New research: are you an out-of-field teacher keen to share your story?

By Margaret Ryan
Published June 4, 2025

Over the past 14 years, I’ve taught on and off as a primary-trained educator working mostly out-of-field - often covering maths and/or science classes (plus a swag of others) in regional NSW high schools. That’s what the teacher shortage looks like at the coalface.

I’m exploring how experienced out-of-field teachers in NSW define and maintain a sense of professional success across the past, present, and future.

A taxonomy of teachers would categorise me as out-of-field. I simply fill gaps, often at short notice, often in unfamiliar subjects.

Like many others, I do my best to make it work, juggling expectations with limited subject expertise and support.

That experience leaves me with questions I can’t shake. Can teachers assigned out-of-field build a genuine sense of success? Or are we set up to chase something that always feels just out of reach?

How a niggle has become a research project

Those questions now underpin my part-time PhD research at Deakin University. I’m exploring how experienced out-of-field teachers in NSW define and maintain a sense of professional success across the past, present, and future.

Not to define best practice, but to listen to what success really looks and feels like in these roles. It’s all about their -teachers’ - perceptions of their own success.

I’ve never fitted neatly into one professional identity. Alongside teaching, I’ve worked as a journalist and content marketing writer across education, business, and technology and have a fledgling side-hustle of business-English coaching.

That hybrid lens helps me draw out the deeper stories behind what it means to teach outside your trained area and to stay with the work anyway.

Want to share your story - or know someone who might?

I’m inviting experienced NSW high school teachers (in any sector) who are currently teaching (or have recently taught) maths or science out-of-field to take part in a six-week private online forum.

I plan to open the forum later this month, though the start date may shift slightly depending on how many teachers join.

It takes about 15 minutes a week, plus up to two optional short Zoom interviews. I’m not asking participants for their full names nor the schools where they work to reduce the risk of being identified.

The project has Deakin’s Human Research Ethics Committee’s approval (Ref: 2024/HE000079).

You can find out more and express interest here:

This research is about more than qualifications or subject knowledge. It’s about recognising the stories, strengths, and struggles that come with teaching where you weren’t originally trained.

You can also reach me at mjakovac@deakin.edu.au

*The author uses her legal surname of Jakovac for her PhD research work.