Increases In Foreign Teachers

David Diaz

An article from the New York Times entitled “Schools Look Abroad to Hire Teachers” by Sam Dillon, presents the fact that more and more schools have to hire foreign teachers to fill hard-to-staff schools such as inner city schools or very rural schools. Dillon continues to say that schools have resorted to hiring foreign teachers because it is so much easier to get a service to interview hundreds of willing applicants versus scouring the country in search of few reluctant American teachers. However Dillon says very little about why American teachers are becoming hard to find especially in more specialized subjects.

Dillon presents substantial evidence that schools are filling hard to staff schools with foreign teachers as well as difficult to teach subjects such as calculus. He also says that the numbers of foreign teachers rise rapidly every year, for example Baltimore Public Schools had 108 foreign teachers in 2005 and now they have over 600. However, according to Dillon, the number of foreign teachers is starting to fall because of sources such as Teach for America that provide American teachers to fill the teaching staff of schools. Although Dillon never asks why American teachers have become so difficult to find.

The answer likely lies in colleges, and the motives students have for attending college. Students rarely attend college for the sake of learning or for sharing knowledge with others. Students are simply interested in getting a job that they otherwise couldn’t get, such as pursuing a career in engineering, medicine, law, or business. However teachers generally tend to be the type that enjoys learning and enjoys sharing with others. Since the average college student doesn’t have these motives, students pursuing a teaching career aren’t as common as in previous years. Because America produces less teachers than it has in the past and the teachers it produces aren’t likely to teach an unwanted position when they are so valuable to any school, school systems nationwide rely upon foreign teachers to fill the teaching staff.

Dillon presents a solid article about teaching positions being filled with foreign teachers, but doesn’t offer any reason for American teachers becoming rare. The American teacher has become less common because colleges produce fewer teachers and these teachers are so valuable that they will definitely not teach an unwanted position. This means that schools have to hire foreigners who are very qualified and very eager for the opportunity to teach. However, thanks to programs such as Teach for America, American teachers are starting to again occupy hard-to-fill teaching positions.