Contexture of out-of-field teaching in selected public national high schools: Implication for practice and policy formulation

The emergence of out-of-field teaching has become evident in the Department of Education. This poses wide range of research gaps that need investigations. Consequently, this research study was implemented with the aim of exploring the phenomenon of out-of-field teachers in Santa Cruz, Ilocos Sur. The study used a qualitative case study research design that utilized aide-mémoire as the main data gathering tool; the semi-structured interview questions was based on established a priori codes to ensure answer relevancy in terms of covering the four foci of the study: emergence of out-of-field teaching, difficulties encountered, gains acquired, and implications of findings for practice and policy formulation. Ten out-of-field teachers from Santa Cruz, Ilocos Sur were interviewed. Results of the thematic analysis discovered that outof-field teaching was caused by the shortage of teachers. Likewise, the study revealed that teachers struggled in terms of using appropriate teaching strategies. They also became adaptable due to the exposure of unfamiliar subject areas. Hence, support to teachers should be the priority of future policies to ensure that out-of-field teachers can manage the demands for their roles.