Junior Teacher: Teaching Outside Their Subject Area Not Uncommon

More than a third of novice teachers have to teach outside their subject area in their first year of employment. In primary schools, around 23 percent are at least partially deployed in subjects for which they have no training. In secondary education (especially middle schools, AHS, BMHS), it is even more at 43 percent, according to the current study "Career Entry Teaching" by the University Colleges of Teacher Education, for which 785 career entrants of the 2023/24 school year were surveyed online.

Austria above EU average

The proportion is particularly high among career entrants without a traditional teaching degree, who have come to teaching as career changers or with a special contract (45 and 60 percent, respectively). Recently, the OECD study TALIS 2024 had already shown that in Austria, teachers comparatively often teach a subject for which they are not or only partially trained (seven and nine percent, respectively). In the EU average, it was only four and eight percent, respectively.

According to the study, which is part of a multi-year cooperation project of all Austrian University Colleges of Teacher Education and the Conference of University College Rectors, the extent of teaching outside one's subject area is sometimes quite high: A quarter report teaching eight to twelve hours per week, seven percent report 22 to 25 hours. According to the survey, a third teach a subject for two to five hours without being fully trained for it.

Start with 17 teaching hours

Overall, career entrants teach an average of 17 hours in their first year. However, around a third have a full teaching obligation of 22 hours per week or even more. This is more than the allowed maximum during the induction phase, which is actually intended to ease the transition into everyday teaching through measures such as mentoring, observing experienced colleagues' teaching, and coaching at the University Colleges of Teacher Education.

In addition to traditional teaching, some career entrants are also used for tasks such as language support, inclusion, or for learning hours in all-day primary schools. Relatively often, they also serve as class teachers or homeroom teachers in their first year, although this is not actually intended by law during the induction phase. In secondary education, over a quarter are assigned as class teachers. In primary schools, where exceptions are allowed in this regard, over 31 percent are deployed as class teachers.

"The high proportions of teaching outside one's subject area and the increasing trend of premature career entry point to systemic problems," the study criticizes. If training and teaching deployment do not match, this not only affects the quality of teaching but also the satisfaction of novice teachers with their profession. Additional tasks not actually intended, such as class teacher duties, could also burden or even overwhelm career entrants.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.