Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
REGION 1
DMMMSU-SLUC, Agoo, La Union

If you prick me, do I not bleed?: THE CHALLENGES OF

NAGUILIAN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

INTRODUCTION

Philippines is one among the countries in Asia and one of the three countries worldwide with a 10-

year pre-university cycle (Acosta & Acosta, 2016) is now in the phase of complete educational revamp.

Former President Benigno Simeon Aquino as the forerunner of the Enhanced Basic Education curriculum

known as the Republic Act No. 10533 intends to improve the quality of the high school graduates in our

country. As these graduates are envisioned to have competitive skills that the industry demands which can

be at par with the global standards.

The prelude of the K-12 curriculum vis-à-vis the opening of the Senior High School program

opened a lot of opportunities not only to true blue educators but also to professionals who opted to share

their expertise to the field of pedagogy. As a result, there is an influx of teacher applicants for the Senior

High School vacant positions. However, the greener pasture offered by the Department of Education as

entry-level educators is just a tip of the iceberg; since the Senior High School program is a pre-collegiate

education, teaching in that certain program requires higher educational qualifications. Hence, teachers that

should be allowed to teach in that level should at least be considered master in their own fields. But due to

the inadequate number of applicants who can suffice the said prerequisite and the workforce demand of the

additional two-year to the basic education, DepEd was forced to hire teachers regardless of their

credentials which generated a lot of predicaments. Added to the burden is country’s unpreparedness due to

the sudden paradigm shift. As the new curriculum demanded more, the more challenges it has brought to

the newly hired and even to the experienced educators. This study is geared towards the narration of the

different challenges of teachers of the Senior High School Program in Naguilian, La Union.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this Narrative Qualitative Study is to know and understand the different challenges

of Naguilian Senior High School Teachers in teaching the Senior High School students of Nagulian National

High School. The main research question of this study is, “What are the challenges encountered by the

Senior High School Teachers of Naguilian?”

This study sought to answer the following specific questions:

1. What are the problems encountered by the Naguilian Senior High School Teachers?

2. What are the coping mechanism of the Naguilian SHS teachers regarding these challenges?

METHODS

Research design

This Qualitative study employs the Narrative Research Design for the purpose of describing,

unfolding and understanding the challenges encountered by the Senior High School teachers of Naguilian,

La Union. It seeks to understand the experiences of Naguilian Senior High School teachers. Narrative

method encompasses the study of the experiences of individuals embracing stories of life and exploring the

learned significance of these individual experiences. Similarly, this study tends to glean the challenges of

the Senior High School teachers and be able to come up with the most appropriate solutions to these

challenges.

Participants and Research Site

This research was conducted at Naguilian National High School located at Naguilian, La Union.

The researchers chose two Senior High School teachers as participants of this study – one neophyte SHS

teacher and one experienced teacher. Diversity of the participants was viewed essential in this study to

extract actual experiences from the respondents.

Ethical Consideration

Our research study involved teachers and educators where they were hesitant to disclose information out

of fear and withheld some data. However, as part of research rigor, several safeguards were applied that

erased their fears and promoted trust. We ensured that our study was guided by ethical principles as

described by (Mack et al, 2005), namely: respect for persons, beneficence, justice, consent, and

confidentiality.

Data Collection Procedure and Instrumentation

This study employed observation and interview on the respondents. Purposive/

opportunistic sampling was used in the study since the focus of the current study is gleaned towards the

experiences of the Senior High School teachers.

An interview guide was prepared before the scheduled interviews. Interview questions focused on

the challenges of Senior High School teachers using the following main questions:

1. What are the problems encountered by the Naguilian Senior High School Teachers?

2. What are the coping mechanism of the Naguilian SHS teachers regarding these challenges?

Analysis of Data

Narrative description was utilized to account the challenges encountered by the teachers of Senior

High School. Verbatim transcription was used to interpret the results of the study. This study shall look into

the following:

 The challenges of Senior High School Teachers in Naguilian National High School

 The coping mechanisms of the teachers regarding these challenges

 Results

Several frustrations and challenges were derived from the responses of the participants. With the

challenges they mentioned came their varied ways of coping up with these challenges.

Based on the verbatim transcriptions of the interview conducted:

1. Teacher’s Competence

Teachers’ expertise is diverse and complex in nature; yet there is a popular assumption that a

good teacher will automatically make a good teacher educator. According to Smith (2005) teachers are

expected to be self-aware and to reflect and articulate tacit knowledge of teaching, thus bridging theory and

practice. They are expected to be skillful in teaching learners of all age groups and to present a high level

of professional maturity and autonomy. However, in the case of the SHS teachers, there is a great

mismatch of specialization and the subjects to be taught in the classroom per se. some teachers are given

subjects which are not in line with their field of expertise which bring forth a lot of frustrations and find it

hard to teach the subjects assigned to them. Another problem posed by the teachers is the preparation of

Daily Lesson Logs which for them is time consuming. Instead of mastering their lessons, they are

preoccupied in doing their DLLs.

“ Lack of knowledge of a teacher to a particular subject that is not related to his/her specialization or major.”

“Lack of mastery in teaching – those who are teaching subjects that are not in line with their specialization.”

