Out-of-Field Teaching and Education Policy: International Micro-Education Policy

Out-of-field teaching is a very common phenomenon in schooling systems around the globe, in both developed and developing nations. It is a phenomenon that is by and large ignored in and by education policy. Indeed, there has been a deafening silence about it in policy terms. Until quite recently, it has also been basically ignored in educational research as well. In Out-of-Field Teaching and Education Policy, the concept of out-of-field teaching is defined as “teaching that falls outside a teacher’s field of qualification or expertise.” This might refer to a secondary teacher being responsible for a subject that they do not have qualifications in or a primary teacher working with a year level that they have not been prepared to teach. Disturbingly, it seems that it is beginning teachers that are most often placed in this situation of being responsible for classes outside their areas of expertise. Out-of-field teaching is differentiated from teaching across subjects where teachers teach across their subject specialisations. Out-of-field teaching would seem to be one factor contributing to poor retention of early-career teachers.