Is the world their oyster? The global imagination of pre-service teachers

Abstract

This paper reports on a qualitative interview study with eleven pre-service primary teachers in Queensland about their career plans, exploring whether, and how, a global imagination motivates this next generation of teachers. The study is framed within sociological theory of globalisation, with regard to the growing possibilities for international mobility for work purposes, and the new life circumstances that make this imaginable. Teaching as a profession has changed and teachers are no longer as entangled with specific systems or geographical locations anymore. International recruitment campaigns are shown to pursue pre-service teachers during their university preparation. The analysis of the interview data reveals the kind of impact these possibilities make on how pre-service teachers imagine their career, and what other considerations enhance or limit their global imagination. The findings are used to reflect on the highly localised governance of pre-service teacher preparation and the limited State-bound imaginaries to which these pre-service teachers are unnecessarily confined in their preparation.

Keywords:

• career
• global imagination
• mobility
• pre-service teachers

Notes

1. The interview questions were:

• Where do you see yourself going in your career as a teacher?

• What factors affected your choice to have a career as a teacher?

• How do you imagine your career unfolding?

• Where do you picture yourself working in 5 years… . In 10 years?

• Have you considered working beyond Queensland?

• Have you seen this kind of advertisement? (A collage of collected advertisements, notices etc. was presented to each interviewee.)