Effects of international professional mobility on teachers

Teachers play an important role in society, especially at a time of increasing globalization and internationalization. One manifestation of internationalization at the school level is international learning mobility, which has rarely been studied in German-speaking countries with regard to teachers to date. This article addresses this gap and employs a qualitative research approach to examine the effects of international professional mobility on teachers. To this end, the study team conducted 28 semi-structured expert interviews at ten schools with 30 principals, Erasmus+ coordinators, and teachers involved in Erasmus+ mobility schemes, analyzing them deductively and inductively using a qualitative content analysis approach. The results show that international professional mobility enables teachers to engage with colleagues from other countries and change their perspective by familiarizing with other school systems’ practices. This helps teachers to critically reflect on practices in their own schools and makes them more willing to innovate with regard to school development processes.