Smooth Intergenerational Relationship Building Among Filipino Teachers: A Grounded Theory

Abstract

The intergenerational diversity of teachers in the school community offers rich resources for professional learning and development. Nonetheless, intergenerational (IG) relationship is essential for teachers to access these social resources. Hence, through a systematic grounded theory design, this study looked into the IG relationship building process among teachers in the Philippine multigenerational basic education schools, based on a contextualized understanding of the teachers’ intergenerational diversity in terms of their age, period, cohort, and professional experiences. Smooth IG Relationship Building Theory eventually emerged from the grounded data that were gathered from 20 multigenerational Filipino teachers. This grounded theory offers five theoretical propositions: (1) Multigenerational teacher community offers a wide range of resources for professional and personal development of teachers, and access to these resources is unlocked by smooth IG relationships; (2) Smooth IG relationships are hindered by generational gaps, seniority, and isolating structures and programs of the schools; (3) IG values are important to ensure that smooth IG relations do not have underlying tensions beyond the surface interactions; (4) The quality of opportunities and strategies influence the nature of relationships that could develop among colleagues; and (5) Development of smooth IG relationships among colleagues is influenced by the school culture, Filipino social relations, gender differences and IG diversity.