LIVED EXPERIENCES OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS IN MENTORING BEGINNING TEACHERS

This study aimed to uncover the lived experiences, coping strate-gies, and proposed mentoring programs. A qualitative phenome-nological study was conducted. The participants were ten (10) school administrators from large and mega-large
elementary schools. The lived experiences of school administrators in mentoring beginning teachers encompass building mentor-mentee relationships, addressing teacher challenges, navigating external pressure, and classroom execution difficulties.
Meanwhile, the themes for the coping strategies were building trust and rela-tionship, personalized support and guidance, and fostering re-flective practice. The themes for the proposed mentoring pro-grams based on the findings of the study were: holistic support for beginning teachers, structured and sustained mentoring sys-tems, and instructional and professional competence develop-ment. The findings suggest that institutional settings should gain a more comprehensive understanding of their impact on the school and on the teacher’s career.