Abstract
This chapter aims to outline the phenomenon known as split salaries in international schools. This qualitative phenomenological study explores the research question, What are the lived work experiences and perceptions of host country national (HCN) teachers employed in international schools utilizing a split-salary scale? Rawls' theory of justice as fairness served as the theoretical framework to answer the research question. Ten HCN teachers took part in one-on-one, semi-structured interviews. Three key themes emerged—power, othering, and the cost of compromise—as national teachers struggle to reconcile working in an environment that implicitly suggests they will never be good enough. This research can inform administrators and school owners that international schools should no longer be bastions of privilege and that using a purely business approach to staffing does not align with international school missions.
TopBackground
The international school market is growing exponentially (Bunnell, 2021), with over 13,000 such institutions worldwide (International Schools Consultancy [ISC] Research, 2023). Additionally, as global economies improve and incomes rise, more families aspire to better educational standards for their children than local state education systems provide, further amplifying the schools' growth (Hayden & Thompson, 2008). This growth in international schools has given rise to an international school industry (Macdonald, 2006), leading to increased competitiveness and globalisation (Hughes, 2020). As the number of international schools increases globally, so does the demand for international schoolteachers,school teachers particularly those from the United States or the United Kingdom (COBIS, 2020). Equally, as the number of international schools increases, there is a proportional need for qualified host-country nationals (HCNs) and expatriate staff (Hayden & Thompson, 2008). The growing competition among international schools has commodified international schoolteachers school teachers (Khalil, 2019).
International schools traditionally have a teaching staff that falls into three distinct categories: (a) HCNs, (b) “local hire” expatriates, and (c) “overseas hire” expatriates (Hayden & Thompson, 2008). Bunnell (2006) identified international schools' organisational structure as comprising “an administrative leadership core, a fringe of relatively highly paid professional expatriates on short-term contracts, and a large pool of lower-paid, locally hired staff” (p. 168).
Many international schools have disproportionately more U.S. and U.K. expatriate teachers than other nationalities and do not align well with their student demographics (Perez-Amurao & Sunanta, 2020). The imbalance of nationalities shows international schools’ recruitment bias for U.S. and U.K. teachers (Bunnell, 2020) at the expense of other expatriates or local staff opportunities. However, the problem is that in many international schools, expatriate teachers earn substantially higher salaries than HCNs, even for the same job (Canterford, 2003; Khalil, 2019; Tyvand, 2017). The remuneration difference stems from the supply and demand business principle, with salaries two to five times higher for expatriate teachers (Chen et al., 2002). The pay differential is particularly apparent in countries from the Global South, which broadly refers to the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania and replaces the politically laden terms of Third World or developing world countries (Dados & Connell, 2012).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Compensation: The total benefits a teacher can expect to receive from a position, including salary and the sum of all other rewards. Compensation may consist of salary, incentives, health insurance, housing, flights, shipping, and tuition.
Expatriate Teacher: Teachers who have moved from one country to another for a specific period of time to work in a country other than their own.
Compensation Gap: The difference in compensation between expatriates and local employees due to globalized operations where expatriates working in a foreign country receive pay at the home country rate.
Local-Hire Expatriates: Expatriates hired locally because they are the trailing spouse of a partner who works for an embassy, aid agency, multinational company, or host country national.
Non-Native English Speakers: Someone who learned English as a child or adult instead of from childhood.
International School: A school that serves the children of globally mobile parents, or espouses a specifically international mission or objective, or serves an aspirational middle- or high-class local host-country population.
Global South: A term to refer to a group of countries that are geographically based south of North America and the Atlantic littoral of Europe. The Global South also tends to refer to economically less well-developed countries of Africa, Asia, Latin and South America and Oceania.
Host Country National: A person whose nationality is the same as the country in which their school operates.
Split Labor Market: A market in which there is a significant differential in the price of labor for the same occupation resulting from differences in resources, qualifications, and experiences, often correlating with ethnicity.
Native English Speakers: Individuals who have learned and spoken English since their childhood instead of learning English later in life.