Resilience and Challenges in Last-Mile Schools: A Phenomenological Study of Teachers’ Experiences in Negros Occidental

Teachers connected in the last mile schools encountered a lot of challenges and sacrifices every day, ranging from the transportation, instructional materials and their basic needs. The purpose of the study is to investigate the various challenges and the coping mechanism of teachers associated with teaching in last-mile schools. A qualitative phenomenological research designed was utilized. The population of this study are public elementary school teachers in two (2) last mile schools in one of the schools division in Negros Occidental, Philippines. Participants of this study are the four teachers who are currently teaching in the last-mile schools of Negros Occidental. The purposive sampling was used to select the participant based on the established criteria. Participants must have at least 1 year of teaching experience in the last mile school and regular employee of Department of Education. Semi-structured interview guide was prepared prior to the in-depth interview. All responses of the participants were recorded using voice recorder and field notes. For data analysis, researchers transcribed the recorded response of participants within 2 days after the interview was conducted. The various functions of Microsoft Excel were used to identify similar information from transcribed responses of all participants. Themes were created by merging similar information, following the phenomenological research design of Colaizzi, to uncover the essence of a phenomenon as perceived by the participants. Based on the findings, eight themes emerged from the lived experiences of teachers which are: (1) monitoring and ancillary works; (2) provisions of supplies and resources; (3) travel and transportation; (4) teaching pedagogies and creating instructional materials; (5) community and parent’s involvement; (6) basic needs, safety and effect on personal aspects; (7) coping mechanism; and (8) motivation. It is concluded that teachers showed resilience despite of those difficulties, their resilience and dedication shine through in their commitment to provide quality education and support their students. Despite the hardships, teachers in last mile schools deeply believe the transformative power of education, driving them to continue their work with passion and dedication.