The International Schools Review Forum

My wife and I are a teaching couple. I have four years' teaching experience (including two at an international school) and an advanced degree. She is about to complete her student teaching and graduate with honors. She's also fluent in Arabic. We each have three certifications here in the US.

Believe it or not, we're very interested in teaching the Gulf starting the summer of '15, particularly in Qatar, and even more particularly at the Qatar Foundation schools.(I've already read about "the incident".) My wife is a special education teacher, and she would really like to teach at Awsaj Academy, whereas I would like to teach at Qatar Academy Doha. A few questions for those in the know:

1. Would we be viable candidates? My wife's lack of full time experience and my lack of IB experience are drawbacks, but maybe my advanced degree and international experience, paired with her fluency in Arabic and outstanding recommendations would help. (?)
2. Are Awsaj and QA-D close to one another?
3. I've read that housing at Education City is difficult to come by. Would it be plausible to negotiate the necessity of housing at Education City as a part of our package?
4. It seems they don't have a salary scale/schedule. What would be a reasonable offer (for Qatar in general)? Can we counter-offer?
5. Is it unheard of for a teaching couple to be split between these schools, with one teaching at Awsaj and the other at QA-D?

Any insight here would be helpful and much appreciated!

From what I've heard:
1. Half half. You are around the minimum required, and your wife needs experience. Awsaj prefers experienced people and lately claims to be looking for non Americans to balance their teaching staff.
2. Pretty much next door, across the street, something like that.
3. Pretty much no.
4. For you, maybe 12,000. Your wife less. Not really room for negotiation. They do have some sort of a scale, it's just different than other places.
5. There are several couples who work at different places in Ed City.

Just an extra note. You seem to be wondering how much you can negotiate to get more than the standard offer. Fair enough, we all wonder. But the reality is that at this point in your careers, you really don't have much leverage. Give it a few more years, get some extra things on your CV that schools really want, and you might have a better chance. For now, you need to concentrate on just finding halfway decent positions. With your wife with no experience at all, this will require some effort or flexibility on your part.

I hope you don't have kids....

I wouldn't send mine to any of their schools.

Yeah, the kid thing's a kicker.......you can have an allowance to send them to other schools though. It's a GREAT benefit.
Personally, I think they might snap you up.

Thanks so much, folks! I really appreciate both the encouragement and straightforwardness. We don't have kids, which I know will make us more marketable. We've both lived in the Middle East (not the Gulf, though), and we feel we have a pretty good picture of what to expect as far as classroom management is concerned. If it's what we think it is, it's something we can handle, but not something we would ever put our own kids through in the future.

It seems that ECCH (I believe that's what the housing is called) probably wouldn't happen, then. What is alternative housing like? Is is a long commute?

What about administration? It seems like they err on the side of parents often, but are they professional?

Would they interview over Skype? We're with Search, and have tentative plans to attend a fair, but we'd break the bank doing it. If we need to go to a fair, any thoughts on which fair would be best? (We're looking at Cambridge and San Francisco.)

Is there usually a big turnover? I figure more vacancies would mean more of a chance of getting hired.

Any other schools in Doha we should consider?

Any other advice?

I am going to the ME and my school interviewed over Skype, and it seems to be more common for schools to work that way. A lot of what you are asking is very school-specific, however.

We had an offer from Qatar Academy Doha last year through Skype.
American School Doha has a strong reputation, from what I understand.

I teach at Awsaj. I sent you a pm. Email me if you would like more info. Noahbball@yahoo.com