‘I want to be a part of their conversation’: Asian immigrant teachers navigating belongingness in Australian schools

ABSTRACT

Migration has resulted in increasing teacher diversity in the teaching workforce in many countries. Yet, the prevailing perception in the receiving countries regarding who the teachers are and how they should be and act has made the professional transition challenging for immigrant teachers who do not fit into this frame. This study examines how immigrant teachers construct their belongingness to their receiving schools. Using a qualitative inductive approach, this paper reports on the experiences of 10 teachers who migrated from Asia to teach in Australia. Findings revealed that teachers’ sense of belonging occurred on a continuum and was co-constructed by their professional identity, vulnerability, and intercultural perspectives. We conclude by presenting the theoretical model developed from data in this study, its implications, and recommendations.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrant/migrant teachers
• professional transition
• teacher identity
• sense of belonging
• cross-cultural teaching
• ethnocentrism

Introduction

Increasing and diversified global migration movements have resulted in schools with large, diverse student populations and, consequently, the proliferation of research and policies to serve the needs of diverse learners. However, what is less apparent and hence has received less attention is the growing diversity of the teaching workforce in many countries. Reports have documented the increasing teacher diversity and migration trend in recent decades (European Union 2015). Fuelled by teacher shortages in some developed countries and motivated by political and socio-economic reasons, teachers have moved away from their home countries to flee war and oppression and to seek better employment opportunities and standards of living in another country. Yet, past research has highlighted the significant challenges and differential treatment of immigrant teachers in their receiving countries (Ennerberg and Economou 2022; Yang 2022; Yip 2023).

A key challenge lies in overcoming the institutional and structural barriers that affect immigrant teachers’ employment opportunities in their receiving countries (Ennerberg and Economou 2022; Käck 2020; Roy and Lavery 2017) due to prevailing perceptions in the receiving countries regarding ‘how a teacher should be, act, and understand their work and place in the society’ (Sachs 2001, 15). Krause, Proyer and Kremsner (2023) claimed that the expectations of specific desired ‘background and habitus and pedagogical ideas and work of a teacher’ (1) of the receiving countries have made the professional transition significantly more challenging for the immigrant teachers who did not fit into this frame. In some countries, local pre-service teachers who have yet to graduate from the initial teacher education program and have not attained teacher registration are recruited to address teacher shortages, while trained immigrant teachers are excluded from the profession (Krause, Proyer, and Kremsner 2023; Nigar, Kostogriz, and Janfada 2022; Victoria Institute of Teaching 2022). This paradoxical strategy calls into question a need to challenge the underlying assumption that only locally trained teachers with the desired habitus and localised knowledge are competent to teach our children (Krause, Proyer, and Kremsner 2023). On the other hand, teacher diversity offers a potential solution to address the evolving needs of diverse learners in many of our classrooms. Not only do they help to address the teacher shortages in many immigrant-receiving countries, but immigrant teachers have also been shown to offer better understanding and support and act as positive role models for migrant and minority students (Radhouane, Akkari, and Macchiavello 2022). They also help to heighten students’ intercultural awareness and sensitivity, defined as ‘the ability to discriminate and experience relevant cultural differences’ (Hammer, Bennett, and Wiseman 2003, 422). While some local teachers have been shown to operate in the ethnocentrism stages of defence and denial in Bennett’s (2017) ‘Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity’ (Yuen 2010), those with bicultural and multicultural experience, such as those with migrant background, are more likely to implement culturally relevant pedagogy (Seidl 2007).

