1.

Problem
1.1 Description of the problem
In recent years the acquisition of English as a second language has become a crucial mean to get better
opportunities in the professional world. Consequently, in different countries the schools have started to introduce
English in the primary levels as a foreign language to improve young learners’ performance. Nevertheless, some schools
do not have in mind the necessary conditions to be successful in the process. Cameron (2011), believes that “there are
two common misconceptions related to teaching English to young learners: that teaching English is a straightforward
process that can be undertaken by anyone with a basic training in ELT, and secondly, that the language taught to
children only needs to be simple as cognitively, they are not as developed as adult or teenage learners” (Cited by Emery,
2012, p.5). That is the reason way there are teachers who are trained as primary teachers, but without specific
qualifications or training to teach the English language.

According to an online survey carried out by the British Council with 2,478 teachers around the world, local
teachers associations and local universities in different countries such as Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Cameroon,
Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Italy, India, Romania, Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uruguay, the
USA and Yemen, 35 percent of teachers said they did not have a qualification to teach primary levels, and 21 percent
reported that they were not qualified specifically to teach English. In the same way, they mentioned that teachers with
higher qualifications in the English subject are assigned to secondary schools while young learners are deprived of being
taught by some of the more experienced teachers.

Under those circumstances, in many schools, the teacher who is teaching the English subject to young learners is
not an English teacher. In fact, sometimes it is a Math teacher or a Spanish teacher; that is what we called “out-of-field
teaching”. As reported by Ingersoll (2002):

The phenomenon of out-of-field teaching – teachers assigned to teach a subject for which they have inadequate
training and qualifications – is a crucial, but long unrecognized problem in schools. It is a crucial issue, because
highly qualified teachers, may actually become highly unqualified if they are assigned to teach subject for with,
they have little training of education (P. 3).

This issue was evidenced in a private institution where the teachers in charge of teaching English in primary
school are Normalistas Superiores; as stated in the MEN, these are professionals that study for two years to acquire
pedagogical knowledge of all the subjects for basic education and they are alumni from Escuelas Normales Superiores.
Consequently, those teachers can be considered “out-of-field”. As stated by Ingersoll (2002) the problem with teachers
who have a teaching certification in the field is that “simply having a certificate in the broad field may not mean
teachers are adequately qualified to teach all of the subjects in disciplines within the field” (p.13).

Therefore, as they receive general knowledge of the subject, their duties become more demanding and
challenging. Having this in mind, it is difficult to teach a subject in which they have little education or training, no
opportunities to reflect about their teaching practices and no support. As in the case of the teachers where this project
took place, they told us in the interview that they were teaching English because it is mandatory and they are aware that
they still need to strengthen the bases they have. On the other hand, teachers mentioned that they currently have
trainings, but those are not related to English; for that reason, they do not have many opportunities to share their
experiences in the classroom.

To analyze this issue in the institution, the researchers collected the data taking into account an interview which
was taken by the teachers from first to fifth grade at a private school. With the main findings we could determine that all
the teachers are Normalistas Superiores. For that reason, the teachers have to teach about eight to eleven subjects such as
Spanish, Math, Science, Social studies, Art, Ethics, and English. Hence, they are aware of the fact that the English
subject requires clear understanding of the topics, consequently, it is difficult to teach it. Question: ¿Qué le genera más
dificultad al orientar la clase de inglés? Teacher B: “El explicar y la gramática, no tanto la pronunciación, pero si lo que
es la explicación y la gramática sí, porque no lo sé, entonces se me dificulta bastante enseñárselo a los niños”. Next,
they relate that they do not know the methodologies and approaches in English Language Teaching because their
training as a Normalista Superior was too broad. Teacher E: “No tengo idea ni de las metodologías, o modelos
pedagógicos porque no soy especialista en el tema”, Teacher A: “Pues conocía, me enseñaron metodologías del inglés,
pero que ahorita no me acuerdo, tengo ciertas bases como que puedes utilizar fichas o ciertos materiales”.

