Degrading, devaluing and discounting: The qualifications of overseas trained teachers (OTT) in England

Abstract

Highly trained teachers from across the world come to England expecting to practise their chosen profession. These expectations are dashed, however, if their foreign credentials and work experience are not recognised as legitimate by potential employers and accreditation bodies. This type of social situation is the focus of the relative deprivation theory (Olson,
Herman & Zanna, 1986; Runciman, 1966; Walker & Smith, 2002). According to this theory, relative deprivation is defined as having a perception that an expectation has been dishonoured (the cognitive component) resulting in possessing feelings of injustice, dissatisfaction, and discontent on account of this dishonouring (affective component).
Relative deprivation may take one of two forms. Egoistic relative deprivation results when a person feels that he or she has been unjustly deprived relative to other individuals. The result of this is stress and a lower level of life satisfaction. On the other hand collective relative deprivation, which forms the basis of this paper, results when a person feels that his or her group is unjustly deprived relative to other social groups. The result of this is the basis for collective or group actions. Put simply, relative deprivation theory specifies, and empirical evidence has substantiated that affective relative deprivation is the proximal cause of
engagement in protest action, which fully mediates the more distal effects of cognitive relative deprivation (Dion, 1986; Dube-Simard & Guimond, 1986; Grant & Brown, 1995; Kawakami & Dion, 1995; Pettigrew, 2002).