Immigrant teachers in Australia: experiences of differential adaptation

ABSTRACT

The transnational movement of teachers has affected the education environment worldwide. Using a qualitative approach and conceptualising immigrant adaptation based on the differential adaptation theory, we examine the adaptation experiences of immigrant teachers in Australia. Our findings revealed that immigrant teachers’ professional identity, the tension experienced in the adaptation process, and their sense of belonging are critical constructs that contributed to their differential adaptation experiences. Drawing on these findings, we theorise immigrant teachers’ professional adaptation by presenting eight possible modes to explain immigrant teachers’ experience trajectories through various combinations of these critical constructs.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrant/migrant teachers
• differential adaptation
• professional identity
• sense of belonging

Introduction

The transnational movement of teachers is hardly a recent phenomenon. As early as the 1900s, missionary teachers were deployed as agents of colonisation for evangelisation and to bring western education to the Indigenous peoples in the colonial world (Heredia, 1995; Jensz, 2012). Since the early 19th century, developed nations have offered visas to immigrant teachers to meet the skills shortage in their teaching workforce (García & Weiss, 2019; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2019; Sutcher et al., 2016). Many teachers have taken on these opportunities in search of better prospects, a higher standard of living and a perceived better quality of life. More recently, global unrest in some countries has resulted in refugee migrant professionals, including teachers, seeking a new life and jobs in other countries (Bradley et al., 2022; Economou, 2021; Ennerberg, 2022).

Research on the experiences of immigrant teachers has documented their experiences in seeking accreditation and employment (Ennerberg & Economou, 2022; McDaid & Nowlan, 2022); adjusting to pedagogical practices, educational values and expectations (Ennerberg, 2022; Reid et al., 2014); managing student discipline (Jhagroo, 2016; Miller, 2018); meeting parental expectations (Janusch, 2015); and integrating into the local teaching community (Walsh & McDaid, 2019; Yang, 2022). Although these studies have brought to the surface the adaptation challenges of immigrant teachers, they have often failed to fully discuss the social and contextual factors that impact the adaptation processes. As such, they do not provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex and multifaceted adaptation process. The current study adds to the conversation on immigrant teachers’ adaptation by examining the professional adaptation experiences of a group of Asian immigrant teachers in Australia through the lens of differential adaptation (De La Garza & Ono, 2015). The study is guided by the following research questions:

1. In what ways do immigrant teachers’ adaptation experiences differ?

2. What contributes to these differences?

The following section provides an overview of Asian immigrant teachers in Australia, followed by the conceptual framework that guided this study. The research methods and key findings are then presented and discussed, followed by the conclusion and implications.

Contexts: Asian immigrant teachers in Australia

‘Immigrant teachers’ refers to individuals who are trained and have attained professional qualifications and teaching experience overseas and have moved across international borders to obtain long-term residency in another country with the intention of teaching. In Australia, skilled migration visas have been offered to these individuals as an additional measure to increase the teacher workforce supply in the country (Department of Education, 2022). Immigrant teachers make up 16% and 19% of the teaching force in primary and secondary schools, respectively, in Australia (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL], 2021). Among them, teachers from Asia make up the largest cohort of immigrant teachers in the Australian teaching workforce. These teachers have come from the East, Northeast, Southeast and Central Asia regions, as defined by the geographical boundaries according to the Standard Australian Classification of Countries (Australia Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2016). The current arrangement to allow suitably qualified migrants to work as teachers in school settings is complex, involving various agencies across levels of government. The process includes skills assessment, qualification recognition, visa application and teacher registration. From January to June 2022, 1332 overseas teaching applications were assessed as suitable for Australian schools (Department of Education, 2022).

