Teaching Out of Field: How Non-Philosophy Majors Navigate the Senior High School Philosophy Classroom in Zamboanga City
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21890700Keywords:
out-of-field teaching, phenomenology, philosophy education, senior high school, teacher specializationAbstract
This study explored the lived experiences of senior high school teachers assigned to teach Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person under the Philippine K to 12 curriculum. The program's rapid rollout generated an urgent need for qualified philosophy instructors that the education system could not meet, so the subject was often taught by educators whose academic training lay outside philosophy. Utilizing a qualitative research design anchored on the phenomenological method, this study gathered data beginning in January 2017 from 12 senior high school teachers, non-philosophy majors teaching the subject across four school sites in Zamboanga City, Philippines: a state university, a private university, and a state college, each offering the senior high school program, and a public high school, the only purely secondary institution among them. Selected through purposive and convenience sampling, the teachers served as key informants in semi-structured interviews guided by an eight-item interview guide covering their background, challenges, coping mechanisms, and remedies; transcripts were analyzed thematically. Results revealed that participants' difficulties originated primarily from a mismatch between their specialization and the philosophical content taught. Ten of the twelve had taught the subject for five months to one year, and most reported difficulty understanding philosophical concepts, mastering content, identifying appropriate pedagogy, and securing adequate references. To cope, teachers relied on self-directed research, collegial consultation with philosophy specialists, and the Department of Education's curriculum guide and modules, supplemented by activity-based classroom strategies. The experience also exacted a psycho-emotional toll, surfacing as stress, embarrassment, and diminished confidence, consistent with prior out-of-field teaching research. Participants recommended sustained training and seminars, adequate instructional materials, and the hiring of qualified philosophy specialists. The study concludes that out-of-field teaching of philosophy poses a perceived risk to the quality of senior high school instruction and calls for systemic institutional support.
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