'No More Mr Nice Guy': how metaphors reflect identity in teachers' first-year experiences abroad

Abstract

This paper reports on a longitudinal examination of teachers’ lived experiences in their first year of work abroad. Drawing on reflective journal extracts and multiple conversations with six newly recruited Native-speaking English Teachers (NETs) in Hong Kong, we unpack the different metaphors that these teachers live by as they make sense of their first year of teaching overseas. Metaphors allow us to crystalise these teachers’ ongoing reflections and represent a means by which to affect their experience for the better, thus allowing them to contribute to a new self-understanding in the new space. We suggest these experiences help to shape their negotiation of teacher identity and school community integration. Implications for increased job satisfaction and effectiveness in schools are presented.