Margaret Jakovac is a researcher and educator with an interest in teacher identity and expertise that stems from over a decade of personal experience teaching out of field.
Her PhD project examines the tension between externally imposed definitions of success — through standards and accountability frameworks — and the ways teachers themselves construct meaning from their practice.
Describe your project and why you chose this topic.
My project investigates how out‑of‑field mathematics and science teachers in Australian high schools understand and define ‘success’ when they are teaching subjects outside their formal training.
I’m using a netnographic (online ethnography) approach, drawing on teacher discussions in online spaces as a non-participating observer, alongside policy and system‑level documents. The focus is on the gap between how success is measured externally—through teacher and subject standards, students’ learning outcomes, and accountability frameworks—and how teachers themselves make sense of doing this work under pressure.
This topic grows out of a long‑standing interest in teacher identity and expertise. I taught out of field on and off for 13 years, often covering maths and science classes, and kept asking how I could do this work successfully without formal training in those subjects. I know many teachers have asked themselves similar questions about what ‘success’ looks like when they step into out‑of‑field roles.
Out‑of‑field teaching is often framed as a staffing issue or a shortage problem. That perspective matters, but it doesn’t explain how teachers navigate the work day-to-day, or how they come to see themselves as capable—or not—in those roles. This project focuses on that lived experience.
What are you hoping to achieve?
At a practical level, the project aims to make the work of out-of-field teachers more visible on its own terms, not only through system metrics.
For schools and policymakers, I hope it contributes to the growing shift away from deficit framings of out‑of‑field teaching. Instead of asking whether teachers are ‘qualified enough’, it asks a more useful question: what conditions, supports, and signals actually enable teachers to feel and perform successfully in these roles?
For teachers, there is also a recognition element. Many are doing complex boundary‑crossing work, moving between fields and building expertise in real time. That work is often invisible, so naming and documenting it matters — and feeding those insights back into policy and practice—matters.
I also extend this work through my Out-of-Field Teaching Toolkit podcast, where I have been producing fortnightly interviews since mid‑2022 with researchers, teachers, policymakers, union representatives, and workforce experts. I am now approaching my 100th episode. Some guests are current or former out‑of‑field teachers, which keeps the project grounded in classroom realities.
Alongside the PhD, I work as an education journalist and corporate marketing writer. I write for Australian Educator magazine and have contributed extensively to EducationHQ and other education‑focused publications and organisations. That work allows me to bring research, policy, and classroom realities into closer conversation. It also means I am used to working carefully with people’s stories and representing them ethically and accurately. As well, I write corporate marketing content (ebooks, thought-leadership stories, articles) for edtech companies, research centres, and a workforce strategist.
Why did you decide to do your PhD at Deakin?
Deakin has a strong reputation in education research, particularly in science and mathematics education and teacher development. The alignment between my supervisors’ expertise and my focus on out-of-field teaching was a key factor.
There is also a practical dimension: Deakin’s structure supports candidates who are balancing research with professional work, which was important for me.
It is also a return of sorts: I began my undergraduate journalism studies at Deakin in 1985. The university has changed enormously since then.
How has your experience been with your supervisors?
My supervisors, Professor Linda Hobbs and Associate Professor Emma Rowe, bring complementary strengths in out‑of‑field teaching, teacher professional education, and education policy. That combination has been important given how specific the project is.
There is a balance of guidance and space. I have been able to shape the direction of the project—especially as the design has developed—while still working with strong conceptual anchors.
There’s also been some healthy debate along the way, and that back-and-forth has helped sharpen how I articulate my arguments.
What have been the challenges and highlights of your PhD so far?
One of the main challenges has been methodological. Working with online data raises questions about ethics, representation, and what counts as data in the first place. That has required careful thinking and, at times, reworking the design. The final ethics application that was approved ran to more than 40,000 words.
A highlight has been recruiting my first teacher participants and seeing how their accounts connect with the richness of teacher discussions online, particularly on Reddit. There is a level of honesty and immediacy in those spaces that you do not always get in more formal settings. Because I paraphrase Reddit data so that users cannot be reverse‑searched, I am especially appreciative of being able to use verbatim quotes from my interviewees (with their consent).
Presenting the work at conferences has also been a highlight, especially being part of international conversations around out‑of‑field teaching to unpack that phenomenon. Those opportunities are steadily building my confidence as a speaker.
Another challenge is watching how quickly artificial intelligence is advancing. Seeing AI simulate interviews and generate research outputs raises real questions about the future of scholarly work. Even so, I see strong value in human‑generated research, particularly when it comes to interpretation, judgement, and lived experience—which are at the heart of this project.
Interested in participating in this research?
I am currently looking to connect with experienced Australian high school teachers—generally with five or more years in the classroom—who are teaching, or have recently taught, mathematics and/or science out of field. If that’s you, or someone you know, I would love to hear from you for a 30‑minute Zoom interview. Participation is confidential, voluntary, and scheduled at a time that suits you.
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