A Hearken Story: Listening and Reporting with Your Community in Mind
I have often talked about the importance of listening to the communities we serve as journalists, and providing their members with information and resources relevant to their lives. After all, they are the people in whose lives we strive to make a difference.
The community I’m serving is that of malemployed immigrants in New York. They are foreign-educated newcomers who endure egregious occupational mismatches (e.g., doctors driving taxis) because of structural socio-economic barriers in the U.S.
A tool I’ve recently used to learn more about their needs is called Hearken, whose name literally means “deep listening.” It’s a new engagement method that allows newsrooms to prompt community members for questions on a chosen topic. Journalists will then select one or more of them to report on.
The query I selected came from a Turkish refugee, a young woman in her 20s who spoke on condition of anonymity due to privacy concerns. She lived in Istanbul, where she was a sought-after high school math teacher, a job she used to both love and be proud of. She arrived in New York two years ago and is unemployed. She dedicates her time to raising two young sons, ages 4 and 10-months, but misses the fulfillment of her profession.
Her questions dealt with how to continue teaching in America and how can she “decrease the language barrier to become a teacher faster.” To find answers, I reached out to Upwardly Global, a leading national nonprofit in the field of integrating skilled immigrants, and talked with Nadia Huffer, an employment specialist with an expertise in teaching careers.
As an important preface, the U.S. does not have a unified teacher’s certification system; thus regulatory requirements are set at the state level. For the purposes of this article, our conversation focused on New York State and the fundamental steps necessary to become a teacher, since pathways also depend on such variables as the teaching subject, the position being sought, pupils’ age group and the choice between public and private schools.
The following Q&A was edited for both clarity and length.
Q. What are the options for a foreign-educated math teacher who wants to restart her career in New York?
A. The first step would be to evaluate her bachelor’s degree. Any professional who wants to teach in New York State has to verify that the education they received in their home country is equivalent to our bachelors of education here. After that she can take one of two main routes.
The first is the traditional route for foreign educators, which consists of taking a New York State accredited program called the Teacher Preparation Program, which is comparable to a master’s degree. I haven’t had any clients do it yet, but I do have some who are applying.
After that, applicants can take the required exams for an initial teaching license. They include one to assess teaching skills (Educating All Students), one to evaluate teaching effectiveness (Teacher Performance Assessment called edTPA) and one to determine knowledge of the subject matter for teachers of core topics such as biology or mathematics (Content Specialty Test). Immigrant teachers are also tested for English proficiency.
But honestly, the process for a lot of Upwardly Global clients to get to this point is very long.
Some of the barriers they’re dealing with are, you know, the need to make a living wage during the relicensing process. So a lot of people in our program actually have success applying for non-license alternatives that help them get back into the teaching field, and into the New York State Education Department system.
That route follows programs that allow people to forgo the Teacher Preparation Program. They are fast tracks to getting certified and function like work-study programs. One is called the New York Teaching Fellows and then another is the New York Teaching Collaborative. Both are highly competitive and were created to address teacher shortages in underserved communities. Immigrants who can get into one of these programs have a great opportunity to work in the public school system here.
Q. How do private schools differ from public schools?
A. Private and charter schools, which are independent public schools, don’t necessarily require any New York State teaching license. But you know, even opportunities like teacher assistants, early childhood teachers or substitute teachers in the public school setting are great for immigrants to at least get some experience before they acquire a teaching license.
Q. What other options would you recommend for the Turkish immigrant specifically?
Well, she may like transitioning to early childhood or adult education, which have lots of opportunities and lower barriers to entry. For those scenarios, I would recommend conducting an online job search and see what opportunities are available at community colleges in her area, for example, and see if high school equivalency teaching would be interesting for her.
But given her background in mathematics, a very much needed competency, there are also lots of nonprofits, and even for-profit companies, that have STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] teaching initiatives and are hiring program managers or educational managers, who are going into schools to help improve the science or math curriculum. One of them is an organization called NPower.
Q. Concerning English-language skills, are there classes designed for immigrants who would like to enter the teaching profession?
A. I’m not aware of any classes that are dedicated to English language for educators, but one of the best ways to work toward one’s long-term career goals and gain the level of English they will need is to start working in the field.
Since this woman has young children, she may be interested in working with that age group. I would recommend searching if there are any after-school programs that she can support through volunteering. You know, just getting in that classroom setting — it’s the most important thing. Being in an environment where you’re forced to use English means that you’re constantly working toward the goal of language proficiency.
Another important factor, in general, is creating professional connections with people that can really help you navigate the education system in New York. In a lot of job opportunities, once you get licensed, you need a referral. It’s extremely helpful to have someone vouch for you to a school principal, even if you’re just applying for an entry-level job.
One of the things we do at Upwardly Global is connect candidates to a network of volunteers, including seasoned educators, who are prepared to help them with job applications, referrals and any advice they might need. Our program, and the networking we offer, can be followed remotely.
