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Tips for African Teachers Looking to Teach Abroad

May 28, 2023

If you’re an African teacher who is considering the idea of teaching abroad, I’ve gathered some valuable tips based on my own experience of studying, qualifying, and working overseas. These tips can help you navigate the process and increase your chances of securing a teaching position in a foreign country.

1. Teach English (TEFL/TESOL)

Interestingly, one of the easiest ways to teach abroad, particularly online, is to teach English. English is in high demand globally, especially in countries like Asia and the Middle East. You might be surprised at the opportunities available and the competitive compensation offered for teaching English.

Required Qualifications:

a) Bachelor’s Degree: Most employers require a bachelor’s degree in any subject.

b) TEFL/TESOL Certification: This certification demonstrates your ability to teach English. Many employers prefer a 120-hour TEFL certificate.

Tip: Be cautious when selecting an online TEFL certification. While there are numerous inexpensive options available, it’s advisable to invest in a reputable course that costs at least $100. Research the course thoroughly before enrolling.

2. Obtain a Teaching Qualification

While this may seem obvious, it’s important for individuals like myself who don’t come from a teaching background to acquire a teaching qualification. This could be a Teaching Methodology Course, a PGCE/PGDE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education), or an equivalent certification. These courses typically span one year.

Tip: If possible, consider completing your teaching qualification in South Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia. Having a certification from one of these countries can be advantageous, as I will explain later.

3. Be a Registered Teacher

Ensure that you are a fully recognized teacher in your home country according to the requirements set by your national teaching council or relevant authorities. Other countries will likely request proof of your teaching credentials from your home country.

4. Embrace the South African Advantage (with a Twist of Humor)

On a more lighthearted note, it’s worth mentioning that, for some reason, South Africa is often favored by many prominent international schools compared to other African countries. Being trained in South Africa can provide you with a significant advantage in the job market abroad.

5. Teach an International Curriculum

Most international schools follow international curricula rather than local ones. Therefore, they prefer candidates who have experience teaching an international curriculum.

The most popular international curricula include Cambridge, International Baccalaureate (IB), Edexcel, and Advanced Placement (AP). Most international schools seek teachers with at least two years of experience teaching an international curriculum.

Tip: Seek employment at schools in your home country that offer these international curricula. While the pay might not be as high, gaining experience and achieving excellent IGCSE or IB results will significantly enhance your chances of securing a teaching position abroad.

6. Register on International Job Boards

Sign up for international job boards that cater to teachers seeking opportunities abroad. These platforms can serve as valuable resources for finding teaching positions in foreign countries.

Two popular websites you can explore are tes.com and teacherhorizons.com, which have been instrumental in my own job search.

In conclusion, venturing into teaching abroad can be an exciting and rewarding experience for African teachers. By following these tips and conducting thorough research, you can increase your chances of finding suitable teaching opportunities in different parts of the world. Best of luck with your journey!

This article was submitted by a guest author and ISC member,
Chimwemwe Shaba
Email: chimwemweshaba@outlook.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chimwemweshaba

Chimwemwe Shaba is a holder of a Bachelor of Science in Computing. He is a Cambridge, Google and Microsoft certified ICT/Computer Science teacher with over five years of experience teaching international curricula at both primary and secondary school levels in multicultural learning institutions.

Discussion Topics

The Summer Vacation Dilemma: To Go Home or Not to Go Home

April 30, 2023

Summer vacation is the time of year all teachers are waiting for (and I suppose all students as well!). The 1.5 to 2 months of summer break is especially important though for teachers who work at international schools because it is typically when they take their annual trip back home to their native country. When you live in a foreign country, halfway across the world, it does indeed feel good to go home. Even though you do create a new ‘family’ when you live abroad with the other international school teachers that you are working with, your home is where your real family lives. Going home too can simply mean just going back to your home country, not necessarily going back to where you grew up.

There are some good reasons to go back home and maybe some things to consider first before making the decision to travel back to your home country during the summer:

• Some international school teachers make their annual trip home during their winter break. Those that do typically say that they already went home during the winter holiday and don’t plan on going back six months later during the summer months; that would be too soon to go back!

• You get to see your old friends from when you went to University maybe or people that you went to high school with. It is important to reconnect with old friends and acquaintances; Facebook still can’t compete with real face-to-face meetings with these people from your life. Also, you can tell them all about the adventures you have been on while they have been staying-put, most likely in the same city where they went to high school in.

