• Position: Full-time or Part-time Japanese Instructor
• Reports to: Modern Languages Department Chair
• Status:  Exempt (Salaried)
• Pay Scale: $68,000-$100,000 base salary determined by years of experience (Full-time)
• Housing: Possible, not required - responsibilities vary based on housing status
• Contact: hiring@cate.org

To Apply:  Please submit your cover letter, resume, and a list of all previous school or educational institution employers, including city and state, in accordance with CA SB 848 to the hiring team at hiring@cate.org.

The Role:

Job Description for Japanese Instructor

Cate School is seeking applicants for an open role as a Japanese instructor. The position will formally begin August 2026. We are open to either part-time or full-time candidates for the 2026-27 school year, with the understanding the role would definitively be full time for the 2027-28 school year. 

In addition to classroom instruction, teachers participate in department meetings, and faculty meetings, as well as all-school events such as move-in weekend, family weekends, and commencement. Teachers motivate the greatest growth possible for all students by planning and running engaging classes, by assigning meaningful homework, and by offering office hours both during the academic day and during the evening.

Our Japanese teacher serves as a primary liaison for our sister school in Japan. In this capacity they help coordinate annual visits, reciprocal student exchanges, and a biannual trip for Cate students to visit Japan in June. 

In order to foster deep and multifaceted relationships with students, all Cate faculty members are involved in programming outside of the classroom, such as coaching or serving as a dorm parent or advisor. These responsibilities are either associated with housing for residential faculty, or come with a stipend for those not housed by Cate. 

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 Japanese Instructor, these essential expectations manifest as:

• Practice excellent teaching:
• plan, prepare, and design activities that engage students in inquiry and facilitate active learning experiences, especially through active inquiry (Modern Language Department Inquiry Model)
• practice inclusive teaching by creating lessons and instructional moves that accommodate a wide range of students’ learning needs (Inclusive Teaching Model)
• 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 students' 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 Japanese 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 toward inquiry-based pedagogy in language instruction.
• 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 to contribute to the school’s cocurricular and residential programs (this is important whether the role is housed or “day faculty”, but the scale of the responsibilities does vary based on housing status).
• 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. 

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

• minimally a BS or BA in Japanese language and training for teaching Japanese to nonnative speakers or similar.
• teaching experience in high school or college Japanese language 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

Job Benefits:

This position comes with full benefits that include robust Health/Dental/Life insurance, Retirement and PTO plans.

Commitment to Supporting Diverse and Qualified Candidates

Cate School seeks educators who want to live and work in a small, diverse, mission-driven boarding community on California’s Central Coast. We welcome applicants whose priorities align with our pillars of commitment, scholarship, companionship, and service, and we are steadfast in our commitment to Equal Opportunity Employment. Research shows that women and BIPOC candidates may hesitate to apply if they don’t meet every listed qualification, so we encourage all who believe they have the skills and potential to thrive to submit an application. Our hiring process is designed to minimize bias by focusing on core competencies and the experiences that best demonstrate them.

Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

Cate School is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, pregnancy, childbirth, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition including genetic characteristics, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender, gender identity, genetic information or any other category protected under federal or local law.

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