Teachers pedagogical content knowledge facilitates teaching and improve learning outcome. Nevertheless, there is limited research on this important factor which is subject allocation patterns based on teachers’ specialty or otherwise and the relationship with job commitment or productivity. This study examined the link between subject allocation patterns and teacher’s job commitment in public secondary schools in Nigeria through selected secondary schools in Anambra State. The population of the study consists of 6,598 teachers in 267 public secondary schools in the six-education zone in Anambra State from which 819 teachers were drawn using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. Two sets of instruments titled “Teachers’ Subject Allocation Patterns Questionnaire (TSAPQ) and Teachers Job Commitment questionnaire (TJCQ)” were used for data collection. The instrument was subjected to face and construct validity. The data collected from TSAPQ was analysed using Test Retest(correlational) and TJCQ were done using Cronbach Alpha technique. The research questions were answered using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC), test of significance of correlation was used to test hypotheses all at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that there is positive relationship between in-field subject allocation patterns and teachers job commitment in public secondary schools. Based on the findings, it was recommended that education ministries should establish subject allocation policies that ensure alignment with teachers’ specializations to enhance job commitment and performance. This study as against other studies reviewed, contributed to knowledge by providing empirical evidence that in-field subject allocation patterns influence teachers’ job commitment in public secondary schools in Nigeria.
Keywords: Students performance, in-field; out-of-field subject allocation, subject allocation pattern, teachers commitment and productivity public secondary schools