• Speaking of talking about your adventures. Many family and friends from your home country actually don’t care very much about your adventures and traveling. Very few of my friends and family even bring up the topic, and when I do, they don’t seem to be showing much interest in hearing the details. Maybe it is not so interesting to them because traveling around the world and seeing more than 6-8 countries a year is just something they can’t relate to. They also want to share what they have been up to, just like you, so I suppose there should be a bit of give and take to try and understand each other’s very different lives.

• If you go to your home country during the summer, you get to stock up on all your favorite products from your old life. Many international school teachers love to go to their favorite grocery stores to stock up on all the products not available in their host country supermarkets. Be careful though, food products weigh a lot and can easily make your suitcase go over the allowed weight on your flight back!

• You get to see your nieces and nephews in person, noticing how they are getting so much older now and all grown up. You can do things with them like taking them to the movies or for a few games of bowling. The years past by so fast and soon they will be adults and possibly off to university!

• The price of flights and plane tickets to your home country are just unbelievably high now. Many of us without a flight benefit just literally can’t afford to buy plane tickets home. Sure, at some schools, the school pays for your flight home each summer. But, not all international school teachers are as lucky. In many international schools in Western Europe, teachers are left to pay for their annual flight home themselves. And if you have two children in your family, your total cost has just gone from $2500 for two people to $5000 for four people. That amount is just not a feasible amount to pay for a trip for some international school teaching couples. Even with the annual flight allowance, you might have already used that allowance for your winter break trip home.

• Some international school teachers just want to stay put in their host country during the summer. Some feel you don’t have the time to really explore the city, the nearby cities, and the other cities in the country during the school year. And in the northern hemisphere, summer is the best time typically to explore these countries.

• Some teachers also just simply stay put to save money!! We all need to carefully plan for our future (hopefully early) retirements!

• A month-long trip to Africa or a month-long trip to the Chicago area? A question you might be asking yourself in April. Some are faced with this international school educator’s dilemma each summer. For many international school teachers, the price of the flight to go home is actually the same price it would take to go to more exotic places like Kenya or Costa Rica, or even Bali. Who would want to go home (a place you have seen many times already) in place of going on an exciting adventure? Many choose the adventure option each summer!

When some of International School Community’s members were asked the question: “To go home or not to go home?” Here are a few responses we got:

“Choosing to go ‘home’ over the summer is always a tough decision. I usually head back to see friends and family. It feels really good to reconnect with the people you don’t see every day and your own culture. After about 10 days though, I am ready to head back to my other ‘home’ or my next adventure.”

“Absolutely go home! First of all, many schools will pay for your ticket home during the holidays, but more importantly, is the idea that one needs a “home base” when doing these international teaching assignments. There is a real feeling of refreshment when one goes home, it regenerates your sense of self, everything is familiar to you, and you regain the energy needed to face another year of the ‘unknown’. On a side note, this year, I will not be able to ‘go home’ as I am too pregnant to travel back and forth before my second baby is born…and I’m already feeling the stress of it. Although, I know it is well worth it to stay in Brazil this time around….I feel a slight sense of panic every time I think of it.”

At Brent International School Manila, one ISC member said, “Many teachers leave on major holidays, most to other locations in South East Asia. During summer almost all teachers travel home.”

At theUnited World College South East Asia, another ISC member said, “Most teachers travel during school holidays. Singapore is an amazing hub from which to travel to all other Asian cities/countries. Many staff travel home during summer and for Christmas.”

At the American School of Torreon, a different ISC member said, “It is expensive to travel home for the holidays. The airport is small and prices are high. Traveling by bus is also time-consuming and long.”

So, are you planning on going home this summer? Are you the international school teacher that makes their annual trip home each summer, the one that stays in the host country, or the one that is traveling to another country on some adventure? Share your stories and reasons for your summer plans on ISC!

Information for Members

24000 Members Milestone: 25% off Subscriptions and Renewals!

October 1, 2022

It is a time of celebration for International School Community as we now have over 24000 members on our website!

To celebrate our 24000+ members, all members can get 25% off of all premium membership subscriptions from 1 – 7 October, 2022 (ending 23:59 PST on 7 Oct, 2022).

The 25% off coupon code is: OKT2225O

Even if you are a member with Premium Membership already right now, you can still add more premium membership during this promotion. Just login to our website and go to the Manage Subscription page, choose the membership option that you’d like and then enter this coupon code (OKT2225O). Next click on the Make a Payment button to pay either with your PayPal account or without logging in to PayPal and just paying with your credit card.

Once you have premium membership access, please take this time to submit some comments on the schools you know about on our website. For every 10 comments you submit, your account will automatically be updated with one free month of premium membership. There is no limit, too. So if you submit 40 comments, then you will get four months of premium membership added to your account for free!

