Multigrade Teachers’ Lived Experiences in Hinterland Schools: Management Plan

Multigrade teaching can be very stressful yet fulfilling as well. This study explored the lived experiences of teachers handling multigrade classroom in the hinterland school at Lamak Elementary School, Dumanjug, Cebu, for the School Year 2022-2023 as basis for a management plan. The phenomenon of this study is centered on the everyday life encounters of the multigrade teachers. This study employed the Heideggerian Phenomenology research design. In this design, the lived experiences of the participants in a certain phenomenon will be explored and investigated in order to forward better policies, management plan or an action plan to be undertaken. This instrument used in the study was validated by 3 experts in the field of education, psychology and human resource specialist. This study utilized the 7-stage analysis of Van Kaam anchoring the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) popularized by Moustakas. There were 6 participants who qualified in the inclusion criteria set in this study. Bracketing was used as well to avoid biases. After the analysis, the results elicited 7 core themes abbreviated as FLEXIBLE which stands for Flexibility, Limited of Everything, Experiences, Inclusivity, Boundaries of Reality, Learning with Meanings, and Extraordinary Calling. The meaning of the multigrade teachers can be traced back before and yes it was addressed through the provision of law however, it was not fully implemented. The management plan of this study reiterates the importance of the learning resources and the relevant trainings and seminars that multigrade teachers should have. Further elaboration of the level of satisfaction in numerical sense can be initiated in the future.