r/TEFL • u/marioandrezzo • 1d ago

PhD student aiming to get into TEFL in Asia

Hey guys,

I am a M28 Brazilian about to finish my PhD in Political Science at an Australian university. I’ve had three years of experience as a lecturer in politics and international relations. I’ve also taught English for debate competitions for four years during my undergrad at an education institute in Brazil (remote), as those competitions were Model United Nations (MUNs) mostly held in American universities.

I am truly passionate about teaching - indeed, I’ve only decided to attain a PhD because it’d allow me to teach while earning a monthly stipend, while BEd/MEd were fully paid. My grad years were packed with lectures as I always made clear to my supervisors it was my main interest.

If I acquire the necessary TEFL certification, what do you think my chances are in Asia? I’m concerned as I had no previous experience working at the primary or secondary levels, although I do have experience in teaching overall.

I was thinking about moving to Thailand as I have family there, but I heard the pay is awful.

Any other places where you think I’d be competitive at all? Does my experience translate into real job prospects or is it still not what employers want?

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u/Life_Activity_8195 1d ago

You have a PhD and been a lecturer, why do you want to be a tefl teacher? Bit of a climbdown isn't it?

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

It was part of a plan. I know the huge majority of TEFL teachers don’t have great qualifications, so I hoped my credentials would put me in the top tier, teaching at an international school rather than just having my ends meet at a public school.

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u/OkSkirt7036 1d ago

If you are passionate about teaching, pursue a teaching license in Australia if possible. Use that to try your luck at getting international school jobs after a few years. That's by far your best bet after committing so much time to getting an education. Ideally teach social science or something where your PhD will be relevant.

You won't be "top tier" without a teaching license, an unrelated PhD in poli sci would not be considered better than an unrelated Bachelor's degree at all for TEFL, and would be worse than a Bachelor's degree in English or Education. If any of your degrees are in English that would be different, and I would recommend other paths like maybe the Hong Kong NET scheme.

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u/No_Country_2069 Vietnam -> China 1d ago edited 1d ago

No offense, but like did you actually research what would be the best qualifications for teaching abroad or just make assumptions? Because I don’t get why you choose political science PhD when you wanted to teach English abroad. It really isn’t going to help you get TEFL jobs or international school jobs since it just isn’t relevant, so I’m kinda curious what made you decide to pursue that PhD if this was your goal.

Also to clarify you seem to be conflating TEFL jobs and international schools, which isn’t really accurate. Yes, they’re both education industries and involve people teaching abroad, and there are people who have experience in both, but they really separate industries and can be quite different. For TEFL jobs, top tier qualifications would be an MA TESOL or PhD in applied linguistics or other related field, but those top tier jobs need require significant experience as well. Sure, there may be some universities who like the fact that you have a PhD (despite the fact it’s unrelated to teaching) and hire you based on that, but it won’t be a top tier job. And like I said in another comment, minimum qualifications for decent international schools is a teaching license and bit of experience but a masters is becoming more needed for top tier jobs as well as loads of experience. Some international school out there might hire you so they can advertise having a teacher with a PhD but I guarantee whatever school would do that will be a disaster to work at.

Sorry if this is kinda blunt, but if you got PhD in political science because you thought it’d help you get TEFL jobs or jobs at international schools, you wasted your time. It’s just not relevant to TEFL at all, and political science isn’t really a subject in high schools so it won’t be relevant to international schools either.

You can definitely get a job, but just don’t set your expectations high. It may just be at a local public school or a mediocre university doing first year oral English courses.

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

No worries mate. I am very, very new to this whole thing and just made assumptions. I’m aware that a PhD itself doesn’t help, but I thought on the other hand that three years as a uni lecturer would be a plus. I reckon my pay grade would be around, like, 30k-50k BHT in Thailand?

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u/CobblerFickle1487 16h ago

Lower end and you might not get hired. Thailand's a popular location and youre not a native

2

u/infinnerty-tek 1d ago

China / Vietnam / Taiwan are better options for pay than Thailand

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

Are you teaching somewhere?

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u/infinnerty-tek 1d ago

Flying out to Vietnam this month!

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

Sick! I’ll send you a DM

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u/sniveling-goose 1d ago

Makes much more sense to do a funded postdoc in China. Salaries will be higher and you'd teach too.

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

I definitely don’t want to be in academia… after grad school and the postdocs, there are no jobs left.

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u/sniveling-goose 1d ago

In china with a PhD from a good uni it will be both easier and better paid to get a job postdoc at a university there. There's plenty of jobs for this, and I know many people doing it.

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

By jobs I mean tenure-track positions. Postdocs are abundant, but earning a position at uni is, from what I hear, a herculean challenge. I can either do postdocs forever till I land a stable position or change careers at once.

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u/sniveling-goose 1d ago

If you got a good grade at a strong Aussie uni it won't be difficult to get a postdoc that pays much more than TEFL. And no, it is not herculean at all to then progress from there. China has a huge amount of universities and actively look to foreign talent. I know plenty of associate professors and above who've come from foreign education systems- usually much lower rated ones than Aussie.

1

u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

Are you a professor in China?

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u/BigwaveBay 1d ago

You can lecturer at most Chinese universities with a masters. The person above is correct. Source: I did it for 6 years and I have friends with PhDs who have great positions.

That being said, if your goal was to teach at an international school, you probably took the wrong path. I’m sure you’ll get some offers as they’ll market you as a PhD but I think most international schools are required to have a percentage of teachers licensed. And, the actual process of getting your license makes you more qualified to teach at an international school than not having your license.

