Our School Hakuba International School is a new international boarding school (opened in 2022), located in the beautiful Hakuba Valley in the Japanese Alps. Our school is dedicated to answering the driving question: What kind of education enables people and the planet to flourish? Our focus is on personal and environmental well-being, combined with deeper learning methods to develop leaders who can solve the world’s most complex problems.
We are an intentionally small school, serving approximately 50 students in grades 7-10 during the 2024-25 school year, and adding one grade per year until 12th grade, reaching an eventual full size of 150 students. For more about our school’s background and methods, please visit www.hakuba-is.jp.
FacultyRoles
We call faculty members guides, and see their first role as supporting a healthy community in which students feel safe, challenged, and invited to discover their own full potential. Every faculty member is also an advisor to students, which we see as being equally important to their teaching capacities. This means that we hire for who you are as much as for your professional knowledge, and we offer significant creative autonomy so you can bring your gifts into action.
Humanities Guide
Fundamentals: This is a full-time faculty role. We require at least 3 years of full-time humanities teaching experience at the middle or high school levels, and would prefer 5-10+ years. At least some project-based, Harkness Method, or Socratic method experience is strongly preferred. Experience in international schools or in boarding schools is not required but is a plus. Japanese language is not required.
Focus Areas: We are hiring for two new Humanities faculty, one with specialisation in teaching English and one in Social Studies / History. Because much of our teaching is interdisciplinary, we welcome candidates who have both of these abilities, and/or who mix in other subject expertise.
Teaching: Our teaching style prioritises student voice and choice and is built on a project-based approach. This role includes designing and teaching English and Social Studies / History curriculum for middle and high school students. This is taught in two primary ways: interdisciplinary projects, which meet for four 2.5hr project blocks per week for a 6-8 week intensive, and/or shorter 1-hour afternoon blocks which are more focused on skill-building.
Advising: This role would also serve as an advisor, supporting the social-emotional needs for a small cohort of 6-8 students. While we provide training on social-emotional learning and advisory facilitation, some prior experience in these domains, formally or informally, is preferred.
Other Responsibilities: All full-time faculty also have rotating residential duties, estimated at one weekend and two evenings per 6 weeks. Faculty are also responsible for supporting at least one after-school activity or club (typically meeting one or two afternoons per week for 60-90 minutes). As a small school still in the startup phase, there are many other small roles circulating among the team, such as helping with the yearbook, scheduling after-school activities, supervision coverages for certain spaces, etc, and everyone is asked to contribute in areas of expertise or interest, depending on needs and a sustainable working schedule for all. All guides should also enjoy participating in outdoor activities and planning different learning expeditions in the village and natural areas around us.
Personal Qualities: We’re looking for someone excited about building a new school, ready for the startup experience, and passionate about a more holistic, humane approach to education. We believe learning is naturally fun and playful, and we try to live that way too. We’re building a team of people who are kind-hearted, open-minded, resilient, and creative.
Structure
Compensation: Commensurate with experience.
Benefits: Our benefits include a housing stipend, relocation stipend, annual home leave travel allowance, lunches on academic days, a laptop, and many professional development opportunities (project-based learning, the Compassionate Systems Framework, social-emotional learning, and others). All employees are also enrolled in the Japanese healthcare system, national pension system, and unemployment and worker’s compensation insurance.
Visas: We sponsor visas for candidates applying from outside of Japan, and our faculty come from many countries around the world. Learn more about our team here!
Timing: This role begins in early August 2024, for training and onboarding prior to the start of our 2024-25 school year. We will conduct interviews on a rolling basis beginning in November 2023, and will make a hire as soon as the right candidate is identified. Our school year follows a late August to mid-June schedule (see current-year calendar here).