We already argued that out-of-field teachers have more difficulties when teaching, because of the minor
knowledge they have in the subject. In line with this idea, Pillay, Goddard & Wills (2005) say that these teachers have to
do extra research and work to be prepared for the class, adding stress to their schedules and this is often the result why
some teachers decide to leave their jobs because of frustration and their self-esteem is also affected. For instance, in the
interview the teachers mentioned that to overcome the difficulty to teach the English subject, they look on the internet
for texts and videos that allow them to obtain the information to teach the class, and if that does not work, they ask the
bachelor’s degree English teachers. Teacher B: “Uno de los grandes problemas al orientar la clase es nuestro
desconocimiento de la pronunciación y la gramática por lo cual debemos recurrir a videos en internet o a los compañeros
de bachillerato”

Additionally, the teachers declared that the institution’s approach is based on the training for getting ready to
take the ICFES exam, and because of this, they only taken into account the vocabulary and a little bit of grammar
aspects, avoiding speaking, listening and writing. Unfortunately, despite of having proficient students, they are limited
by the purposes of the school. Furthermore, the intensity of the time in the subject is not enough, since only two hours
per week are given. Teacher E: Pues yo pienso que la parte que menos se ejercita acá es la lectura y la pronunciación,
de pronto falta como un poquito más de espacio para eso, además el colegio tiene a la semana dos horas de inglés nada
más”.

Finally, not only the interviews with the teachers, but also our experiences as teachers and students have been
the reasons why the study is focused on this concern. In order words, one of the researchers studied as a Normalista
Superior and during her teaching training she received knowledge about some specific subjects like; didactics and
methodologies of Spanish, English, Mathematics and Science, bearing in mind those studies she affirms that the training
and time was not enough, then she maintains that she was never taught the approaches to teach English, how to develop
a lesson plan and other important aspects such as the pronunciation, morphology and syntax. Moreover, most of our
colleagues at work have experienced the out-of-field teaching phenomenon during their careers.

In terms of understanding the problem, Sambe (2015) states that some of the reasons why this situation is
constantly seen in many schools is because of the budget cuts; due to the fact that there is a high number of unqualified
teachers in the institutions. In fact, when some teachers leave their positions since they want to look for better
opportunities or better salaries, the administrative authorities decide to go for the easiest solution that is to assign a
teacher that already works in that school in a different field to replace the other teacher while the institution employs a
teacher with knowledge and experience in that field. “The administrators of the school scramble to assign another
teacher to fill the position, often an instructor who has not background in that particular terrain” (p. 1). Having in mind
this, it is safe to say that the cause of this phenomenon is related to the policies and school administrators that give so
many responsibilities to the out-of-field teachers.

2.2 Statement of the problem

How can a Professional Learning Community promote changes in the teaching practices and English knowledge of out-
of-field teachers at a private school in Bogotá?
2.3 Justification
The controversy here is that in most schools, according to the article No. 12 in the MEN, Normalistas
Superiores are supposed to be qualified to teach all the subjects, however, this misconception is causing some troubles in
their teaching practices. Not only these teachers are overstressed, but also these wrong procedures are affecting their
self-esteem and self-efficacy. Besides, some of these teachers prefer to leave their jobs or teach the subject in a poorly
way. That is why there is a need of an environment in which they can share how they feel teaching English, reflect about
their experiences, bring their activities to suggest ways to improve them, and be part of some meetings to work on their
needs.
Taking into consideration Kelchtermans (2005), he recognizes “the high stress situation resulting from standing
in front of a class when, despite having prepared as best as possible, the teacher was still aware that he cannot really do
the job” (Cited by Coetzer & Coetzee, 2015, p. 3). By this we mean that it is totally different to teach a class in which
we have extensive knowledge and preparation than teaching a class we had to prepare based on the internet or a video.

In fact, according to Hobbs (2015), the out-of-field teaching problem is a reality that many schools should
manage with the support and retraining for these teachers. Considering the previous statement, it is pertinent to mention
that schools are guided by some standards in which it is established that Normalistas Superiores have to teach any
subject that they are required, because their studies allow them to teach in preschool and primary school. According to
MEN (resolución 1994, Art. 112), "Las escuelas normales debidamente reestructuradas y aprobadas, están autorizadas
para formar educadores en el nivel de preescolar y en el ciclo de educación básica” (p. 24). [The Normales Superiores,
properly restructured and approved, are authorized to train educators at the preschool level and in the basic education
cycle].

