Philippine E-Journals

The Hidden Truth Behind the Life Circumstances of Teachers Who are Single Parents

Catalino Egaran Jr.

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

This qualitative study explored the narratives of teachers who are single parents and who experienced taking care of their children alone. The total number of conversational partners are 15 where 3 males and 12 females took the in-depth interview. This study was conducted in different secondary schools in the PPALMA in the school year 2021–2022. The study utilized a qualitative research design anchored on the descriptive phenomenological design. An in-depth interview was used to gather the lived experiences of the conversational partners. This study used a snowballing, a non-probability sampling method. Specifically, it gathered personal narratives on the following: responses of the conversational partners on their lived experiences as undesirable and beneficial to them, factors in the environment that posed as challenges and selfissues that they faced while they were in parenting, coping mechanisms of teachers who are single parents to address the struggles encountered, motivating factors used by the conversational partners as their strength in facing the challenges as a single parent. The results of the study revealed different theme clusters in the research questions. The common themes that were found through this study are: Betwixt and Between, Against All Odds, Tougher Than Before, and Rebuilding Life. All of these themes represent the lived experiences that the teachers.