5 Key Challenges for Teachers in Qatar: Lessons Learned
Qatar is a beautiful gem of a country with so much to offer. I recommend it as a rich life experience and career opportunity. The schools offer a fast-paced environment, and if you are committed to your teaching, you can develop professionally and progress up the career ladder quickly. However, just like everything in life, it’s not all glitter and gold. These are some of the struggles I’ve faced in my teaching journey here in Doha. Everything can be overcome. I just wish I knew about these issues before I arrived, I would’ve sorted them a lot quicker!
1. Classroom Culture
The classroom vibes in a Qatar international school are very different to the UK banter we are used to back home.
Schools in Qatar are divided into private and government buildings. Most UK teachers apply for jobs at private schools which offer competitive pay packages.
Private schools are further divided into 2 categories. The first is what you’d imagine an international school to be, providing education for students from countries all around the world. The second is schools providing education for the local Qatari population. Whichever type of school you end up at, there will be some things to bear in mind.
An ‘all-Qatari’ school
If you are teaching in a school where most of the students are Qatari, you are going to need to get accustomed to Qatari culture fast. The Qataris come across as very friendly people. They are curious and will ask you lots of questions to find out about you. Your success in teaching them hinges on your ability to really get to know them and show an active interest in their lives.
Due to the high turnover nature of international schools, the students will take time to warm to you, and those first few months will be even tougher if you try to go in with a firm ‘Ms. Trunchball’ approach. A basic understanding of Muslim lifestyle and customs will also put you in a good position. You are not required to suddenly convert to Islam and wear a hijab, but respect for local traditions and showing your Qatari students that you appreciate their way of life will definitively get you brownie points. EAL experience is going to come in very handy in a Qatari school, as majority of your students will be native Arabic speakers. There will be significant gaps in their learning, and it will be your responsibility to create engaging lessons that cater to their EAL needs.
An ‘international’ international school
In an international school, students tend to be used to changing schools and the frequent turnover of staff. Schools of this nature tend to run like a corporate business. There isn’t much UK banter in the classrooms to be honest. Every minute in the lesson counts.
I remember my first lesson in my current school. I stood in front of my year 11 class and took too long with my introduction. How do I know? One of the students didn’t hold back and shouted at me, ‘can you start the lesson now, I’m here for my education and paid a lot of money.’ I was taken a back a little, as at this point, I’d literally just taken the register and told the students my name. Maybe that was too long!
At times, I have missed the cozy vibes of the UK classrooms, students telling you their long stories that you didn’t ask for. That being said, teaching a in high powered international school has its benefits, you will grow professionally very fast. You will become highly efficient, and most definitely you will become a master of multi-tasking. Valuable personal development if you ask me.
2. Parent Expectations
People are paying top dollars to put their children through these schools. The expectations are on another level. There was a time when parents would turn up to lessons during the school day to discuss teaching and learning. Yes, I mean physically turn up during a live lesson to observe the teaching.
Thankfully, the schools have tightened their policies in recent years. Parent expectations and demands remain high, but it’s manageable. Just be aware that you will be receiving multiple emails, day and night in addition to requests for in-person meetings. Just handle this by setting firm boundaries. Keep email notifications off your phone. Check emails during working hours only, and do not respond on weekends. Remember, what you permit, you promote.
I’ve sat in parent meetings where parents have used the whole 15-minute slot talking about how to make Science lessons more memorable for their children (even though they themselves work in a completely different profession). You will meet some lovely parents along the way. You’ll get to know full families the longer you stay based at a particular school and once you get used to the expectations, you’ll become a pro at responding.
3. Curriculum Challenges
In the UK, we are used to following a UK curriculum from primary to secondary. The challenge with international teaching is students come from different places.
They’ve been learning different curriculums, and there are significant gaps in their learning wherever they have come from. Teachers need to find the gaps in learning and sort it while delivering new content, often under time constraints.
I’m not talking about a couple of missed lessons either. How do you tackle a student that has been studying an American school curriculum? How do you tackle a student joining your Year 11 class right before the main exams start. Private school mentality demands that teachers need to fix these issues. Be prepared to tackle this issue. Keep a record of all the steps you have taken to support your students. If you run an after-school intervention session, keep a register and make a note of what you have done. Even if you are helping a single student at lunchtime, make a note of it. If your students do not make the right amount of progress, that’s where you can pull out your evidence and cover your back.
4. Homesickness
You finally arrive in the country. You’ve navigated visa requirements and document attestations. You are beaming with excitement to see Qatar in all its glory; you become a social butterfly and craft out a network.
You will have days where you feel great, but then the homesickness kicks in, and sometimes it can feel like a very lonely place. International teaching is always moving, teachers are coming and going.
Most of your friendships will come from work. Teachers are not just colleagues. You end up spending a lot of time together. Evenings, weekends, day’s out and planning work together. Back home, we don’t tend to interact this closely with our colleagues, but in this setting it’s a necessity for coping with the random homesickness waves.
My experience has been that just as you get comfortable, just as you’ve found your crew, someone announces they are going back home. Or someone has decided to teach in another country, and it hurts. It feels like such a significant loss.
Thankfully, the expat community is large in Qatar. You can aim to meet new people by getting out there and exploring the country. I personally wanted a bit of a break from my colleagues from time to time. I ended up joining a few art and calligraphy classes, met some interesting people along the way.
The best advice I can give is, when the homesickness kicks in, don’t wallow, don’t self-pity. Get outside and remind yourself why you are in the country.
5. Weekend Struggles
Qatar is a working country; majority of the population is there on a work visa. We are all usually maxed out with work during the weekdays (Sunday – Thursday), so naturally, when the weekend starts we all want to get out.
The problem is that the whole country wants to be out too! I personally find it very hard getting out on the weekends, particularly in the evenings. My social anxiety goes through the roof seeing the roads jammed, restaurants packed.
During summertime, in the extreme humid heat, outdoor options tend to become off limits and the opulent malls become the inevitable choice for an outing. The malls are not what we are used to in the UK. They have everything in there; food courts, cinemas, activity centers as well as all the retail and fashion outlets. If you consider yourself an introvert like me, malls and crowded places may be a bit overstimulating and ruin your outing. I’ve worked my way round this, I get to the malls very early on the weekend. It is a completely different experience during the early afternoon. The roads are almost clear, the shops are empty and you can run all your errands, grab some food and probably enjoy a film with minimum anxiety.
Summary
Don’t let these struggles deter your interest in teaching in Qatar. This blog is here to give you an insight into some of the things that me and my colleagues have experienced on our journey out here. Everyone’s journey is different; your challenges may be completely different to mine.
Do you have any international teaching experience? What did you find difficult when you made the move?