The international mobility of teachers has increased in recent decades (Caravatti et al. 2014) - driven by the shortage of teachers and refugee and migration flows (Rakhkochkine & Kotthoff 2015). On the other hand, despite initiatives to internationalize teacher education, the teaching profession is still a “national” profession that is closely linked to the process of nation-building. In addition to teaching, teachers are responsible for supporting students in achieving “national literacy” (Tröhler 2019, p. 187). As a result, teacher certificates are often tied to national borders and are not (fully) recognized in other national contexts (Krause et al. 2023). This results in many foreign trained teachers not being able to (immediately) enter the teaching profession after their international mobility (Bense 2016). Previous research on international teacher mobility has addressed many crucial aspects, e.g., the professional challenges in a new school context (Marom 2019), recognition in society (Terhart 2022), the acquisition of the professional language (Deters 2011) and the recognition of their certificates (Cruickshank 2022). So far, the recognition of certificates has mainly been viewed from the perspective of teachers trained abroad. The procedures on the part of the competent authorities for recognition and consequently also the reasons for (non-)recognition are therefore not entirely understood.

This presentation focuses on the recognition process for teaching qualifications acquired abroad in Germany. It is known that recognition numbers are low and that there is a margin of discretion that recognition authorities have when making decisions (George 2021, Sommer 2015). What is missing in the literature to date is a comprehensive description of the recognition procedure from the perspective of the responsible actors.

To learn more about how the recognition procedure works, this presentation will characterize it as a form of teacher assessment. Teacher assessment is directly related to quality assurance in the profession and should contribute to their professionalism (König 2014). Therefore, assessment should relate to typical tasks of the profession and to a scientific definition of “good teaching” (Bell & Kane 2022). Two strands of educational research on teacher assessment can be distinguished (König 2020): On the one hand, the identification of a teacher’s core task in relation to the (national) context and the focus on necessary competencies to fulfill these tasks. Secondly, the analysis of the assessment, which focuses i.a. on the subject of the assessment, the preparation of the assessors and, in particular, the underlying conceptions of teacher professionalism. The presentation is related to the later. From this perspective, the examination of the recognition procedure is not about how the procedure can be changed to achieve higher recognition rates. Rather, it is about the extent to which the procedure can contribute to ensuring teacher professionalism.

My research addresses the following questions:

• “What are the characteristics of the recognition procedure,”
• “How is the 'good teacher for Germany' defined by the recognizing persons in the recognition procedure?”
• “What statements about teacher professionalism are possible in the recognition procedure?”

The expected outcome of the research is a description of the recognition procedure that outlines the procedure for assessing foreign qualifications and the underlying understanding of the “good teacher”, thus providing information on how the decision on (non-)recognition is made. Focusing on the reasons for (non-)recognition deepens the understanding of why international/European mobility is a more complicated issue for teachers compared to other professions (e.g. doctors). In addition, this description enables an understanding of the validity of the recognition procedure with regard to the tasks in the teaching profession in Germany.

Considering the theoretical perspective and the research questions, it is crucial to gain an insight into the perspective of the assessing institutions and the responsible persons for the recognition. Due to the federal responsibility for education in Germany, there are 16 different competent authorities for recognition in Germany. In a first step, the websites of the competent authorities were analyzed, the responsible persons were identified and information on the recognition procedure was compiled. In a second step, it is planned to conduct guideline-based interviews with one expert per competent authority (16 in total). As the responsibility for the recognition of teacher qualifications from European Union countries and third countries is differentiated in two federal states, a total of 18 interviews are planned to be conducted. The decision to conduct guideline-based interviews is based on the focal points derived from theory and the current state of research. The guideline helps to ensure that the aspects relevant to answering the research questions are taken into account. In order to deepen the understanding of the assessment of foreign teacher qualifications in the recognition procedure, a foreign teacher qualification is to be used as a vignette in the interviews (Kandemir & Budd 2018). It is planned to analyze the collected data on the basis of a qualitative content analysis, whereby categories are formed both deductively and inductively (Kuckartz & Rädiker 2024). The themes identified will be used to create a table containing a summary of the cases studied. Based on this, a thick description of the entire recognition procedure is created for each case (i.a. actors involved, assessment procedures, compensation measures to adapt to the new context). A case comparison with regard to the characterization of the 'good teacher' also makes it possible to identify statements about (assumed) specifics of the 'good teacher' in Germany, to point out possible regional specifics and to highlight the causes of (non-)recognition. The paper will not only point out the potential of this approach, but also some of its limitations.

It is expected that answering these research questions on the basis of the methodological approach described will, one the one hand, lead to a thick description of the recognition procedure including aspects such as the preparation of those responsible for the recognition, the different actors involved in the recognition procedure and the extent to which aspects such as the shortage of teachers in certain subjects and (educational) policy conditions influence the decision. It is assumed that the shortage of teachers leads to a stronger focus on recognition and thus neglects the assurance of teachers’ professionalism. On the other hand, by describing the underlying conceptions of the ‘good teacher’, it can be shown which aspects are considered specific to the teaching profession in Germany. This makes it possible to understand what causes lead to (non-)recognition and the extent to which differences and similarities are assumed between different national teacher training systems. It is to be expected that the underlying conceptions of the ‘good teacher’ do not fully correspond with the findings of educational research on teacher professionalism and the required competencies in the German context. By comparing the results with those on the competences required for teaching in Germany and on the possibilities of competence assessment (Bell & Kane 2022, König 2014), the possible statements on teacher professionalism in the recognition procedure are to be evaluated. It is assumed that the current procedure does not enable valid and comprehensive statements to be made about the probable professionalism of foreign trained teachers in practice. Based on the findings, adjustments to the procedure can be discussed.

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