Hi, so I’m currently a 3rd year university student studying secondary education and arts (majoring lit and jp). My end goal is to ultimately teach at an international school in Japan, I understand how competitive it is to get a contract signed so I’m planning to start applying while still teaching in my home country (Australia). I heard that they prefer people with at least 2-3 years of experience, but I’ve also been told it doesn’t guarantee a spot (esp since I’m looking to teach literature). Do you have any advice on what could boost my chances in getting recognition from international schools? Should I get my masters while teaching?
Thank you in advance!
3 comments
My advice: look to polish your resume for international teaching, not for Japan and not for EFL (unless you want to go into EFL at some point in your career, which is fine but not highly sought after by international schools). If you focus too narrowly on making it into Japan, you will do your career and experiences a great disservice.
To this end, develop expertise and proficiency at home. Become an excellent classroom teacher and offer something else besides conducting lessons (e.g. curriculum development, assessment design, cultivating leadership, etc.) Share your interests and hobbies with the students – run clubs or other student groups, and be a leader or mentor to other teachers. Aim to be an educator, not just to be in Japan. Australia has a great educator training programme; an Australian teaching licence is a great starting point.
Accredited international schools in Japan are something like 90% IB, so getting IB experience at home would be a huge boost. Even some of the private Japanese schools with an international flavor offer the IB, so getting IB experience would help cast your net a little wider.
Of course with teaching internationally there are many other opportunities, especially within EFL (as you noted, Lit is not a particularly in-demand subject internationally), so if coming to Japan is a priority then you could consider EFL, but being the best educator you could be would open more opportunities outside of Japan, which could make you more attractive to Japan in the long run.
>prefer people with at least 2-3 years of experience, but I’ve also been told it doesn’t guarantee a spot (esp since I’m looking to teach literature)…Should I get my **masters** while teaching?
To teach Lit in a [*bona fide* international school in Japan](https://www.jcis.jp/) you will need at the least a master’s in ed, three years experience, and teacher-of-the-year type of references. Basically, there is such a massive oversupply of Lit/English teachers trying to work at legit international schools here you might as well be striving for a job as as a Japanese astronaut.
#AIN’T. GONNA. HAPPEN.
The best you can do to make it “happen” is to gain stellar experience on your curriculum vitæ and cross-train as a certified STEM teacher or an athletics coach.
_____
*Full disclosure:* Even with an M.Ed. in both 1) English Comp and 2) Linguistics from UCLA
in addition to an Bachelor’s from Keio, I’ve been waiting for a full time job at the American School Tokyo for three years working as a substitute eng*R*ish teacher.
To my myself more “hireable,” I acquired online a Secondary Ed. cert in Biology. Doubling down, now I am working on coaching certification just to make sure I have a microscopic chance of ever being hired.
International teacher here and just landed a job in a school in Japan for next year. Big thing is that getting into Japan is tough, as you know, but if teaching is what you want to do then don’t limit yourself to Japan first go around. My first gig in international teaching is Hong Kong which allowed me to get international experience and IB Diploma experience and made me more desirable.
If you see Japan as long term plan, it just may take longer to get there.
Good luck!