Subject expertise and teaching

First, check out my recent post on BlogHer concerning Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminar's inclusion of a women-only concentration in homemaking within their Humanities B.A.

As you can read in that post, one of the questions raised by people is whether current Southwestern faculty are qualified to teach the courses offered within this concentration. That's up for debate. If you compare the course descriptions of the homemaking courses with those in similar fields at, for example, UC Davis in Nutrition or Textiles and Clothing.

It appears the Southwestern courses won't be up to the technical levels of those offered at research universities. Does that make it OK for faculty who don't have degrees in nutrition, textile, health, or other consumer science fields to teach courses on, for example, child rearing and clothing construction?

I have mixed feeling about this issue. I, after all, am somewhat of a generalist. I've been called to teach courses across the humanities, some outside my area of specialization. When I taught an American Studies course on the 1950s, for example, I was learnign about the 1950s right along with my students. Sure, I know how to teach American Studies and understand its methods and theories, but the subject of the course (chosen by me) was entirely new to me.

I was also recently invited to teach a course outside my area of expertise but within the humanities. The department chair inviting me had no memory of ever meeting me and didn't know my research interests. I declined the course because although the topic is interesting to me, I have no expertise and very little practice in the subject. But it's entirely plausible to believe that someone with just as little expertise as I have is now teaching that course or others.

The bigger question, especially at the lower-division level, is what contributes more to the success of a teaching and learning experience--the content expertise of the instructor, or the instructor's facility with pedagogy?

What are your thoughts?