first lecturing job in subject I'm not very familiar with is this normal?

[lookingouttosea]

I'm finishing my PhD but lack teaching experience so I've been offered a module to teach starting this term. Problem is it's in a subject I don't feel in any way qualified to lecture on. I would have studied something vaguely similar as part of my masters but it's not related to my PhD topic. Is this normal? I'm also worried that the students (who will be Masters students themselves) will know more than me about it. Supervisor has said not to worry but...Is this just impostor syndrome at play or will I embarrass myself completely?

It is fairly normal to teach something you haven't studied extensively, but that is within your comfort zone- i.e. you have had some knowledge of related work/research. You don't need to be an expert, but you can make yourself one fairly quickly. Are there already course materials prepared? Are you expected to start from scratch? If it is taking over a well-established course then it shouldn't be too bad, you can read up and modify it a bit yourself. If you are starting from scratch, that's probably beyond what's a good idea at this stage of your career although people do go into teaching posts immediately post-PhD and start new courses. Usually though it's working on existing courses which is a lot less work.

Your students won't know, the whole point is to expose them to the material, and to someone to help them think critically about it. Your abilities so far should allow you to do this.

@Nearlyalmost50 thank you. Yes, food for thought. I could do with the money and the experience but I'd have to invest quite a bit of very-precious time familiarising myself with the topic. With 2 small kids and a PhD to submit its a lot to take on. At the same time I am loath to turn down opportunities! I'll think about it. Thanks again

Hmm If you were full time staff already I'd say it's normal, but in my (limited) experience as a PhD student you'd only get offered teaching if you're very experienced on it (but not necessarily that it's your PhD subject).
Sounds like you would need to put a LOT of prep time in, probably beyond what you'd actually be paid for, so you need to decide if it's worth it.
That's fairly normal though, my first lecturing was in a subject I knew really well, and it still took me about 10 hours prep time per hour's lecture. (contrary to the 1 hour on my workload haha)

In my experience, it’s somewhat normal. I have a PhD in sociology (medical sociology), but my first teaching work (during PhD, hired externally by another university) was to teach a module in global public health. I’ve taken some global public health modules at masters level but I wouldn’t really say I was experienced!

I am now a postdoc and teaching in an applied epidemiology module (again not really an area I’m experienced in).

For the most part, you blag your way through it. Do plenty of reading and prep work to prepare. But also you don’t have to have all the answers. It’s okay to say ‘I don’t really know much about x’ and either say you’ll look into it more and discuss it more fully next time or challenge the students to figure out how to fill in those gaps themselves. At MSc level, they are perfectly capable of doing that.

The question a d responses are very useful to me. I am a fresh PHD graduate. Dont have all the experience but sometime get position with modules outside my comfort zone.

@PhDone and @mindutopia thank you for your replies. I think I'll probably try and do it even though its a bit nerve-wracking. Get out of my comfort zone and all that. I slightly pity my students seeing as not only have I limited knowledge of the subject but my 2 children have decided not to sleep at night so I'm also a zombie ;-) Hopefully I'll have plenty of coffee on the train there

Fairly normal I'd say. Not knowing much can be a good thing because you'll probably be confused at first by the same things your students would be, so as long as you stay one lecture ahead they'll learn a lot compared to if you assumed they should be as fluent as you in the content.

Very normal and I wouldn't worry as most of them won't read anything or do any prep. You'll be fine.

@bakedbeazontoast and @hungergame thank you, I feel much more confident :-)

Not at all normal for a PhD student to be asked to teach at PG level at all and especially not if they don’t have experience of teaching that topic. It’s a huge leap from doing a few first year tutorial to teaching an entire PG module. Without wanting to sound mean, there is no way it would be allowed at any of the institutions I’ve taught in.

I agree, it might be fairly normal to teach first year undergraduates a topic you don’t know well as a PhD student, but we would never give MA level teaching to someone in this position.

@historyrocks and @GCAcademic thank you for your replies. Yes this is what I had feared. I have been given reassurance that this is the way things are done and that I'll be fine, however I'm not sure how happy I would be if I had paid for a PG and had someone relatively inexperienced to teach it. Its a tough one because I need the experience too, and the money. That said, it is a broad subject in the sense that it's not very technical and therefore maybe easy to read up on between now and then. I need to decide by mid-August so I'm a bit torn.

I was in your position OP (unfinished PhD + small kids) and taught at PG level. It was fine! In fact I found the masters students much more interesting to "teach" (more like facilitating the discussion) than the UG students. I would say grab the opportunity!

@CommonFishDiseases thank you. I did take the job in the end. Quite nervous about it if I'm honest but mostly because there's so little time to get up-to-speed with the course content (I start in 2 weeks and having 2 kids under 4 means I don't exactly get time to read). I'm hoping I can just 'wing it' and that my past work experience in the area comes back to me somehow

Yes, it's common. I taught my subject for a year and then it was any subject they deemed fit.
This included Further Maths which I was forced to teach regardless of not having a GCSE Maths.
Unions are useless, so if you can't teach the subject you offer, there's no alternative than to leave.
Be wary if there are some subjects you can't/ wouldn't want to teach.
Some you pick up easily like Psychology and Sociology and it doesn't matter if you are one step in front of your students, other subjects need a specialist imo.