Past research has provided evidence of discrimination and marginalisation of immigrant teachers (Ennerberg and Economou 2022; Virta 2015). Some studies have also documented that issues of intercultural communication and ethnocentric worldviews of students adversely influence the teaching evaluation of immigrant teachers (Abayadeera, Mihret, and Dulige 2018). To integrate into the local teaching community, immigrant teachers have attempted to change their beliefs and values (Bense 2014; Reid 2014), pedagogical practices (Caravatti et al. 2014; Reid 2014), expectations of students’ behaviour (Jhagroo 2016; Miller 2018), and how they interact with students and their parents (Janusch 2015) to assimilate into the culture and discourse of teaching in their new teaching context. A recurrent theme in these studies is immigrant teachers’ feelings of ‘otherness’ and ‘outsiderness’ (McDevitt 2018; Rabadi-Raol 2020; Tarisayi 2023; Yip 2021) – feeling lonely, isolated and not fitting in and a general sense of not belonging to their new environment. While these have been identified as critical emotions related to immigrant teacher settlement and professional transition, their full complexity is rarely analysed. How immigrant teachers’ emotions of belongingness shape their professional transition remains unclear.

Against the backdrop of migration, in which social and cultural movements across national boundaries become commonplace, and the growing social dynamics of the teaching profession, this study examines how immigrant teachers construct their belongingness in their new teaching context. We argue in this study that understanding how immigrant teachers construct their belongingness to their receiving school is essential, not only for their smooth professional transition but also to ensure a committed teacher workforce to address the needs of diverse learners in the receiving society. This research contributes to understanding the emotional dimension of immigrant teachers’ professional transition, particularly the emotion of belongingness. This study also situates itself within inclusive education. In a school where inclusive education is practised, not only the students but also teachers from diverse backgrounds need to have a strong sense of belonging built on mutual respect and inclusion.

Theoretical background: belongingness

The construct of belongingness has been widely studied across disciplines. Levett-Jones et al. (2009) describe belongingness as an experience that evolves in response to the degree to which an individual feels (a) secure, accepted, included, valued and respected by a defined group, (b) connected with or integral to the group and (c) that their (…) personal values are in harmony with those of the group (154). It is a subjective and dynamic feeling of social connectedness to a particular social group or organisation (Baumeister and Leary 1995; Hagerty and Patusky 1995; Halse 2018; Hurtado and Carter 1997), and involves a reciprocal relationship with the desired group that is built on shared experiences, beliefs, or personal characteristics (Mahar, Cobigo, and Stuart 2012).

Studies have shown that people who experience belongingness perform better mentally and physically (Li and Jiang 2018; Pesonen et al. 2016), while the feeling of not belonging can lead to feelings of distress, loneliness and anxiety (Carvallo and Gabriel 2006; Mellor et al. 2008; H. Pesonen et al. 2016). While most people have an inherent need to belong (Baumeister and Leary 1995), the extent of this need is specific to the individual (Kelly 2001; Sedgwick and Yonge 2008) and context-dependent (Caxaj and Berman 2010). As a dynamic phenomenon shaped by the interaction between environmental and personal factors, the construct of belongingness is particularly complex in the context of migration when new migrants disrupt existing norms and re-establish their sense of belonging to a new environment (Gamsakhurdia 2019; Halse 2018; Mahar, Cobigo, and Stuart 2012).

Research indicates that immigrants’ sense of belonging to the receiving society directly affects their well-being and satisfaction (Amit and Bar-Lev 2014). Those who perceive a higher level of belongingness to their host country feel more attached to the host society, are more proactive in forming meaningful relationships with people (De Jong Gierveld, Van der Pas, and Keating 2015), and feel safer and more comfortable in the host countries (Albert 2021; Juang et al. 2018). As such, belongingness is regularly used to indicate successful migrant integration (OECD/EU 2018).

Teachers’ belongingness to the workplace

Within the school context, belongingness has been chiefly studied from the students’ perspectives (e.g., Allen et al. 2018; OECD 2015; Pesonen 2016; Zengilowski et al. 2023). A high sense of belonging among students has been linked to improved learning outcomes and overall student well-being. In contrast, research exploring teachers’ belongingness in the school is limited in number. In these studies, teachers’ sense of belonging has been linked to motivation at work (Osterman 2000), improved co-teaching relationships (Pesonen et al. 2020) and overall well-being (Nislin and Pesonen 2018; Skaalvik and Skaalvik 2011).

