THE ESSENCE OF SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIP FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF NOVICE LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Abstract Supportive relationship is a crucial need for beginning language teachers whose first years at work after graduating is known to be a pick-and-shovel and challenging stage as they face their adjustment period on developing their career or profession. The purpose of this study was to find the meaning of supportive relationship with superiors and colleagues as a result of the collective experiences of novice language teachers. This research employed phenomenology design through the use of semi-structured interviews. The research participants consisted of novice language teachers with zero to five years of teaching from the Catholic Schools of Mountain Province. The data analysis involved the processes of coding, categorizing and making themes of the essential meanings of the phenomenon. Findings of the study revealed that the individual and collective articulations of 12 novice language teachers consider supportive relationship as a process acknowledging, scaffolding and empowering the novice language teachers by the administrators and colleagues in the institution. This finding is captured in the illustration labelled as ‘”The Strata of Supportive Relationship for Novice Language Teachers”. The study concludes that supportive relationship in the workplace builds the beginning career of novice language teachers as they engage themselves to a more efficient work role and professional identity. It is hoped that this study helps in designing supportive practices and measures of transition a neophyte to a competent and effective language teachers. It is recommended that further studies be conducted on the theories and language of acknowledging, scaffolding and empowering.