Teaching Between Systems
Field notes from a teacher living two English-teaching realities
On Monday afternoon, I’m in a classroom at one job discussing feedback strategies with B1 students who are used to reflecting on their own learning.
On Tuesday morning, I’m standing at my other job in front of a group of Brazilian high schoolers whose immediate goal is clear: perform well on ENEM and PAS.
Same teacher.
Same language.
Completely different worlds.
This semester I started teaching at a local private High School while continuing my work at my old language institute. This was not a transition. I didn’t “leave” one context for another. I made a deliberate decision to live in both at the same time.
Not as a logistical choice, but as a professional inquiry (and financial necessity).
This month’s series is my field journal.
Why write about this?
Well… the answer is not that simple. So I was brainstorming for this series and here are my notes on the subject:
When I started teaching 20 years ago, it used to be that most English teachers in Brazil built their careers inside a single system.
You either taught in a language institute or taught in a regular school. As a result, that system shapes what you believe about learning, what you prioritize in class, what you consider “success” and even what you think proficiency actually is.
But nowadays, the economy is forcing us into being hybrid professionals. More and more teachers are teaching in both systems.
So, while English teaching in Brazil typically begins in language institutes or regular schools, a lot of professionals have started to transition into specialized niches, such as bilingual education, business English, or independent consulting.
So what happens when you experience both — simultaneously?
Not in theory.
Not in workshops.
But in your weekly lesson planning, your feedback, your fatigue, your small classroom decisions.
You start to notice tensions that are usually invisible.
The question guiding this journey
Here’s what happened…
Before classes started at the school, a parent came to me and asked if the English I was going to teach was enough so that he could take his daughter out of the language institute.
It’s a completely understandable expectation. If a student has English at school, it should be enough, right?
But I had to answer no.
Not because one context is better than the other, but because the objectives are fundamentally different.
At school, my role is to prepare students to perform well on PAS and ENEM — to develop strategic reading, exam awareness, and the specific skills those assessments demand.
At the language institute, the goal is long-term proficiency: independence in English, communicative confidence, and the ability to use the language beyond a test.
So that begs the question:
What happens to English teaching when proficiency, exams, and real classroom constraints collide?
And, on a more personal level:
How does living in these two systems at the same time reshape my practice as a teacher and instructional coach?
This is not a diary.
This is not a comparison to decide which context is “better”.
It is an attempt to understand what each system reveals about:
learning
teaching
assessment
student identity
teacher expertise
Two systems, two definitions of success
If a student gets a high score on a reading exam but cannot use English to express basic personal meaning, are they successful?
If a student can communicate well but struggles with the exam that will open the doors to university, are we serving them well?
These are not abstract debates anymore.
They are in my lesson plans every week.
What I will be observing
In the coming posts, I’ll be observing and analyzing what my students believe English is for, how motivation changes across contexts, the impact of exam pressure on pedagogy (what gets prioritized and what gets sacrificed), materials and their hidden pedagogical messages, feedback practices and the cognitive and emotional load of teaching in both systems.
This is also about teacher identity
There is another layer to this experience.
Living in these two systems is forcing me to confront my own assumptions about what I value more: proficiency or performance? This makes me wonder what it means to teach “well” in each context.
For years, I have worked as a teacher and instructional coach discussing innovation, learning, and pedagogy. But now, instead of 90-minute classes, I’m stuck with 45-minute classes. How does that affect my teaching and my planning?
Hopefully, in the best possible way. Time will tell.
Because it is making my thinking less theoretical and more accountable to reality.
An invitation
If you teach in a regular school, a language institute, or move between both, this series is for you.
If you constantly feel the tension between teaching for learning and teaching for the test, then this series is for you.
If you are trying to become a more intentional, expert teacher inside real constraints, then this series is for you.
This is not a story about my new job.
It is an ongoing investigation into what English teaching in Brazil really looks like when we stop romanticizing both systems and start observing them carefully.