As Pesonen, Rytivaara et al. (2020) found, teachers’ workplace belonging is contingent on their relationships with colleagues, the school climate, and leadership. Teachers who enjoy respectful and trusting relationships with colleagues feel valued and accepted (Goodenow 1993; Hagerty et al. 1992) and support each other professionally (Rytivaara and Kershner 2012). This enhances their belongingness to the school and job satisfaction. On the other hand, negative relationships at work can cause emotional exhaustion and negatively affect job satisfaction (Skaalvik and Skaalvik 2011). Similarly, Bjorklund, Warstadt and Daly (2021) found belongingness, relational trust, and self-efficacy positively associated with well-being. Teachers experience a stronger sense of belonging if their values align with the school’s (Skaalvik and Skaalvik 2011) and when they feel respected by students (Goodenow 1993). A positive school climate and perceived organisational support are critical to teachers’ sense of belonging (Kachchhap and Horo 2021). Likewise, teachers who received cognitive and emotional support from their school principals have reported an increased sense of belonging, job satisfaction and commitment, and well-being (Berkovich and Eyal 2018). Teachers who are happy in their school and who feel valued and connected to the school community are more likely to maintain a positive attitude towards teaching and create a supportive learning environment that encourages collaborative work and appreciates individual differences, thus promoting belongingness among students (Juutinen 2018; Pesonen 2016).

A handful of the limited studies on teacher belongingness have examined immigrant teachers’ sense of belonging to their schools. The few studies highlighted significant challenges immigrant teachers experience in navigating their positionalities and sense of non-belonging when teaching citizenship education (Kim 2021) and the tension around establishing their identity and belonging at the professional and societal levels (Savski and Comprendio 2022). This study seeks to advance the research in this area.

Methodology

Participants

Following the necessary ethics approval from the authors’ institution, invitations were sent to practising teachers who had undergone teacher training, received teaching qualifications, and worked as teachers in Asia regions before migrating to Australia to participate in this study. Participants were recruited online through professional networking groups for teachers, such as the Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Victoria. Table 1 provides an overview of the participants’ characteristics.

Table 1. Summary of participants and their characteristics.

	Participant	Gender	Age	Country of origin	Years teaching	School locality	School system	Levels/subjects
1	Angela	F	40s	Singaporean	10	VIC	Govt	Sec/Science
2	Renuka	F	30s	Sri Lankan	8	VIC	Govt	Pri/General
3	Marilyn	F	50s	Indian	18	VIC	Govt	Pri/General
4	Anusha	F	40s	Indian	20	Regional VIC	Govt	Pri/Maths
5	Kai Meng	M	30s	Singaporean	5	VIC	Faith-based	Sec/Maths
6	Janice	F	30s	Singaporean	8	VIC	Govt	Pri/General
7	Rehvinder	F	50s	Singaporean	25	Regional NSW	Faith-based	Sec/English
8	Michiko	F	40s	Japanese	18	VIC	Faith-based	Sec/Maths & Japanese
9	Kate	F	30s	Malaysian	9	VIC	Faith-based	Sec/Design & Technology
10	Nara	F	30s	Japanese	4	NT	Govt	Sec/English

Data collection

Following informed consent, participants were invited to two interviews with author 1. Each interview lasted between 60 and 90 minutes, and the semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded. The first interview focused on understanding participants’ backgrounds, and the second interview delved into participants’ stories to understand the complexity of their professional transition experiences. The interviews were guided by Seidman’s (2006) interview protocol. Participants were encouraged to talk about ‘concrete details of their lived experience’ and ‘to reflect on the meaning of their experiences’ (Seidman 2006, 18) in relation to their professional transition. My initial contact with the participants to brief them on the project, the two interviews and the subsequent follow-up with participants for clarification of the transcripts allowed for prolonged engagement (Lincoln and Guba 1985) which helped to build rapport; I noticed participants being more trusting and forthcoming in the second interview.

Data analysis

The interviews were transcribed verbatim and returned to participants for checking. In Vivo coding, where participants’ spoken words were coded, helped capture participants’ raw emotions and increased validity and reliability (Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña 2014). The resultant codes were then clustered into conceptual categories such as ‘social position of teachers’, ‘perceived teaching competence’, and ‘ethnocentric view’. The themes were generated following repeated reading of the transcripts and codes (Saldaña 2016). Pseudonyms were used to ensure anonymity when reporting the results and remove other identifying factors.

