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Reflections on Half a Century in International Education

By Dave Randall
ISS Senior Leadership Executive, Governed Schools/Administrative Searches

s with most people, Covid has restricted our to see if there were teaching opportunities. The school and Japan and we accepted the latter in an excellent
Amovements and kept us pretty much home bound. year had already begun, but she checked and, sure school in Tokyo. No interviews and no reference checks.
One of the advantages of this is that there has been a enough, there was need for a grade 9 science teacher That launched two careers in education. We stayed in
great deal of time for reflection. In June, my wife Jo for which she had no expertise nor training. One of the Tokyo for two years and then wanderlust struck again.
Alice and I noted that we were finishing 50 years of interview questions was “Can you boil water?” This was A year of hitchhiking in Asia led to another accidental
involvement in international education. A multitude of a time when there were teacher shortages – especially encounter and job offers, including HOS, at a small
memories and experiences were recalled as we reflected in urban areas. She began teaching and I tried to keep school in Sumatra. Two years there and the birth of
on how fortunate we have been to be part of this very my head above water with Mandarin. After 14 months, our daughter were followed by a year of travel in the
special community. it became obvious that my lack of advance thought had US and then two years of graduate school and then nine
taken me down a path that was not being successful. I more international schools – three of which were one
While it is tempting to share many of those memories, it became a grad school dropout. Actually, I saved face by year interim positions. And for the past ten years I have
might be more worthwhile to share personal perceptions taking a leave of absence. It was October and I needed a been blessed to work with ISS.
on what has changed and improved in that half century. job. At the same time, I was offered a position in a local
It should be noted that what follows is entirely personal middle school. Again, no teacher training. That may help provide background for the following
impressions. There has been no research and, thus, no positive changes that I feel have occurred.
empirical data to support what is written here. Likewise,
it does not purport to represent views of International
Schools Services (ISS) or my colleagues there. This is Qui alit quianda consed mi, Recruiting and Hiring
entirely one person’s view of the positive changes in our si con possiminus autas et
community over the past fifty years. ipsandi reptiost, cumquae. Today, neither of us would be hired – either in New
Haven where we started nor in Tokyo. We had no
Perhaps a bit of personal background would help. I have Paruptatum porepta qualifications. In fact, we interviewed with ISS in 1968
been blessed to have my wife, Jo Alice, be an education and, for obvious reasons, ISS was not interested. We
partner. Neither of us studied to be teachers nor had were just lucky that teachers were in short supply and
any intention of being teachers. She studied social work So we had become teachers in an accidental way. the tools for effective recruiting were not yet in place.
and I studied economics. We were married a year after We still had wanderlust and I harbored a thought that Today’s candidates are well prepared and experienced.
college and, like many in the 1960’s, went to California to maybe if I were in a Chinese speaking environment, it They are far superior to what we could offer. There has
seek “fame and fortune”. would “click”. There was no shortage of naivete on my been a debate for years whether teaching was an art or a
science. Because I had none of the science, I was in the
After a year, wanderlust hit and we set off for a year of part. In the library we had found a handbook of overseas art camp. I thought I had become a pretty good teacher
hitchhiking around Europe and North Africa. We returned schools. We decided to write to all of those in Asia. For until I became a principal and needed to evaluate other
to the US and by genuine fluke I enrolled in an Asian those who remember, we wrote 44 aerogrammes. We teachers. I quickly learned that my teaching was pretty
Studies program with no advance thought as to what recall that we heard back from about 20 - mostly form mediocre compared to what well trained and skilled
that meant. In October, Jo Alice joined me and decided rejections. However, we were offered positions in Laos teachers were doing in their classrooms. Teachers

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