Following on from our ‘top ten tips of things to consider when thinking of teaching abroad’, this week we focus on the problem of culture shock, and look at strategies to help make the transition into your new life overseas a smooth one.

As you may have heard us mention before, working overseas and moving away from your comfort zone is one of the big adventures, and it can be a real eye opener. It’s a chance to meet a completely new set of colleagues, make new friends, experience a different culture and become part of another community. Hopefully you’ll also get the chance to explore a different part of the world, too. Of course it’s also the start of another journey you’ll share with your students.

‘Culture shock’ however is a completely normal part of the process of adapting to a new environment. That sense of confusion and anxiety, of not knowing how things work, or even of not knowing what behaviour is or isn’t appropriate, can seem quite debilitating.

Experts writing about the ‘expatriate experience’ report that after an initial ‘honeymoon period’, when everything is new and the possibilities seem endless, culture shock, perhaps taking the form of homesickness or even depression, can set in.

Fortunately there are coping strategies to help make the transition into your new overseas life – and ‘cultural adaptation’ – run smoothly and enjoyably. Here are just a few of them.

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Walking, skiing, water-sports, amazing beaches and a beautiful countryside of contrast and extremes, New Zealand has plenty to boast about. We spoke to Bernie Feehan, manager of the Eteach New Zealand office in Wellington, about living and working in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

What’s the big attraction of New Zealand for UK early childhood educators looking to work overseas?

New Zealand has a unique appeal based on its location as one of the most isolated westernised countries in the world. It is a land of contrast – from beautiful sandy beaches to snow capped mountains, from large cities to small rural communities, and from modern sophistication to old world charm. There are two main islands, the north island and the south island, which are very different.

The north island has the largest population and the largest city Auckland which is the major business centre of the country. The capital city is Wellington, at the bottom of the north island, home to the government and its many departments and civil servants. Despite this, Wellington is regularly referred to as the culture and the cafe city of New Zealand. The coffee here is fantastic!

The south island features rugged mountains and beautiful scenery and is the main area of the adventure tourism industry; it offers a huge range of outdoor activities from outstanding skiing, to bungy jumping and jet boating. It’s been likened to a combination of parts of the Scottish highlands and parts of Switzerland. Large parts of the film trilogy ‘Lord of the Rings’ were filmed on and around these mountain ranges and there are some excellent tours that run to these locations.

New Zealand has a first class education system and is a world leader in early childhood education with its Te Whariki national curriculum. This is an outstanding, set curriculum highlighting activities and outcomes for the 0-5 age group, and there are excellent opportunities for UK trained candidates to work within it. This link will take you directly to the informative Ministry of Education website, and you can download a PDF about Te Whariki here (494 kb).

New Zealand also enjoys a safe and secure living environment and has a healthy culture of sporting, outdoor, cultural and artistic events. No matter what type of leisure activities you enjoy, you’re likely to find them readily available in New Zealand.

What do you think is the value for teachers of taking on an early childhood education post in New Zealand?

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Eteach attended the 30^th annual Council of British International Schools’ (COBIS) Conference in May. Continuing her earlier piece, Gerry Manolas reports on a programme to raise self-esteem through rugby, on moves to develop children’s safety awareness when using social network sites and on the ‘My World’ network and learning models for international collaboration. She also links to video interviews recorded around the conference by international students.

As I mentioned at the end of the last piece, one of my personal highlights of the conference was meeting England Rugby player Andy Gomarsall and finding out more about his programme to raise self-esteem and develop leadership skills through sport, and especially rugby.

“Sport can certainly play an important part in triggering increased focus, learning, and in some cases improved behaviour, organisation and attitude in the classroom,” says Andy.

Through his work with children he has created a Visual Success Map which promotes the use of parents and coaches as mentors, allows a visual representation of an individual’s progress and illustrates the steps towards achieving their goals in all areas of life.

This would be of real relevance to any school looking for new and innovative methods to develop leadership, communication, organisation, focus and self-belief.

