Thanks everyone! I appreciate all the insights and will try my luck and see what happens.

Stay safe and all the best!

Thanks, again, @PsyGuy and @shadowjack

It seems that certification can't hurt, although it might not always be necessary. I never heard back from Missouri, so I will submit an application for the doctoral route and see how it turns out. I am also reaching out to schools with my current CV.

Interestingly, I made an intern application to SA as suggested by @PsyGuy but was rejected. They said that I either needed to be fresh out of high school or college to be represented by them as an intern, or that I needed to have certification and at least two years of K-12 experience to be represented by them as a teacher. But I have been monitoring jobs elsewhere, so I guess SA is not necessary.

@ PsyGuy and @ shadowjack

I appreciate these clarifications. It seems that certification is desirable, even if jobs can be applied for without having it. I just have to figure out how to get it, given my time constraints. At best, certification will take weeks, which is valuable time since the job market for next year has already opened. Applying now while investigating certification seems to be the way forward.

I contacted Missouri by email attaching my transcript, and asking if they would accept it for certification via the doctoral route, since this seems to be my easiest option. The instructions on their website are not very clear and the I'm unsure about the order in which steps in the process should be taken but it does seem like I can take the test and get fingerprinted for the criminal background check without actually going to Missouri, which is a good thing. But I don't want to do those things before they confirm that they will accept my degree, since it would be a wasted effort if they don't. From what I can understand, you have to do all those things and then submit the test results, doctoral transcript, and fingerprints to them for evaluation. If they accept the application, a certificate is issued through the applicant's online account.

My BA/MA/PhD are all interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences degrees which involved taking courses and doing research across a number of disciplines. My BA is from a Russell Group university in the UK and my MA and PhD are from the same HYS university. Traditional degree names match their coursework content but universities also have all sorts of departments, programs, and centers in non-traditional areas--such as the one where I got my degrees--which are not familiar to folks outside academia. The only way to know what subjects I have expertise in would be to look at my transcript for the courses that I have taken, not the names of my degrees. I have studied and taught History, English Literature, Writing, Sociology, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, and Law. History is main my discipline and it's what I currently teach at the college level. Maybe Missouri will accept my doctorate, maybe they won't. It depends on whether they go by the degree name, or the credit hours of courses taken in subjects that they recognize and accept. If they don't I'll move on to one of the alternatives suggested by @ PsyGuy.

A further question: the Missouri certificate is an initial certificate, indefinitely renewable but not upgradeable to a permanent certificate. Is this going to be a problem in the long run? My understanding is that teaching certification generally has a practicum component, where the applicant has to complete a certain number of classroom hours. With these quick and remote options, does the applicant sidestep the practicum in exchange for an inferior category of certificate (such as an initial certificate)? I read somewhere that some teachers get an initial certificate based solely on exams, and then do the practicum on the job in a domestic or international school, send evidence of having done it back to the authority that issued the certificate in order to complete the requirement.

@ PsyGuy

Thank you. I appreciate your detailed and thoughtful reply. It is very informative and reassuring.

I agree that my family situation complicates things and that I don’t have a proven track record in this arena. The subject that I teach at the college level is actually History. But my PhD carries an esoteric interdisciplinary name, hence my uncertainty about whether Missouri will accept it for certification. Interestingly, History is a social science in middle and high schools but is generally considered a humanities discipline in higher education. I'd be very open to teaching the IB subjects that you mentioned and feel that I can teach very broadly across the humanities and social sciences, with the exception perhaps of some of the more technical aspects of Economics and Psychology, which I'd need to brush up on.

As I continue to wait to hear back from Missouri, I’m wondering what the value of certification is for someone like me if, as you say, I could apply for jobs without it. My understanding is that most international schools require, and many desire, a teaching certification. Among other things, it seems that visas and employment for foreign teachers in many countries are contingent upon an internationally recognized certification. And certification also involves the criminal background checks that are essential to working with children. Am I mistaken? I know that domestic independent schools don't require certification, but I don't know about international schools.

Thanks again!

Hello all,

I am new to the site. I teach college humanities and I'm hoping to make a change to IS teaching. My reason for making the change is: I'm not on the tenure-track, probably won't get on it, and want more stable employment so that I can provide for my family. I'm a UK citizen, working in the US on a visa. My contract expires next summer, along with my visa and I'll have to leave the US at that time. I have a US MA and PhD, both from an elite private R1 (HYPS), and 5 years of full-time teaching experience at UG liberal arts colleges. I enjoy teaching and I think I'm decent at it. But I have very little exposure to school-aged students and I know that teaching them is not the same as teaching college. But I am serious about committing to a career change. I'll do what it takes and I'm willing to learn from others.

I've gathered solid references from my former and current supervisors who are aware I'm making this career change and will back me. I'd like to know what I can do to improve my chances of finding work at a decent school. I'm open to almost anywhere in the world. By decent, I mean a non-profit school where working conditions are tolerable and pay and benefits, initially at least, are sufficient to support a family. I have some savings that I can dip into for a year or two but probably not much longer. I have a non-teaching spouse and a baby. My spouse will be home with our child for the foreseeable future.

I can't create experience that I don't have but obtaining certification seems to be one thing that I can add to my resume. I've read posts here about the doctoral route to Missouri initial certification. I wrote to them to ask if my PhD will be accepted and am waiting to hear back. I'd appreciate any insights into the following questions:

1) For certification, is the Missouri option the best one for me? If I get it, is a UK QTS application processed quite easily? How long would it take to get certification and QTS via this route? If I don't get it (for example, if they reject my doctorate, which was in an interdisciplinary program, because it doesn't match their content areas), what are the next most efficient paths to certification (spending the least time and money and something that a non-citizen can do from inside the US)?

2) Needless to say, the pandemic has upset hiring, like everything else. That aside, what realistic chances of employment do I have for 2021-22? When and where should I be looking for jobs? Am I too late?

Thanks and be well!