Travails of Elementary Teachers: Handling Multiple Ancillary Functions

This study seeks to provide a better understanding of the travails and struggles have on doing ancillary services aside from the daily six hours of teaching loads. This study employed phenomenological research design using in -depth interview (IDI) of ten participants through purposive sampling. In analyzing the lived experiences of the elementary teachers on handling multiple ancillary functions, the researcher was able to identify four major themes. These are joyful acceptance, sense of fulfillment, and struggles in the implementation. Further, there were also three (3) subthemes that emerged on the challenges experienced by the participants. These are monetary contribution, scolded by the school head and conflict of schedules. The participants shared their coping mechanisms, managing time, setting priorities, getting encouragement from others, motivating oneself, planning and collaborating and prioritizing teacher rather than ancillary. The insights were compromising teaching efficiency, suggesting hiring new personnel, optimistic for promotion, reminding superior of their roles, learning to self-manage, and valuing work-life balance. The findings of this study shed light the various experiences of elementary teachers in handling multiple ancillaries in the different DepEd schools. Therefore, further studies were recommended.