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List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 10:52 am
by Lastname_Z
Hey everyone,

I am currently back in my home country, but I flirt with the idea of going back internationally. Paying for an account and making profiles for more than a flirtation is not worth it.

I just want to put feelers out, but I'm not seriously considering going back abroad at this time.

I'm curious if there is a list out there of schools that hire teachers without using Schrole-ISS or Search Associates. If not, is it possible to make one using this thread? Is this allowed? I think it should be since I am not asking for reviews. I just want names.

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:00 pm
by fine dude
UWCSEA, Singapore
Tanglin Trust, Singapore
Ecolint, Switzerland
Bangkok Patana, Thailand

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:05 pm
by shadowjack
Depending on schools you are interested in, visit their website, look under employment, and respond appropriately. If you tick all the right boxes or stand out in an exceptional fashion, they will be in touch.

Good luck!

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:53 pm
by Thames Pirate
Are you talking about major truly international schools ("tier 1/2") or IB schools or anything calling itself international? Because the list would be impossibly long and ever-changing.

Maybe if you narrowed your request down?

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:21 pm
by Lastname_Z
Thames Pirate wrote:
> Are you talking about major truly international schools ("tier
> 1/2") or IB schools or anything calling itself international? Because
> the list would be impossibly long and ever-changing.
>
> Maybe if you narrowed your request down?

I am looking at the Tier 1/2s. Curriculum doesn't matter too much to me (it's all something that one can learn and way too much emphasis is placed on experience with a specific curriculum imo).

To be honest, I would have to narrow down what I'm interested in myself to be able to adequately answer this question.

I thought that most schools were on SA/Schrole at this point so I didn't think the list would be that long.

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:03 pm
by Heliotrope
There are plenty of schools that use Search or ISS, but at the same time will also hire teachers that email them directly.
I know of no school that exclusively hires through these agencies (although I'm sure there are some).
So don't feel you should limit yourself to schools that don't use Search or ISS.

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2021 11:53 am
by Thames Pirate
There are tons of schools that are not on ISS/Schrole. They vary in how good they are or how international they are.

Just to give you an idea, there are probably 75 schools reviewed on ISR (though many may be duplicates with the name entered differently or no longer exist) in the UAE. There are 22 listed on Search. The UAE is something like 80% expats, so pretty much every school there will be moderately international. I know of at least a handful that are neither on Search nor ISR. I am no longer active on ISS, so I can't tell you if they are on there. Judging by the caliber of student at those schools, they are great institutions (can't speak to what it's like to work there).

Scandinavian schools are far less likely to use agencies (Norway has 2 on Search, 11 on ISR). Boarding schools outside of Switzerland are minimally represented by the agencies, especially those in Western countries. If you are looking to teach in places like the UK, Aus, NZ, Canada, US (which may be international to you), few schools are listed. Religious schools are less likely to be listed with agencies. Very small schools are unlikely to be listed (think places like Monaco or Iceland). Compare IB schools (and I know that many are not actually international, but often bilingual) on the IB site with those listed with agencies and you will find huge differences in lists. Or maybe your country has a school in a surprising place that mostly recruits domestically (there are Japanese schools in Cairo and German schools in Japan, for example). For Americans, the DOD is an option.

There are literally TONS of really good and really crap schools out there not listed with agencies. That's why asking for a list is a bit too broad. But if you are looking for a quality reputable school that is truly international in a specific region, we might be better able to help you.

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2021 2:47 pm
by shadowjack
"The UAE is something like 80% expats, so pretty much every school there will be moderately international."

Ha ha ha ha ha - some tears rolling down my face. Many of the 'international' schools recruited for in the UK are not even close to moderately international. You need to be very much caveat emptor on that one. While there are many international schools in the UAE, there are also many 'international' schools in the UAE.

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:51 am
by Thames Pirate
I guess it depends on if you mean "not host nationals" vs. "lots of nationalities." If the former, yeah, most schools would have few Emiratis. If the latter, there is likely a range that can probably be very dramatic. But of course, that comes back to the question: What do you call "international teaching"? Is an American at Washington IS or really a host national teaching in any IS an "international teacher"? Is an expat teacher in a nominally international school with 95%+ host nation students an "international teacher"? If you teach kids from your nation who just happen to be geographically elsewhere but culturally all host nation, is that "international teaching"?

