The International Schools Review Forum

SO excited and wanted to share. It is in a N. African country that starts with a T. Not much info about the country here but the school has good reviews on the paid site.

Has anyone lived in North Africa?

Congrats! Not to be a downer but I would do a lot of research on the country before committing to this school and going there. I believe that there is still a state of emergency there and current travel advisories in effect by the State Dept.

Those may not be deal breakers for you but they would be (or at least significant factors) for many people. A job is great but when the euphoria dies down a bit, really weigh the risks and rewards in the cold light of day.

@joanveronica

I strongly concur with @WT123 regarding the region and locality. You really have some research ahead of you. However, I would not weigh to heavily the DOS warnings and travel advisories, they make everywhere appear unsafe, and if you heeded their advise in the strictest sense youd never go anywhere.

Good advice. In addition to reading news reports, we spoke to teachers/parents and even met a few students as part of our research. The risks were evaluated and decision made. Will continue to monitor the situation--but for now we are learning French and Arabic :)

Congratulations! It's one less thing to think of and worry about. :)

Good luck with that: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ ... 2-08-43-15

I never lived in Tunisia but I spent 4 weeks there. Fantastic! Great country: sahara, history, Roman ruins, Arab/French food, cafes.

Lucky you.

Is this really necessary? The OP already stated that she's going to take the position. If you have nothing positive to say, then read the post and move on.

EllieSLP wrote:
> Is this really necessary? The OP already stated that she's going to take
> the position. If you have nothing positive to say, then read the post and
> move on.

Oh, please. I have been around long enough to see that so many teachers are so thrilled to take their first job and then they get to their school and they are horrified by the school, the city/country, etc. I wish everyone did their own thorough research, but they don't, so if she is so excited about it and did her research and knows everything that is going on, great. Good for her. I wish her the best. But, if she is like a lot of new teachers, she didn't do enough research, in which case, she may want to reflect a bit more before jumping into a country that is in a very rough neighborhood these days.

I had a friend who decided to jump into overseas teaching. Went to a job fair. I told him, before you take an offer, let me know what's up. Friend said he wanted to work in country X. I told him about the schools I would consider decent to work at. Next thing I know friend contacts me a few weeks later - I'm so excited, I'm going to country Y! Oh, what school? School Z. I didn't have the heart to tell him that his dream and his reality were going to be very different. I did make some allusions about reality and adjustment which just sailed over his head. He left after a year and has sworn off international teaching.

On to T - lovely country, I have friends from there who go back regularly. Like anywhere in the world, bad things can happen, but it IS a lovely place. It sounds like there will be a support network in place and that the school is aware of reality (unlike some where teachers had to stay and admin left during an emergency!).

Good luck joanveronica. If it doesn't pan out as you hoped, remember, there are many many more schools in the world!

Fair points. We took our first overseas jobs after going to a job fair and walking out with positions in Egypt, which had not been on our radar at all.

Everyone we knew was in shock and it didn't help that there was one of the first bombings in Cairo right after we accepted the positions. We went and really enjoyed as a short term gig which led to our getting jobs in Japan. I would never consider taking positions in places like that again at this point in my life but the world is a big place and offers different opportunities for different people.

Best of luck to the OP.

I concur with @SJ and @reisgio, this site wouldnt exist without the 'culture shock' phenomenon. Theres always a cycle of enchantment aggression, regression and acceptance. The factors that make a difference between a successful IT and an unsuccessful IT are the individuals personal disposition and how long those intermediary stages last.

I would further support @reisgios claims that an IS and its personnel has a significant determining factor on the outcome and process of navigating culture shock. Recruiters oversell their ISs and downplay the negatives setting a new IT and family up for failure when expectations created by the IS are nowhere congruent with each other.

shadowjack wrote:
On to T - lovely country, I have friends from there who go back regularly.
> Like anywhere in the world, bad things can happen, but it IS a lovely
> place. It sounds like there will be a support network in place and that the
> school is aware of reality (unlike some where teachers had to stay and
> admin left during an emergency!).

Any clues as to where that was? Sounds like a place I want to avoid for, like, ever...

MartElla,

the admin at that school is no longer there. The longer you are around as an IT you realize that even though things appear to stay the same, flux is everywhere and nothing really stays the same.

Leadership doesnt have the influence on IS life as many assume, its ownership that determines what an ISs ethos is gong to be. Leadership can leave, but if ownership appoints more of the same than the status-quo persists.

Change is a constant, but in IE change tends to be polarizing, either large changes that are easily observed (uncommon) and small trivial changes (many) that you have to really be paying attention and know the pulse of the IS to notice (common).