International School Community’s website launched back in February 2011. When our first newsletter came out in May 2011, we only had 49 members! On average, we have been getting over 300-400 people signing up to become new members each month. We hope this trend continues! The more members we have, the more people you have to network with.

International School Community’s goal is to be the largest online community for international schools educators. Our website provides a useful, informative and celebratory environment for networking with other international school teachers and learning about different international schools around the world.

We created a website that would highlight the ins and outs of working at international schools (the benefits, the school itself, the city and travel information, etc.).

Another major goal of this website is to provide experienced teachers the platform to share what they know so that prospective and seasoned international school teachers can make more informed decisions as they venture out to a new international school. Making connections and gathering information about international schools in our community has never been easier! Whether you are looking to make new friends, network with other international school teachers or learn more about the wonderful world of teaching at international schools, International School Community is the place to be.

We want members to provide real information that is specific; information that is related to all the different topics we need to know about before signing a contract. International School Community offers up-to-date information in a highly organized, easy-to-use manner.

We also offer a vast amount of information and links related to the world of teaching at international schools and education in general via our blog.

You can search our vast collection of international school profile pages to find that specific international school you want to know about. You can also search our member profiles and be able to find a contact to send a private message to so that you can get firsthand information about a school that member has worked at.

While the focus of the site is to serve the international school teaching community by providing real and useful information about international schools, we have specifically organized our website to promote our members to leave comments and information that are useful for everyone. Enjoy being an active member of our website!

We strive to have the largest collection of resources and services for the international teaching community. International School Community really wants to take writing reviews and comments about international schools to the next level.

Here are what some of our current members are saying about International School Community:

“It’s really useful…it’s a really good way to find out practical info about schools when you’re looking for jobs. If you are interested in particular schools, you can just contact any member from that school to find out insider info! It’s also good if you just want to find out what life is like for teachers in other cities! Really unique idea!” (An international teacher in China)

“International School Community is a great resource for international school teachers. Whether you are doing research for a new job, or just connecting with other teachers, this site is has a plethora of great information. I especially love that this site has a positive feel to it, rather than a place for teachers to vent. I really recommend registering to be a part of this great idea.” (An international teacher in South Korea)

“You have an amazingly wonderful website and seeing these comments is extremely helpful to me.” (A teacher looking to teach abroad at international schools)

“I am very impressed for a website to take the time to do this. You have a great resource that I certainly could have used when I first set off overseas teaching in 1998!! The site works well and it is nice to get a good background on almost every school I’d wish to work in. You are doing a fantastic job with your website, keep it up!” (A veteran international school teacher)

“I truly love being an international educator and researching and comparing schools, as well as discovering great schools that aren’t as well-known. I am grateful for ISC having a platform that makes it all so easy.” (Another veteran international school teacher)

Comment Topic Highlight

Back to School Initiatives and New Demands: Welcoming or Stressful?

September 18, 2022

Every school year, a school always goes through some new changes or simply experiences new things that the staff is now required to do or complete. The changes could be related to the school’s curriculum, some new professional development based on new initiatives, new building procedures (like fire drills), new mandatory training (like child protection), etc.

For many things (like ones actually dictated by the host country), they are mandatory and the admin simply just needs to fit those required things into their yearly meeting schedule. Combine those required things with the other things and initiatives that a school wants to do, it can make for a sometimes stressful school year for the staff (and admin!). Furthermore, balancing these new things with your normal planning work and actually teaching students can prove to be very challenging.

So what are some of these new initiatives that international schools are focusing on in recent years?

A number of international schools are having their staff work with the Managebac program. There are 97+ comments related to Managebac on our website.

It’s also fairly certain that your school is now or will very soon be going through an accreditation. ISC has 525+ total comments related to school accreditation on 351 international schools at the moment.

With regards to curriculum, it appears that a number of schools are doing training with the Common Core curriculum. There are 45 comments that are about the different schools taking on this in recent years.

There are also 49 comments on IB training. 200 comments on different workshops going on in 149+ international schools.

And the list goes on…

What is a possible plan then for balancing all of these newly added things so that staff and admin don’t get too overwhelmed? As one ISC member wrote about working at United Nations International School (Vietnam), “the [needs to be a] conscious adoption of a “less is more” ethos.”

Luckily, International School Community has a comment topic on our school profile pages related to this topic of new things added at a school. Our members can share what current international schools are doing in this topic. There are a total of 1007 comments (Sept. 2022) that have been submitted by our veteran international school teachers in one of the 68 comment topics called – “Recent things that the school has taken on (i.e. new curriculum, specific professional development, etc.).”

