Elite international schools in the Global South: transnational space, class relationalities and the ‘middling’ international schoolteacher

AbstractThe elite international school is a rich site for sociological inquiry in global times. In this paper, we conceptualize the international school as a transnational space of agonist social class-making given the dynamic positioning of the complement of international school actors. We position international schoolteachers in the middle of these interactions and suggest that the middle position gives much-needed insight into the complex and relational qualities of class-making. To qualify our theorization of middling and social class-making in elite schools, we draw from interviews with Canadian teachers working in international schools in the Global South.Keywords: transnational spaceinternational schoolsinternational schoolteacherelite schoolsclass relationalitiesmiddlingclass-making Notes1. We recognize that 'Global South' is a contested term which risks reifying regional hierarchies, minimizing the interpenetrations between North and South and the differences within each, and advancing economistic western notions of poverty and development. We use this term here as a short form to refer to economically struggling countries, often former colonies of European powers, where large numbers of the population are surviving with below-poverty wages and where elites typically send their children to elite private schools as opposed to the low-funded public-sector schools.2. This exploratory, qualitative study consisted of five interviews with five Canadian schoolteachers whom the researcher had met previously in his capacity as an international schoolteacher or more recently as Professor of Education. Each of the teachers had taught in elite private international schools in the Global South for at least two years. A sociocultural lens drawing on conceptions of 'on the ground' cosmopolitanisms was employed to understand how these teachers viewed the pedagogical and existential impact of their international experience. Teachers were asked to narrate their intercultural learning and insights, their challenges and ultimately how they were altered by their experience. Key findings of the study are reported in Tarc (Citation2013, 75–96).3. For this paper, we do not present the empirical data as evidence to certain knowledge claims generated from a pattern or synthetic analysis of the whole dataset. Rather, we select and analyze data that most fruitfully illustrate the qualities of relational class-making in international schools.4. Although we are focused on the middling international schoolteacher, it is important to note that the relations between the elite families and service workers can also be agonistic and challenge oppressor-oppressed categorizations.