The challenges to maintaining pedagogical effectiveness in an ever-changing education landscape not only turn focus on the professional development of teachers and their teaching practices but also emphasise the preparation of pre-service teachers and their skill development to practice pedagogical flexibility and mobility while focusing on contextconsciousness [1]. Preparedness for classroom demands involves a sound knowledge foundation built on content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, as discussed by Shulman [2,3].

In a rapidly changing workforce environment with skill shortages and a need for different pathways to training and education, vocational education and training (VET) has a significant influence on building stability in the workforce. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the causes, implications, and consequences of the out-of-field teaching phenomenon for VET. This phenomenological study examines VET teachers’ lived experiences and professional identity as an approach for studying out-of-field teaching in VET. The findings highlight the complex nature of out-of-field teaching in the economic culture of VET, with unique dilemmas. VET teachers experience conflicting and dilemmatic situations regarding occupational professionalism when they are expected to teach outside of their expertise while they are held responsible for students’ safe learning environments, outcomes, and satisfaction. The study revealed aspects of harmonious and tensioned relationships between these elements of the work and teachers’ identities. In conclusion, evidence-informed strategies are shared to support teachers’ capacity building and approaches to address concerns of the out-of-field phenomenon and the influence it has on quality teaching in VET.

Second career preservice teachers' perceptions about the out-of-field teaching phenomenon might influence career decisions, such as retention and attrition. A target group of 133 second career graduating Master of Teaching students voluntarily participated in this mixed method study which offered findings through analysed open and Likert-scale questions and semi-structured interview data. The pilot offers new information about second career preservice teachers' perceptions about their possible involvement in out-of-field teaching practices and the phenomenon's implications for capabilities, skills knowledge, self-efficacy, support needs and professional identity. A critical reflection on quality teaching and teacher training programs, and preparation for the teaching profession form the foundation for further research in this field. The analyses further stimulate a deeper understanding of the future second career teaching workforce and perceptions of support resources.

Out-Of-Field-Teaching (OOFT) is increasingly prevalent as teacher shortages reduce the availability of qualified teachers in a range of subject areas. In Australia, teacher shortages in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) field has long been acknowledged; however, there are workforce gaps in many subject areas, including home economics and related fields, such as food and nutrition, textiles and health. Teacher shortages are not confined to the Australian context. Global shortages are a challenge identified by UNESCO as a critical factor impacting the capacity to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education by 2030 (UNESCO, 2016). The demand and supply of qualified home economics teachers in Australia is not a new problem. Pendergast and colleagues (2000) highlighted more than two decades ago some challenges and implications for the home economics discipline including: OOFTs lacking expert knowledge, pedagogical content and skills; workplace health and safety concerns; a lack of identity and misunderstanding of the discipline area such as assessment processes, practices and theories—all of which may negatively impact student learning, teacher effectiveness and student access to expert role models. As the home economics field faces challenges such as a lack of specialist programs to educate in-field, OOFTs are more likely to be a feature of home economics classrooms, hence the impetus for this current investigation. In order to explore the OOFT phenomenon in home economics at a global level, a two-stage process was followed: 1) a Systematic Quantitative Literature Review (SQLR) was conducted to identify the informing literature, and 2) an online survey was administered. 470 respondents from 14 countries completed all questions in the survey, of whom 440 were teachers in schools.