My first teaching position was as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1978 while I was working on my Master's in Anthropology. A few years later I was a teaching associate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. I eventually received a Ph.D. in anthropology from Cal specializing in cross-cultural education.

Instead of becoming a professional anthropologist, I entered California State, Hayward, and received a teaching credential. My first job was teaching sixth grade in Rancho School in Novato, California. I spent two educational years at Rancho learning about how to teach children. It was a tremendous difference from my experiences teaching anthropology to undergraduates - much closer to my four months of substitute teaching in Orleans, California while I was doing fieldwork for my Ph.D.

While I was at Rancho, I decided to try to get a job overseas so that I could be with my wife who was finishing up her Ph.D. at Stanford, and who was planning on working in India. I found out about ISS (International Schools Services) and went to my first, and only, international job fair. The experience was somewhat discouraging - I ended up with only three interviews and no job offers. I went back to Rancho planning on spending another year there, but just as my marriage was ending, ISS offered me a job in one of their schools in Indonesia.

The International School of Tembagapura was a small school of 65 students in a remote location in the mountains of Irian Jaya. Irian was one of the provinces of Indonesia. It's half of the island of New Guinea; the rest of the island is the country of Papua New Guinea. I planned on spending a year or two in Tembagapura and then return to San Francisco. The few years became 9 during which time I taught second grade, computers for the whole school, middle school math, and algebra. During my years in Tembagapura, I returned to the States for a few summers to pick up an administrative credential from Washington State University, Pullman.

While I was working in Tembagapura, the mining company that I worked for built a town, Kuala Kencana, to serve as their administrative center in the lowlands of Irian about a two hour drive down the mountain from Tembagapura. I moved down to Kuala Kencana as the school principal as well as teaching computers, physical education and middle school math. After two years in Kuala Kencana, I decided to retire.

My family and I returned to Bali where my wife was born. I worked as the editor for an online webzine, Iteachnet.com for a few months, and when I was asked to come work in Pakistan teaching computers and anthropology, as well as serving as the computer coordinator, I took the position even though it meant leaving my wife and children in Bali.

I spent four years at Lahore American School teaching computers, high school anthropology, middle school math and eventually serving as the elementary/middle school principal. My years at LAS coincided with the events of 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan and then Iraq. Our school was badly affected by all of these events and the student population decreased from 425 students to less than 200. A large part of our foreign hire staff were released. Our student numbers increased to around 300, but the school eliminated one of its administrative positions, and I took a position teaching computers and middle school math (again) at the Batu Hijau International School in Sumbawa, Indonesia. Once again, I am working for a mining company (gold and copper) in a somewhat remote (but beautiful) location outside of the normal tourist areas of Indonesia.

So with my history overseas out of the way, on to a discussion of some of the issues with teaching overseas. Questions about teaching overseas usually revolve around these general questions:

1. How do you go about getting a job teaching overseas?
2. How much do overseas' jobs pay?
3. Are there positions in developed countries or only in remote or "dangerous" locations?
4. What is it like teaching overseas?

Go to the Teaching FAQ page for my answers to these questions.