International Schooling: The Personal Challenges
The challenges of living life as an international school teacher
International schooling is an adventure.
And, like all good adventures it’s spiced with fun and risk. The first move abroad is a risk — a giant leap into the unknown. There’s risk when moving jobs and when moving countries. Every new school is a risk.
This article is about those risks: The results of a survey on the challenges of living life as an international school teacher.
101 people responded*, covering 40 countries.
Mirroring the global distribution of international schools, responses skew towards Asia (57%). Europe follows with 23%, the Middle East also features (6%).
The survey focused on the personal not the professional. Sure, these things overlap (a lot) but the interest was the teachers themselves not their schools.
What do international school teachers worry about? Where do they feel most exposed to risk? Where are the uncertainties and blind spots? Do they miss having a safety net? How might the international school adventure be made that bit safer — and more fun?
TL;DR
- Teachers DO care about money. The most common concern was whether salaries and benefits are fair (relative to other schools and for a given country).
- Other employment-related issues account for 5 of the top 10: quality of schools; employment protections; finding jobs; discriminatory recruitment.
- Friendships and fit are also important. Will I (and my partner and children) make friends. Will we fit the school and country?
The Challenges
Who knew? It seems that teachers DO care about money.
Or, at the very least, they care about knowing whether their salary is ‘fair for the location and equivalent to other schools of a similar type’. Just shy of 50% of respondents listed salary as one of their primary concerns, making it the most common response.
Similar employment-related concerns account for 5 of the top 10:
1. Salaries and benefits (n=47)
2. The quality of schools as places to work (n=42)
3. Employment protections (n=31)
6. Finding jobs (n=24)
9. Unfair/discriminatory recruitment (n=19)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, 2 of the top ten concerns relate to the respondents’ own children:
5. The quality of schools as places for my children (n=27)
7. How international a given school is for my kids (n=20)
With the extent and cost of medical cover appearing 4th (n=29), it is clear that financial, employment, and related family concerns are what preoccupy teachers’ minds.
Practical concerns also feature.
Hovering between n=10–15 are: teaching contracts, qualifications requirements, settling and setting-up in new locations, and the likelihood of reemployment at ‘home’.
Diversity and inclusivity sits in this range too (n=14), though, and potentially related, unfair/discriminatory recruitment is higher up in 9th (n=19) — teachers want to work in diverse and inclusive schools, but at the sharp end, some teachers face active discrimination, in all forms:
[RESPONDENT 17] As a POC I never know whether an application is rejected because of my colour, my experience, or what. I finding it shocking that asking for photographs it still a thing — shouldn’t this be illegal?
[RESPONDENT 82] Most international schools are led by male Principals. There is a preference for males although this is never mentioned.
[RESPONDENT 50] Age discrimination is rampant and it is often, erroneously, blamed on the country. Happens most everywhere.
Finally, 6 seemingly very overwhelmed people responded ‘All of the above!’. Hopefully they are finding some support somewhere.
School or Country?
The answer is both.
Only 5 people identified the issues they face as country-specific; 29 identified them as school-specific. The majority (62) described the issues as a mix of both school and country.
I suspect what we are seeing here is recognition that some issues are a blend of local regulation and/or culture and a school’s ability to navigate those issues. The comments suggest that some schools do a better job of this than others:
We had a lot of induction support. There was high quality onboarding helping us navigate the bureaucracy. This process could have been overwhelming and far more daunting. Chatting to a colleague who also moved internationally this summer, her new school [offered] very little induction/onboarding support.
With ‘finding housing/dealing with local landlords’ being the 10th most common concern, and ‘learning the local language’ also featuring as a challenge, it is likely this need for support is not just limited to induction periods.
Which Countries are Most Challenging?
The simple answer: China (n=20). Thailand is a close second (n=15), the UAE third (n=9), and then S.Korea (n=4).
Language (and the difficulty of learning it) and culture (how removed it is from ‘Western’ culture) are likely the challenges here. Notably other countries where similar challenges may exist — Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Japan — also feature in the top 10.
Bureaucracy is likely an issue too. Navigating complex, cross-cultural governmental and legal paperwork, the frustrations of red tape, the lost in translations, and the linguistic challenge of simply ‘getting stuff done’, all add up.
For many, these challenges are part of the fun and adventure — they are certainly a source of personal growth — but that makes them no less frustrating in the moment.
Friendship Matters
In addition to the specific questions, respondents were asked for general thoughts and insights. Whilst anecdotal, a few themes emerged.
Most notably, friendships.
Often tinged with sadness, the challenges of making friends and maintaining friendships was a feature of the comments:
[RESPONDENT 10] It’s hard for adults to make friends. Schools can be friendly, but not [be easy places] to have friendships: toxic, catty, competitive between teachers…etc. I’ve seen it all and it’s one of my biggest worries. How will I, a 40-something child-free teacher with a non teaching spouse, fit in. How will my spouse fit in?
[RESPONDENT 76] I found it harder to make friends in school in South America, being part of a couple and in the older demographic at a ‘young’ school. In Asia, I have found it harder to make friends outside of school.
For some, this extended to a lack of personal support networks:
[RESPONDENT 27] My marriage fell apart when abroad; we really lacked family support networks. It compounded the issues hugely.
Other points of interest…
Several respondents mentioned professional fit:
[RESPONDENT 61] A lot of my concerns are my interactions with my departmental colleagues. In short, if I knew about my colleagues and their personality and professional traits I wouldn’t have joined the school. That will be a big focus in interviews going forward.
[RESPONDENT 4] Are single woman accepted by the local/school culture? Is the school community kind, caring, and nurturing?
A few people also mentioned safety, especially in relation to single female teachers and those identifying as LGBTQ+.
Non-teaching accompanying partners (what will they do; will they fit in) was a concern too.
Retirement planning/pensions was also noted. As was staff voice in the absence of trade unions (and the unknown quantity of local legal protections).
So what?
Indeed. So what?
The intention of the survey was always to point the way to future research: To illuminate issues which dominate staffroom conversations but get little attention elsewhere.
The data above points in a few interesting directions. For anyone interested in taking the next steps, I’ll happily share the raw data.
For now, the takeaways are the TL;DR’s:
1). Teachers DO care about money. The most common concern was whether salaries and benefits are fair (relative to other schools and for a given country).
2). Other employment-related issues account for 5 of the top 10: quality of schools; employment protections; finding jobs; discriminatory recruitment.
3). Friendships and fit are also important. Will I (and my partner and children) make friends. Will we fit the school and country?
Watch this space as I dive deeper into some of these challenges in future articles….(follow for updates).
*The original aim was 1,000 respondents. Having missed this statistical threshold, the data should be read as anecdotal; judge validity in light of the small data set.
Dr. Denry Machin is an educational consultant specialising in teacher training and new school start-ups. His book ‘International Schooling: The Teacher’s Guide’ can be accessed here.
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