However, the institutions are not aware of the consequences on those teachers, due to the fact that it is very
difficult to ask them to train those teachers. In this sense, one the best ways to overcome this situation is to involve the
out-of-field teachers in an environment to support each other and probably give advice about how their classes can be
more suitable through a community. In concordance with DuFour (2004) & Hord (2009), “Professional learning
communities (PLCs) were considered some of the most important structures to ensure the success of all students in the
present-day society” (p. 5) (as cited by Curry, 2010).

At this point, it is significant to highlight that the focus of this study is the out-of-field teachers, however
students that are being affected because of these inappropriate practices will in a certain degree improve their
performances as well. As cited by Ghasemi & Hashemi (2011), it has been studied that from birth to the age of ten is the
best time to introduce a new language to young learners, since they will learn faster, they will retain better and they are
more likely to have near-native pronunciation. Furthermore, Espinosa (2014) said that children acquire a language
without much effort; nevertheless, this process can vary according to the learning environment, input and opportunities
to use the target language. That is why it is worth mentioning that even when teachers are working with young learners
and they are probably studying basic aspects of the English subject, the teachers need to be able to integrate different
methodologies, strategies and techniques, as during this age, students have more opportunities to understand and acquire
structures, indeed, they will be equipped with strong foundations for the higher courses. Then, if students were not well
prepared in primary, for us “English teachers” the process of teaching English is going to be a real challenge.

This study attempts to address some of the gaps in the literary works. To begin, the previous literature shows
that studies have focused their attention on describing the out-of-field teaching issue, suggesting possible causes and
solutions that might work to solve the situation, but without any implementation to manage it. We have chosen two
research inquiries which exemplify this; a study carried out by Ingersoll (2003), in which he stresses that the solution to
the issue is totally related to the school’s administrators since they are being benefitted, and also, he points out the
possibility to train the out-of-field teachers. By the same token, Du Plessis (2017) in her investigation points to how the
management and leadership in schools needs to take into account some “fixes” for the professional development of out-
of-field teachers. To this regard, we want to recognize whether or not Professional Learning Communities can be useful
to support these teachers and give them an opportunity to deliberate and built a collaborative process as a way to help
the out-of-field teachers, and consequently students.

On the other hand, in the literature, most studies have been focused on Science, Chemistry, History, Math and
other subjects. The consequence of this is that those studies were developed in countries where the mother tongue is
English, for that, the English subject is not the matter of study in those researches. Let us consider a few examples;
Seshea (2017) wanted to understand the learning experiences of out-of-field teachers in Social Sciences by using
interviews, diaries and a case study method in six secondary schools. Also, Hill & Dalton (2013) were interested in
whether or not Math teachers are certified and how well evaluated they are to determine their qualifications and the
connection this has with the student´s achievement. Similarly, Hobbs & Kenny (2015) carried out a study about the
professional development programs and methodological issues for teachers of Mathematics and Science who were
teaching out-of-field. Therefore, this present study contributes to the current literature related to out-of-field teachers as
it is focused on a subject such as English as a Foreign Language.

Lastly, when reviewing the out-of-field teaching studies we noticed that some of them had the outcome of
measuring the degree or impact of this matter. First, in one research carried out by Ingersoll (2002) different methods to
measure out-of-field teachers were revised in order to state their qualification, and how these methods can help to
address this problem. Next, Olmos (2010) was intrigued to measure the reason why out-of-field teachers were more
likely to abandon their positions, using as sample some teachers of a secondary public school. In contrast to those
researches, we are not trying to test them, but our purpose is to give them support in their teaching practices and give
them the opportunity to share their strategies and activities to improve and enrich them.

It is necessary to clarify that this study would benefit in the first place the participant institution. Then, out-of-field
teachers of any subject, because the finality of this research is to create a space in order to help these teachers to favor
their teaching practices, share and understand their own and other’s experiences when doing their duties in a field in
which they do not have expertise and find a support in qualified teachers. In the same way, the administrative authorities
in charge of some institutions who are facing these problems as a way to help them understand the implication not only
in those teachers, but also in students caused by politics and misbelieves about teaching. Finally, students doing
academic bachelor’s degrees or different studies related to education as a step to struggle for a suitable education in
which students and teachers have adequate and a quality education.