World English Speaking (WES) student-teachers’ experiences of schools: Curriculum issues, trans-national mobility and the Bologna Process

Abstract

This paper documents the experiences of a particular category of World English Speaking (WES) student-teachers, namely Australian immigrants from Asian-Pacific nations, and their accounts of working class suburban schools where they engaged in teaching classes ranging from K-12. It arises from a research project which investigated how teacher education assists and/or hinders these specific WES student-teachers in gaining access to the Australian teaching profession. This issue is situated in the context of policy initiatives to encourage the trans-national mobility of tertiary students, an internationally significant expression of which can be found in the Bologna Process. Based on the analysis of the interview evidence it is argued that the practicum, a key ingredient in the teacher education curriculum, contributes to the “metamorphosis” of the multi-layered identities of these particular WES student-teachers. This supplements their existing many-sided sense of self. Some of the tensions these Asian-Pacific WES student-teachers confronted in the Australian teaching environment are analysed to identify the multiple dimensions of power operating on them.