Philippine E-Journals

Teaching Outside the Box: Senior High School Teaching Experiences, Challenges, and Windows of Innovations of Non-Social Science Majors

Marco J. Branzuela | Eufemia C. Ayro | Michaela Jennarine DL Cruz-Vidal

 

Abstract:

Teaching outside one field of specialization has been a challenge in education. This happens when teachers are assigned to teach a subject not aligned with their expertise. This phenomenon caused challenges in education such as teacher confidence and student achievements. This research explored the experiences of non-social science majors in teaching social sciences in senior high school. It utilized a mixed-method approach. Particularly, descriptive analysis and case study was employed in this study. Frequency counts, mean, standard deviation, and percentages were used to describe the profile and experiences of the respondents. Thematic analysis was employed to identify the challenges experienced by the participants. Sixty respondents from public and private senior high schools in the Division of Nueva Ecija and Cabanatuan City took the survey to identify their teaching experiences. Five out-of-field social science teachers who were severely challenged were invited to an interview. Results revealed that more female teachers were engaged in out of-field teaching. Moreover, teachers aged 26-30 are more likely to be assigned to out-of-field teaching. Also, both public and private schools experience the challenge of out-of-field teaching. Most of the teachers engaged in this scenario were non-education graduates. Core subjects under social sciences are the common subjects taught by non-social science majors. The survey revealed the experiences of non-social science majors in their mastery of the subject handled, ability to prepare scholarly learning material, classroom pedagogy/classroom activity, and psychosocial guidance to students for college preparations. It is discovered that nonsocial science majors always adhere to the challenges posed by out of-field teaching. However, psychosocial guidance to students for college preparation was the domain that makes it challenging for non-social science majors to overcome. Five themes emerged based on this study; out of-field teaching experiences, challenges of non-social science majors, coping mechanisms employed by non-social science majors, perception of non-social majors, and roles of school administrators. The COPE approach was devised to aid teachers, school administrators, and the Department of Education to mitigate the challenges posed by out-of-field teaching experiences.