HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – In a big boost for the depleted ranks of Hawaii teachers, the state is welcoming 80 experienced teachers from the Philippines.
Despite facing challenges of language, culture and disciplinary traditions, the state Department of Education said it is sure the teachers will do just fine.
The DOE says it will begin the school year with about 300 teacher vacancies ― so the 80 teachers welcomed from the Philippines on Monday is significant.
To get to their orientation at the Farrington High School library, the teachers had to compete for a special J-1 visa and had their credentials screened by an international evaluations company.
Most have earned advanced degrees equal to U.S. universities.
State Department of Education recruiting specialist James Urbaniak also pointed to their experience in Philippine classrooms, where most instruction is in English.
“So we really have the best of the best coming to work for us which is really amazing for our students,” Urbaniak said.
To overcome the shortage of housing for teachers, they’ll be mostly staying in private homes with families willing to rent to teachers serving their communities.
“Everyone in Hawaii has really opened their doors to help house these 80 teachers,” Urbaniak said.
They now hope to be equally welcomed in classrooms and were warned they won’t have the same classroom management tools as they did in the Philippines, including physical punishment.
Chaminade University Communications Professor Eva Rose B. Washburn-Repollo there will be a transition period for the participants.
“I was a teacher in the Philippines, too,” she said.
“Our ways there were very different from the ways of disciplining students here. Here you can still be very firm but make sure you are always kind and smiling.”
Jennicah, who will be teaching at Kauai’s Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle school, referred to those remarks when asked if she had concerns about adjusting.
“Honestly speaking, I am intimidated, ” she said, adding she expects students will be less afraid of their teachers than they are in the Philippines.
“We do corporal punishment, we can discipline them verbally,” Jennicah said.
“In America, you need to adapt, and in adapting you can also learn from them.”
Jeanelle is also heading for Kauai.
“We are family here and that’s the culture i would like to inculcate with different students and with culture or with the school that I will be teaching in,” she said.
To DOE, their success is important — both to address a chronic teaching shortage with international teachers and to serve the many students from immigrant families.
“Wow, that teacher looks like me, knows what our family is going through my community is and that’s powerful for our students,” Urbaniak said.
The J-1 visa program offers up to five years of work as a teacher in the U.S. and an opportunity to seek immigrant status. Urbaniak said their number in Hawaii could grow into the hundreds.
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