I’ve been thinking a lot about teacher identity, assessment, and just ways of being lately. While reading (and trying to write) I had the chance to slip off to Jeju-do for a week. As an expat, and someone who happily identifies as an “other” in most countries, I’ve been challenged in my classes about assessment.
I’m not quite sure how I am going to link all of this together in my paper, but right now I’m wondering how teacher identity, place based education, international schools and international assessments are all linked together.
Tran and Nhai (2015) discuss this idea that international school identities are (re)constructed through encounters with students from different cultures. When we take the time to reflect on our teaching and our practice it is often shaped by people from a different cultural context, which shapes us as teachers.
So, I guess I’m wondering, if I believe in the value of place based education, that all education is environmental education, and that we need to love a place to save a (or many) place(s) then how does that tension interact with teaching at an international school teaching “international” values.
Can we be truly global or local anymore? If our encounters are (re)constructing our identities how do we know who or where we are?
Tran, L. T., Nhai, T.N. . (2015). Re-imagining teachers’ identity and professionalism under the condition of international education. Teachers and Teaching, 21(8), 958-973.
Joe Teft 