Social Studies (Araling Panlipunan) is the most subject considered as significant to the progress of a nation and is recognized as an instrument to instill the sense of nationalism and the spirit of patriotism. In fact, there were two issues occurred in teaching Social Studies. One of this is the need to have enough teachers for the Social Studies subjects. Since there were a shortage number of Social Studies education graduates to cover this demand, teachers unqualified in handling Social Studies have to be assigned into Social Sciences. The novice educators with an area of specialization begin the profession with different expertise, training, and preparation. Teaching Social Studies for which one has little background is challenging which is detrimental to the educative process. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and challenges of the novice educators assigned in out-of-field teaching Social Studies. The approach used was qualitative-phenomenology consisted of fourteen (14) novice educators from seven (7) in-depth interviews and seven (7) participants in focus group discussion. They have less than five (5) years of teaching experiences who were not major in Social Studies. They came from public school and private institution. There were fifteen (15) themes emerged. The results showed that novice educators met difficulties in out-of-field teaching, yet they were able to cope up by employing pedagogical strategies. Lastly, they viewed that out-of-field teaching was an opportunity to learn things for them to grow professionally.

Social studies

Novice educators

Out-of-field Teaching

Teaching Social Studies

Phenomenolgy

Philippines