For educators thirsty to experience life in different countries, there are overseas teaching-exchange opportunities.
One such programme is the Visiting International Faculty (VIF), which has 168 South African educators currently teaching in the United States (US) this academic year. VIF was started in 1987 and has a total of 1 800 teachers from across the world working in the US and 60 in the United Kingdom (UK). The programme covers costs from airfares to accommodation and subsistence.
‘VIF is dedicated to educational excellence and to promoting international understanding by exposing students, educators and members of host communities to the world beyond their borders. VIF teachers participate for a maximum of three years, then return home to put their experiences and enhanced teaching skills to work in their schools and communities, contributing to the development of South Africa,” says VIF’s Ned Glascock.
Karin Beharie, a South African mathematics teacher in the programme, says ‘This has been a wonderful learning experience for me and there are many other teachers on the programme who share this view. There is no doubt that this kind of programme can only enrich our teaching in South Africa. Such programmes can be encouraged by constant positive feedback from cultural ambassadors, like VIF teachers,” she adds.
Schools in the US are eager to have South African teachers, ‘in part because a significant percentage of their students are African-American,” says Glascock. ‘There is no better way to bring to life the heritage, history and cultures from a vital part of Africa than through an exchange teacher.”
Teachers in the programme are selected from more than 40 countries, from Argentina, Australia and Jamaica to Malta and Venezuela.
Other opportunities are offered through the Fulbright teacher exchange programme, which has been in existence for 50 years. Each academic year four South African educators go off to teach in the US and four American counterparts come to teach in local schools.
The programme’s executive director Riana Coetsee, says ‘Over the past two years the programme has gone from strength to strength. Not only has the selection process been linked to the Department of Education’s National Teachers Awards, but the number of grants has also increased from two to four per year.”
There are other spinoffs which are not to do with the actual experience the teachers gain. For example, one teacher on the programme came back with a donation of 20 computers for his school in KwaZulu-Natal, while a Free State school received a donation of 000 to purchase computers after its principal spent six weeks teaching in the US.
Bheki Mdluli, a history teacher and one of last year’s Fulbright grant recipients, says ‘What was exciting about my stay there is that I was teaching learners of different cultures who did not group themselves racially. I was also impressed how learners went out to get information on their own and their ability to work independently generally.”
Mdluli was also struck by how well-resourced and organised the schools are in the US. ‘Learners there were surprised when I told them that in South Africa most learners struggle to get a decent education,” Mdluli says.
For those wanting a taste of a radically different culture – where even the alphabet is different – there is the Japan Exchange and Teaching (Jet) programme . Established in 1987, the programme started with 848 participants from four countries. By 2000 Jet had 6 078 participants from 39 countries. Most recruited teachers are placed as language teachers and their stay in Japan is for one year.
Qualities like a passion for teaching, a willingness to go the extra mile for learners, a minimum of three-years teaching experience and a sound qualification are among those necessary to get accepted into teacher-exchange programmes.