Abstract:
This paper analyses evidence of immigrant teachers' needs and the forms of support they receive from various channels. It has two aims. First, to better understand what immigrant teachers need to progress their (new) teaching careers in the Australian education system. Second, to investigate what are sources of support the immigrant teachers can access to meet their needs. The analysis of the evidence indicates that the forms of support occur along three main lines. The first concerns whether the immigrant teachers do or can access enough authoritative information to navigate their way through the process of immigration, registration and employment. The second focuses on the kinds of professional support that immigrant teachers can access from the State Education Departments, schools and colleagues to help them adjust to the new education system and its culture. This includes considerations of mentoring policies and the professional development of overseas trained teachers. Third, there are the support networks that the immigrant teachers access via their peers especially those in and from homeland. These support networks provide access to accumulated knowledge and intellectual resources inside and outside of Australia which brings benefits to Australian education. This analysis of the evidence provides a basis for judging the adequacy of the forms of support available to immigrant teachers to go through various barriers and help convert them into the teachers needed meet the needs of Australian education. Policy documents and interviews provide the evidentiary basis for this paper. The Bourdieu's concept of social networks is used to discuss how the social capital helps the immigrant teachers overcome these barriers.