The International Schools Review Forum

I am a certified teacher (Social Studies 5-12, Gifted K-12, TOK and CAS coordinator) with a family looking for opportunities in IE starting 2018-2019 after I complete my EdD in leadership. My wife is a native of a former Soviet republic (now US citizen with state certification in ESL and English) and we are raising our young children bilingually. We are completing SA applications right now and getting excited about the possibilities that await. I believe I've done due diligence by scouring both free and member forums and reviews and have a couple questions about how realistic our options are.

1) My wife is an excellent and experienced educator with great evaluations, yet she is concerned that her accent and native country are liabilities for the kinds of schools in which we hope to teach. Of course, I believe her accent is slight as I'm used to it but it is clear she is not a native speaker. How will this impact our search and in what ways might this impact how local staff view her as a professional?
2) I don't have admin certification, yet hope to get into leadership positions eventually. I've read posts about DC certification as a possibility but I'm thinking about how my terminal degree without the formal certification might work for possibilities for leadership in the future. Basically, how futile is it to expect opportunities for advancement in good IE schools without the paper?
3) I'm a returned Peace Corps volunteer and don't require the highest levels of maintaining an expat lifestyle. Where in the former Soviet Union might exist the best combination of the big desires I see pop up here often (family , savings, reputation of school, etc.)? I've seen the Tier 1 list floating around for eastern Europe (none listed in the -stans though we are open to schools with good reputations) and thinking of how much mental space I can devote to the idea of hitting one of these as a first-timer.
4) Finally, I have IB experience as a TOK teacher and CAS coordinator but wondering about the limitations of not having specific discipline experience and how amenable schools are hiring with intent of gaining specific training as needed.

Thank you for those who contribute time and energy to this site for those of us who have lurked for years and use this info to make massive decisions for ourselves and our loved ones!

Quick Edit: Forgot to Mention Years of Experience

Me: Peace Corps-2 years and US-11 years total (middle school social studies 5 years, G & T (6 years), TOK/CAS (6 years)
Wife: Home country-8 years, certified US-6 years

The former USSR schools are actually a great starting point. There are decent schools in some of those places (Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Azerbaijan in particular), but they don't make the Tier 1 lists because the countries are often not high on the desirable list for most people and the pay is average rather than great. These schools often come with some issues (again why they don't make the lists) ranging from funding to incompetent leadership. However, you have excellent opportunities for resume growth in schools like this. If you are halfway decent, you can get a leadership role --HOD, coordinator of something, etc.--without any credentials pretty quickly, especially given your experience. You might be taking on a fair bit of work, but you can say you oversaw the MYP accreditation process or something else that sounds good and will later transfer to a leadership role in a "tier 1" school should you decide not to stay where you are. Given your TOK coordinator role, this is even more likely.

Things are different in the Baltics.

So to answer your questions:

1) Probably not an issue at the schools you are targeting. Might be, but probably not. Of course, the degree of her accent is a factor, but I have worked with teachers from all over, many of whom don't have English as their first language. All of them speak very well, but of course with varying accents. It hasn't seemed to hinder any of them personally or professionally on any level. Naturally I am speaking in terms of job hunting and can't speak to the culture of a country or of a specific school. My experience has been in Western Europe, though, so take that for what it's worth.

2) Not at all futile, though of course it really really depends! If you have reasonably quick access to some sort of credential, though, go ahead and do it if you can. That said, you already have a leg up on many with your CAS and particularly your TOK roles.

3) Your chances are fantastic in the Stans and G/A/A. Your chances are pretty good (depending on openings) in the Baltics, Ukraine, and Russia. Your chances are fair at Tier 1 and decently good at Tier 2 in Eastern Europe. Your chances are much slimmer at the best schools (AIS Budapest, for example), but not outside the realm of possibilities. However, if you like a particular school, it's worth the effort to apply; sometimes they might remember you and see that you have grown professionally since your last try in a way that helps your chances.

4) That really depends on the needs of the school and things like your references and non-teaching resume. A DP History (or some other course) training might really help you more than it would the average person, depending on how you leverage it. As to gaining training, it also depends on the school budget (PD should be discussed at your interview), but having a goal in mind with your PD (beyond "I want to go to the conference in Barcelona for the weekend) is always a good strategy and appealing to schools. Try to read the recruiter on what leadership roles might be available in the future and try to tailor your responses to how that would fit with your PD plan. Having a PD plan for filling content knowledge might work, but mostly you can get the content knowledge over the summer if you know how to teach and are reasonably familiar with the course. It never hurts to look through the IB materials on the website (thus my comment that a DP course might help you--at least SEEM like you know what you are doing so you can study it over the summer properly after you land the job).

Hope that makes sense. I am pretty tired. Good luck!

@Thames Pirate Thank you so much for the comprehensive response--I'm more encouraged than when I posted! I've read reviews on here and am trying to take them in the spirit in which they're written, but would be interested in general (or specific within the rules of this forum) experiences and impressions of working in these countries. I've read the varied impressions of QSI schools and hope to hear of more organizations from you and others. Again, thank you!