Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Radius]

I always wondered about this. If one has an bachelors education degree, would that be valued as much to an employer as much as a person without an education degree, but has a TESOL? I would think that an education degree trumps any TESOL or any other type of language certificate, no?

[tyrobinson]

I'd like to go even further and ask, would I be better off getting a teaching credential and Masters in education or just getting the MA in TESOL or applied linguistics? Which path might be best in terms of opening up new places to live and teach for a few years?

[tyrobinson]

I'd like to go even further and ask, would I be better off getting a teaching credential and Masters in education or just getting the MA in TESOL or applied linguistics? Which path might be best in terms of opening up new places to live and teach for a few years?

[thegadfly]

If teaching is NOT your passion and intended career, I would say just get the TESOL certificate and be done -- much less time, much less effort, much less cost, and it opens enough doors to broaden your horizons for a few years.

If teaching IS your passion and intended career -- classroom teaching -- then get your teaching credential and MA. If you intend to teach ESL your whole life, then an MA in TESOL or Applied Linguistics is probably a good choice. If you intend to eventually be an administrator, then MA in Education is the very common choice -- but even without an MA, a teaching credential/license will open a lot of doors.

If you intend to return to the US and teach (sorry if you are not from the US, I am just speaking to what I know), then get your teaching credential but do NOT finish your MA -- the safest bet in the US is to get a job you like, keep it until you get tenure, and THEN finish your last MA class...yes, schools in the US ALSO try to hire the cheapest teachers possible, and if you have an MA when you are looking for a job, you are actually at a disadvantage...best to get the job, keep it until you have tenure, THEN get the pay bump connected to the MA....

[Radius]

What does an employer in Korea want more--a person with an bachelors degree in education (with no TESOL), or a guy with some other degree, BUT has a TESOL?

[diver]

[thegadfly]

Radius,

Do you mean an undergrad degree that lead to a teaching credential, or just a straight-up Education degree?

A smart employer prefers a teaching credential/license.

Smart employers are not the norm, however, and in my experience, the TESOL certificate puts a fellow on the same ground as an education degree.

At my first job in Korea, my MA got me the same raise that a TESOL certificate would have gotten me -- a pittance. I wised up, however, and looked for the more discriminating employers with much higher-salary-than-entry-level jobs.

At my current job, a BA in a teaching-related field, along with some experience, will get your resume looked at...an unrelated degree with a TESOL need not apply....

[silkhighway]

I'd say it really depends on what career path you want to take and how much time and money you want to invest in it. If you're serious about a career teaching kids, I wouldn't consider anything that isn't from a recognized university and not accredited in your home state/country.

I also think you should ask yourself not just what you want your employer to get out of it, but what *you* want. Apologies to to the TESOLers for being blunt, but it strikes me that TESOL is mainly a money racket run out of Mickey Mouse colleges. Education degrees aren't much better, they shouldn't even be degrees really, but I grant the post-bachelors programs do have a few purposes. To ease teachers into classrooms, to train teachers to do deal with the plethora of issues that teaching kids brings with them, and to provide a comfortable environment to bounce ideas off one another before being thrown into the grind.

I think a key to any good program (Education, TESOL, Computer programming, whatever) is that it has to be heuristic. It needs to provide broad strategies to cope with different tools, environments, and situations.

[Radius]

[silkhighway]

[smurfetta]

I think a lot of employers would be interested in hiring you overseas. As you are a licensed teacher you should be looking for jobs on tieonline and have a read through the posts on the international schools review forum. You should also consider signing up with a recruiter like Search Associates.

I don't think you will have a problem getting a job in an international school if you are not too picky about where you want to work. Also, being a middle school teacher is a great plus! I've seen lots of jobs for middle school teachers.

Good luck with your job search!

[silkhighway]

Sorry Radius, I didn't read your post carefully enough. I thought you were considering getting a B.Ed. in MS English/History.

May I ask where you're from? Are you not licensed to teach those subjects in high school as well?