This rise in the number of immigrant teachers within the Australian education system has, over time, led to an increased research interest in the field. The most recent comprehensive nationwide study was carried out by Reid et al. (2014), who used the Australian census data from 2006, together with a questionnaire and focus group interviews, to study the teaching and living experiences of migrant teachers in Australia. An emerging body of research has looked into more specific areas, such as immigrant teachers’ professional identity (Kostogriz & Peeler, 2007), the values and pedagogical practices of immigrant teachers (Seah, 2002), the role of immigrant teachers in Australian schools (Santoro, 2015), the structural and institutional barriers to immigrant teachers’ capital conversion (Cruickshank, 2022), and support strategies for immigrant teachers (Bense, 2015; Peeler & Jane, 2005). Most of these researchers have treated the group of immigrant teachers as a whole and documented immigrant teachers’ general workplace experiences across multiple and diverse educational backgrounds (Reid et al., 2014; Sharplin, 2009). Little attention has been paid to the diversity of their experiences, the elements that account for these differences and the host countries’ influence on their professional adaptation experiences.

Research on immigrant teachers also differs in how immigrant teachers’ experience is conceptualised. In reviewing the empirical studies on immigrant teachers’ experiences in Australia since 2000, Yip (2021) found evidence of exclusion and problematisation of immigrant teachers. In these studies, immigrant teachers are viewed through a deficit lens and perceived as needing help and to change to ‘fit into’ the host country school communities (Miller, 2018; Myles et al., 2006; Sharplin, 2009). Nevertheless, some studies seek to listen to immigrant teachers’ voices and welcome the professional capital and expertise that immigrant teachers bring to Australian classrooms (Yip et al., 2021; Janusch, 2015). This is particularly so regarding the potential benefits of a diverse teaching force for Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse student population, where nearly 25% of schoolchildren come from a language background other than English (AITSL, 2021). Immigrant teachers from Asia also contribute to the growth of an Asian-literate teaching workforce by developing and implementing a relevant Asia-centric curriculum (Halse et al., 2013). Given the increasing number of immigrant teachers and their critical role in students’ educational outcomes, it is essential to deepen our understanding of their professional adaptation experience and the factors that shape their experiences and identify measures to support their transition.

Conceptual framework

Differential adaptation

To understand the experiences of immigrant teachers, it is essential to appreciate the construct of adaptation and how it could be a different experience for different immigrant teachers. The adjustment process that individuals experience when they move from one environment to another has been studied as two related constructs: acculturation and adaptation. Berry (2005) maintains that acculturation refers to the interactive processes between people from different cultural groups, and adaptation refers to the long-term stable changes that occur as individuals respond to cultural differences. Several models have been developed to explain the process and patterns of immigrant adaptation. These include the U-curve (Lysgaard, 1955), the Stress-Adaptation-Growth model (Kim, 2001), the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennett, 1986) and the Model of Acculturation (Berry, 1997). Despite researchers’ best efforts to explain the adaptation process, it is widely acknowledged that immigrant adaptation experiences are not universal.

De La Garza and Ono (2015) articulated this in their differential adaptation theory, which recognises the ‘complex interplay of power, agency, and diversity of experiences’ (p. 275) that enables and limits the opportunities for immigrants to adapt to their host environment. In differential adaptation, immigrants’ adaptation is understood as ‘diverse and stratified experiences’, their ‘agentic efforts to navigate pressures to assimilate’ and their potential to ‘reshape subjectivities, culture and social norms’ (p. 270). Unlike other cross-cultural adaptation theories, De La Garza and Ono (2015) recognise that immigrants may change, affirm or negotiate their identities and even actively long for opportunities to transform their new environment rather than simply fitting in with the existing one. The differentiation adaptation theory argues against the traditional, unidirectional, conformist view of immigrant adaptation. Instead, it recognises that the process is not universal but diverse, shaped by the interplay of power, agency, discourses in their everyday experiences and environmental influences. It also validates immigrants’ decisions and how much they choose to adapt. As immigrant teachers’ professional adaptation experiences may vary significantly due to various personal and external factors, De La Garza and Ono’s (2015) differential adaptation theory lends itself well to empirical applications.

However, while De La Garza and Ono (2015) advocated complexities of the trajectories of adaptation, there have been few attempts to substantiate, even hypothetically, possible patterns of differentiated adaptation. This paper extends the differentiation adaptation theory by conceptualising immigrant adaptation on a decision tree-like model with eight possible modes of adaptation. In this model, we consider immigrant teachers’ professional adaptation shaped by their professional identity, the tension in the adaptation process and their sense of belonging to their workplace. We argue that participants’ adaptation mode is informed by the compounding influence of these three constructs. We then use the interview data collected from eight immigrant teachers who migrated from Asia to Australia to examine how these elements shaped their adaptation experiences and their resultant adaptation mode.

