Transitioning into the profession with an out-of-field teaching load

In Australian secondary schools, reports show there is a high incidence of geography being taught by an out-of-field teacher. It is also reported that there are a high proportion of specialist geography teachers who are not teaching geography. This chapter reports on findings from a recent longitudinal, qualitative study of five pre-service teachers (PSTs) as they transition into the profession. Participants enter the profession and their early career years with an expectation of being able to teach geography as their specialist subject. However, not only did their timetable include an out-of-field teaching load, they were also called upon to support out-of-field colleagues to teach geography. Reflexivity theory and the professional standards for teaching geography are used to analyse data. Results show a sustained and explicit process of theory-practice reflection enabled the PSTs to discern, deliberate and act upon the strength of their personal values and beliefs about teaching overall and about teaching geography to overcome the constraint of out-of-field teaching.