The Global Transitional Journey of Expatriate Teachers: A Phenomenological Study

This study explored the transitional journeys of Filipino expatriate teachers who shifted employment from the Philippine public school system to international institutions from 2022 to 2024. The study was grounded in transcendental phenomenology to uncover the human experience (Larsen and Adu, 2021). Guided by the Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) process, data were collected through semi-structured online interviews with 12 purposively selected participants. The verified interview transcripts were imported into NVivo12 software for analysis. Themes were generated using description-focused and in vivo coding and subsequently validated via synthesized member checking to enhance credibility. Findings revealed central themes that emerged for each research problem: 1) source of fulfillment, locus of frustrations, and unrequited loyalty; 2) career intentions, push factors, pull factors, and the employment mechanisms; 3) synergistic in-school transition, reconfigured offschool life, rewarding investment, challenging pursuit, and enduring adaptation; 4) transformative personal growth, and empowering professional leap. The study concludes that while the participants initially derived intrinsic rewards from Philippine public school teaching, their commitment to service was eventually eroded due to systemic failures that engendered their sense of professional devaluation. Consequently, the results found that global turnover occurs when a teacher's evolving career goals and local systemic frustrations converge with attractive international opportunities and the practical means to pursue them. Moreover, their global transition resulted in personal and professional adaptation as they navigated the rewards and challenges of their relocation. Ultimately, the findings revealed their global teaching experiences as transformative advantages that spanned their personal and professional identities. This study contributes to understanding teacher turnover and proposes the Restoring Educators' Trust through Autonomy, Incentives, and Nurturing (R.E.T.A.I.N.) intervention program as a strategic framework to revitalize teacher retention in Philippine public schools.