Finding a Home Abroad With “Eveline”: Using Narrative Inquiry to Establish a Sense of Place for a Western Teacher in a Foreign and Multicultural Context

Abstract

This is the exposition of a Western teacher working abroad in Thailand and his coming to terms with what it means to find a home and a sense of belonging while learning to teach in an unfamiliar land and culture. A foreign teacher finds himself isolated between feelings of perceived power (as an educated Westerner) and his all too real feelings of apprehension (as a cultural outsider in a Thai classroom) without feeling grounded in a unified place to call home. The author combines narrative inquiry along with theoretical formulations using the instrument of story to create a dynamic and sensuous space while at the same time proposing a more sophisticated multicultural approach to International Education.