Professional identity

The importance of a teacher’s professional identity has been well documented. It is understood to reflect the beliefs, values and practices that guide the teachers’ actions (Walkington, 2005) and ‘a framework for teachers to construct their ideas of “how to be”, “how to act”, and “how to understand” their work and their place in society’ (Sachs, 2005, p. 15). A dynamic and evolving construct, a teacher’s professional identity is shaped by personal and contextual factors, formed in relationships with others and influenced by the workplace’s broader social-cultural and organisational context (Day & Kington, 2008; Rodgers & Scott, 2008). Therefore, ‘to understand a teacher as a professional, we need to understand their cultural and individual identities’ (Varghese et al., 2005, p. 22). In cross-cultural teaching, teachers may respond to the elements in their new teaching context by recasting their existing ideologies and cultural beliefs, leading to a reconstruction of their professional identity.

Tension in the adaptation process

The tension in the immigrant adaptation process has been referred to as ‘culture shock’ (Oberg, 1960, 1977), ‘acculturative stress’ (Berry, 2005, p. 287) and stress associated with psychological and sociocultural adjustment (Ward & Kennedy, 1999). The traditional view of adaptation is that of an assimilationist. In this view, cultural convergence is the desired goal, and migrants are seen as having no choice but to fit into the host country’s culture to survive and function. However, in the pluralistic view, immigrants are seen to exercise their choice in deciding their desired level of interaction with and adoption of the host culture. This pluralistic view is manifested in Berry’s (1997) acculturation model, which considers immigrants’ attitudes towards maintaining their original cultural heritage and identity and their preferred interaction level with the host country’s dominant group. Berry (1997) maintains that an individual’s acculturation strategies depend on how much they desire to maintain their home country’s culture and acquire the host culture. This study defines tension in the adaptation process as the stress immigrant teachers experience as they navigate and shift between the two cultures.

Sense of belonging

‘Sense of belonging’ is the extent to which an individual feels socially connected, respected and accepted by others in various social contexts (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). It denotes a member of a particular social group, solidarity or organisation (Halse, 2018). It is a multidimensional concept that involves a reciprocal relationship with the desired group built on shared experiences, beliefs or personal characteristics (Mahar et al., 2013). Teachers’ sense of belonging refers to the extent to which they feel they are a part of the school and its values (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011) and the feeling of being accepted and respected by school staff and students (Goodenow, 1993). Teachers feel a sense of belonging to their school when their values are congruent with those of the school (Juutinen, 2018), when they are valued and trusted by the school community (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011) and when they feel supported by the principal (Berkovich & Eyal, 2018). A sense of belonging is a cornerstone in migrant adaptation and a protective factor in their well-being. In this study, we define immigrant teachers’ sense of belonging as the subjective feeling of deep connections and being accepted by members of the school community.

Our conceptual model (Figure 1) of differential adaptation proposed that the differences in immigrant teachers’ adaptation result from the compounding effect of their professional identities, the tension they experience in the adaptation process and the development of a sense of belonging to the school.

Figure 1. Proposed conceptual model reflecting potential modes of professional adaptation.

In this model, participants’ experiences are shown in a dichotomic form at each node. While we acknowledge that these constructs– professional identities (PI), tension in the adaptation process (TAP) and sense of belonging (SB) ‒ are not binary and may exist on a continuum, the model provides a starting point to understand the complexities in immigrant teachers’ professional adaptation experiences. The model showed that professional identity may be considered strong or weak, the tension they experienced in the adaptation process may be high or low, and their sense of belonging may be strong or weak. Combining these three constructs would result in eight equilibria, or possible modes of adaptation, as illustrated in Figure 1. For example, a participant who exhibits a strong professional identity and high tension in the adaptation process and develops a strong sense of belonging is considered in the High Professional Strive (HPSt) adaptation mode. A participant with a weak professional identity, who experiences little or low tension in the adaptation process and develops a weak sense of belonging, could be in the Low Professional Temporary (LPT) mode. The next section presents the research method and results.

