Navigating the Human-AI Classroom: Teachers’ Lived Experiences in Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Teaching, Their Challenges and Coping Mechanisms

This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of public school teachers in integrating artificial intelligence into teaching, their challenges, and coping mechanisms in Cebu Province, Philippines. While existing literature documents teachers' perceptions of AI, limited research captures the holistic, day-to-day lived realities of teachers navigating the human-AI classroom, creating the gap this study addresses. Employing a descriptive phenomenology design, twelve public school teachers were selected through purposive sampling until data saturation was reached. Data were gathered through a validated semi-structured interview guide and analyzed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis. Nine themes emerged under the acronym INTEGRATE: Innovating Instruction, Navigating Newness, Transforming Teaching, Ethical Encounters, Grappling with Challenges, Rising through Resilience, Asserting Teacher Agency, Trusting Human-AI Synergy, and Evolving as AI-Ready Educators. The findings revealed that teachers harness AI for lesson planning, content creation, and learner engagement while grappling with connectivity constraints, insufficient training, academic integrity concerns, and unclear institutional guidelines. Teachers demonstrated resilience through usage guidelines, critical evaluation, and peer collaboration, asserting their agency as the human center of the AI-enhanced classroom. The study concludes that effective AI integration depends on teacher agency, ethical discernment, and institutional support, and it recommends clear AI-use policies, sustained practical training, infrastructure investment, and teacher participation in AI policy development to foster responsible and meaningful AI integration in Philippine public schools.