Abstract
M.Ed. (Educational Management)
After 1996 the government introduced a nationwide process to transform the country’s curriculum system and
embarked on a process of syllabi revision and subject rationalization. This resulted in the implementation of
Curriculum 2005 (C-2005) which was revised to become the new National Curriculum Statement (NCS) (DoE, 2006).
The most recent development is the implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement Grade R-12
(CAPS). Changing the curriculum, usually impacts directly on school management and the utilization of teaching
staff, and inadvertently, the effectiveness of the school as an organization of teaching and learning. As a result, new
subject or learning areas were introduced not matching the teachers’ qualifications prior to the introduction of the new
curriculum resulting in so called out-of-field teaching.
It is against this backdrop that the study aims to investigate the perceptions of secondary school managers and
teachers regarding out-of-field teaching within Johannesburg North District. Concepts such as curriculum, out-of-field
teaching, teacher perceptions, school managers and teacher workload were discussed. The influence of conceptual
and pedagogical knowledge in teaching, staff provision, policies regulating teacher education in South Africa were
investigated and discussed to gain insight into the impact of out-of-field teaching in schools in the Johannesburg
North District.
The research design of this study follows a quantitative approach. Ten Secondary schools were sampled, and data
was collected through a structured questionnaire consisting of closed-ended questions which guided the statistical
analysis of this research. The findings show that out-of-field teaching does exist in secondary schools. And that
learning areas and teaching success are affected in various ways.
The researcher recommended that the problem of out-of-field teaching should be addressed by adopting regulations
to prevent it as soon as possible and re-align teacher training tertiary education institutions. This can be achieved by
opening teachers’ training colleges which can offer training of critical learning areas where there is a shortage of
teachers and centralizing the teacher selection process and recommendations for appointment to avoid corrupt
political influence and nepotism.