I understood that my researcher positionality could affect how I interpreted the data. To ensure trustworthiness and minimise my influence on the data, I took an introspective reflexive stance. I wrote memos recording actions, ideas, and feelings throughout the data collection and analysis processes, considering how my previous experience might influence my interpretation of the data. The memoing process raised my sensitivity to my prior assumptions, biases, and attitudes, which I made a concerted effort to put aside to minimise the influence on the data. The memos also documented emerging themes and potential biases. This helped to guard against assumptions and increase the credibility and reliability of the findings (Charmaz 2014). Analysis of the data revealed that the belongingness of the ten immigrant teachers in this study was predominately contributed by three constructs: (1) professional identity, (2) vulnerability, and (3) intercultural perspective. Each construct was further supported by its constituent elements. The three constructs worked in tandem to either support or undermine immigrant teachers’ belongingness to their school community. The contributing constructs to immigrant teachers’ belongingness and the constituent elements that support these constructs are discussed in the next section and summarised in Table 2.

Table 2. Key constructs and elements contributing to immigrant teachers’ belongingness.

	Immigrant teachers’ belongingness to their school community
Constructs	Professional identity	Vulnerability	Intercultural perspective
Elements	Employment status Skills and knowledge Perceived social positioning of teacher Beliefs and attitudes towards teaching & learning	Perceived teaching competence Ethnocultural identity Interaction with school community	Ethnocentric view Ethnorelative view

Professional identity

The data in this study suggested that participants’ professional identity was critical in constructing their belongingness to the school community. The construct of professional identity was further unpacked into four elements: (1) employment status, (2) skills and knowledge, (3) perceived social position of teachers, and (4) beliefs and attitudes towards teaching and learning. Participants’ professional identity was affirmed when they were offered ‘longer-term employment’ (Renuka), when they were ‘valued by the school for their skills and knowledge’ (Kai Meng), when they were ‘respected by students, and parents look up to them for advice’ (Marilyn), and when their ‘views on education’ (Ansuha) and ‘expectations of the teachers’ role’ (Nara) were similar to that of the school.

By contrast, their professional identity was challenged when they lacked stable employment and considered themselves to be ‘just a replacement teacher’ (Angela) or when they had to ‘move from school to school every few months to search for jobs’ (Anusha). This professional identity was also compromised when they experienced a loss of teacher authority (Michiko and Nara) and were not respected by students and parents (Marilyn and Renuka). The situation was exacerbated when the receiving school failed to recognise their teaching experience in their home countries (Rehvinder), when they perceived that their ‘principal [was] not confident of their ability to teach well’ (Michiko), and when they needed to ‘relearn and make significant adjustments in their pedagogical practices to fit in’ (Michiko).

To fit in with their new school, participants reported making several changes. For example, Anusha spoke about ‘altering her views and beliefs towards education’, Angela and Kai Meng said that they ‘adjusted to new ways of teaching’, Marilyn and Janice shared that they ‘learnt to communicate with students slightly differently’, and Kate spoke about ‘adjusting to new norms and expectations in her school’. Participants believed these changes would facilitate them gaining acceptance as legitimate members of the school community and not be perceived as outsiders. This desire to be accepted into the school community was articulated by Janice in her interview:

The people in my school here are very relational. If you have not penetrated their circle, they will not include you. In the morning, I will go into the staffroom early just to mingle, make small talk and build relationships; I want to learn what they talk about regarding teaching, learning, and their students. I want to be involved and be part of their conversation.

The influence of broader policy and social-cultural context, and the personal and professional elements in teachers’ actions, emotions, and practices on their professional identity has been widely documented (Day and Kington 2008; Flores and Day 2006; Rodgers and Scott 2008; Zembylas 2004). As a fluid, dynamic, and evolving construct, teachers’ professional identity is constantly shaped by their interaction with the teaching context (Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop 2004; Beltman et al. 2015). The data in this study provides evidence of this in the context of the changing teaching environment experienced by immigrant teachers.

