South African primary school migrant teachers’ school-based experiences in the Arab Gulf countries.
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Date
2020
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Abstract
This study explored the reasons for South African teachers from primary schools migrating to teach in the Arab Gulf. It also examined what were migrant teachers’ initial school-based experiences in the Arab Gulf countries and after six months including why they have these particular experiences. Theories of international migration (neoclassical, dual labour, new economics and social networks) relevant to the migration of the highly skilled and theories on migrant teachers’ experiences (Huberman, 1989; Day & Kington, 2008; Bailey & Mulder, 2017; Miller, 2019) and acculturation (Bense, 2016), informed the study. The data was generated from a qualitative ethnographic case study using interviews, focus group discussions and diary entries. The majority of the teachers in the sample migrated to primary and secondary schools in Abu Dhabi due to feelings of ‘relative deprivation’ as a result of economic reasons and the enormous perks offered by recruitment agencies in this destination. Their profiles revealed that they were also predominantly seasoned teachers of Indian descent. The pull factors influencing their decisions were greater than the push factors and these included the high salary earned abroad, better professional development opportunities, living in an Islamic country and easy travel to other destinations from the Arab Gulf. A key finding of the present study, was that of unencumbered movers in the sample: seasoned female migrant teachers who were single, with no children. Common migrant teachers’ experiences included having an abundance of resources that assisted in curriculum delivery, perceived ill-disciplined learners and a lack of parental involvement in public schools in Abu Dhabi, the language barrier inhibiting teaching and learning and xenophobia. Migrant teachers showed initiative in quickly learning how to customize their lessons according to each learner’s ability so that learners were able to pass their assessments. The findings revealed that those migrant teachers who integrated within a year, were attached to the Gulf society and chose to remain and some had returned for a second contract in the Gulf, whereas those migrant teachers who endured unpleasant experiences such as racial and professional discrimination, felt excluded and marginalised, and harboured thoughts of returning to South Africa. The professional identities of migrant teachers were clearly not fixed but altered through acculturation in the host country.
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Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.