SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Out-Of-Field Teaching Assignments

Further to John’s posting about the importance of teachers having a thorough mastery of their subjects, I thought I would raise the little-known problem of out-of-field assignment - whereby teachers are assigned to teach subjects in which they have little training or education. This happens much more than people realize, possibly stemming from a belief that teaching is teaching and as long as a teacher is good at teaching, he or she will be able to teach any subject. But this is like expecting a brain surgeon to be good at delivering babies or a real estate lawyer to be able to defend someone accused of murder.

Teachers themselves dislike out-of-field assignments and likely principals do too. But principals’ hands are tied by the present rigidities in the system - the need to hire only certified teachers, the lack of control over who teaches at their school, the inability to hire part-time teachers, the lack of control over what courses are offered at the school, and so forth. I suspect that if principals were given the same management powers as, say, company CEOs, we would see far fewer out-of-field assignments - and far more student learning as a result (not to mention happier teachers and parents).