Hi! I taught eikaiwa for a few years and have really enjoyed my time in Japan. To get a better job, I’m planning to return to my home country (USA), get either a teaching credential or Masters in Teaching with credential, and then teach high school STEM to get experience to teach at an international school back in Japan.
When I looked at hiring requirements for international schools, a masters is reccomended, but not required. However, I’ve heard that Japan is very competitive, so it’s probably best to get the masters even if it takes extra time. Does anyone have insight on this?
Thanks, and if there is any other advice for this path, please let me know!
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Just my two cents, but I think distance learning is a better way to get qualified, becasue you can keep working and networking whilst you study.
>When I looked at hiring requirements for international schools, a masters is reccomended, but not required. However, I’ve heard that Japan is very competitive, so it’s probably best to get the masters even if it takes extra time.
This is just my personal experience, but I’d say its true. The only thing that could potentially trump having a Masters is having work experience in an industry related to your subject. If you have both, you’re golden.
At my school, a Masters is _required_, and seems to be a big selling point of the school, on top of the fact that all teachers are trained/experienced overseas. Even our Japanese language teachers are Japanese returnees.
I’d consider looking into a Japanese masters program before you commit to one in America. If you don’t have aspirations outside Japan it might not be worth the massive cost difference.
I’m considering if I want to do a masters in education while in Japan due to the tuition cost being cheap
If your goal is international school, def get teaching certification and do your 2-3 years teaching at home before thinking about a masters. I have a masters in education but the international schools only want certified teachers with experience in their home countries.
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A teachers license is required to work at an international school. You can get one online at Moreland University.
A masters degree will definitely help and depending on the school, may be required to be competitive.
Experience is the linchpin. If all you have is ALT experience then yeah, go home and log some hours in the classroom. If you have actual teaching experience, then you can do all your prep work here while working.
To get a teaching job at a good international school in Japan you need experience teaching the IB programme. First get your teaching license and then see if there are schools near you that teach the IB. Get a few years teaching experience under your belt and then look to move to Japan.
It’s recommended. That means if you don’t have one, you have to have a rock solid resume with a ton of experience doing non-teaching school activities like being a national champion sports coach or you are able to run and maintain the school’s IT department.
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Bottom line, unless you are the high school Madden, you need a master’s degree.
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> Does anyone have insight on this?
Dunno about the US specifically but in Australia…
– Your ‘Master of Education’ is your initial teaching qualification unless you’ve done a Bachelor of Education. For example if you have a Bachelor of Science and wanna do science then you do a Master of Education (Science) in order to qualify yourself. Lotsa teachers have multiple masters degrees as you can knock them over in about a year (if you’re hard working) and teaching multiple subjects can make you more employable.
– Once you’re qualified, you’ve gotta get registered with a professional body in your jurisdiction so that you can teach. In my case I finished a Bachelor of Education and did an interview with my state’s Department of Education afterwards (after submitting my rego docs including forms, ID, a first aid certificate, police checks, a working with vulnerable people certificate…etc). They then registered me and gave me teaching number that I could give to schools when doing casual teaching.
– Afterwards I paid an annual fee and had to do various professional development activities (signed-off by more experienced teachers) so that I could keep my license and move up a few pay bumps.
Looking for teachers right now, and am having a hard time finding them.
Main prerequisite is a teaching licence, and then experience in the classroom as a teacher.
Masters in education wouldn’t be enough, especially if it was done as a distance course.
Only personal experience, but I’d advise getting the teaching licence.
Interesting and I wish you luck in your educational journey.
I was working in Japan while also getting a Master’s degree in education concentrating on EFL/ESL with an endorsement from the university (USA school). Even with experience and credentials, I didn’t see a huge increase in salary. I did also get a TESOL certificate out of Coursera from Arizona State University and for some reason all interviewing schools asked about that. Now I basically teach on the side and have a remote job at a company in America making educational materials. A lot of people have great advice here, I would like to see where this goes.