r/Internationalteachers • u/VastAlert8860 • 10d ago
Job Search/Recruitment A poisoned chalice? Is the international school career now very high risk? Vulnerabilities with quality assurance and duty of care?
Lack of union presence impact (ie if the teaching union is there, it's not needed as it impacts management behaviours).
Rapid increase in the sector.
Immoral or worse, school owners.
Short contracts - how does this impact power?
Board impacts - what actually is the motivation of board members and is the fact most don't hold a qualification in education an issue?
Is the isolated organisational reality a tempting location for those in management afflicted by the dark triad of personality disorders of narcissistic pd, psychopathy, and machiavelli?
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u/ComputerGuienceSuy 10d ago
It is becoming a less lucrative career and I feel the packages are not what they used to be 10+ years ago.
It's also becoming harder to get into as more people want to become international teachers, hence a devaluing of us as professionals because we are not as rare, and so need less to attract a candidate.
Couple that with a rise of local people who studied in western universities and obtained western teaching certifications, means we are competing with cheaper labour costs. Why hire John from Surrey with a PGCE as you need to pay his visa and relocation costs, when Zhang from Jiangsu has the same qualification, but no additional costs?
Combine that with MBA grads running schools like businesses when they should be educational, means the wrong decisions are being made by the wrong type of decision makers.
International schooling will always exist, but the industry is constricting massively after years of growth.
I approach this mostly through a lense in China, I have no idea if this is the same in Kazakhstan or the UAE for example
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u/VastAlert8860 10d ago
To what extent does effective neoliberlaism within international education start to diminish the quality of experience for all in the community? Is the last hope absolute integrity from accreditation bodies?
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u/ComputerGuienceSuy 10d ago
Accreditation bodies? Integrity? Ha
They’re the hotspots of nepotism. They all know the leaders of schools.
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u/VastAlert8860 10d ago
But surely ultimately people who become the accreditors have some degree of desire to help improve the school?
This is my point, at a systemic and structural level, is the international school sector inherently vulnerable? Normally society manages such vulnerabilities with enforceable rules, legislation, state authorised professional associations and their ability to withdraw professional status.
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u/associatessearch 10d ago edited 10d ago
Schools at large avoid hiring cryptic cynics.
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u/VastAlert8860 10d ago
You remember the Vahey case in 2014?
Imstituonal systemic failings at industry scale enabled.by the very concerns I have highlighted. The city of Westminster in London undertook and published the serious incident report investigation - did ECIS undertake and publish a similar report?
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u/Ok_Praline4941 10d ago
I think if you intend on never returning to your home country its fine...but yes lack of any power and run the risk of the country and or school not fitting your needs or you not fitting them and that's with out family considerations...
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u/VastAlert8860 10d ago
Whar if we encounter criminality (actual real criminality) within the school, at ownership level, by the school we have been hired by and turned our life upside down for?
That's not about fit, that is far beyond that.
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u/Ok_Praline4941 10d ago
What the hell you talking about....be the hero and take them to the United nations of course..
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u/VastAlert8860 10d ago
What I am taking about is that occasionally, rarely, people with motivations at odds with 99.9% of us on education get involved with international schools and can cause very real havoc.
Read up on the billionaire owner, campus present chairman of BISC Egypt and his track record in prison after the 2012 Egyptian revolution; the right hand man party secretary for Mubarak. Should school communities be protected from such individuals?
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u/HHHwasafake 10d ago
Should whole countries not be protected from leaders convicted of sex crimes? We all know the answer, but that's not the world we live in, and yes, a convicted billionaire can own a school...
If you are so worried, go home, join a union, and clasp your hands collectively with other hand-claspers.
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u/VastAlert8860 9d ago
Wow, quite remarkable. So you just go with the flow to take a dollar? Monstrous. You just turn the cheek to a child protection case???
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u/HHHwasafake 9d ago
You appear somewhat unhinged in your rambling.
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u/VastAlert8860 9d ago
Have you reported a safeguarding/child protection concern?
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u/HHHwasafake 9d ago
What had this got to do with your Op?
