COLONIZED FROM WITHIN

THE WORLD'S ELITE WANT THEIR CHILDREN TO HAVE WHITE TEACHERS AND WESTERN OUTLOOKS, AND INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS AIM TO PLEASE

- NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON

The “placement gong” rings out in the offices of Teaching Nomad, a recruiter for inter-national schools, every time the company places a teacher. The past few years it’s been ringing a lot.

International schools—private, expensive, the instruction almost always in English—were once the exclusive domain of the children of diplomats and expat executives. Today, parents everywhere want in, seeing a Western-style education as a child’s pathway to success. On average, two new international schools are opening a day, and the demand for teachers is insatiable. Teaching Nomad’s website features hundreds of job openings, from Panama to Vietnam.

Some applicants are novices looking for an overseas adventure. Others are veteran educators seeking to burnish their credentials. Few of them understand, however, that their chances of getting a job might come down to the photo they upload with their résumé. It’s been an open secret in the industry for decades that parents, and therefore schools, demand Caucasian teachers and administrators.

Teaching Nomad responds to that with a simple system: Candidates are categorized Level I for Whites, Level II for all others, according to four former employees who logged and classified applicants at the company’s offices in Denver and Shanghai. The agency also notes what kind of teachers each institution seeks, with a drop-down box that offers the option “White Only,” say the ex-employees, who asked not to be identified, citing concerns about legal retaliation for violating confidentiality.