“Living abroad” Forum

Living in Busan

Living in Busan

autor Proença Alvarine Luyindula -
Počet odpovědí: 3

Hello everyone, I am Proença 

I am from Belgium currently doing a go abroad in Busan in an IB school. I am not a teacher I graduated as a pedagogical coach. I am a bit struggling to find my place as a coach in a new environment, professionally do any of you have some advice about working abroad? 

kindly 

V odpovědi na Proença Alvarine Luyindula

Re: Living in Busan

autor Iya OLS Community Manager -
Hi Proença,

Thanks so much for reaching out to us. We are a community here to support each other - whether in language learning or adapting to life abroad.

And before I go any further: Congratulations! It takes courage to do something new - particularly when it's far away from home and what you may be familiar with.

Can you tell us a little more about what you’re struggling with? Is it the new culture? Do you have some ideas from your coaching training that you have difficulties implementing at the new school?

I’ll share a bit of my story and perhaps others will too. In this way, maybe we can all work together to see what could help you. :)

I am also in the pedagogical field. I was trained in the United States, then moved to France to teach at university. I had MAJOR culture shock my first year as a professor. Luckily, I had other colleagues in the same situation and also very helpful supervisors who listened and gave advice. 

Part of my struggle was adapting to a new way and new culture of students. Since I loved teaching and being creative, I figured out strategies that I used in my classes and it became a more enjoyable experience for me and the students.

Do you have colleagues that you can speak or brainstorm some ideas with? Is there a mentor at your program you can share your difficulties with? Or perhaps there are former mobility students who did the same program as you that you could reach out to?

I know that the Erasmus Student Network has a buddy system to pair current participants with former participants to help guide and support life abroad. I checked to see if there's one in Busan but did not find one. However, I will give you ESN's website just in case: https://esn.org/. There are over 20,000 members and I'm optimistic that there must be someone who can help too.

Additionally, I researched the EU's National Agencies but found nothing in Busan. But I encourage you to reach out directly: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/contacts. Who is your mobility coordinator or supervisor? Could this person help you?

To any other community members: Please feel free to reach out to our friend, Proença! Maybe some of you are from Busan or were there in mobility or feel as Proença does and simply would like to join in and share your thoughts.

Proença, keep us updated and tell us how it’s going for you and how else we may help, encourage or support you. You're not alone!! <3

Sending encouragement,
Iya

 
V odpovědi na Iya OLS Community Manager

Re: Living in Busan

autor Proença Alvarine Luyindula -
Thank you Lya for your kind words.

I am most struggling by actively doing my job. It seems there is no space for me. Teachers are much too busy, they have barely the time to actually do the coaching sessions. So what am I supposed to do?
I have a mentor, but for him, it is also the first time that he works with a pedagogical coach, he is still trying to figure it out.
I am as proactive as possible but sometimes it is hard, I am not a student anymore so, I get twisted when they consider me as a student-teacher when I don't teach at all it's not my field of work, but coach teachers and educators
V odpovědi na Proença Alvarine Luyindula

Re: Living in Busan

autor Iya OLS Community Manager -
You're very welcome, Proença.

Thank you for writing back and giving us more details about your experience. I am sorry it's been so frustrating for you.

As I read your reply, I began to wonder a few things:

- Do they know what a pedagogical coach is?
- Do they know the difference between a coach and a student teacher?
- Have they only had student teachers in the past?
- Are you much younger than the teachers and the mentor? Could age or cultural norms be a factor?
- Have they been teaching for many years without a coach?
- Why is there a coach now? Are you the first? What was the reasoning behind inviting a pedagogical coach to the school?
- How often are your training sessions? How long are they? How many teachers do you coach? Could the sessions be small group sessions instead of individual?
- How many months will you be there?

Since you say that it's the first time for the mentor to have a coach and he's still trying to figure it out (and thank goodness he's willing!); I wonder if it would be useful for your mentor and the other teachers to have a workshop where you teach them what a pedagogical coach is, what you do, how you work, and especially what you don't do. In this way, the teachers could talk about what they need/what would be helpful for them to do their work as well as get a clearer and visceral understanding of what you do and what you don't. Workshops can be good (and fun) opportunities for everyone to get on the same page by asking questions and participating in interactive activities where the participants learn by doing. This is also a good opportunity for you to ask questions of the teachers too. Learning more from their perspective may help you in your approach to the job.

But, as you say, the teachers are very busy and barely have time to do the coaching sessions with you. From this, it seems like the school hasn't created the infrastructure (the internal structure) to have time for a coach. It seems like it's new for everyone! Which means it would be (and it seems it is) very difficult for the teachers to adapt to your role if the structure of the school did not prepare for your presence. Both you and the teachers are in a difficult situation. :/

And your question, "What am I supposed to do?" is an excellent one. What would you like to do?

Is your mentor different from your mobility coordinator? Are there other mobility participants at your school you can chat with?

You did a very important and very kind thing for yourself by reaching out to us to share your frustrations and struggles. It's brave! It's possible someone else in our community was once, or is currently, in a similar situation.

As always, please check in with your mobility coordinator as they are there to support mobility participants too. And keep us posted on how things go. We are cheering you on from this side!

All the best,
Iya