My name is Sorcha Coyle, and I’m an Irish teacher, who has been teaching in the Gulf for the last eight years. I moved to the region in 2012 because I wanted a secure teaching career that allowed me to save and travel! In the UK, I was fed up of surviving paycheck-to-paycheck while teaching in Ireland did not offer any long-term security, so the Middle East seemed like a wonderful option!
I am an English Teacher and the Language and Literacy Co-ordinator at Rashid School for Boys in Dubai. The name of my podcast is Empowering Expat Teachers Podcast. I started my podcast in 2016/2017 when I moved to Dubai.
The mission of Empowering Expat Teachers is to empower future and current expat teachers to lead personally, professionally and financially rewarding lives. To do this, I interview a variety of experts who share their knowledge with my members. In fact, the majority of the experts are full-time expat teachers themselves!
I used to do on average, one-two episodes every month, but as I teach full-time, I do not publish as often. However, from March 2020 onwards, I plan to return to recording and uploading one every month! The podcast can be found at https://sorchacoyle.com/podcasts/.
In the next five years, I hope to have a more regular posting schedule, which will include interviews with expat teachers outside the Middle East, especially those working in Asia, Africa and Europe.
I wish to start creating more content to support expat teachers in the Middle East, such as those working in the Ministry of Education/ government schools.
Finally, I also hope to have more podcast episodes on how to save more money in order to truly support future and current expat teachers in becoming financially empowered.
In addition to creating and publishing regular articles and blog posts on: https://sorchacoyle.com/blog/, I also record and upload videos onto my Youtube channel- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3M9UaILmigpG_2NMne9ANg
Expat teachers are a fountain of knowledge, but many of us only share it with our students and colleagues. By creating public and easily-accessible content, we can enrich countless educators’ lives across the world.
People can also find me:
- on my website: https://sorchacoyle.com/
- on the Empowering Expat Teachers Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3M9UaILmigpG_2NMne9ANg
- on the Empowering Expat Teachers Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/empoweringexpatteachers/
My three greatest wishes:
- I wish that more schools would incorporate aspects of the Finnish education system, with its well-paid teachers, plenty of break time, and less emphasis on homework and tests.
- In the future, I hope that teachers have more autonomy and more involvement in planning the curriculum
- My final wish is that both student well-being and teacher well-being are prioritised in schools.