Method

Participants

The data reported in this paper were collected as part of a broader study to understand the experiences of teachers who have migrated from Asia to teach in Australian schools. To be eligible for this study, participants must have been born, have trained and have practised as a teacher in primary or secondary schools in an Asian country before migrating to Australia. The participants consist of seven females and one male teacher. Seven teachers live and work in Victoria, and one in New South Wales. Six of the eight teachers taught in urban and two in rural schools. These teachers came from different Asian countries, including four from Singapore, one from Malaysia, two from India and one from Japan. The teachers’ ages range from the early 30s to mid-50s. They have been teaching for 4 to 25 years and have resided in Australia between 1 and 11 years at the time of the study. For ethical reasons, all participants were given pseudonyms.

Data collection

The data was collected through two 60–90-minute audio-recorded semi-structured interviews with each participant. The first interview explored participants’ background characteristics, their reasons for migrating to Australia and information about their workplace and teaching experiences. The second interview encouraged participants to reconstruct the details of their typical workday and share stories of day-to-day interactions with colleagues, students, school leaders and parents.

Data analysis

After collecting the data, they were organised according to interview questions, and each response was analysed separately. The data analysis process was iterative and recursive. The comments were analysed deductively with reference to the components of teacher professional adaptation in our proposed conceptual framework (Figure 1). Similar comments were clustered into categories, and recurring themes were identified through a collaborative analysis approach to allow for diverse perspectives (Cornish et al., 2013). The provisional themes were only finalised and accepted if they recur across the dataset and were agreed upon by the researchers. The following section presents the findings according to these themes.

Results

Professional identity

The data suggest that the professional adaptation process involved participants renegotiating their teacher professional identity and learning ‘how to be’ teachers (Sachs, 2005, p. 15). For example, Kate, an experienced teacher from Singapore, said:

Working here is like starting from new again. We have to learn the new curriculum, and certain pedagogy is expected … and expectations are quite different. So, it requires a shift in mindset and putting aside our original image of teaching.

Participants’ professional identity is closely tied to their teaching skills and knowledge, and not being able to teach in one’s subject expertise area has a negative effect on one’s professional identity and is a source of frustration and professional vulnerability, as illustrated in Rehvinder’s narrative below:

They didn’t want to give me the advanced English class … despite my [experience] teaching English and English literature for the last 20 years. It just showed that they did not trust my teaching!

Likewise, Michiko, an immigrant teacher from Japan, recalled feeling despondent that her principal was not confident in her ability to teach maths despite her being an experienced maths teacher:

I have taught Math for seven years in Japan. So that is what I am good at. Having to teach another subject now feels like I am giving up my identity as a math teacher.

The concern over teaching subjects was brought up frequently by participants. They related their teacher identity to the perceived importance of their teaching subjects. Those who teach subjects perceived as more important feel that the school values them. Kai Meng explained:

Maths is considered an important subject. So my strong subject mastery is something that is valued by my department head and colleagues.

Likewise, Anusha commented in the interview:

Fortunately, I teach maths. It is regarded as an important subject, so the students take me more seriously.

The discourses presented above illustrate that the professional experiences of immigrant teachers can be vastly different. Our data attributed these differences to: (1) the extent to which skills and knowledge are recognised, and (2) the perceived importance of their teaching subjects.

Tension in the adaptation process

Adaptation was found to be more nuanced for our participants as they described the tension they experienced in their adaptation process. Angela, for example, talked about her unsuccessful attempt to build a closer relationship with her colleagues:

I am not sure if I am expected to just walk into the staff lounge to join them for lunch. On several occasions, I joined them. It was awkward. I did not catch their jokes. Nowadays, I just eat lunch at my desk so that I can just relax and chill out.

