Europe where they began to teach the International Baccalaureate’s Middle Years Programme (IBMYP). The nature of the IBMYP, with its student-centred focus and conceptual framework, deviates greatly from the dominant, typically prescriptive approach of the GCSE. The demands of the IBMYP, which are represented in the IB’s institutional pillars, exert significant influence over both new and experienced teachers to induce a change in identity as they gradually shift to becoming an ‘IBMYP Educator’. Using semi-structured interviews and thematic data analysis, this qualitative study examines teacher identity factors and seeks to understand the process of this identity shift. Using Goffman’s Frame Analysis, the themes are presented as metaphors, helping us to realise the experience of transition, as the teachers shifted from feeling temporarily de-skilled to re-skilled. A sense of authenticity and freedom was felt to be the eventual outcome after an initial phase of being ‘adrift’ and in unsettled ‘survival mode’.