mom, Teacher, advocate: My roles in international education
Being a teacher on the international scene is interesting, exhausting, rewarding, enlightening, and maddening. I have had the opportunity to be in a few different contexts now in schools of varying abilities to meet the needs of all students and in countries that core values may be in conflict at times with my own. While developing in my growth as an educator I have also been a parent to three children in both international and US schools. Mosly in the international system. I also have done this with children with exceptionalities which has caused the advocate title to become more and more an equal part of my identity to that of mom and teacher. Some countires have made it easy for my son to get a good education and focus on teacher adaptation to the students in their room. The school that served him the best though and has been our gold standard, would also have been unlikely to admit him had he been diagnosed prior to our arrival at the school. Now that we know a diagnosis the pool of countries that we know we can go to and have quality inclusive education gets smaller and smaller.
What has been most frustrating and surprising is my son is diagnosed with something that around 20% of children in the US actually struggle with. Dyslexia, which on the spectrum of needed intervention from the school is quite low. So it boggles the mind that easy accommodations and modifications are too much to ask, and that makes me even more aware of how large the percentage of children is that are left out and behind each year. Being at international schools means people with means and money and power. If their children are not even allowed to be admitted for a chance to be served by some of the most expensive institutions in the world, it makes you think how much then, are we failing our children without the access and the privilege of parents that have money, power, and time to advocate for them?
Sadly I know what makes a place a “top” school in the eyes of the general public, and that is all in the quantitative data. Who has the best scores, the highest grades/A levels, most AP, and best college admissions name attached to their titles? Success is not viewed in the growth of students, it is not in helping to build mindful citizens and consumers, it is not in teaching how to communicate and analyze, and create new solutions. “Success” often ignores all those important pieces and therefore leaves behind a large possible student body that would allow for depth, creativity, diveresity, and growth for all students.
As a family, we have turned away positions that were the correct fit for my husband and me in our careers but not for our children. If the country we are looking into does not have an English-speaking school that values students as people but instead prefers good-looking numbers, it’s an automatic no. This means contacting schools two years before we intend on moving which means being contact with several levels of teachers, administration, and parents before we even consider a move, this has made our family a red-flag for some schools as they worry why we would contact them so early, rather than consider their own record on inclusion and equity. However, for myself as a teacher/mom/advocate that reluctance to consider or speak to us also speaks volumes to the school culture and expectations on the inclusivity of the school and what they value in their students.
As I learn what a school will and will not count as successful, I too will readjust my own willingness to become a part of that institution. I have power as an educator that is well trained, well-meaning, and well-connected and I am only going to bring my skills to a school that matches my beliefs moving forward. If a school would take me on, but not my child then they will never have a chance to see my resume on their pile or have my money in their pocket. While the load on what is expected of teachers is already quite heavy- that title of “the advocate” is increasingly becoming one that is an added burden, but one I am happy to add to my title.
