“One of these days you’ll stop this jet-setting, come back home and get a proper job.”
I doubt I’m the only international teacher who’s been told this. Around two years after moving overseas, I was visiting family and met a friend – also a teacher. He didn’t really understand why anyone would want to leave their home area. Suggestions such as “a challenge” or “a change” didn’t resonate. It would take five more years before he would be convinced that I had made a good decision.
As the first term of 2022 begins, international teachers are now in one of two positions. They have either committed themselves to their school for a further period of time or they have given notice. Given the burdens placed on international schools by the pandemic, the period of hiring has become protracted to ensure that new staff will be there for the start of the next academic year.
Teaching away from one’s passport country has changed since 2020. The ease of being able to get on a plane and return should something happen has now gone, as restrictions alter within hours. All international teachers have experienced it – being on coloured lists; watching situations change rapidly; missing time with family and other loved ones; and the reality of not being there during family emergencies due to restrictions in both countries.
Whilst international teaching is not seeing a Great Resignation, it is seeing a Great Reevaluation. In many cases, people are staying put – the unpredictable nature of change is increasing aversion to job switching and teachers are opting for the security of their existing posts.
“Whilst international teaching is not seeing a Great Resignation, it is seeing a Great Reevaluation.”
For those returning to their passport country, the experience, resilience, flexibility and openness to change all count for nothing if highly-qualified candidates are not able to land a position that reflects their talents and skills.
In many cases more than one person is affected by a return home: non-teaching spouses need to plan for their own return to work; schools and nurseries need to be found for children; tenants may need to be given notice, if a house is being rented out…the list continues. Unlike working for a large company, where the whole process is handled very much by HR, international teachers are much more on their own when it comes to repatriation or any kind of move.
“Highly-experienced international candidates are losing out because schools are unwilling to meet the demands of 2022.”
International schools are used to running a fully online recruitment process. Depending on the country, schools and educational bodies may still be parochial, with knowledge of the local area being preferred over international experience and knowledge.
Unless members of the governing body or school leadership team have experience of working internationally, they may have little insight into the kind of work you have been doing. Whilst some processes work at a national level, there is no approach to consider the skills and contribution of teachers returning from overseas.
“It all feels like ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ at the moment – we’re stuck in the Delta Quadrant and trying to find wormholes to get back.”
This then trickles down to opportunities for interviews and, like many, you’ll be willing to present online if it increases the chances of being shortlisted. Yet when it comes to the final rounds in particular, schools still want to have face-to-face interviews, meaning that highly-experienced international candidates are losing out because schools are unwilling to meet the demands of 2022 and realise that candidates will not just “jump on a plane” as before.
What should we do?
It all feels like an episode of “Star Trek: Voyager” at the moment – we’re stuck in the Delta Quadrant and trying to find wormholes to navigate our way back to the Alpha Quadrant/Earth that we remember. I’m always grateful for the time that my wife and I spent in her home country, where life can be more reactive and multi-active. Switching into a more international, cross-cultural mode can be helpful when navigating uncertain times.
- Leverage your connections: Be open about the fact that you are moving and where you are looking to move to. Whilst there are no guarantees and, as a recent CIS report noted, there are problems with access and equity, it is helpful to be open as those who know your character, skills and approach will be aware of opportunities that you are not. Being away from the immediacy of what is happening locally can be a deterrent to some, as much as it can be a preference to others.
- Use your time productively: If you see a job that looks suitable, contact them to see if they will consider an online interview. If they don’t respond or they reply ‘no’, don’t spend your time on an application. There’s nothing more disconcerting than completing an application only to get feedback that “overseas applicants will not be considered due to the nature of the interview process”.
- Step down, if necessary – then step back up: If the main goal is to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, then the job title and role are secondary. Ensuring you have a job to come home to may mean that if you have a leadership role overseas, stepping back into the classroom for a time until you find what you are looking for could be an option. A current colleague was head of school in Europe but was unable to find a similar role upon returning to his passport country. He taught secondary-level Maths in a purely classroom-based role for a year before returning to a comparable role.
- Treat the move like an international move: A return to your “home” area can feel you’ve never been away. People expect you to return to the familiar routines ‘just like you did before’. In reality, you’ve changed and moved on, and so has everyone else. Craig Storti, in his book “The Art Of Coming Home” talks about how those returning from overseas found a “normal” in moving to a different area of their passport country, as it was like an international move. They were having to do all of the things they were used to (making new friendships and networks, finding places to eat/visit etc) which made the transition much smoother.
- Everything will be the same, but different: Many of us have not seen family and friends for two or three years. What we remember won’t chime with reality. Friendship dynamics have changed; families have grown (and sadly, broken apart as well). People that we were previously close to may not have the same things in common with us any more. For our own wellbeing, it’s important that we celebrate the good parts and grieve the sad parts. Undoubtedly we’ll find out some items that happened soon after we left to go overseas but – as I can attest from personal experience – it’s not that people leave you out on purpose, they just forget.
Watch your wellbeing
Moving jobs and moving countries – even when returning to your own – both have an effect on wellbeing. There can be a temptation to spend every spare minute scouring job alerts, updating your LinkedIn profile and CV and writing applications. We work in jobs that have their fair share of stress as it is, and this isn’t going to help us get the position that we want. As teachers we seem to spend all day dispensing advice but find it very difficult to take it. What I’m learning as I go through this time of job seeking is that it’s about working smarter, not harder.
“As teachers we seem to spend all day dispensing advice but find it very difficult to take it.”
I remind myself that when I repatriated from Russia to the UK it was April before I got my next job, and that the head at the school where I had applied for another role passed my application to the CEO of the group, which also owns the school where I became deputy head. I found that my name had already been mentioned and my future head was already aware of me before I submitted my application. You never know what is happening in the background!
This article first appeared in the latest edition of Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine, out now.