Lost in Career

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jlunan
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 2:37 am

Lost in Career

Post by jlunan »

I am at a bit of a loss right now in my teaching career. I have continuously sought out professional development for becoming a better teacher and becoming more marketable. I am at a stumbling block as I have been turned down by schools because I have a dependent. Most recently, the large company that I have worked for for several years turned me down while my other colleagues, who have been with it half as long, were invited for an interview. I suspect again it is because I have a dependent. I am not sure what to do? I feel very discouraged, I did not think having a child would be counted against me.
sciteach
Posts: 258
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:49 am

Re: Lost in Career

Post by sciteach »

I'm sorry to say this - but I see us teachers internationally as more of a commodity than what we may be in our home country. As such - having kids is seen as an expense to the company.

To put it simply - having a kid in the school takes away one place from a full fee paying student, along with possible expenses with flights, increased housing allowance and the like. If you are also single it means that child has one person to look after them if they get sick.

As such, normally international schools look to employ in the following order

(1) Teaching couples - no kids
(2) Teaching singles - no kids
(3) Teaching couples - up to 2 school age kids
(4) Teaching singles - up to 2 school age kids

Depending on the school - the second and third can be interchangeable as having some international faces can look good on promotional material if it's a for-profit school. Number 4 can also become number 1 if you have the golden ticket of teaching DP Physics/Chem/Maths up to HL level as an example. If you teach elementary, english or humanities (social studies/history/geography) then you are unfortunately at the bottom of the totem pole.

This might seem disheartening but remember that there is always a job - the question is how much do you want to trade for that job?

Are you willing to go to a school where your child's education will suffer? Or how about the weather is not that nice? Or possibly the country is a little unstable.

For some people - they will so no to all of the above but there may be some flexibility in some of the perceived hardship posts. As such - it might be worth looking at some so called 'lesser hardship posts' such as China, SE Asia or more western/stable middle east countries.
jlunan
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 2:37 am

Re: Lost in Career

Post by jlunan »

Thanks so much for your insight. It's been very frustrating. I'm actually in a MIddle Eastern school. I was discriminated against years ago because I was single, not part of a teaching couple and young. Now I'm experienced, older, but I have a child. I'm going to a conference soon so hopefully I'll be able to do some networking there. Thanks for all the advice. There's hope I guess.
jstwatchin
Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Sep 02, 2012 4:27 pm

Re: Lost in Career

Post by jstwatchin »

That's rather surprising. Every school I worked for actually prefered teachers with children due to the greater stability they offer (less likely to leave when the going gets rough as their own kids schooling is also at stake). The expat companies my school served/servs appear to go along with that sentiment.
sciteach
Posts: 258
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:49 am

Re: Lost in Career

Post by sciteach »

I've also seen the same jswatchin. I've also seen this change as well in the eyes of admin as teachers have left due to the quality of education their students receive or how the mingle with the local kids. As always - things are open to flux and my last post in just a generalisation of what I have seen.
sitka
Posts: 87
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2013 6:15 pm

Re: Lost in Career

Post by sitka »

This can really go a few ways depending on the post and the recruiter:

*Many top schools want the absolute best teachers they can get, regardless of spouse and dependents (to reasonable limits). An example of a school with a policy like this is YIS in Japan.

*Many Tier-2 non-profit schools and for-profit schools have more stringent financial commitments and try to minimize expenditures on dependents. They prefer teaching couples, and actively avoid dependent spouses and children.

Other things that might affect the situation:

*Schools in hardship locations may actively seek families because they are considered more stable and likely to stay for a longer period of time. This might also apply to places that more "wild" candidates might be attracted to (ie: Thailand).

*Other recruiters might have had issues with unhappy dependent spouses (depending on how isolating the conditions might have been) and actively avoid them.

*The best situation might be schools that will offer your DW work at the school such as being a teaching assistant.

*It also tends to vary by region with the ME tending to be more family-friendly, and Latin America tending to be less.

YMMV
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