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The basis for the need to acculturate newcomers into the profession of teaching may spring from their experiences during the first few years of their careers. The content for any customized induction program may then be anchored to the responses to the research question similar to what this paper addressed: What are the classroom experiences of the newly-hired teachers? For this study, there were 5 participants from an elementary school setting. A phenomenological approach was used to determine their lived experiences by asking the participants questions from the interview schedule designed by the researchers. Data analysis yielded themes presented diagrammatically and discussed with respect to a theory of experience that consists of four aspects, viz. (a) experience manifests itself in/has passions; (b) experience integrates over space and time; (c) experience is a moving force; and (d) experience is transformation, as explicated. Variation characterizes beginning teachers’ experiences. Although dominated by not-so desirable experiences such as extreme exhaustion, ‘joy’, due to salary increase, was pointed out as one positive experience. The results of this study have implications for policies about workload, induction, administrative support, and teacher education curriculum.

Keywords: Education, novice teachers, elementary, phenomenology, Philippines