Teaching Career

LilyFly

Hello all,

I am looking for advice from people on this forum regarding my hopes to pursue a career in teaching. It all seems a bit of a mess at the moment.

I am 30, have a BA in German and Sociology, MA and PhD in German also. I have no teaching qualification. Over the years, however, I have taught TEFL English (6 months, full time with teenagers), Secondary School German, IT, English, CSPE, SPHE (about 500 hours in total spread out over 2 years in 4 different schools), German language at university level (around 100 hours) and German literature at university level (50 hours or so). I have lived and worked in Germany-speaking countries for about 2 years in total. I have also been involved in local drama groups, which has included working with teenagers.

I love teaching, and have enjoyed the variety of different levels I have had the opportunity to work at.

I do have the correct set of qualifications to teach at university level, but in my field this would entail years of publishing articles, pursuing post-doctoral grants abroad etc in the hope of something turning up and, to be honest, my heart is just not in this side of things anymore. I really just want to be in the classroom. I wish I had realized this ten years ago, but for me the vocation has been one I have grown into rather than one that I had from the outset.

Obviously, I do not have the necessary teaching qualifications to work at secondary level. I still have a lot to learn in this regard. I should make clear that I have huge respect for these qualifications, which I see as essential to teaching, and I know that I am not yet a proper secondary teacher without one, regardless of experience gained.

Over the past 3-4 years, my aim has been to eventually do a PGDE in German with CSPE. Now, I know that this matter has been discussed here many, many times. It is a poor combination of subjects, no question. Having read with dismay over many of the threads in this forum, I now feel that this has been a wholly unrealistic and perhaps delusional path to consider pursuing.

As a consequence, I have also been thinking about adding English as a subject with the part-time modules that people have mentioned on other threads. I do have one year of English from my BA, for what it’s worth.

On the other hand, I also frequently read on this forum that English teachers are simply not required at present.

I wonder what is the best course of action to pursue, or what people’s opinions are about my situation and prospects, whether my specific qualifications and experience to date might stand to me in the future, and whether there are alternative career avenues in the education sector that I should consider.

I hope it will be clear that I am not in this for the money or security, I do not expect to have job security this side of forty, but how and ever.

Thanks for your time.

LF.

seavill

Firstly you will get plenty of people on here saying forget it there are no jobs but in reality if its what you want to do and can afford to do the PDE you should go for it, however I would question do you actually want to be a secondary teacher?

You have experience at all levels and enjoy it but for me you need to figure out first which is the area you really want to do.

You final paragraphs mentioning other areas gives me the impression you would like to work in education but do not know what area.

Before you do any PDE or anything else you need to make up your mind, if it's what you really want go for it you may not get great hours for a while but if its meant to be it will be. Only embark on this career path if its what you really really want to do, because between the kids, and the years of job hunting or **** hours unless its your real interest you will get 5 years down the line and be in the same position all over again.

Seanchai

LilyFly wrote: »

Hello all,

I am looking for advice from people on this forum regarding my hopes to pursue a career in teaching. It all seems a bit of a mess at the moment.

I am 30, have a BA in German and Sociology, MA and PhD in German also. I have no teaching qualification. Over the years, however, I have taught TEFL English (6 months, full time with teenagers), Secondary School German, IT, English, CSPE, SPHE (about 500 hours in total spread out over 2 years in 4 different schools), German language at university level (around 100 hours) and German literature at university level (50 hours or so). I have lived and worked in Germany-speaking countries for about 2 years in total. I have also been involved in local drama groups, which has included working with teenagers.

Perhaps a chat with the principal in St Kilian's German school in Clonskeagh?

The PhD is great - fair play - but in your degree you essentially only have a single secondary school subject, German. This is what principals look at first. If you want to go down the secondary teaching road, you will almost certainly need to go back and get the 54 degree credits in a second subject in order to be qualified in the eyes of the Teaching Council to teach that subject. Even though the deadline (1 July) has passed for evening courses like the Higher Diploma in Arts that would get you these credits in the evening, in reality you could contact the university departments directly and explain your situation in order to start an evening course from this September to get those degree credits. Exceptions are made.

Mont Blanc

Hello LF,
Your qualifications in German speak for themselves and you have recent, relevant teaching experience. This is all very positive. Although you have taught CSPE and SPHE, it would be very rare to see a job advertisment with this combination of subjects. So you need to think about a second subject, not simply for the sake of having a second subject, but one that will offer you the best chance of employment. You already have a flair for languages, have you considered learning a second language? This may not be the "quickest" option, but it may be the most viable in the long-term, which is your priority, from what I have read in your post. Remember that demand for language jobs depends significantly on how many students are studying the subject at Junior and Leaving Certificate. I found these statistics from 2011 online:

26,766 – The number of people who took Leaving Cert French at any level. That’s far higher than any other foreign language – 6,955 took German, 4,004 took Spanish, and 361 took Italian.

It is a question of supply and demand. Essentially, this is what dictates the curricular needs of the school in terms of languages. I know that most teachers of languages have to offer two languages (even if one is stronger than the other) in order to make themselves more employable.

Do you perhaps have a second language, even at First Year University level or Leaving Certificate? It would undoubtedly be a longer route but I have personal experience of this so I just wanted to offer my thoughts, for what they're worth!
PM me if you have any questions,
Mont Blanc

LilyFly

Thanks for the replies, everyone. A lot of useful advice and food for thought there, and a lot more encouraging than I had expected.