Philippine E-Journals

Climbing the Summit: Insights from Narratives of Mountaineers and Reflections of a Physical Educator

Garily Camatison

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

This narrative research retells the untold experiences and practices of Filipino mountaineers coming from different places in the country such as Taguig, Bulacan, Digos, Igbaras, and Antipolo. The informants were five Filipino mountaineers composed of four males and one female, who were qualified in the criteria in selecting the informants using snowball sampling. The epistemological stance used was Constructionism, the theoretical perspective was Interpretivism, and Narrative Inquiry was used as a methodology. The narratives of the mountaineers were gathered through interviews, and field notes of shared experiences were interpreted and analyzed using the Models of Narrative Analysis by Mishler (1995). With regards to the analysis of the study the themes were formulated: The Crossroads, Transcend mountain tales, Assimilation of Basic Mountaineering course, Essence of Physical fitness, and Anecdotes of heed values. From the findings, there were positive and negative effects of in engaging mountaineering. Positive effects include, in terms of personal development in different aspects of life maybe physical, emotional, spiritually, mentally, and social. However, negative effects include irresponsible mountaineering (such as waste disposal, lack of knowledge/ techniques, and campfires impact cases) and excessive social media drives.