That's my point--without knowing what the definition of what the OP wants is, how do we answer the question?

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:12 am
by shadowjack
Good points, Thames Pirate!

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:55 pm
by marieh
Thames Pirate wrote:
> I guess it depends on if you mean "not host nationals" vs.
> "lots of nationalities." If the former, yeah, most schools would
> have few Emiratis. If the latter, there is likely a range that can
> probably be very dramatic. But of course, that comes back to the question:
> What do you call "international teaching"? Is an American at
> Washington IS or really a host national teaching in any IS an
> "international teacher"? Is an expat teacher in a nominally
> international school with 95%+ host nation students an "international
> teacher"? If you teach kids from your nation who just happen to be
> geographically elsewhere but culturally all host nation, is that
> "international teaching"?
>
> That's my point--without knowing what the definition of what the OP wants
> is, how do we answer the question?

Perhaps I'm jaded, but usually when I hear someone in the ME/SEA/SA talking about an "international" population, they specifically mean white children. If students have Emirati/Indian/Bengali/etc. last names they're "local" regardless of their upbringing and/or passport.

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 3:00 am
by Thames Pirate
Which is interesting since by far the biggest expat group in Dubai is Indian, followed by Pakistani as a distant second. Having been around those students, they are every bit TCK, even if they have spent their entire lives in Dubai. Sad that anyone would not consider that an international school.

To me a domestic school is a school with almost all domestic students and staff, doing a domestic curriculum with a domestic mindset. There are some ITs who would love to be the lone international at such schools, and it can be really cool, particularly if you are looking to immerse and fully emigrate.

There are some schools that are mostly domestic in terms of passports of individuals, but teach an international and internationally-minded curriculum (most often the IB, but not exclusively). These are usually mixed in with domestic schools in terms of hiring and can be true gems--kids who may have never traveled but want to know more about the world around them, staff who are local but love teaching literature and history and such from around the world, etc. These opportunities generally require teachers to search via host nation channels.

When schools with mostly local students recruit staff heavily from abroad, they are often termed international schools. These again come in the "give us a white guy diploma" and the "our local kids want a truly international experience" varieties, the latter always being exciting, the former often being better funded. Both can offer neat opportunities depending on the teacher.

Then there are the schools that are "international" in that they are not host nation schools--the German school in Kobe or the Japanese school in Cairo or DOD schools--but which are not truly international in terms of curriculum, mindset, diversity of passports, etc. These can also be neat opportunities--familiar curriculum, culture within the school, built in community of people from your culture, but still living abroad. But of course some ITs find them restrictive and narrow in mindset as well.

Then there are the old school truly international schools--often the embassy schools or ones linked with major international businesses with kids and staff from around the world. These, like any school, offer pros and cons.

This is why it's so hard to define "international" schools or to create lists. One of the most interesting, dynamic, and internationally minded schools in which I ever worked was actually a local school with mostly domestic teachers in the US. Interestingly, it drew a VERY disproportionate number of minority students from within the local community largely because of its cultural diversity and open-mindedness. I have not seen that level of engagement with the world even in the old-school international schools with 50+ passports.

Re: List of schools that hire without Schrole-ISS or Search?

Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 12:58 pm
by shadowjack
Marieh, for me it is that there are quite a number of international schools in the emirates now with a high number of local students as entrepreneurs have emerged to make dirhams.

Response

Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:17 am
by PsyGuy
Thats way too long of a list.
Most Iss are not with a premium agency. If you just focus on only the ISC data there are over 12K ISs, and SA Schrole have less than 10% of that and thats just ISC.

I concur with @Heliotrope in that you should be able to apply to an IS directly from its web portal, and if they are interested they may be in touch. Application sites such as agencies tend to be more a process of screening rather than selection.

I tend to agree with @Thames Pirate that the definition of IS can be very broad, and at one pole of the spectrum is so broad as to be very large. Whereas on the the other pole, you can define an IS for example as embassy ISs and there are establish government lists for those that are easy to identify and access.

@marieh

I agree international population basically means white.