A Lens into the Lived Experiences of Educationally Challenged Parents as Learning Facilitators Amidst Health Crisis in Fishing Communities in Lagonoy

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns and challenged the Philippine educational system, mainly the function of educationally challenged parents as learning facilitators in fishing communities. Hence, using the qualitative method following the phenomenological research design with the viewpoints of structural functionalism, this study aimed to explore the lived experiences of this social group. Four educationally challenged parents participated and were interviewed. As a result, this study found that parents have challenged their prowess to teach their children. The teaching-learning process for them is dreadfully traumatizing, but they have coping mechanisms identified to overcome this situation. Hence, this undervalued group has alarming experiences that the authorities or policymakers need to attend to fully maximize their function as part of the intertwined relationship in the country’s educational system. The parents, not just the teachers, must have enough knowledge about the curriculum and teaching-learning know-how. This is so that they can perform their role as the key mentor to their children at home in the earliest stage of developing their cognitive skills, during and even without health-related concerns.