EDDi XXVIII
December 2020 - Book Summary
International Schooling: The Teacher’s Guide
SECTION 4: WHAT YOU’LL EXPERIENCE ON YOUR JOURNEY
International schooling is varied and complex; a world of diversity and difference, poverty and privilege, contradiction and constant change.
Alongside the delightful children, the professional freedoms, and the potential of a better lifestyle, there is also the reality of teachers awkwardly struggling with culture, language and dislocation, of missteps and mistakes, and of homesickness.
This section of the book moves away from the schools themselves, looking instead at how international schooling might affect and change you.
The various chapters examine culture shock and reverse culture shock, the joys (and travails) of travelling with family, how to establish your ‘brand’ as an international schoolteacher, and how to manage uncertainty. The book also considers the issues you might face if, put bluntly, you are not a White, native-English speaker: not all international schools welcome diversity to the extent their mission statements might suggest.
Over final five chapters, the authors reveal what you’ll experience on your international journey – the good, the bad, and the occasionally ugly.
C17 -   Whether going or coming back, you’ll face culture shock
C18 - Â Â The joys (and travails) of travelling with family
C19 -   Where you’re from and where you’ve been: your career as a ‘brand’
C20 -Â Â Â Inclusive or exclusive? Tackling Diversity
C21 - Â Â Expect the unexpected: managing uncertainty
AVALIABLE VIA
Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository
Books A Million
DETAIL
International schooling is an adventure, not least because it is unpredictable. The curricula may appear familiar, and schools look pretty much the same the world over, but never forget the key variable which is guaranteed to upset all your precious assumptions – culture.
It is cultures and peoples which are not only unpredictable but often downright unfathomable. Tucked away in your home country, teaching to home country students, in your home country language, following a home country curricula, and fully immersed in your home country culture may be safe, familiar and warm but it is certainly no adventure.
This section of the book takes the reader through the key aspects of the international school adventure – both the unavoidable and that which ‘must be avoided at all costs’.
The authors explain the stages of not only culture shock, but also its often-overlooked evil twin – reverse culture shock.
Covered too are the joys, and nightmares, of being a working family of international school teachers; mum and dad both teaching in the school, while darling children benefit from (more or less free) education.
And so is the growing importance of the international schoolteacher as a brand. You may never have thought of yourself as a ‘brand’ but others will have, even if it is a subconscious association.
Examined too are the contentious issues of inclusivity and diversity. Just why inclusivity in education should still be contentious in the 21st century is really another book, but the reality is most international schools are not inclusive even if their website spiel tries to suggest otherwise.
And then, in the final chapter, the book introduces you to the ‘Black Swan’. But you’ve already met her. In the form of Covid-19. Just don’t imagine this is going to be the only Black Swan landing in your life as an international school teacher – this final chapter helps to prepare you for these unknowns.
International Schooling: The Teacher’s Guide
So, this is an brief overview of the book. We hope it has spurred you to discover more about the world of international schools – whether or not you are already firmly positioned in that world.
Because whatever you think you know about international schools, this book will add to that knowledge. And if you know little or nothing about this growing and increasingly important realm of education, be prepared to have your eyes, and mind, opened.
AVALIABLE VIA
Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository
Books A Million