E-safety – making informed choices

An area for concern in all schools these days is that of e-safety – not only for students, but also for staff. This issue has been right at the forefront of discussions in education recently (see previous Eteach blog here).

Kate Valentine’s seminar introduced us to a scheme that is being promoted across the UK called ‘Safe’. Safe has been developed by DigitalMe with support from Childnet International, the I in Online and Radiowaves. Safe is a new programme of practical activities to develop primary children’s skills, self-confidence and safety awareness when using social network sites.

Social networking and sharing content online has become an integral part of young people’s lives. It provides many opportunities to develop creative and communication skills in ways that are relevant to them, in school and at home.

However, with these new opportunities come new choices, and Safe can help children make positive and informed choices when creating and sharing online.

By completing the Safe programme, which consists of easy to deliver, practical activities to develop pupils’ safety awareness and digital literacy skills, pupils will gain a Safe certificate as evidence of their learning. They also get access to Radiowaves, the free child-friendly social network for schools. There’s more about Radiowaves below.

Supporting materials and teacher guides are available to download and the programme gives primary schools a framework to help pupils develop as active and ‘Safe’ digital citizens. Safe is free to use in schools and easy to join.

To sign up to Safe, click here and follow the link ‘sign up’. Email for further information or ring 0113 2469989.

Radiowaves develops digital skills

Radiowaves is the leading online community for young people aged 5-19, enabling them to publish their videos, podcasts and blogs safely and easily. It also allows schools and groups working with young people to get all the creative and learning benefits of social media in a simple and safe way. With their own Radiowaves website, schools can create multi-media stories, join national campaigns and easily develop pupils’ digital literacy skills.

Radiowaves has a good track record in innovation, having won a BETT award in 2004. Since then, the community has grown to over 40,000 members in 30 countries. Partnerships with Parliament’s Education Service, Imperial War Museum and British Council have helped grow the community and provide unique opportunities for members.

With 50,000+ stories already online, Radiowaves is the place to hear what young people are saying. To join this safe, child-friendly social networking site for young people go to www.radiowaves.co.uk/join for your free school networking site.

Radiowaves has been working closely with DigitalMe to develop the My World network and learning models for international collaboration, funded by the British Council’s Youth in Action fund. These projects allow young people to safely use social media to connect and collaborate, to share stories about their lives and to debate the issues facing all young people today, no matter where they are.

View online interviews from COBIS

You can take a look at the Radiowaves network here – it’s bursting with international news and activities. You’ll find student blogs, and audio and video interviews filed from the COBIS conference by students from the British School of Paris from this link, including interviews with Andy Gomarsall MBE, Nick Gibb MP, COBIS Chairman Dr Roger Fry and others.

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Eteach caught up with Mary Langford, Deputy Executive Director of the European Council of International Schools (ECIS), to find out why the organisation is such a leading player in the world of international education and to learn more about its events, professional development programmes and its significance for anyone considering a career working overseas.

Firstly, could you explain what ECIS is and what it actually does?

To paraphrase our mission statement, ECIS is the leading collaborative global membership organisation that promotes and supports the ideals and best practices of international education.

ECIS is unique in that it has over 30 professional committees, consisting of volunteers from member schools who are at the coal face of current practice and pedagogical development.

They keep us informed and recommend important innovations in their particular area that we should highlight, such as potential topics, speakers and workshop trainers. They also source and supply articles for our publications. ECIS school membership supports everyone in the school; senior leaders (heads and directors, board members and proprietors, business managers, advancement directors); class, subject and specialist teachers (for example, ESL/Mother Tongue, ICT, Librarians, SEN, Science) and support staff such as Administrative Assistants, ICT Technology Directors, etc. The range of professional development activities is comprehensive.

We also have Affiliate Members representing other organisations and NGOs (such as the International Award Association, University of Cambridge International Examinations and Eteach International) involved in the delivery of international education or training and supporting members who are suppliers of other services to international schools (such as Follett International, Pearson Education and Sodexo). Individuals may also join ECIS and use many of these services.