Janice’s responses suggest that immigrant teachers like herself sometimes put pressure on themselves to adapt. She described how she went out of her comfort zone and took the initiative to build relationships with her colleagues, hoping that it would lead to future job opportunities:

In the morning, I will go into the staffroom early to mingle, make small talk and build relationships. Although it is not something that I like to do, I have to make myself do it.

The above narratives illustrate immigrant teachers’ tensions and struggle to adapt to their work environment. Some participants, like Janice, heeded calls to adapt quickly and pressured themselves to do it. Others, such as Angela, tried to interact with their colleagues but gave up after several failed attempts. Yet our data also revealed that some participants exercise resistance and agency in the adaptation process. Kate, for example, resists assimilating and instead chooses to do things her way:

I don’t like hanging out at the bar, nor do I like doing that dress-up shopping thing. I know it’s a good way to socialise and build relationships. But I like hanging out at school and doing stuff. So, it was just me and sometimes a couple of other teachers.

Kate also exercised agency in her professional growth by taking on her department’s leadership and implementing new expectations and practices. As well as influencing the practices in her department, Kate sought to change the attitudes of her teachers and students. She explained that she wanted teachers to adopt the belief that ‘all students can do well; they just need to experience success’, and she set high expectations for her department’s teachers and students. The notion of resistance and agency is also evident in Renuka, a teacher from Sri Lanka:

Some of the parents cannot speak English well, so having somebody who can speak their language makes them feel very much more comfortable and at ease. So that’s what I did. Instead of trying so hard to blend, I feel that I am better off working on my strength.

Together, these examples demonstrate the implicit pressure on immigrant teachers to adapt to the norms and discourses in Australian schools. While adaptation can make immigrant teachers feel they fit in and are accepted, their actions to aid adaptations can ironically perpetuate discrimination and deficit thinking that immigrant voices and experiences are inferior. De La Garza and Ono’s (2015) argument that the dominant culture can sometimes be a constraint to adaptation is evident in these immigrant teachers’ accounts and shows that it takes an individual strength and agency to resist conforming to the norm of the dominant culture. The narratives above illustrate the differing professional adaptation experiences of immigrant teachers. Our interview data with Angela, Janice, Kate and Renuka showed that these differences result from individual immigrant teachers exercising agency in the adaptation process.

Sense of belonging

Participants’ experiences of belonging is an essential aspect of their professional adaptation. However, what constitutes belonging appears to be different for different participants. For example, Angela sees belonging as being ‘treated the same as other teachers in the school’, whereas, for Renuka, belonging means being ‘included, trusted, and respected’.

Our data showed that participants’ experiences of belonging differ and are shaped by their everyday experiences. The feeling of not belonging can be imposed. For example, Janice felt rejected by the local teaching community when her job application was repeatedly rejected with no reasons given. Renuka felt excluded when she was alienated by her colleagues in her school. Rehvinder felt discriminated against when her principal openly told her that she was not white enough and would have to leave the school if her colleagues did not like her.

Even for participants who have worked in the school for some years, certain events can trigger a feeling of not belonging. Kate, who has worked in the same school for seven years and speaks English fluently as a first language, recounts her conversation with a colleague:

I asked a colleague I had been working closely with what ‘students with ESL’ means, and she said that described what I was. I found out that ESL meant ‘English as a Second Language’, and I roared to my colleague that she had just insulted me through and through! She said she was always wondering why my English was so good!

Michiko described her experience of feeling as if she belonged and then feeling that she did not belong:

After being here for 11 years, I feel that I am part of the school, part of the community. But I also realised that I am actually more comfortable teaching classes with Asian students. So, it seems that after so many years, I still have not fully adapted.

Kate’s and Michiko’s experiences illustrate that belonging is a fluid construct on a continuum. It can move forward and backwards. One may feel one belongs at some point and then feel that one does not belong at another when triggered by specific cues. The data illustrate that the feeling of belonging and not belonging is not simply the result of interaction with any single person or group of people but rather a multidimensional construct that considers the interactions between multiple social and contextual elements that accumulate over time.

