Reproducing Cultural Hegemony: Experiences of Teachers of Colour in Global South International Schools
摘要
This chapter explores how international schools in the Global South perpetuate cultural hegemony based on ethnicity and race. Critical studies have shown that Eurocentrism is often equated with the “international” aspect of these schools (Bittencourt and Willetts, Glob Soc Educ 16(4):515–525, 2018; Gardner-McTaggart, Glob Soc Educ 14(1):1–29, 2016, J Res Int Educ 17(2):148–163, 2018a, Perspect Policy Pract High Educ 22(4):109–114, 2018b; Tarc, J Res Int Educ 8(3):235–261, 2009, Peabody J Educ 93(5):486–499, 2018), revealing practices that contradict their mission of equity and diversity. This chapter further examines how these schools uphold racial hierarchies through recruitment, human resources, marketing, and promotion. Using Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital (Horvat, Penn GSE Perspect Urban Educ 2(1), 1–25, 2003), it highlights the role of race in enhancing the status of international schools as a form of cultural capital. The empirical data comes from a qualitative study of seven South Asian teachers who taught in private international schools in India, Mongolia, South Korea, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia. Findings confirm that attending international schools is seen as cultural capital by elite parents in the Global South. The chapter shows that these schools maintain a ‘Western’ standard by recruiting white ‘Western’ teachers, who are viewed as the ideal, while nonwhite non-Western teachers are not perceived as such. The chapter shows how teachers become a form of cultural capital in K-12 international schools in these regions.