Kriewaldt, J. & Lee, S.J. (2022). Tracking the extent of out-of-field teaching of geography. Geographical Education, 35, 46-51.

Abstract This article reports on out-of-field (OOF) geography teaching in Australia. Participants were 298 teachers who responded to a national survey in late 2019. Findings indicate that OOF teaching remains prevalent in Australian geography classrooms which affects students’ experience of learning geography. It also reports on the effects of policies in diminishing the focus on subject specialisms. The article proposes that teachers’ capacity to make discretionary judgements about what to teach and how to teach it is challenged when they don’t have their specialised expertise in the domain in which they teach, and therefore in field teachers must be recruited and OOF teachers must be provided with professional development in content and in pedagogy and supported by specialised guidance by in-field colleagues. The prevalence of OOF geography teachers has implications for teacher identity formation and may lead to diminished job satisfaction and contribute to teacher shortages.