The International Schools Review Forum

I am presently a school principal in the US and am single. I have 20 years of elementary and middle school experience, but have never served at an international school. I really want to work in Africa beginning in 2013. Should I look more at pursuing a teaching position, or would my 11 years of administrative experience allow me to pursue a school director's position even though it has all been in the US?

You don't have to start as a teacher, you have more then ample administration experience to enter the IS market. Your lack of IS and IB experience thou will probably mean you have to go down a few levels to an assistant principal or coordinator position first. It would be unusual to hire a head or principal with no international/independent (private) school experience.
Last year Search started a leadership fair, and they have a number of schools in Africa, but there are only a few. You could do the search without an agency, since yours is so focused, but Search would make it a little more convenient. You will have to do a lot of the work on your own, mainly forming a list of schools in Africa and then visiting their websites HR pages frequently.

You don't mention how many years you've been a principal. I've seen some top notch international schools hire people straight from the States, with varying degrees of success. If you are prepared to be flexible and appreciate ways international schools are different from home, instead of expecting to make them like "at home" - you'll be fine.

Many schools in Africa would jump at the chance to hire an experienced principal. If the location is not one of the top desired ones, schools will get you any PYP/MYP training you might need. If you're a good leader, that's all academic and you can quickly be up to speed. You can get an overview on the IBO website.

You mentioned seeking a post as a director (supertintendent). That is much harder to break into for a) principals inexperienced in international schools and b) those with elementary backgrounds. There is still the perception that old white guys who've been in high schools are best at leading schools.

This is an exciting lifestyle - good luck on your job hunt! (By the way, admin positions start getting posted in the summer and as the dominoes fall, can get posted as late as spring for the following fall.)

Thanks for your responses. I am going into my 9th year of being a principal and was an assistant principal for 2 years before that.

I don't necessarily need to seek a director's position (the one at the International School of Kigali does interest me), but I began searching too late last year and had few opportunities.

Lastly, I saw that some administrative openings were posted on the SA website, but the closing dates were several months ago. Does this mean they have extended the search or they found someone and didn't remove the posting?

It could mean all kinds of things. They could still be looking or they forget to remove the posting. The only way to find out is to contact them.