Position: Photography Instructor (short term, August 14, 2025 - December 18, 2025)

Reports to: Joy Doyle, Visual Arts Department Chair

Date Written: January 2025

Status: Exempt (Salaried)

Pay Scale: $25,500

Contact: Troy Shapiro, Dean for Faculty, troy_shapiro@cate.org;  

805-684-4127 ext. 260

School Overview

Cate School is committed to attracting and retaining a highly talented and diverse community.  We seek applications from candidates who are eager to live among and teach young people from all over the world. A small co-educational boarding school on the Central Coast of California, Cate School offers a career opportunity for educators whose priorities and purposes mirror the four pillars of our mission statement--commitment, scholarship, companionship, and service.  

Cate School is committed to a policy of Equal Opportunity Employment and nondiscrimination in the treatment of employees or applicants for employment without consideration of race, color, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information, gender or gender identity. Research suggests that qualified women, Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) may self-select out of opportunities if they don't meet 100% of the job requirements. We encourage individuals who believe they have the skills necessary to thrive to apply for this role.

Cate’s hiring process seeks to minimize bias by focusing on candidates core competencies for each role. Candidates are encouraged to target application materials (cover letters, interview responses) on experiences that illuminate their proficiency in and/or aptitude for acquiring these core competencies.   

Leave Coverage

This role provides coverage for a member of the Visual Arts Department who is away on leave through the end of the calendar year 2025.

The Role

Job Description for Photography Instructor (short term)

Cate School is currently seeking highly qualified Photography teaching candidates. Cate offers Photography classes for 9th through 12th graders, with offerings at the Foundational Level through Advanced college-level course work. Cate courses at all levels center around an inquiry-based pedagogy.

The teacher that fills this role should expect to teach about 5 sections including Foundation Arts (our 9th grade program) Photo 1, 2, and 3, (courses available to 10th, 11th, and 12th graders). Arts teachers are available to students for additional support between classes during the academic day.

At Cate, we place a high value on deep and multifaceted relationships with students. Generally, Cate faculty members are involved in programming outside of the classroom, such as coaching or serving as a dorm parent and advisor. These responsibilities are either associated with housing for residential faculty, or come with a stipend for those not housed by Cate. As a temporary position, the teacher that fills this role, though not eligible for campus housing, is welcome to participate in community events and/or express interest in a coaching role, but may choose to focus exclusively on classroom instruction. 

All Cate Employees live up to the following Essential Expectations: 

1. Overtly support and act according to the school’s mission and values.
2. Foster a safe, predictable, and supportive environment for employees and students.
3. Interact with colleagues in a respectful and collegial manner that fosters a healthy culture for living, learning, and working together.
4. Demonstrate commitment and courage in service of building our school culture where diversity is affirmed and supported. 
5. Demonstrate appropriate planning and preparation to meet the complex and evolving needs of your role. 
6. Uphold professional standards of predictable presence, reliable responses, and relational trust.
7. Appropriately steward strategic and special projects associated with role or team. 
8. Honor the confidentiality of School, student, and family information.
9. Comply with policies and procedures as articulated in the School's Employee Handbook.
10. Authentically engage in self-reflection in service to professional growth and adapting to the evolving needs of the school. 

In the role of Photography Instructor, these essential expectations manifest as:

• Practice excellent teaching:
• plan, prepare, and design activities that engage students in inquiry and facilitate active learning experiences
• be knowledgeable of and incorporate national standards and best practices
• identify and select differentiated instructional resources and methods to meet students' varying needs
• guide and monitor student learning and growth through formative assessment and appropriate feedback
• assign and grade class work, homework, tests, and assignments in a timely, fair, and consistent manner
• maintain accurate and complete records of student's progress and development
• keep updated with developments in the subject area and with teaching resources and methods, make relevant changes to instructional plans and activities, and be willing to grow professionally and attend conferences

• Collaborate
• work within course teams and department to deliver consistent, high-quality instruction
• contribute to school wide curricular priorities and initiatives
• participate in department, school, student support, and parent meetings 
• communicate necessary information regularly to students, colleagues, and parents regarding student progress and student needs

• Continue to Learn
• maintain a commitment to continuous professional growth through reflective practice, evaluative feedback, and evolving school needs
• stay up-to-date with curriculum standards, developments in education, teaching resources and methods, and incorporate new learning into teaching practices
• invest in continuous education related to the school’s educational priorities

• Demonstrate commitment to DEI work
• foster a sense of belonging for each student in Spanish and at Cate 
• practice inclusive teaching techniques for lesson planning, classroom instruction, assessment, and curriculum design
• recognize, interrupt, and address incidents of bias among students and colleagues if they arise 
• Engage in continuous learning about our own identities, privilege, bias, and contributing to an anti-racist learning environment

The Candidate

Successful candidates will demonstrate their ability to meet these expectations through the following core competencies: 

• Proficiency in and/or aptitude towards inquiry-based pedagogy. 
• Proficiency in inclusive teaching pedagogy including cultural competency, and the ability to communicate with, understand, and foster a sense of belonging for students of various different cultural backgrounds, values, world views and behaviors. 
• Ability and commitment to build multifaceted relationships with students, to maintain appropriate boundaries, and to leverage these relationships to support student development across all aspects of student learning and development. 
• Ability and commitment to collaborate with colleagues both within the department and as a part of the faculty as a whole. 
• Ability to develop, review, and refine curriculum to maximize student learning and sustain alignment, both horizontally and vertically within the department. 

Interested candidates should send a CV and two letters of reference to Joy Doyle at joy_doyle@cate.org and Troy Shapiro at troy_shapiro@cate.org. Applicants may also include a link to their website, portfolio, or example work.

In terms of education and experience, applicants for this position will have:

• minimally a BA in Photography or similar degree and/or experience working as a professional photographer, freelance or otherwise.
• Proficiency with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Proficiency with Google Drive.
• teaching experience in high school or college Visual Arts courses and an ability to teach across different grade levels. 
• demonstrated facility with or ability to learn LMS (Schoology, Veracross, etc.)
• demonstrated commitment to / love for working with teenagers as a role model, mentor, advisor
• demonstrated commitment to professionalism, collaboration, and growth

About Cate School

For over a century, Cate School has been blending together the tradition of the East Coast with the innovation of the West Coast in the service of a dynamic, diverse, and close-knit community. A four-year college preparatory school with a low student-to-faculty ratio, small class sizes, and inviting residential spaces, Cate’s inquiry-based program is designed to challenge, inspire, and support boarding and day students whose interests, abilities, characters, and aspirations make them individually and collectively exceptional. Join a professional community that is celebrated for its transformational pedagogy that fosters curiosity. Here, our faculty thrives within a dynamic culture driven by an unwavering dedication to the greatest growth possible, a spirit of innovation and progress, and a core of care and support for each member of this community.

Connections working at Cate School