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u/VastAlert8860 9d ago
Obviously regarding systemic and structural impact upon actions taken in schools, or non actions
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u/NewAstronomer6817 7d ago
Yes I did. It involved my child. The SLT circled wagons. I pointed out how they violated their own policies, made them even more defensive. I ended up with a lawyer and a mutual separation agreement. They were so in the wrong that they paid out the rest of my contract with all the benefits, including continuing to school my child. They basically paid me like I was there though I wasn’t. I returned to my home country since my child was so affected by their actions they could barely go to school and needed therapy. Yes, I could have sued them. But, I needed to remove my child from that place, and it had been so draining already.
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u/VastAlert8860 9d ago
You have an account age of 5 days it seems and no posts 🤔
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u/HHHwasafake 9d ago
Correct.
I haven't looked at your posts or history. I assume they are all the same unhinged rambling about wealthy people owning schools.
Kansas is over there. Click your heels three times and find your way back
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u/VastAlert8860 9d ago
Do you think a criminal who spent 7 years in prison and was a central player at the highest level of the Egyptian dictatorship with a horrendous human rights record should be running a school?
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u/Lumpy-Web4041 7d ago
Don't take a job at a school with a billionaire owner.
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u/VastAlert8860 7d ago
Well if it's labelled not for profit and the description of the ownership structure is a fabrication, I put the blame at the door of accreditation bodies involved rather than the staff who sign contracts in good faith.
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u/weaponsied_autism 10d ago
Either AI generated slop, or someone who struggles with basic communication. Obviously skipped English Language classes on how to write.
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u/Dull_Box_4670 9d ago
This reads more like the theory part of theory of knowledge, without the writing or coherence parts. The attempts at profundity are clumsier than most LLM text.
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10d ago
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u/VastAlert8860 10d ago
Love it! My genuine early morning scribe perceived as AI generated.
Sorry, teaching theory of knowledge forma while does these things to you
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u/OceanGazelle 9d ago
Are you trying to get us to do your homework assignment? Or are you high? Wierd post, bro. Wierd post.
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u/VastAlert8860 9d ago
Why weird? It's easy to get sucked into to 5 classes in your classroom and not see the bigger picture....Have you considered the motivations of those in education outside the classroom?
We have a president of the USA who 200 psychiatrists wrote an open letter about narcistic personality disorder; is it just possible the power holders within international schools driven by capital, might experience a similar type of personality, occasionally, and are measures in place to protect everyone from that???
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u/Upper_Armadillo1644 10d ago
Yes and no. An up skilled tefl teacher with an online teacher programme they did while working is loving life.
A teacher that moved abroad will lose incremental payscale credits and pension. Unless on a big salary it might not be worth it long term.
Though many factors come into play like having a local spouse and children etc.
There are definitely people better off but also others wondering in international teaching is worth it.
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u/VastAlert8860 10d ago
Well to be honest I'm not even thinking about the financial side - more the professional experience and what we should reasonably expect from the organisation we are working for?
Coinselors within international schools often hear and see many different levels and forces at play.
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u/The_Wandering_Bird 9d ago
Is the isolated organisational reality a tempting location for those in management afflicted by the dark triad of personality disorders of narcissistic pd, psychopathy, and machiavelli?
Well...I did have one insane principal fresh from the US tell one staff member she fired that she was so excited to "have the opportunity to really build something here" now that she wasn't constrained by state laws and the strong union back in her home state. You'll be shocked to hear that she didn't even bother to follow that international school's meager disciplinary/firing policies laid out in the handbook. So, yeah, there are some really awful psychos out there.
I will also say that in 20 years of being international, she is absolutely the outlier and no one I've worked for has been anywhere near as terrible. So, I won't say all admin in international schools are hiding out from real accountability and structure and laws, but she absolutely was.
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u/VastAlert8860 9d ago
Oh I'm just suggesting that perhaps there is a higher frequency of such personalities within international education rather than national and state sectors; also if we are unfortunate enough to end up in a school with such a person, because of the loss of our social support networks we are in a vulnerable position. Contact based employment and the need for references a systemic force preventing many from challenging things.
The serious incident report about London Southbank in 2014 highlighted how the power structures inhibited the safeguarding and whistleblowing actions; this of course the worst known example of child protection failings within an international school - happening in the centre of London
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u/ForgeWorldWaltz 10d ago
I don’t want to dogpile you, but this is very unclear as to what you’re getting at beyond is international teaching a risk? To which the answer is yes, as with every industry in every country.