| Overcrowded classrooms impact students' and teachers' self-efficacy and motivation; by extension, overcrowding impacts student achievement and learning. This qualitative research study was used to explore the meaningfulness and essence of teachers' and administrators' lived experiences in overcrowded classrooms/schools using the academic research precepts and tenets of the hermeneutic phenomenological design. Data were collected via semistructured interviews using researcher-developed questions, with varying degrees of structure. Moustakas' modified Van Kaam method undergirded the analyses of the qualitative data to derive commonalities in participant descriptions, explanations, perceptions, interpretations, and experiences. The derived criterion-purposive sample was culled from a population experiencing overcrowding and representative of the region's demographics; the use of subsequent snowballing sampling technique satisfied sampling saturation. The conclusions from the experiences were: (a) overcrowding denies some students fair and equal access, marginalizing some and limiting others; (b) implementation of differentiated student-centered pedagogy is more difficult in overcrowded classrooms and less effective when implemented; (c) student achievement is measured, attained, and potentially sought at the expense of learning, motivation, and self-efficacy; and (d) learning communities that share responsibilities and facilities, imbued with ubiquitous learning scope, offer students greater opportunities and much promise. Based on the study, a potential solution to overcrowding in schools was discovered, which offers fresh approaches vis-a-vis educational facilities, funding, and pedagogy and praxis, proffering longitudinal, enduring, and practical solutions to the challenge of overcrowding in the nation's classrooms/schools. |
