Abstract:
In this changing world, teachers’ migration is a recurring theme and it is particularly relevant in the Australasia educational context as a strategy to address teacher shortages. Viewing this phenomenon through the educator’s perspective, immigrating and becoming a teacher in a new country is challenging and necessitates reshaping personal and professional feelings, assumptions and teaching practices. Challenges, and the necessity to reconfigure these elements, are considered self-evident. However, understanding the influences on these challenges into pedagogical practices is fundamental in this context of internationalisation and teachers shortages in education. Major shifts can lead teachers to question their educational paradigms and force them to adapt their praxis to a new educational system. This study explores my journey of migrating from Brazil to Aotearoa New Zealand and how being an immigrant teacher have determinated changes in my teaching practices. Shifting countries and cultural settings had led to new ways in which I enact my teaching, my praxis, as a physical education teacher. Using a self-study methodology with elements of bricolage to support the research design, I sought to examine the ways in which my teaching in a primary school were influenced by and adapted to a new cultural setting and education system. Data sources included one year of teaching artefacts, journaling during the entire process of immigrating, personal history through stories and narratives and meeting with two critical friends. Data analysis, conducted through thematic analysis, suggests that elements such as (1) language, (2) feeling of belonging, (3) understanding of praxis, (4) pedagogical strategies and (5) personal assumptions crafted my praxis and, therefore, the way my teaching was enacted. Praxis was used both as a theoretical framework of this research and as a way to understand my actions. Through the lens of praxis in this study, I came to understand that my praxis as an immigrant teacher was shaped by the elements founded in this research and, therefore, strongly influenced by my new cultural scenario. I not only had to adapt the way I teach in class, but also shape my way of interacting with both students and school staff. Ultimately, this study highlights the way I developed my praxis as an immigrant teacher and offers suggestions for assisting teachers who are changing countries and beginning their migration as educators in a new cultural and educational context.