Teacher Mobility and Transnational, ‘British World’ Space: the League of the Empire’s ‘Interchange of Home and Dominion Teachers’, 1907–1931

This article explores the experiences of teachers who participated in the League of the Empire’s ‘Interchange of Home and Dominion Teachers’ scheme through a tripartite approach to ‘British World’ space. First, it identifies the mechanisms through which exchanges were established. It analyses the patterns of teacher mobility and axes of movement evident in the exchange data from the 1932, predominantly female, teachers who were involved in exchanges between 1919 and 1931. Second, it examines participants’ reflections on their experiences to recover their various conceptions and imaginings of the spaces they traversed. Third, it considers the local aspect of imperial exchange and demonstrates that specific colonial sites played a part in shaping participating teachers’ mobility. Although the framework of multiple, overlapping British worlds is relatively new, this article demonstrates that it has immense value to historians of education in illuminating the complex British, and transnational, space in which educational networks operated.