TEFL/TESOL teachers on the move: mobility and culture

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the story of 15 TEFL/TESOL English language teachers who spend their lives working globally. Design/methodology/approach Interviews from the research based on the grounded approach generated, among others, three inter-related themes, namely, the global drift, distinctive cultural dispositions and the concept of global quality. Findings The global drift symbolizes interviewees’ mobility pattern and captures their Hong Kong experience in four states – adaptation, drifting in global comfort, drifting in global discomfort and bitter/sweet home, each representing a different quality of mobility which contributes to the development of cultural dispositions. Findings of cultural disposition home and openness are considered in relation to studies of its kind. Four aspects of home perceptions in the data are identified. While interviewees developed complex and varied notions of home, it is argued that the geographical home remains a significant resource in the making of home. Data also suggest that most interviewees’ openness is limited – it is selective, functional and transient. Global quality, a concept emerged from the research, summarizes the distinctive cultural traits of the community of the globals. It overlaps with, but does not necessarily equate with, cosmopolitanism. Originality/value The conclusion relates the study, including the concepts generated from this research, to cosmopolitanism. Two theoretical constructs are employed in the analysis: form of mobility and nature of mobility.