Lived Stories of Mid-Career Teachers: Their Struggles with Millennial Learners in the Philippines

Abstract

Abstract This study aimed to explore the teaching-learning congruence between mid-career teachers and millennial learners which remains a global challenge. After 15-30 years of teaching, they face issues on self-absorption with great desire to develop themselves instead of mentoring others. In the Philippines, they resort to printed learning materials, while the millennials are highly addicted to technology and ecopies. Self-reflected learning is dominant in mid-career teachers, while collaborative learning works well with millennial learners. The said divide in their teaching and learning strategies results to constant struggles among mid-career teachers. In Australia and some countries, there is scanty literature on midcareer teachers. This phenomenological case study in a Philippine teaching university unraveled their day-to-day struggles as they coped and bridged the teaching-learning divide. Results can usher in a paradigm shift in mid-career teachers teaching as well as produce policy enablers with capacity building to manage millennials as top priority in the Philippines, in Asia and abroad.