Reconstructing teacher identities: shock, turbulence, resistance and adaptation in Caribbean teacher migration to England

The findings reported and discussed in this article extend existing research in the fields of education, migration and identity which focuses on the impact of overseas trained teachers (OTTs) in London's secondary schools. In recent years, researchers have examined the issue of international teacher migration from the perspective of a 'brain drain' to some countries. However, a major limitation of existing studies is that the challenges and benefits of having OTTs in English classrooms were not explored nor was the impact of teaching in London on the OTT. This study attempts to address these shortcomings and provide a framework within which work on OTTs in London can be examined. The findings discussed here regard teacher identity and the experiences of Caribbean OTTs in London. On the one hand these experiences undermined previously held value positions, resulting in a loss of professional status, confusion and turbulence. On the other hand, and over time, OTTs mastered conflicting discourses to combine past and present experiences and knowledge to produce a form of localised 'teacher identity'.