At the International Day held in late October, a large number of teaching students once again learned all about opportunities for school internships and teaching practice at partner schools abroad.
Who does not dream of finding out what schools are like in places where other people go on vacation? Some of Goethe University’s 29 partner schools are located in exotic places on the other side of the globe, like the German School Melbourne and the International German School Ho Chi Minh City. While it’s perfectly legitimate to dream of far-flung places, schools in attractive countries are not always the best choice – the general framework conditions have to be right, too, says Andreas Hänssig, who curates the program “International Teacher Education – School Internships Abroad” at the Akademie für Bildungsforschung und Lehrkräftebildung [Academy for Educational Research and Teacher Education]. That’s why it is important to obtain sufficient information in advance, he adds, including: How do I find the right foreign school for me? What funding is available, and how does an internship in another country work, either with or without a scholarship? What programs are available?
Who could be better placed to advise those interested in such opportunities than those who have already completed a school internship or teaching practice semester themselves? That is why the focus at this International Day was on sharing practical experience with peers. Philipp, for example, worked as a language assistant at Christ’s Hospital in the English county of West Sussex – a school he warmly recommends to anyone asking. Given that many students are interested in improving their linguistic skills in the “mother country” of the English language, Philipp has a lot of questions to answer, even if Brexit has not made it any easier to organize a stay in the UK. Philipp is also the campus ambassador for Goethe University’s Pedagogical Exchange Service and can be contacted by e-mail: frankfurt@fsa-pad.de.
Benjamin is training to be a grammar school teacher for German and Spanish. He decided on a whole semester of teaching practice at a school on Gran Canaria. “The fact that it’s a popular holiday destination did not influence my decision at all,” he says. He found that expanding his horizons reinforced his desire to become a schoolteacher. Christina, by contrast, did not have to travel quite as far: She spent three months at a Dutch school near Rotterdam, with accommodation provided by one of the school’s teachers. It was a positive experience, she says, even though she was very much left to her own devices at the beginning.
With the support of a DAAD scholarship, Isabelle completed an internship at the Twin Cities German Immersion School in St. Paul, Minnesota. “Life in the U.S. is very expensive,” she recounts. But living with a family meant she did not have to pay rent and they also cooked for her. “So I actually managed quite well financially,” she reports.
A very specific cultural challenge was waiting for Najia, who did her internship at the Deutsche Evangelische Oberschule Kairo. She is also studying to be a grammar school teacher and was worried about the headscarf ban at certain institutions. “But that was not the case. Other Germans there were also wearing headscarves.” Najia does not speak Arabic. “Everyone thought I was Egyptian and they were really surprised when they discovered that I was from Germany,” she laughs. Teaching in German was definitely a challenge. “The children often speak only broken German. But many Egyptian parents choose to send their children to a German school to give them a chance at a promising future,” she reports. At the International Day, Najia is also on hand to answer the many questions of students interested in going abroad about how she funded her internship. In Egypt, she tells them, the cost of living is pretty low, so she had no problem financing her stay there herself, without any kind of grant. “I couldn’t have afforded any other country,” she says.
Andreas Hänssig explains, “In general none of the scholarship programs automatically provide financial support, as would be necessary for a scholarship from the DAAD or a similar organization.” The “International Teacher Education” program at Goethe University provides detailed information about how to apply and what applicants have to bear in mind.
