10 Questions to ask at an International Teaching Job Interview

Must-ask questions to ensure you are heading to the right school for you.

This article can be downloaded as an easy-to-read pdf for easy reference for free here.

Contents

1. Why your questions are the most important part of any interview

2. The 10 questions and their value

3. What to do with the answers

1. Why your questions are the most important part of any interview

Though interviews can traditionally be thought of as your chance to impress and build rapport with the school, it’s important that we also view it as a chance for the school to sell itself to us.

Specifically for BAME teachers, we have 3 questions to ask at an international teaching job interview as a BAME teacher and invite you to read those following this article.

Professional expectations teach us to believe that we’ll be given all the critical information during the interview, but why leave this to chance? Basic information will often be volunteered during an interview, but it is all too easy to forget a critical piece of information.

Here is a breakdown of why your questions are the most important:

1. They prove that you are taking the interview and potential role at the school seriously, not simply as a point of curiosity. This advice is often offered by recruitment agencies, especially during recruitment fairs where interviews are easier to secure.
   
2. You can ensure that key topics which are important to your experience at the school are made clear and discussed deeply to support making your decision.
   
3. Preparing questions can raise your confidence for an interview and subsequently improve your self-presentation. This is because the overall dynamic shifts power into your hands as you have a focus and are more critical during the exchange.
   
4. Your questions are part of your personality — demonstrate to the interviewer what your priorities are, hopefully making it easier for both of you to decide whether the school is a good fit for you and vice-versa.
   
5. Asking meaningful and professionally expected questions can set the bar for the relationships you have with the leadership team if you win the position.

2. The 10 questions

It is important to state that for all the questions below, you want to ask for specific answers and examples when receiving a response. Vague answers can be a bad sign, especially where they do not provide an opportunity to clarify later i.e ‘I will try and email you about that once I double-check’.

The questions do not need to be used in this exact form but represent 10 major areas that may lead to revealing conversations.

1. Is it possible to be put in direct contact with teachers currently at the school?
A basic question to have deeper and more revealing conversations with members of staff with experience of the school in its current form.

2. What are the contracted contact hours for this role as a percentage of the hours per week?
Though many international schools advertise things such as 50% contact time, this is not always honoured and is more difficult to challenge once there. Establish the expected workload during the interview.

3. What hours are teachers expected to be present at school? Is it possible to arrive and leave based on your timetable assuming all responsibilities are met?
With the advent of remote learning, many schools have taken a more progressive view of teachers’ ability to work from home. Establish if your school has, or is considering this option.

4. Are there any out-of-hours requirements or contracted weekend work? For example, how are parent-teacher conferences carried out?
Some schools will have expectations of work on Saturdays on a regular basis, and it is critical to establish this from the start — especially for teachers who hope to take short trips on weekends as part of their international adventure.

5. What are the expectations regarding the provision of lesson plans and schemes of work?
If it is not familiar to you, moving to a school which may expect weekly lesson plans or whole-year schemes of work provided in advance, can be a brutal shock. Ensure you establish expectations as part of your expectations of the workload.

6. At what time of year are we expected to detail our intention to renew or end our contract? OR At what time of year does the school inform us of their intention to renew our contract or release us?
It is not abnormal for schools to request your intentions as early as October (in the Sept-June school year schools). There should also be an expectation that as much notice will be given by them also to ensure you have a fair opportunity to secure new work and make plans to move.

7. What union representation is active at the school – Does the school have a Equity-adjacent coordinator or committee?
Union representation is and should be a staple for any teacher in any school. The school should be able to let you know if there is a union, staff liaison, or Equity-adjacent coordination in the school and the organisations/legal precedent which operates in the country; though they cannot advise who and if you join.

8. What pension program does the school pay into? Is it possible to pay into a scheme/company I am currently with?
Managing your pension when you have worked in several different countries around the world can be challenging. As part of the interview, find out what the school’s pension program is to ensure that you can maintain and add to your pension while working there.

9. What is staff turnover at the school and why?
A strong and targeted question which is not unexpected by most experienced schools. The key point here is their awareness of the experiences of members of staff and also whether they are doing anything to improve or maintain the situation.

10. What is the relationship between parents and teachers at the school and how is it maintained?
The presence of a Parent Association or activities like coffee mornings and parent-led events are staples of positive school communities. Find out your school’s approach to this as it may present many positive possibilities.

BONUS QUESTIONS!

11. How are students selected for the school?
Exams, interviews (basically the discretion of the SLT) or a system of trial days and teacher and student feedback? The attitude toward the growth of the school community is a critical concept when trying to get an understanding of the current culture at the school.

12. What is the potential for upwards movement based on settling in and integrating successfully into the school?
Further from the turnover question, if you are at a point in your career where you are keen on development and movement, ask whether this is a realistic expectation. Established schools may have SLT and Department heads which are unlikely to change in the near future and thus may be a consideration for whether the school is right for you.

3. What to do with the answers

Hopefully some of the questions above resonated with you, they will support learning about your school in a meaningful way. But we must remember to be critical. The responses to the questions and the reality are unlikely to perfectly align. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions above but consider how the responses make you feel and try to paint the bigger picture. Read deeply into the answers and, if you reach this point, thoroughly read your contract before signing. You want to build a response to the question ‘is this school and location right for me?’.

I wish you the best of luck and would love to hear any critical questions you always ask to support your research into potential roles.

*Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic. For the purposes of these articles, I have opted to use the term BAME in order to encompass the people who are most greatly affected by the challenges addressed. I also use terms such as ‘global majority’ and ‘people of colour’ but for the sake of familiarity in a British context and the focus on the experiences of people whose teaching careers have been situated in Europe and the West where White Caucasian is the majority, I felt that BAME was most applicable. Not all people identify with this label and I do not see it as the definitive or only option but it is my chosen term for this context.