Session Information
23 SES 03 C, Policy Reforms and Teachers’ Work (Part 2): 1030/460/2211
Paper Session continued from 23 SES 02 C
Contribution
This paper examines the phenomenon of Teaching Out of Field (TOOF) within the context of an international drive for Teacher Professional Standards and contemporary industrial and economic factors impacting on teachers’ work across a range of international settings. This paper fits within the overall theme of the conference in that it problematizes what is a dominant paradigm impacting on teachers’ work – the Teacher Professional Standards movement. By identifying possible or apparent anomalies in a dominant discourse the paper reflects a researchers’ fundamental responsibility to question and critique taken for granted assumptions.
RQ
The paper explores the following questions across a range of international settings:
What is TOOF (or how is it defined)?
What is the extent of TOOF (where does it exist and how is it reported?)
Why does TOOF exist (what factors contribute to its existence)?
What are the current employment conditions for teachers (e.g. entry requirements to higher education and the profession, supply and demand, casualization, pay, status)?
How does TOOF ‘fit’ within Teacher Professional Standards agendas and discourses?
Objective
The aim of the paper is to examine the phenomenon of Teaching Out of Field (TOOF) as it currently exists across a range of international settings. The incidence of TOOF, explanations for its existence and potential impact on teachers’ work and student cohorts will be highlighted, based on an examination of published policy documents, relevant literature and public commentary. Importantly, analysis of the phenomenon will be set within the context of the international Teacher Professional Standards movement which seeks to monitor, measure, evaluate and prescribe teacher professional attributes in arguably increasingly narrow and measurable ways. Ultimately the paper raises questions regarding the extent to which the phenomenon of Teaching Out of Field fits within the rhetoric and discourses surrounding the Teacher Professional Standards movement or whether it exists as an anomaly or an administrative convenience, echoing perhaps what Albert Shanker, the former head of the American Teachers’ Federation, described as “Educations dirty little secret” (Ingersoll, 2003, p3).
Teaching Out of Field is most simply understood as ‘teachers assigned by administrators to teach subjects which do not match their training or education’ (Ingersoll, 2003, p. 5). Or perhaps more precisely described as “Teaching in a subject/field for which a teacher has neither a major nor minor tertiary (university) teaching qualification. Also it means teaching at a level of schooling for which a teacher is not formally qualified”(McConney & Price, 2009, p. 1).
Conceptual Framework
The conundrum posed in this paper is quite simply how is it that within the context of increasingly regularized teacher certification and evaluation regimes can teachers regularly and consistently teach out of field. Conceptually, this paper considers the fundamental understandings or propositions that underpin the teacher standards movement such as graduate and teacher certification requirements and juxtaposes these with the prevalence and acceptance of Teaching Out of Field. The paper draws on critical and interpretive policy studiesusing global perspectives as propounded by such authors as Ball (1993) and Ozga and Lingard 2007.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Ball (1993). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Educational Policy VOL. 18, NO. 2, 215-228. Darling-Hammond, L. (2002). Research and Rhetoric on Teacher Certification: A Response to “Teacher Certification Reconsidered”. Education Policy Analysis Archives. 10 (36). Retrieved July 2008 from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n36.html. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). (2008). Staff in Australia’s Schools 2007. Australian Council for Educational Research and Australian College of Educators. Australia. Retrieved August 2008 from http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/publications_resources/profiles/sias2007#p publication Ingersoll, R.M. (2003). Out-of-Field Teaching and the Limits of Teacher Policy. Centre for the Study of Teaching and Policy and the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, University of Washington. Retrieved August 2008 from http://depts.washington.edu/ctpmail/PDFs/LimitsPolicy-RI-09-2003.pdf. Ingersoll, R.M. and Curran, B.K. (2004). Out-of-Field Teaching: The Great Obstacle to Meeting the “Highly Qualified” Teacher Challenge. NGA Centre for Best Practices. Issue Brief. Retrieved August 2008 from http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0408HQTEACHER.pdf McConney, A. & Price, A. (2009). An Assessment of the Phenomenon of "Teaching Out-of-Field" in WA Schools: Final Report. Perth, WA: Western Australian College of Teaching (WACOT). Available at http://membership.wacot.wa.edu.au/Assessment_of_Teaching_Out_of_Field_Final_Report_f or_publication.pdf McConney, A and Price, A. (2010) "Teaching Out-of-Field in Western Australia," Australian Journal of Teacher Education: Vol. 34. 6, Article 6. Available at: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol34/iss6/6 Ozga, J. and Lingard, B. (2007) Globalisation, education policy and politics. In B. Lingard and J. Ozga (eds.). The Routledge Falmer reader in education policy and politics. London: Routledge, pp. 65 – 82. Sharplin, E. (2014). Reconceptualising out-of-field teaching: experiences of rural teachers in Western Australia. Educational Research. Vol. 56, No. 1, 97–110, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2013.874160 Shimon, J. & Brawdy, P. (2003) Out-of-Field Teaching in Physical Education Teacher Education: Should We Be Concerned? Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 74:3, 12-15, DOI: 10.1080/07303084.2003.10608462 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07303084.2003.10608462 Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (2014) Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers, available at http://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/teacher-education-ministerial-advisory-group Thomas, J. (2000). Mathematical Sciences in Australia: Looking for a Future. Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies. Occasional Papers Series No.3. Retrieved 19 Sept 2008 from http://www.fasts.org/images/occasional- papers/Lookingfor_future.pdf Webster. E., Wooden M. & Marks, G. (2006). Reforming the Labour Market for Australian Teachers. Australian Journal of Education, Vol. 50, 185-202.
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