Beyond "little miss international": exploring the imaginaries of mobile educators

The phenomenon of teachers from the “global North” working outside their countries of origin is on the rise, yet scarce research has considered how educators negotiate their professional lives and identities as they move between contexts. In this chapter, Arber and Pitt draw from larger research to explore the case studies of two experienced Australian female educators working in Gulf states. Each educator narrated a “critical incident” involving a member of their school or work community as a way to explain how their understanding of best professional practice was challenged in their new work context. The concept of social imaginaries and their performance within shaping frames of identity, difference, temporality and spatiality, is used to consider the implications for preparing teacher educators for work in diverse contexts.