Critical Analysis of the Pedagogical Experiences of Selected Lumad Teachers and its Implications to Science Education Curriculum

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Aiming to make quality education inclusive, the effectivity of the K-12 Curriculum implemented the year 2013 in the Philippines, attempts to extend even to the indigenous students of the country. Lumads are a group of non-Islamic indigenous people living in the Southern Philippines, and their cultural background and ancestral domain issues pose some challenges with regard to the implementation of the new curriculum towards them. This study aims to expose and use the pedagogical experiences of five Lumad teachers amidst the socio-political conflicts occurring at their respective schools in order to suggest possible implications to the K-12 Curriculum, with special emphasis on science education.

METHODS

Using the phenomenological research design and anchoring to the concepts of critical pedagogy, several themes were created out of the responses of the Lumad teachers. This was done by conducting a separate single interview with each participant. The participants in the study were 3 males and 2 females. Three of them were Non -Indigenous educators who voluntarily commit themselves to be teachers of Lumad students. The other two are members of the indigenous group who were given the scholarship to pursue an education course. All of the respondents serve as Lumad teachers for more than two years so it is believed that they had shared their personal and pedagogical experiences in the most vivid manner. The study had made used a convenience sampling method. Through narrative and exploratory methods, the researchers relied on the inductive reasoning process to interpret and make concrete structures on the meaning and importance that can be derived from the obtained data.

RESULTS

The research concluded that the immersion of the teachers' lives to the Lumad communities influence their aspirations, pedagogies, and strong perceptions against the implementation of the K-12 Curriculum in the Philippines.

DISCUSSIONS

Based on the outcome of the research, the researchers recommend increasing the number of respondents in order to provide more sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis of the study. Focus group discussion could be utilized to develop a basis of comparison for the data collected. And if the number of respondents was increased, the software could be used to analyze the data to be able to produce more reliable results. Future research into the experiences of Lumad teachers may also be more reliable and appropriate when prolonged engagement and constant contact with the participants would be done.