6: The Emerging Research Agenda: Towards a ‘Sociology of International Schooling’

The previous Bunnell (2019a, p. 169) Emerald Points book had ended by asserting that ‘little has been said about the realities of working’ in the arena of international schooling, and the ‘realities of being an expatriate teacher in an international school remain hugely under-analysed’. Moreover, that book (Bunnell, 2019a, p. 172) had also asserted there is ‘the possibility of introducing a new imagery’.

Our new Emerald Points book has embarked on this task and explored the new concept of ‘resilience capital’, complemented by ‘transition capital’, found in the growing body of ‘CISs’, a major variety of our newly-revealed ‘Type C1’ terrain. In doing this, we have attempted to imagine why the arena continues to grow despite increasing insecurity and precarity, and how the growing legion of expatriate ISTs, who are still mainly from Britain or North America, cope with it.