Lived Experiences of Lay Teachers in the Lasallian Mission of Education: A Phenomenological Exploration

Abstract

This study explores the lived experiences of lay teachers engaged in the Lasallian mission of education within the Philippine context. While lay educators increasingly sustain faith-based educational institutions historically founded by religious congregations, limited phenomenological research has examined how they interpret and embody this mission in practice. Guided by transcendental phenomenology (Moustakas, 1994) and informed by hermeneutic attentiveness to lived meaning (van Manen, 1990, 2014), the study investigates how experienced lay teachers describe the integration of vocation, professionalism, spirituality, community, and sociohistorical context in their educational work.