Lived Experiences of Public School Teachers Teaching Qualitative Research without Training

ABSTRACT

K-12 is an educational system under the Department of Education that aims to enhance learners’ basic skills, produce more competent citizens, and prepare graduates for lifelong learning and employment. The K-12 Program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education consisting of 6 years of primary education, 4 years of junior high school, and 2 years of senior high school. The participants of the study were those who have taught qualitative research when it was first introduced in grade 11 in School Year 2016-2017. The researchers wanted to understand the lived experiences of participants who taught qualitative research in grade 11 without any training and preparations in School Year 2016-2017 and what are the essences of these experiences? The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine and understand the lived experiences of teachers who have taught qualitative research without proper training when it was introduced as a course in grade 11 in SY 2016-2017. The primary purpose of qualitative research is to describe and clarify experiences as it is lived and constituted in awareness (Polkinghorne, 2005). The participants perceived their ability to teach qualitative research as unproductive due to excessive time in teaching preparation and incompetence in teaching. Some of them attributed their difficulties encountered in teaching to the readiness of students in meeting the demands of the subject, poor reading comprehension, and poor vocabulary and writing skill. All of them felt that there was insufficient logistical and infrastructure support especially limited internet connectivity and inadequate materials. All participants I this study have experienced mental and emotional disturbances in the form of their feeling helpless, guilt in the way they impart knowledge and experiencing low self-esteem. Some of the participants have developed their own way of coping with their technical inadequacy by pretending to know the subject matter, requesting their peers to help them and seeking divine intervention in order to mitigate the impact of their teaching inadequacy. This research presents important implications for the Department of Education, academe and teaching practitioners. Teaching qualitative research from the perspective of actual practice is highly recommended because teachers can easily translate or concretize research concepts in a manner easily understood by the students. However, only very few basic education public school teachers have conducted qualitative research; hence, they can only teach the subject based on their readings. For non-researchers in qualitative research, they must undergo workshops and do research themselves in order to have a deeper grasp of the subject. It is highly recommended that DepEd should be responsible for the desired training of their teachers in the different methods under qualitative research to upgrade their knowledge and skills in teaching the subject. Furthermore, DepEd should provide substantial incentives to motivate teachers to conduct research.