However, not everybody actively participates in the performative act of belonging. The data showed that belonging is characterised by self-determination, meaning an individual has control over whether they want to belong. We notice that unbelonging can be an act of agency and a conscious choice not to identify with people in a particular group. An individual may fit the criteria for belonging to a group through shared experiences or a sense of value and respect. However, they may not be interested in belonging or choose not to for various reasons. For example, Anusha deliberately chooses not to engage in casual conversations with colleagues in the staffroom. Angela chooses to eat lunch at her desk instead of joining her colleagues in the staff lounge. The above examples highlighted that participants’ different professional adaptation experiences are shaped by their everyday interactions with people in the school and their desire to engage in the performing act of belonging.

The findings illuminated immigrant teachers’ different professional adaptation experiences and the factors contributing to these differences. For example, factors such as recognition of skills and knowledge and the importance of teaching subjects affect the teacher’s professional identity and their adaptation experiences; likewise, individuals’ agency and resistance contribute to the tension in the adaptation process. Finally, immigrant teachers’ everyday experiences of interacting with people and their desire to connect with others contribute to the feeling of belonging and not belonging, which is another critical aspect that contributes to participants’ professional adaptation experience. The next section discusses the possible trajectories of participants’ professional adaptation experiences.

Discussion

In this section, we discuss participants’ professional adaptation with reference to the proposed conceptual model of differential adaptation. Based on the findings, we observe that participants exhibit different modes of professional adaptation (see Figure 2), which we shall now discuss and illustrate with our data.

Figure 2. Conceptual model reflecting participants demonstrating different modes of adaptation.

High professional strive (HPSt)

Among the participants, Kate is the epitome of the HPSt mode. Kate exhibited a strong degree of teacher professional identity when she spoke extensively about the roles and expectations of teachers during our interview. The tension she experienced in the adaptation process is evident in her resistance to following her colleagues but instead choosing to do things her way. Despite this, Kate’s strong sense of belonging to the school is evident in her desire to improve the practices and outcomes of her department by voluntarily leading it.

Like Kate, Angela’s trajectory also resonates with the HPSt mode. She displayed a strong professional identity. During our interview, Angela spoke with pride about her skills and knowledge in designing good lessons and how she had modified her teaching strategies to better cater to students’ needs. She found interacting with her colleagues to be awkward and stressful, which she eventually gave up after a few attempts and chose to enjoy the solitude. Angela’s sense of belonging to the school is evident from her desire to contribute to designing the curriculum in her department and her willingness to share her resources with other teachers. She spoke highly of her school leaders and colleagues and planned to remain in the school for the longer term.

High professional dissatisfaction (HPD)

The HPD mode is based on the combinations of high professional identity $\left(\mathit{PI}=\mathit{strong}\right)$, high tension in adaptation process $\left(\mathit{TAP}=\mathit{high}\right)$ and a weak sense of belonging $\left(\mathit{SB}=\mathit{weak}\right)$. Renuka is an example of the HPD mode trajectory. Renuka has a strong professional identity. She spoke about her pride in preparing for each lesson and how she went out of her way to ensure that her students did well in school. The tension in her adaptation process was evident as she shifted between trying to blend in with her colleagues and deciding to tap into her cultural identity at work. Her unsuccessful attempt to blend in with other teachers diminishes her sense of belonging. This eventually led her to seek out teaching opportunities in other schools.

High professional smooth (HPS)

The HPS mode is one where the participants had a degree of high professional identity $\left(\mathit{PI}=\mathit{strong}\right)$, experienced low tension in the adaptation process $\left(\mathit{TAP}=\mathit{low}\right)$ and exhibited a high sense of belonging $\left(\mathit{SB}=\mathit{strong}\right)$. This might be one of the best scenarios because the participants would be professionally committed. At the same time, their adjustment would be less of a struggle than the other modes, resulting in a stronger sense of belonging. None of the participants in this study experienced such a trajectory, as most experienced some tension and struggle in the adaptation process.