Here are a few of those submitted comments:

“The use of Kagan cooperative structures is the focus for this year. The entire faculty had 2 days of training before the commencement of the school year with another session upcoming later in the year. The goal being student engagement. Most of the faculty have been receptive and are already using the structures in their classrooms…” – Seoul Foreign School (Seoul, South Korea) – 231 Total Comments

“The school just finished a multi-year curriculum initiative designed to put the entire Pre-K through 12th-grade curriculum documents onto Rubicon Atlas. The school seems to focus most on literacy in the Lower School, innovation and design in the Middle School, and IB/AP in the Upper School. School-wide, there is a focus on Differentiated Instruction, but this takes different forms in different divisions. There is a new Head of School coming in for the 2018-2019 school year…” – American School of Paris (Paris, France) – 68 Comments

“The administration said they care more about kids learning English and Maths rather than any other subjects. What makes the school unique, seems independent of what they are pursuing; bring more local students no matter what their academic level is…” – Changchun American International School (Changchun, China) – 168 Total Comments

“Professional development this year has included IBDP two-day Category 3 in-school workshops on the Extended Essay and Theory of Knowledge. All staff also completed a Stewards of Children online course and a one-day first aid and CPR course…” – Tsukuba International School (Tsukuba, Japan) – 58 Comments

“The school has offered, over the past two years, very little in terms of professional development. There has been talk of a curriculum change to the Cambridge Primary Curriculum for September 2018…” – Cambridge School Doha (Doha, Qatar) – 85 Comments

“The school is just setting up a Professional Learning Centre to improve instruction and practice at the school first. The school has designated professional learning time on Friday afternoons and encourages professional development…” – YK Pao School (Shanghai, China) – 61 Comments

Ten Commandments of Relocating Overseas

Ten Commandments of Relocating Overseas #1: Learn as much as possible about…

August 14, 2022

Learn as much as possible about the host country in order to have realistic expectations.

How much can you learn about a host country before you arrive? Yes, thank goodness for the internet and its endless (and sometimes tiresome) list of websites that try and shed light on the many facets of the host country’s culture and language.

A type of website that might be the most informative: personal blogs of expats that live in the host country. Certainly, they are the best type of website to gather information about the host country. The blogger typically is very explicit and candid about their day-to-day experiences living there. Personal blogs of international teachers are even better. I love reading from their entries even before they arrive in their new country to when they have been there three years later. Some of the international teacher blogs that we have highlighted on International School Community so far:

• Education Rickshaw (China)

• Expat Heather (South Korea)

• Josefino Rivera (Bulgaria)

But I must say that I knew close to nothing about the country I am currently in, and the people from where I am from knew even less. Sometimes you just got to go there yourself to see about the culture and language of the host country’s people. When I go home now, I am inundated with questions about what life is like there…and some of the questions are really unbelievable (but I was once in their shoes I’m sure).

I think it is hard to get away from the stereotypes that we have about each culture group in the world. The issue is, as we all know, that the stereotype might actually be true for the majority of the people in the host country. However, it is NOT true for EVERYONE in the country. You cannot group everyone in one culture group together. I just read recently that due to the Danish cultural norms Danes don’t try and make good friends with people that they work with. I’m sure that there are a few Danes that hang out with their co-workers outside of work and call them their best friends.

Realistic expectations? This will take some good research I think. Every time I go to a new location, one of the things I do is buy the latest Lonely Planet for that country/city. For sure after reading a bit of that travel book I can have my expectations be a tiny be more realistic, if not even make them a bit more exciting. I don’t know about you though, but I am quite sensitive to culture shock. So, even if I have realistic expectations and am ready to expect the unexpected, I am still subjected to embarrassing mood swings about the things that in theory I had already expected. One of the joys of living abroad I suppose. By the way, I subscribe to the idea of cherishing all emotions: the good and the not-so-good.

Last thing that I know about how to find out the most I can about my future host country: talk to people that currently work at the school. Not the administrator, the human resources department, etc…the real people that work there who will really tell you how it is. I’ve always received a few contact email addresses of some teachers that I can contact during the summer. I have even had a Skype call with one of them which really helped I think get my expectations to be a little more realistic. It is key to talk to people and gather as much information as possible.

This article was submitted by a guest author and ISC member.

Right now on International School Community you can get in contact with a number of our members who know about more than 1300+ international schools, and the list of schools our members know about is growing!