Hiring the right teachers for your school is probably the most important task a principal has. Before hiring a candidate, you need to find out how well they’ll fit into the culture of your school as well as the area you’re based in. This can be difficult in a short interview but asking the right questions can make all the difference.
If you don’t ask questions that will give you insight into how the teacher will fit in and behave at your school, you risk hiring people who will cause problems with other staff members and give your school a bad reputation. However, you also need to mix these questions in with ones revolving around their skills and teaching style to ensure that they’re properly qualified for your position.
Foreign teacher interview guide
Culture and language barrier questions
How do you handle culture and language-related challenges in the workplace?
Variations:
If they have taught overseas before: Please give me an example of a time where you had to overcome cultural and language differences while living and working abroad.
If they haven’t taught overseas before: Tell me about a time when you helped someone who didn’t speak English. What did they need help with, and how did you help them?
How have you prepared yourself for the cultural differences you’re going to experience in your new school?
Variations:
If they have taught overseas before: Tell me about a time you experienced culture shock in an overseas workplace. How did you prepare for and handle that type of feeling?
If they haven’t taught overseas before: Tell me how you plan on handling cultural differences between yourself and your future students and coworkers.
Classroom management skill questions
Can you provide examples of how you have dealt with classroom management challenges in the past?
Variations:
If they have taught overseas before: How have you had to adapt your classroom management strategies abroad?
If they haven’t taught overseas before: How do you reward students who are behaving well and doing their work? How do you deal with students who are rowdy and aren’t listening?
Problem solver/starter questions
Can you provide examples of how you have dealt with problems with coworkers in the past? (Especially problems that arose between people of different backgrounds.)
Variations:
If they have taught overseas before: Have you ever experienced problems with coworkers while teaching abroad? What were they and how did you fix them?
If they haven’t taught overseas before: Tell me about a time where you and a coworker did not get along. Why did this happen, and how did it get resolved?
If they haven’t ever taught before: How do you see yourself managing student behavior in your classroom? Use examples of times you’ve had to discipline or reward others for their behavior.
Motivation questions
What are your reasons for wanting to teach abroad and why did you choose this school and this location?
Variations:
If they have taught overseas before: What made you decide to teach abroad initially? Why are you changing schools?
If they haven’t taught overseas before: Why have you decided to move abroad to teach? Why do you think you’ll be a good fit at our school?
Why asking these questions is important
These questions deal with culture fit and emotional intelligence; whenever necessary, ask the candidate to provide examples to support their answers. Of course, you’ll still want to include questions specific to subject matter and teaching techniques relevant to the age group and subjects they teach.
You’ll be able to find out what the teacher’s intentions are, how long they might want to stay at your school, and how they will deal with the change in culture.
There are many people out there who want to teach abroad, but not all of them are teachers that you’d want in your school.
Get in touch with us if you need help hiring great teachers for your school, and we’ll be happy to discuss our services!
