What Is A Director Of Studies And Should You Be One?

While being an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher is a career in itself, many people find themselves wanting to branch out after a few years of teaching. If you’re considering a career change, you’ve come to the right place. Fortunately, there are quite a few other job options in the TEFL field. 

Choosing the right one depends on your interests and experience. But making a choice like this can be overwhelming when there’s so much to choose from! And we get that. So, we’re here to help!

In this post, we discuss one option: Director of Studies (DoS). A position well-suited to experienced TEFL teachers who are looking for a change of pace and want to do something more than only teaching.

Read more: The Different Jobs Of A TEFL Teacher

What is a Director of Studies?

A Director of Studies, or DoS, is a senior academic administrator who is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of a language school. They hold more authority than a teacher, but they are not part of senior management. Their position forms the middle ground between the classroom and the director’s office.

What does a Director of Studies do?

The Director of Studies is essentially the academic manager of a language school. Their responsibilities span across administrative, managerial, and academic domains, including:

• Academic leadership: Designing curricula, selecting coursebooks, and ensuring high teaching standards. 
• Teacher management: Recruiting, onboarding, scheduling, and conducting professional development workshops or performance observations for the teaching staff. Since they manage the school’s staffing, they’re the person that teachers will report to when they’re late or sick so that their classes are always covered. 
• Student administration: Handling level placements, managing student complaints, and overseeing examinations.
• Operations: Acting as the bridge between the teaching staff and the business/school owners. This means that you may need to help with devising strategies to reach new students and expanding the current scope of the school. 

The DoS is ultimately responsible for the quality of teaching and learning in the school.  

What skills does a Director of Studies need?

Being a DoS means building and maintaining rapport between the teachers in your teaching team, building and preserving motivation in your staff room, ensuring clear communication between the different parts of the school, and ensuring satisfaction on all levels. To be a DoS, you need to have strong analytical and organisational skills, be good with figures (budgets don’t balance themselves!), be a leader and a team player. 

To sum it up, a DoS needs to be a strong all-rounder who is also extremely knowledgeable about English language teaching, as your peers look to you as the academic authority in the school.

Read more: Transferable Skills For TEFL Teachers

How do I become a Director of Studies?

Climbing to a DoS position usually requires a mix of qualifications and classroom experience. 

Firstly, you need to have plenty of teaching experience. This position depends on someone who has spent enough time in the classroom to truly understand what teachers and students need on a daily basis. 

Depending on the language school, a degree may be required. Although the main condition is that you are a seasoned teacher. Any business or management experience would also be advantageous since this job includes elements from many different fields. 

To become a Director of Studies, you will need to work your way up. This means becoming a teacher and then volunteering for opportunities that go beyond your normal duties. This could mean taking on new responsibilities or receiving additional training. With time, doors will start to open, and you’ll be on the path towards becoming a DoS.

Read more: Is A Master’s In TESOL Worth It?

What are the pros and cons of being a DoS in TEFL?

Apart from receiving a higher salary, a DoS gets to experience the school and its operations more broadly. Compared to a standard teaching role, a DoS position offers greater career progression and stability. It also allows you to play a bigger role in shaping the school’s curriculum and improving the overall standard of teaching. 

As for the cons, you will barely spend any time teaching. Instead, you will be required to focus on administrative tasks or attending meetings. The position is stressful since it places a significant amount of responsibility on your shoulders. Students, parents, teachers, and upper management will come to you with their various concerns and issues, which is a lot to handle by yourself. 

Another disadvantage of this position is that tough conversations come with the territory. At times, you’ll need to deliver constructive feedback to your peers, handle disgruntled students or parents, or be the bearer of bad news.

Is it right for me?

As a DoS, you need to have quite a bit of experience as a teacher, but you will do very little teaching in this particular role. In some cases, you may need to jump in and teach a last-minute class if a teacher is sick and there is no one to cover. Other than that, your teaching hours are kept to a minimum, if you have any at all. So, if you enjoy teaching students, then this position might not be the right fit. 

But if you are:

• enthusiastic about education and language teaching, 
• have a mind for admin, and
• aren’t afraid to have the difficult conversations,

then a Director of Studies position may be the perfect opportunity to turn that passion into something bigger than a classroom. 

As you can see, being a DoS makes use of a lot of the skills you gained as a teacher, with a few added extras as well. Teaching experience is vital to be a DoS, as it gives you the understanding you need of a school from the teachers’ and the students’ perspectives. But you need to want to leave the classroom and join the administrative side of education as well. If this sounds like you, you should think about studying further and becoming a Director of Studies one day.

Author Bio

Written by

Claire Herbert

Edited by Kirsten Colquhoun

Claire Herbert is a TEFL-certified writer and course content developer for The TEFL Academy. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Languages (Spanish and English) from the University of Pretoria. Although her early experiences involved tutoring English literature at the university and hosting conversational English classes, Claire has now switched to developing courses and educational content to help train new TEFL teachers around the world. Read Claire Herbert's story →