This idea of individuals shifting their professional identity in the interest of fitting in and being accepted into a new environment is articulated by Hagerty and Patusky (1995). The authors claimed that for individuals to feel they belong to an environment, they need to experience being valued and needed, perceive that their characteristics meet the expectations of the new environment and that their beliefs and values are in harmony with those of the group (Levett-Jones et al. 2009). Our data provide evidence that participants’ professional identity shift is motivated by their desire to belong to their new school community.

Vulnerability

Participants’ sense of vulnerability is salient in the process of their adjustment, which may influence the construction of their sense of belongingness to the schools. Data indicated that participants’ vulnerability was made up from three elements: (1) others’ perception of their teaching competence, (2) others’ response to their ethnocultural identity, and (3) their interaction with the school community. For example, Michiko, an immigrant maths teacher from Japan, reported feeling vulnerable when she saw that her principal was not confident in her ability to teach maths even though she had taught the subject for several years in her home country. Similarly, Rehvinder was made to feel vulnerable by her department head:

She did not want to give me the advanced English class because I wasn’t white. This is despite me teaching English and English literature for the last 20 years. It just showed that they did not trust my English!

Besides not trusting her English teaching competence, Rehvinder’s quote hinted that her ethnocultural identity might also have influenced the decision. Renuka, a teacher from Bangladesh, felt that because of her looks, she was in a more vulnerable position compared to her white immigrant teacher colleagues: ‘I am tested by local white parents all the time! But my colleague from Chile, also an immigrant teacher like me, has a much easier life. She didn’t get such treatment from students’ parents’.

The data in this study further revealed participants’ sense of vulnerability in their interactions with their school community. Several reported feeling fearful and intimidated when confronted with disrespectful students (Anusha, Kate, Marilyn, and Michiko), anxious when challenged by students’ parents (Michiko and Renuka), worried about being watched by their principals (Angela and Kate) and distressed when excluded by colleagues (Angela and Janice).

This aspect of the data is consistent with research that shows that teachers experience vulnerability when they encounter negative emotions in their interactions with people in the school (Zembylas 2004). Lasky (2005) observed that vulnerability is influenced by the interaction between individual attributes and one’s external context. Teacher vulnerability refers to how teachers experience their interactions with other people in the school community and is said to encompass not only emotions but also their perception and interpretation of the experience (Kelchtermans 1996). While a feeling of vulnerability is generally the result of unfamiliarity and lack of knowledge about the norms and expectations of the new teaching context (Hargreaves 1998), the data show that the immigrant teachers’ sense of vulnerability was compounded when their teaching competence was questioned, when they were rejected based on their ethnocultural identity, and when they experienced negative emotions when interacting with people in the school community.

Participants such as Rehvinder and Michiko perceived their teaching competence undermined when they were not deployed to teach in their subject expertise. Renuka perceived that she was ‘tested’ and placed ‘under a bit of a microscope’ by her students’ parents because of her visible ethnocultural characteristics, in this case, her non-white appearance. Michiko perceived that she was ‘the target of complaints among parents’ because her accent was different.

The data illustrated that the participants felt appreciated and valued for their teaching competence when their ethnocultural identity was accepted, and when they were respected by students and trusted by students’ parents, their belongingness to the school community increased. Similarly, the assignment of an important task (e.g., Kai Meng was deployed as the maths teacher for a senior class) or appointment to a position of responsibility (e.g., Marilyn was appointed as a mentor teacher, and Kate and Michiko were appointed as department heads) made participants feel needed, trusted, and important, and therefore decreased their feeling of vulnerability and enhanced their sense of belonging.

The data show that vulnerability is a core emotion that defines participants’ feelings of belonging and not belonging (Wright 2015). It corroborates previous studies’ findings that feeling respected or receiving respect satisfies individuals’ core needs for belonging (Huo, Binning, and Molina 2010). It also attests to Bollen and Hoyle’s (1990) argument that a sense of belonging is made up of both cognitive and affective elements, meaning that as well as the shared experiences and characteristics, an individual’s feelings that arise from interaction with the members of the group constitute an essential aspect of belonging.