One teacher reiterated the value of time management in order to cope with the challenge of the

profession in terms of instruction preparation. Another participant mentioned about the teachers should

strive to learn a lot particularly on the subjects that are not mastered. One also cited to have intensive

reading about the subject matter to further hone his mastery of the lesson. Furthermore, asking for

colleague’s help will somehow to ease the burden of work.

“ The teachers should strive to learn a lot particularly on the subjects that are not mastered.”

“Spending much time on studying the subjects to be taught to gain mastery, do some research, asking

somebody who is knowledgeable.”

“The teacher should attend trainings and seminars.”

“Teacher should apply different strategies from simple to complex.”

“Teacher should develop and adopt to her/his learners.”

2. Economic Aspect

Teaching-learning process is at its optimum level if the instruction facilities are complete. One the

greatest challenge face by the SHS teachers is resources – appropriate textbooks, power supply, audio-

visual equipment, chairs and tables are just few of the resources that educators find inadequate in their

respective institutions. The economic status of the learners was also mentioned as hindrance in the quality

of teaching and learning; since the curriculum of the Senior High School is extensive and learner-centered,

activity worksheet and handouts are customary as instructional materials. But due to the economic

condition of some of the learners, the teachers provide handouts and activity materials for free, which add

up to the prevailing burdens of teachers. In addition, a certain teacher complained on the distance of the

school from her residence.

“Lack of books”

“Financial aspects of learners.”

“The school is a little bit far”

 As a coping mechanism, teachers attend to resources predicament on their own little ways like:

buying their own textbooks and references, some even went to the extent of bringing their own projectors

and monitors. In the case of the “service”, some teachers are willing to spend just so they can come to

school regularly. Some prepare free handouts and learning materials for the students to ease the financial

burdens of the learners.

“Buy books”

“service”

“Preparing handouts for them for free”

3. Student’s Preparedness

The readiness of the learners is viewed as one of the main factors in attaining optimum teaching-

learning milieu. Thus, teachers cited it as one of their great challenges in teaching in the K-12 curriculum.

“The readiness of the students; majority are not interested because of new topics, etc.”

“Attitude of the students, many are not focused on their studies”

4. Relationship with colleagues

Co-workers relations are an important source in providing support to co-workers and positive effect

on employee satisfaction (Madlock & Booth-Buttefield, 2012) Employees develop a relationship with her co-

workers to add friendship. Employees who feel a friendship with co- workers will experience mental and

physical health is good. It is based on the feeling of security and self- confidence of the individuals

associated with the work and motivation to encourage friendships in the workplace. According to Deci et al

(1989) and to Self-Determination theory, individuals will seek to the goal of personal relationships and

satisfy functional and psychological needs. When co-worker relations are positive, employees will be able
to meet the needs and motivated to increase its commitment to the organization. On the data gathered,

newly-hired teachers of the SHS account relationship with the colleagues as one of the great challenge of

the job. Given the fact that they are new to the workplace, some felt alienated in dealing with the ‘seasoned’

teachers. Factions among the group are evident. Therefore, Senior High School teachers felt outcast in the

workplace.

“There is a sort of negativity on the part of the junior teachers for the senior high school teachers.”

Learning Action Cell (LAC) session was perceived by the participant as one way of coping with this

challenge; as the main goal of the program, it tends to improve the relationship among teachers. It also

promotes harmonious relationship, wherein they collaborate with one another, sharing what they know, and

ultimately building rapport which will be of great help in their teaching endeavors.

5. Obligations

Teachers dealing with enormous workloads and functions encountered fair share of challenges in

teaching the Senior High School Program. Hence, their time for family is highly put into risk. Teachers tend

to “take home” their paperworks. As a result, they lack time for their children.

“Bulk of work – DLL/DLP preparation, other school functions, school activities, and loads of paperworks”

“Lack of time in teaching my kids.”

As a coping up strategy, the teacher resorts to hiring tutors for her children. Often times their

children are being criticized that how come their moms are teachers but the mother cannot teach their own

children. She also stated there are instances that the child underestimates the capacity of his/her parent in

the field of teaching.

“Hire tutor which is too expensive”

 Conclusion

In the light of the findings of this study the following conclusions were drawn:

That the challenges of the Senior High School teachers continuously evolve around the dilemmas

on teacher’s competence, economic aspect, student’s preparedness, relationship with colleagues, and

obligations. Nonetheless, they tend to cope up with the challenges as part of the system. But in spite of the

evident challenges encountered by Senior High School teachers, many flocked to this profession…

teaching.

The challenges of the teachers redundantly occur so long as there are newly hired teachers in the

Senior High School.

Literatures Cited

Faciolan, M. C., Pedagogical Journey of Newly Hired teachers: Stories to tell, International Journal of

Scientific and Engineering Research, 7, 1674-1678

Dias- Lacy, S.L, Guirguis, R.V, Challenges of Teachers and Ways of Coping with them, Journal of

Education and Learning, 6, 265-267

Acosta, I.C, Acosta A.S, Teacher’s Perceptions on Senior High School Readiness of Higher Education

Institutions in the Philippines, Universal Journal of Educational Research, 4, 2435-2450