Leading teachers through the storm: Looking beyond the numbers and turning the implications of out-of-field teaching practices into positive challenges

•School leaders are responsible and accountable to lead out-of-field teachers towards success.•School leaders’ awareness of out-of-field teachers’ lived experiences transform and inform leadership styles.•Out-of-field teaching practices and experiences have the potential to be transformed into positive challenges and professional learning opportunities depending on leaders support.•School leaders’ focus on human capital through in-depth discussions with out-of-field teachers stimulates open communication and encourage negotiations which can transform the implications the out-of-field phenomenon have for performance and achievement in the teaching and learning environment.

This paper claims that well informed and engaged school leaders turn the implications of out-of-field teaching practices into positive challenges. Teachers teaching outside their fields of qualification or expertise influence the quality of teaching and learning. A phenomenological approach moves beyond existing statistics on the out-of-field phenomenon towards an in-depth understanding of the lifeworld of teachers in these positions. Through various lenses of educational directors, principals, specialists, out-of-field teachers and parents, the paper examines unsettling truths about the pressures surrounding the out-of-field phenomenon. The findings offer evidence of the transformation school leaders can bring about. The paper asserts that an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon influences school leaders’ decisions. Identification of tension between lived experiences and leaders’ perceptions inform recommendations.