Recently I was having a conversation with a co-worker who said that if our accrediting body (Cambridge) were to come and check our school that we would fail because we don't have enough teachers with QTS. I mentioned that it is true some of them don't have QTS, but what about our co-workers who came from non-native speaking countries with educational credentials from their home country? We have a good number of Pakistanis teachers in our group, and he said that because they don't have a Western credential that they would also not be included as having QTS. They do however have teacher credentials from Pakistan.

Is what he saying is true? What exactly is viewed as a valid credential for Cambridge and other accrediting bodies?

Another co-worker says that it does not matter what country they are from as long as they have QTS equivalent from their home country. She said theoretically, that an international school that had teachers only from non-English speaking SE Asian countries could pass accreditation.

So what exactly is the truth here?

You should not have any issues finding employment in Washington or most states in the US. Principals like the one you have are the main reason why there is a teacher shortage in our country. I would not worry about finding employment.

The only thing is that I would secure employment at another school before handing in your resignation.

Increasingly I have seen more and more of colleagues at my school come from South Africa. My school has three campuses and it has gotten to such a point where one of the campuses is with 95% South African teachers.

It is a pretty well known fact that life in South Africa is not getting any easier so more teachers from there moving abroad is not surprising to me. I am curious as to how you think that will change the international school scene? Will schools just start getting more and more filled up with South African teachers? Will parents see all these teachers coming from there and start raising questions?

I've found female principals to take things more to heart rather than just part of the job. Constructive criticism to a male principal would be a personal affront to a female one. I've heard often that female teachers are more likely to be martyrs to their job, and I find that even more so with the female principals I have worked with.

I am American, but it always seemed to me that getting a PGCE has much more benefits than an American license. In America getting things apostilled is not a common practice. If you did Moreland you'd get your teaching license via a PDF document. DC does not issue physical teaching licenses so I've no idea how you would get a PDF apostilled.

I've found that we Americans tend to be in the minority when it comes to international teaching. Most schools are happy therefore to have Americans around because of that alone. Where I currently work the American staff I would say only make up 5% of the international teachers. Most are overwhelmingly from the United Kingdom.

I've been teaching the Cambridge Curriculum for a few years now. Honestly never found it that difficult besides the occasional spelling differences. I teach elementary school, but I imagine if your focus is in math for higher grades having to learn the metric system could be annoying, but totally manageable.

I cannot see any credible international school in Hong Kong hiring you if you do not have a PGCE. I know a few people who tried to teach having American licenses in Hong Kong, but they were very strict about having PGCE.