Teaching competencies and expatriate experiences of Filipino educators in Indonesia: Basis for an enhanced school management support program

Given the economic reasons of moving to another country to teach, Filipino teachers in Indonesia face challenges in terms of cultural adaptation, pedagogical adjustments, and professional development including the danger of undocumented migration. All these appear to be blind spots when they decide to teach outside the country. Receiving schools must be able to establish programs to aid foreign teachers in these aspects as this will also determine the effects on aligning with the school’s goals. With these, the researcher examined the teaching competencies, perceived leadership practices, and the different experiences of the Filipino expatriate teachers in Indonesia. 'Using a convergent parallel mixed-method design, the study surveyed 60 Filipino teachers and conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 Filipino teachers and 5 administrators and local teachers in one international primary school in Jakarta, Indonesia
Results revealed that teachers demonstrated an overall competence quantitative described as “expert” (M = 3.58) strong competence in integrating educational technologies and using technology to enhance engagement (M = 3.82). However, participation in professional development activities related to innovation was relatively lower (M = 3.10). Moreover, the perceptions of Filipino educators regarding leadership and management practices in Indonesian schools reveal generally positive experiences (M = 3.22) with the participatory goal-setting as having the lowest mean (M = 3.10). Additionally, the result of the simple linear regression revealed that the leadership practices significantly affected teaching competence but modestly predict teaching competence [F(1, 58) = 5.53, p = .022, R² = .087]. The experiences of the expatriate Filipino teachers vary on different dimensions. Filipino teachers in Indonesia experience a mix of professional fulfillment and systemic challenges. They are celebrated for their creativity, adaptability, and strong classroom management, which make them highly valued in international schools. However, their journey as expatriates is marked by gaps in structured support for cultural integration, professional development, and participatory leadership.
To support Filipino educators in Indonesia across the four stages of cultural adjustment, the researcher proposes the school management support program tagged as “Fil-Indo Series”. The program includes four main phases/stages patterned from Lysgaard’s U-Curve Theory of Cultural Adjustment. Each stage has its program designed to address the needs of the Filipino expatriate teachers, which likewise highlights the role of school management support. From these, future studies should include other predictors (e.g., expatriate adjustment, teaching resources, language proficiency) to build a more comprehensive model.