High professional temporary (HPT)

The HPT mode occurs when the participant has a high degree of professional identity $\left(\mathit{PI}=\mathit{strong}\right)$ and experienced low tension in the adaptation process $\left(\mathit{TAP}=\mathit{low}\right)$. However, unlike those in the HPS mode, these participants displayed a low sense of belonging $\left(\mathit{SB}=\mathit{low}\right)$. In this study, Kai Meng is an example of an immigrant teacher with an HPT trajectory. While Kai Meng exhibited a strong professional identity in his discourse about teaching and appeared to have experienced relatively few issues in the adaptation process, he did not feel much sense of belonging to the school. He was constantly on the lookout for other opportunities beyond the school. During the interview, Kai Meng shared that he worked as a private tutor after school hours and planned to set up his own tuition centre. Kai Meng left the school a few months after our interview and now owns a thriving tutoring business.

Low professional strive (LPSt)

The modes discussed above are based on those having a high professional identity. The modes below are based on teachers with low professional identities. In the LPS mode, the teacher would have low professional identity $\left(\mathit{PI}=\mathit{weak}\right)$ and their adjustment process is likely to have high tensions $\left(\mathit{TAP}=\mathit{high}\right)$. Then, their sense of belonging is high $\left(\mathit{SB}=\mathit{strong}\right)$. It would be interpreted that while the professional identity would be initially low and the adaptation processes would be challenging, the teacher would learn and grow in those processes, resulting in a higher sense of attachment and belonging to the schools they work for.

Michiko is an example of an LPSt-mode teacher in this study. Michiko’s professional identity was compromised as she was asked to teach the Japanese language (her native language) despite being an experienced maths teacher in Japan. This new role affected her professional identity as she had to learn new skills and knowledge associated with language teaching. Simultaneously, Michiko struggled with student behavioural management in her initial years of teaching in the Australian school environment. However, Michiko has grown professionally and in significant ways over the years. She is now the head of the foreign language unit in her school, leading a team of eight teachers. She also shared in our interview that she has grown more confident in dealing with parents and managing students’ behaviour.

Low professional dissatisfaction (LPD)

The LPD mode could be one of the most challenging scenarios: the initial identity would be low and the adaptation process would be challenging, and, as a result, the teacher would have a lower sense of belonging and attachment to the organisation. This is likely due to the discouraging experiences in the given schools, and they would necessarily have a lower sense of belonging. Unfortunately, Janice’s experiences illustrated the LPD mode. As a casual relief teacher who filled in for teachers who were absent daily, Janice did not have the opportunity to utilise many of her skills and much of her knowledge in curriculum planning. She felt that her teacher professional identity was compromised. Janice also reported that she found it challenging to penetrate the social circles at her workplace and build relationships.

Rehvinder is another participant exhibiting characteristics of the LPD mode. Rehvinder’s professional identity was compromised when she was assigned to teach lower-level classes. This made her feel that her teaching competence was not recognised. Her adaptation process was also filled with tension. Moreover, she felt discriminated against due to her ethnicity, which diminished her sense of belonging to the school. Eventually, she left for another school a few months after our interview.

Low professional smooth (LPS)

On the other hand, the LPS mode would be a more favourable scenario. In this mode, the teachers’ professional identity is high; the adaptation process is smooth and has minimal tension, which would facilitate teachers developing a strong sense of belonging and attachment to the school. This would imply that the teacher would have positive experiences in the given school – as a result, they would cherish their work there. However, this study found no participants who fell into the LPS mode, as most experienced some tension in the adjustment process.

Low professional temporary (LPT)

Individuals in the LPT mode have a low professional identity $\left(\mathit{PI}=\mathit{weak}\right)$ and experience less tension in the adaptation process $\left(\mathit{TAP}=\mathit{low}\right)$. They would also have a weak sense of belonging $\left(\mathit{SB}=\mathit{weak}\right)$. There could be different reasons for having a low sense of belonging, while the adjustment process would be smooth. One possible reason could be the lack of sufficient challenges for the teacher to grow in understanding about or commitment to their work as a teacher. As a result, the low sense of belonging may result in immigrant teachers leaving their current school and seeking other opportunities. This is evident from Anusha’s decision to move to a different school every few years. Despite enjoying her teaching work, Anusha did not feel challenged or developed close connections with her colleagues and consequently failed to create a sense of belonging to her workplace.