Intercultural perspective

Participants’ intercultural perspectives, particularly how they reacted to cultural differences, was another prominent construct that shaped their belongingness. This study revealed that participants exhibit a range of responses towards cultural differences. For example, Kate was eager to be seen and treated similarly to her Anglo-Australian colleagues and, as such, was seen to deny her Asian identity:

It generally drives me nuts when people see me walking down the corridor and going ‘ni hao’ (translated into ‘how are you?’, a common greeting in Chinese). I always ignore them and pretend not to understand. Our mode of communication is in English, and that’s that. I generally forget that I am an Asian in my school. (Kate)

Some more recent immigrant teachers appeared to be defensive of their home countries’ teaching practices, perceiving them as superior and subconsciously engaged in stereotyping and ‘us vs them’ discourse. For example, Rehvinder found it appalling that some teachers in her school went into a class without a lesson plan and concluded that ‘teachers here were lazy and unprofessional’, and Nara complained that her students were ‘not as disciplined and polite as [her] students back home’. These participants developed a positive view of their cultural group and held a negative stereotype of their host country’s culture as they perceived that the education system, students, and teachers in their home country to be better.

However, as participants live longer in their receiving countries, many shift towards a more ethnorelative stance and are more accepting of cultural differences. Anusha said, ‘You don’t have to be Australian-centric and Asian-centric. The world is out there; there is no right or wrong. We just look at issues differently’. Anusha’s statements demonstrated her more ethnorelative view of accepting cultural differences.

Participants’ response to cultural differences can be understood through Bennett’s (2017) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), which describes migrants’ intercultural perspectives along a continuum from ethnocentric views (denial, defence and minimisation) to ethnorelative views (acceptance, adaptation and integration). While Bennett’s model assumes a transitional and unidirectional movement in which individuals move from ethnocentric to ethnorelative as they become more interculturally sensitive, this study found that the process is more complex, shaped by participants’ day-to-day interactions with people around them – a parametric depending on the factors they interacted with. We noted that Bennett’s model did not consider how different factors may influence an individual’s intercultural sensitivity and competence, including the participants’ personality, motivation to migrate, and prior intercultural experience. Angela was a case in point; her sense of inferiority towards the ‘whites’ may have prevented her from taking the defensive stance evident in other participants. In fact, she was full of praise for the host culture. Bennett (2004) calls this a sense of reversal, which holds the host country’s culture in higher esteem than native culture based on stereotypical knowledge. In this case, Angela’s stereotypical view was that the ‘whites’ were better and more eloquent than Asians.

The data generated from this study revealed that participants’ intercultural perspectives influenced the negotiation of their new teaching context and their desire and attitude towards cultivating belongingness. In this study, participants who maintained ethnocentric views of denial, defence and minimisation tended to experience more obstacles in establishing belongingness to their school community, while those who embraced a more ethnorelative stance of accepting and adapting to cultural differences appeared to have a stronger sense of belonging to their school community.

Discussion and conclusion

This study examined how immigrant teachers construct their belongingness to their school community. In particular, this study iedntifies the sense of belonging held by immigrant teachers from diverse backgrounds as an indispensable element of inclusive education. Findings from the study suggest that immigrant teachers’ belongingness occurs on a continuum and is shaped by their professional identity, emotions of vulnerability, and intercultural perspective, as shown in Figure 1. It shows that immigrant teachers’ belongingness is co-constructed by their professional identity, vulnerability, and intercultural perspectives, and that each of these constructs is further supported by their constituent elements. The data further suggest that a weak professional identity, high vulnerability, and an ethnocentric intercultural perspective undermine immigrant teachers’ belongingness to their school community, whilst a strong professional identity, low vulnerability, and an ethnorelative intercultural perspective support immigrant teachers’ construction of belongingness. Each construct is further supported by the constituent elements that strengthen or weaken it.

Figure 1. The teacher belongingness model illustrating circumstances that undermine and support immigrant teachers’ construction of belongingness.