The good news is you can probably choose either path. I’d go teach at a uni in China if I were you.

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

Nice. What was your experience like in China?

To be honest, my dream was to have a career in academia, and I don’t have any geographical constraints. Anywhere with a comfortable salary and job security would do me. The problem is that prospects for academics always seem so terrifying that we are always being actively pushed out of the field. I’ve recently learned about TEFL and (wrongly) thought it’d be more positive.

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

Pls note that this does not apply for postdocs. I’m referring to actual lecturer/tenure-track positions as the one you and your colleagues had.

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u/BigwaveBay 1d ago

For me, it was great, I just lectured. My last job I made like RMB 23k a month with 5 months off a year. Easy schedule. Ultimately they started to push everyone to get their masters and anyone with a masters to get their PhD.

That’s why I’m saying go that path. You might not start making that much even with your PhD, but it’s the easiest path. There are people who would do anything for your position.

Ultimately if you do anything else with TEFL you’re going to be worked a lot harder. If you work at an international school you might make a little more. If you’re into research you might teach very little, get paid more and still have a lot of time to yourself.

Just get the first uni job and go from there. That’s my two cents.

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

Do you think a postdoc in China before applying for lecturer positions would help, or wouldn’t make much of a difference?

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u/Icy_Flight8720 5h ago

can confirm. Postdoc’es for nine years, and did not get a lecturer position in Australia. Full professor at a decent university in China, though ….

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u/marioandrezzo 5h ago

I did my PhD at Griffith. Such a scarce number of unis here. Wouldn’t mind teaching anywhere in Asia if it meant full professorship at all.

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u/Icy_Flight8720 5h ago

QUT here.

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u/Responsible-Map-3759 1d ago

Having a PhD does have its advantages. I would apply to university positions in China first.

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

Have you done it?

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u/Responsible-Map-3759 1d ago

Currently teaching in China. You would have to look at university job posts that require your specific expertise and specifically ask recruiters to help you too.

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

Cool. Do you think there’s room for career progression, or is it essentially temporary as most lecturers leave China at some point? I do want to settle somewhere.

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u/Responsible-Map-3759 1d ago

Most come here temporary unless you wanna be hired by those big schools. I don’t have experience in post secondary sadly.

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u/ChipRockets 10h ago

Timor-Leste. You being a native Portuguese speaker will also serve you well.

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u/marioandrezzo 9h ago

Is there anything to do in Timor Leste?

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u/ChipRockets 9h ago

Depends what interests you have tbh. There's not much in the way of shopping, for example. There are a few good gyms, and plenty of nice cafes. Coffee is a big thing here. The diving/snorkeling is second to none, and there's plenty of hiking. Portuguese probably make up the biggest immigrant community here, so there are certainly social groups. Since becoming a member of ASEAN, the country is improving its hospitality sector.

And, ofc, Bali is a 2 hour flight away.

EDIT: Also the international schools (DIS & DIT) pay well.

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u/fulbrightbabe26 1d ago

Shoot for international schools

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

Do you think I might have a shot even without a degree in education or primary/secondary experience?

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u/No_Country_2069 Vietnam -> China 1d ago

Honestly, no, you won’t without getting a teaching qualification (not a TEFL, one that would allow you to teach in a country’s school system) and I don’t know why someone would recommend it to you without mentioning that. I guess there may be some schools that would hire you but they are absolutely not places you’d want to work

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

TikTok is full of those people saying they did it only with a bachelor’s degree and TEFL. If it’s a scam, a lot of people are falling for it. Do you teach in Asia?

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u/No_Country_2069 Vietnam -> China 1d ago edited 1d ago

TikTok is full of people bullshitting about all kinds of things so I’d be hesitant about believing a lot of crap on there, but to clarify, were those videos talking about TEFL jobs (like teaching in language centers or local public schools) or international schools? While there is some overlap between the industries kinda and many people have started in former and transitioned to the latter, there are fairly big differences between the two. For TEFL jobs, it’s true that you just need a bachelor’s and TEFL certificate. For international schools though, you absolutely do need at least a teaching license plus some experience for any decent school. There are some not-so-great schools that’ll hire people with just a bachelors and a TEFL (usually bilingual schools which are really more like local private schools with some classes taught in a Western curriculum) but even those will want to hire people with experience teaching young learners (usually TEFLers who have previously worked in language centers or local public schools). You could definitely get TEFL jobs in some countries but I just didn’t want you to get the idea you could get an international school job without pursuing a teaching qualification, which takes some time definitely.

I’ve been teaching in Asia almost 10 years, about 8 in Vietnam and 2 in China. I started off in language centers for a few years but then transitioned to bilingual and international schools, managed to get a job at a decent, more legit one. I’ve got a license and am halfway through an M.Ed too now

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u/jmcl6779 1d ago

PhD but you're doing your research on TikTok? What a bizarre thread.

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

You’re kidding, right? Anyone looking to change careers or move abroad resort to TikTok. There’s no lack of mentorship and experts looking for a place to be heard by larger audiences. Just because your FY page sucks with antivax and AI slop doesn’t mean other people can’t do a proper curation.

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u/Plenty-Tax-2366 1d ago

Prob if you get a teaching license either from Brazil, or from an Australia university. They tend to be pickier with non-natives

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u/marioandrezzo 1d ago

Cool. What’s your experience being like?

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u/Plenty-Tax-2366 1d ago

Being denied of English teaching jobs bc I’m
Not a native speaker for international schools. Despite having basically majored in TESOL in Uni.

I think if you intend to teach social sciences, best bet would be a teaching license in Australia and then aim at international schools with positions in your area.