While access to the professional development programmes is the focus of membership, we always hear from our members that it is the fantastic ECIS network of like-minded professionals that they most appreciate. When conferences are planned, the location and the cultural amenities that international educators may experience are part of the equation. The collective wisdom and experience of the ECIS membership is impressive.

What are the main benefits of membership for schools, organisations and individuals?

The main benefit is access to ECIS conferences, certificate programmes, benchmarking statistical survey and the opportunity to benefit from our strategic partnerships through our Affiliate and Supporting Memberships. An example of this is the newly launched ECIS iTunes U with Apple Computer, which enables members to access and interact with online courses and presentations.

ECIS also publishes IS Magazine, the International Schools Journal (ISJ) – now in its 30th year and highly regarded by researchers in the field of international education – and the Effective Series with books on a range of topics relevant to international schools.

ECIS Fellowships make financial grants available to educators doing research. The most recent project was the design of a generic International Individual Education Plan (IIEP) for international schools with students with special needs, that can be downloaded for free from our website.

There is an ECIS Outreach Grant for students working in worthy projects promoting community service learning, and the Peter Ustinov Fellowship granted through ECIS similarly is awarded to students working in projects that break down barriers of prejudice. We also offer international awards for adults and students to honour their ‘international mindedness’ and contributions to international education and international schools.

Could you tell us about some of the events you organise?

Our major conferences are the first that come to mind. The November conference is aimed at teachers and administrators and held in a different European city each year. They attract up to 2000 participants from all over the world and feature inspiring keynote speakers such as Professor Sugata Mitra. He’s an Indian professor, now at Newcastle University, whose famous ‘Hole in the wall’ longitudinal research project, installed computers in the slums and villages of India and other impoverished settings and sheds light on how students evolve as independent learners. Professor Mitra was the inspiration for the story behind Slumdog Millionaire. In addition to keynote speakers, there are approximately 240 workshops offered over the course of the three days.

Our April conference is for the senior leadership of our schools and attracts about 600 participants. This is for heads, boards and governors, business managers, development directors and even spouses (a sometimes lonely and challenging role in the school community). This year we had several keynote speakers, including Dr Kyung Hee Kim, a Korean professor of education at The College of William and Mary in Virginia. Her ground-breaking empirical research has changed what we know about diagnosing and nurturing creativity in children and was the feature cover story for Newsweek Magazine last summer. Dr. Kim told us she had turned down invitations to appear on CNN and Oprah Winfrey’s show, but was keen to come to ECIS to speak to international educational leaders!

These major ECIS conferences feature pre-conference workshops offered by organisations such as the Global Issues Network, Martin Skelton and his team at Fieldwork Education, amongst other major players in the field of international education.

Our subject committees also organise their own specific conferences that attract up to 400-500 participants. Especially popular are Librarians, or ESL/Mother Tongue that feature top speakers and workshop leaders, such as the ever-popular Jim Cummins from University of Toronto at ESL or the English Poet Laureate Children’s Poet Michael Rosen at the Early Childhood Conference.

Please tell us about some of your certificate programmes, and in particular your International Teaching Certificate, which is currently open for enrolments.

ECIS has responded in recent years to recommendations from our members to develop more sustained ongoing professional development opportunities, and here we have been strengthened by our collaborative partnerships. With Fieldwork Education and the National Association of Head teachers, we have developed the International Leadership and Management Program (ILMP) for senior school leaders. The Sustainable International Governance Diploma Program (SISG) is a fresh and dynamic approach for training those people responsible for the strategic oversight of the school. Unlike previous programmes that have tended to draw heavily on ‘national’ governance models, the SISG reflects the diversity that characterises our member schools.

Diversity means in terms of nationality and culture of the governing body, diversity in ownership models such as state-funded, not-for-profit, and for-profit schools (the biggest growth sector in the international schools market), diversity in terms of size and student population, or new schools and well-established schools. Our collaboration here has been with the London Business School and IMD in Switzerland, top business schools that provide speakers for our SISG modules who help to attract key international school governance stakeholders to our programme.