High professional smooth (HPS) and low professional smooth (LPS)

The two modes not observed in the participants in this study are the HPS and LPS modes. A commonality between the two modes is experiencing (1) low tensions in the adaptation process and (2) a strong sense of belonging to the school. This absence of these two modes may mean that most participants have experienced high tension in the adaptation process. More importantly, it also implies that regardless of participants’ professional identity, lower tension in the adaptation process could lead to a stronger sense of belonging. This suggests the need for schools to implement practical strategies to minimise the tension in immigrant teachers’ adaptation process and, in doing so, help foster a stronger sense of belonging to the school.

Conclusion

The objective of this study was to empirically examine the experiences of immigrant teachers in Australia by applying De La Garza and Ono’s (2015) theoretical framework for differential adaptation. Two research questions were set at the beginning of this paper: (1) In what ways do immigrant teachers’ adaptation experiences differ? (2) What contributes to these differences?

To answer these, we analysed the adaptation experiences of the eight Asian immigrant teachers in Australia using a conceptual framework informed by literature on professional identity, tension in the migrant adaptation process and sense of belonging. Our analysis identified eight possible modes of adaptation trajectories that immigrant teachers may experience, six of which are demonstrated by the participants in this study. These differences are contributed by the strength of their professional identity, the tension they experience in the adaptation process and whether they have a strong sense of belonging to the school. The strength of their professional identity is influenced by whether their teaching skills and knowledge are recognised; the tension in the adaptation process is shaped by their interactions with colleagues and their sense of resistance and agency; the sense of belonging is informed by their decision to seek to grow their sense of belonging actively.

Implications

This study advances De La Garza and Ono’s (2015) theory of differential adaptation by providing empirical evidence in the context of immigrant teachers’ adaptation. The analysis provided a series of combinations of the three constructs that affect immigrant teacher adaptation, resulting in eight possible adaptation modes. This addresses the gap that De La Garza and Ono (2015) have not clarified: what contributed to the different adaptation experiences of immigrant teachers? We are cognisant that, in reality, we may not necessarily have the clear-cut dichotomic modes as represented in Figure 1. Even if this is so, the analysis above would have helped contribute to unpacking the complexities and stratified adaptation experiences of immigrant teachers. As De La Garza and Ono (2015) argued, immigrants’ experiences are not universal but vastly diversified. However, they did not specify or provide examples of potential diversities and differentiation. Further, while De La Garza and Ono (2015) recognised that immigrants might affirm their identities and actively seek opportunities to transform their new environment, our study found that these identities and sense of agency vary among immigrants, resulting in diversified views and differentiated adaptation experiences.

This study also contributed to research on the lived experiences of immigrant teachers. By conceptualising individuals’ experiences, we offer the opportunity to incorporate broader potentialities of both positive and challenging scenarios of their experiences. While previous studies tend to view immigrant teachers’ adaptation through a deficit lens, perceiving them as needing help and as changing to fit into the host countries’ school community (Miller, 2018; Myles et al., 2006; Sharplin, 2009), this study showed that immigrant teachers have much to offer and could potentially shape their school environment to bring about improved teaching and learning.

Based on these findings, we recommend that schools with immigrant teachers consider more carefully how they could deploy migrant teachers to tap into their strengths while also meeting the school’s needs. A strength-based approach to migrant teachers’ adaptation could increase their sense of belonging to the school, knowing their skills and knowledge are appreciated. There is also a need to mitigate and reduce the tension that migrant teachers experience in the adaptation process. A school approach that values diversity would create a more inclusive culture where individual differences are valued and respected, and migrant teachers are not pressured to assimilate culturally, which could be better for their mental and emotional health.

Limitations

Finally, we acknowledge that our participants came from different Asian areas characterised by social and cultural diversity, and the Australian schools they teach in are also highly diverse and heterogeneous. Hence, the participants’ experiences cannot be generalised to all Asian Australian immigrant teachers. Despite this potential limitation, our proposed model offers a new way to conceptualise migrant adaptation that considers the complexities, differentiated and stratified experiences that emerge due to the critical constructs of professional identity, tensions in the adaptation process, and sense of belonging that shape the experience.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).