Is There a Glass Ceiling for Internationally Educated Teachers in Alberta? A Critical Interpretive Analysis

• Author / Creator

  El Bouhali, Chouaib

• Internationally Educated Teachers (IETs) seek active participation in the labor market as they come to Canada with a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience, which are significant human capital resources. Canada has been a lead in developing bridging programs for immigrant professionals that help them in their professional licensure and integration. This study explores the narratives of the IETs who face challenges when they evaluate their foreign credentials that they need for their teaching certification and employment with schools in Alberta. More specifically, I seek to understand the meanings that IETs in Alberta give to their experiences of being certified teachers in Alberta and to critically interpret relevant policies of teaching certification and employment.
  Under a critical libertarian pedagogy theoretical framework, the study highlights the power/knowledge dynamics that benefit some but not others and explores possibilities of humanization, emancipation and prosperous inclusion. The use of critical interpretive methodology informed by interpretive policy analysis and political discourse analysis provides a new approach to the issue of the IETs that deepens insights on the human ability for making sense of their lived experiences. Interviews, observation and policy documents are deployed in the study to generate, analyze and interpret data and to answer the research questions.
  In my analysis of findings, I identify that the research participants have common and divergent understandings regarding the process of IET certification in Alberta and that the relevant policy rhetoric is generic and standardized. The research findings reveal that there are personal and structural barriers to the certification and inclusion of IETs, and there is a gap between what policy says and what it does. In addition to the discretionary decision-making of the Registrars, bureaucracy is a major roadblock that inhibits the full integration of the immigrant teachers. It is also discussed the use of language proficiency and accent as a system of triage of immigrant and aboriginal minorities. The study concludes with recommendations that could bring change to the situation of these global teachers by raising the critical awareness of the research participants and policy makers. There is a call for equitable policies and practices in the evaluation of foreign credentials, teaching certification and recruitment to schools.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Internationally Educated Teachers

• Graduation date

  Fall 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-kdt6-sb14

• License

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