The International Teacher Certificate is a blended professional development programme that ECIS has developed in partnership with University of Cambridge International Examinations, who are the independent examiners. It seeks to take experienced teachers and challenges them to become more internationally-minded, reflective practitioners. The ITC’s merit is being recognised by universities in the UK, USA and Australia which offer master’s credit for the ITC, by AdvancED – a US accrediting agency that regards the ITC as teacher certification for their overseas teachers, and most recently by the International Baccalaureate who have made it a pathway to the IB Level 1 Teacher Award. The ITC is the only non-university pathway to the IBL1, and is one of four institutions in the world authorised to prepare teachers for the IB Primary Years Programme, IB Middle Years Programme. There are still places available for the next ITC – there’s more information and an application form on our website here.

To read the rest of Mary’s interview, come back in a few days when we will be posting part two …

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Eteach had the pleasure of attending the 30th Annual COBIS conference from the 7th – 9th May 2011. ‘Stakeholders for Successful International Schools’ was held at the very impressive Royal Horseguards Hotel in Central London and we were very excited to be exhibiting in such beautiful Victorian surroundings.

The COBIS conference gave us the opportunity to talk to head teachers of British International schools about their current recruitment strategies and needs. Many of the schools that we spoke to were in agreement that their ideal International teacher would be one who has trained in the UK and has a minimum of 2 years classroom experience. A positive international attitude to life, a passion for travel and teachers who could offer more than just their subject to the school were also high up on the list.

International Account Manager at Eteach, Gerry Manolas, was extremely fortunate to be able to attend several of the keynote speeches and seminars whilst at the conference. She found all of the talks to be highly informative and gave head teachers the latest up to-date developments in the UK education system.

The main issue that dominated the conference was the discussion around school inspection and which teams have now been, or are in the process of being accredited by the government. Only schools that have passed a recognised inspection are allowed to be fully fledged members of COBIS, thus ensuring a quality mark that parents can trust when choosing a school abroad for their children.

This mark is also something that prospective teachers should look for when deciding where to teach as it gives them the confidence that the school they may eventually join follows strict COBIS guidelines for quality assurance.

Howard Kennedy, Non-Executive Director of the Foundation, Aided Schools and Academies National Association was the first speaker and he outlined the current government’s plans for raising standards in State schools and trying to close the gap between deprivation and attainment.

The talk focussed around the fact that, unfortunately, there is still a link between postcode and what a child’s educational outcome will be. The association wants to make a curriculum which is ‘Fit for Purpose’ where children can achieve regardless of their background and where only the best graduates are recruited to become teachers.

The hot topic was the developing idea of student teachers completing the majority of their degree courses in Teaching Schools. The teaching schools would be selected from those who have received outstanding results across the board in their Ofsted inspections. It is hoped that a network of these schools will be created which will provide professional development to teachers as well.

Do you as teachers and current student teachers agree with this or do you feel the courses you have experienced through university prepared you for life in the classroom?

This was all backed up by Nick Gibb, Minister for Education who in his session said that one of the greatest exports we have in the UK is the Independent Education System with £12 billion being brought into this country by overseas students studying here in the UK. Mr Gibb wants to give the state sector more independence to do what is best for their schools and children in order for them to raise standards and he also believes that the Academies and Free Schools programme is the way forward.

Are you teaching in one of these schools? Can you see a difference and do you feel it is the way forward for your pupil’s attainment?

Over the coming weeks we will be bringing you other highlights from the COBIS Conference including information about SEN and Gifted and Talented, Safeguarding Children, Developing Leadership Skills through Sport and Safe Student Broadcasting, which was a new initiative about making children aware of how to keep themselves safe when using Social networking sites.

What were Gerry’s personal highlights? Having the opportunity to have coffee with the England Rugby World Cup scrum half Andy Gomarsall and listen to his plans for life after his testimonial year and saying a brief hello to HRH Princess Alexandra KG GCVO as she left the reception.

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