The Teacher Education Council (TEC) sheds light on the continuing trend in graduate studies being taken by teachers in the Department of Education (DepEd). Based on the School Form 7 (SF7) data, the majority of teachers enrolled in graduate programs are leaning more toward educational leadership rather than acquiring advanced studies in core disciplines such as English, Math, or Science.
To illustrate, 15,956 educational leaders hold master’s degrees which is a stark contrast to the 11,557 who specialized in English, 9,177 in Math, and 5,612 in Science. Furthermore, there is also a mismatch at the doctorate level as well, 1,276 educational leaders hold doctorates, in comparison to 1,064 in English, 692 in Math, and 494 in Science. This shows that a significant gap exists between administrative and educational subject matter focused on graduate studies.
The trend also begs the question on the true focus of graduate studies in education. Although leadership and management are pillars of educational administration, there is no clear link in their impact to teaching and learning outcomes. It is clear that leadership programs, as the TEC stressed, will not help teachers master their own subject which an essential factor in delivering quality education.
An imbalanced focus on teachers’ instructional work and their leadership constructions results from how promotion incentives work in education. Many teachers believe leadership degrees confer a competitive edge in their career and take these rather than subject specific degrees. When this occurs, the perception of professional advancement holds that it will involve stepping out of the teaching practice instead of refining it. This unnecessary perception deflection from the teaching practice, influence most on the learning of the students, causes a significant opportunity cost.
To remediate this, schools and departments of education should ensure that faculty are not promoting scholarship for the sake of scholarship. Research, and innovative and fusion pedagogy should inform curriculum revision and fusion pedagogy for subject disciplines, along with scholarship in education disciplines. Informed curriculum and instruction will encourage mastery and relevance integration focus. Meanwhile, it is high time that DepEd and education policymakers come up with incentives and disincentives that will focus on teacher’s degrees that are aligned with teaching and learning high outcomes instead of degrees that lean teaching and instructional administration.
Placing graduate education back toward the classroom is not just a reformative measure; it is a necessity. Graduate education ought to be aimed at building the construction of outstanding teaching—educators who not only lead but who inspire with profound content knowledge and skilled teaching. To achieve this, the education system ought to ensure that professional recognition and impact in the classroom advance simultaneously.
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.17614062