The data in this study suggest that a weak professional identity results from unemployment, non-recognition of immigrant teachers’ previous skills and knowledge, low social positioning of teachers, and differing education views with the school. A high level of vulnerability is caused by distrust in immigrant teachers’ teaching competence, experiences of discrimination and negative experiences when interacting with school community members. An ethnocentric view is manifested in the form of denial, defence, and minimisation of cultural differences. A combination of weak professional identity, high vulnerability and an ethnocentric intercultural perspective undermines immigrant teachers’ belongingness to their school community. On the other hand, a strong professional identity is contributed by stable employment, the recognition of skills and knowledge, a perceived high social positioning of teachers, and an alignment of education views with the school. Low vulnerability is associated with high trust in teaching competence, acceptance of ethnocultural identity, and positive experiences of interacting with people in the school community. These elements, coupled with an ethnorelative view of accepting and adapting to cultural differences, support immigrant teachers’ belongingness to their school community. Moreover, we observed that the constructs of professional identity, vulnerability and ethnocultural perspective are not binary. Instead, they occur on a continuum where individuals can possess a professional identity of varying strength, experience different degrees of vulnerability, and exhibit various behaviours on the DMIS. Likewise, the degree of belongingness also occurs on a continuum where an individual can experience varying degrees of belongingness.

The theoretical model, developed from the data in this study, contributes to the literature on the diversity of the teaching workforce by looking at it from the perspective of immigrant teacher belongingness and identifying the possible elements that contribute to their belongingness. While past studies primarily highlight the issues and challenges immigrant teachers face without providing an in-depth theoretical understanding of the constructs that contribute to the experience, the current study has conceptualised this experience in the context of belongingness and found that immigrant teachers’ belongingness to their school community is a complex and multifaceted construct that involves the interactions of their professional identity, the emotion of vulnerability, and intercultural perspective. Each of these constructs is further supported by specific elements (e.g., professional identity is supported by employment status, skills and knowledge, social status of teachers, etc.) as illustrated in Figure 1. A change in any of the elements has a ripple effect on the construct, which then affects teacher belongingness.

At the national level, this theory could improve the teaching force’s quality. Increasing interest in the qualities that immigrant teachers can offer to their host societies means that countries are looking at how they can tap into the latent strength of immigrant teachers to improve the overall capacity of the teaching workforce. In Australia, Asian immigrant teachers offer a pool of readily available resources to drive the national imperative of engaging Asia and broadening and deepening Australian understanding of Asian cultures and languages. Understanding the constructs that shape immigrant teachers’ belongingness helps inform strategies and programs related to the recruitment, retention, and development of immigrant teachers. These could include programs to upskill and support immigrant teachers to learn about the Australian Curriculum and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, as well as carefully constructed induction programs that introduce immigrant teachers to Australia’s Indigenous heritage and culture and their relevance to the local teaching context. These could help immigrant teachers transition more smoothly into their roles as teachers in Australian schools.

At the school level, translating this theory into action means paying attention to nurturing immigrant teachers’ sense of belongingness to the school. School leaders can play a fundamental role in engendering a positive work environment built on trust, respect, and recognition, which helps strengthen immigrant teachers’ professional identities and resilience and reduces their sense of vulnerability. Within the school, an understanding of this theory could ignite conversations on immigrant teachers and the broader issue of school culture, policies, and practices, all of which could lead to a more inclusive workplace culture and an overall positive school climate.

The theory developed in this study would open opportunities for future research in teacher professional transition. We acknowledge that the findings in this study are contextual and based on a small sample size of 10 Asian immigrant teachers in Australia. A larger data set could potentially bring out more generalisable conclusions. Future studies that focus on the professional transition experiences of teachers in specific regions and educational settings could add valuable new perspectives to the findings. We also note that our participants come from different regions in Asia that are socially and culturally diverse and are teaching in highly diverse and heterogeneous contexts in Australia. Hence, the participants’ experiences cannot be generalised for all Asian immigrant teachers in Australia. Despite these limitations, the findings are compelling and provide a valuable understanding of immigrant teachers’ belongingness.

Disclosure statement

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