Working in ICN Schools

Teaching in a Chinese CLIL program or a Chinese/English bilingual school is a very rewarding experience.

Compared to schools with only one or two sessions a week for Chinese, students in bilingual schools have the opportunity to immerse in Chinese and learn other curriculum areas through Chinese. Seeing students make visible and rapid progress in literacy, language proficiency, intercultural understanding and other curriculum areas is very motivating for any driven and passionate Chinese language educator.

If you are interested in working in an ICN school, it is important that you have some understanding of the common bilingual models around the world, the specific model used by the school, bilingual teaching methods and current trends in bilingual education, before you apply for a position.

To help you, we recommend you access the following resources:

• Bilingual Teaching Methods - a quick reference guide for educators
• Sections A6 and B6 of Bilingualism - an advanced resource book by Ng Bee Chin and Gillian Wigglesworth (2007)
• Professional Certificate in Education (CLIL) through the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, the University of Melbourne
• Chapters 1-3 of Curriculum Integrated Language Teaching - CLIL in Practice, edited by Kim Bower, Do Coyle, Russell Cross and Gary N. Chambers (2020)

You should also reflect on your own professional practice as a language educator using the "Aligning Standards // Chinese" resources developed by the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association.

When you are ready, start searching for vacancies and be prepared to show that you are able to speak the language of bilingual education!

NEW: To support newcomers, ICN has put together a Job Application Guide to help you prepare for each stage of the application process!

Best of luck!