A Professional Journey into Educational Administration: An Autoethnographic Case Study

Abstract

This autoethnographic work discusses how the researcher, who is a college instructor, was promoted to be an education specialist in the Department of Education. The paper uses a multi-faceted journaling method to reflect all the subtleties of this professional shift on the ground of the data obtained within the basis of 15 months of the period between August 2024 and November 2024 and preconditioned by more than nine years of experience in teaching. Thematic analysis using the six stages of analysis by Braun and Clarke identified three major themes including role ambiguity, negotiating pedagogical and administrative identities, and accommodating to systemic issues in Philippine education. The theoretical framework that offers a strong perspective to the interpretation of the findings is based on the integration of the role identity theory, transformative learning theory, and the complexity leadership theory. The research shows how the personal, professional and systemic aspects play a complicated role in the transition process and it brings about how the status of educators in negotiating the transition between the classroom-oriented to system-oriented roles. The comparison with the similar shifts in other nations highlights the importance of universal problems and local peculiarities. The implications of the findings are in terms of how the transition support programs, mentorship programs and leadership development in the Philippine education system are structured. Although this method is constrained due to its subjectivity, this autoethnographic method gives important contributions to the lived experience of educational career transition, and its findings are added to our knowledge base on leadership development in any educational setup.