A Metamorphic Experience of Students-at-Risk-of-Dropping-Out in the Printed Modular Distance Learning in Time of COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Inevitable educational challenges were brought by the COVID-19 pandemic affecting one of the most vulnerable groups, the Students-at-Risk-of-Dropping-Out (SARDOs). Public Senior High Schools provided printed self-learning modules (PSLMs) delivered to and collected from the students, including SARDOs as part of the Philippines' printed modular distance learning (PMDL). This research inquiry in the realm of social science grew out of context faced by the working SARDOs in the COVID-19 ravaged era of PMDL. This phenomenological study had examined, explored, and heard the silent voices and lived experiences of working SARDOs in their quest for learning. This study had utilized Husserlian descriptive phenomenology. Participants were chosen using criterion sampling, a purposeful sampling technique. They were eight (8) Grade 12 identified SARDOs based on the Family, individual, community, and school (FICS) Analysis. The data were collected through unstructured in-depth interviews. The iterative process was followed until a saturation point was reached. The gathered data were analyzed utilizing Moustakas (1994), Modified Stevick (1971)-Colaizzi (1973)-Keen's (1975) method. The study revealed that SARDOs were hurdling difficulties at the beginning of PMDL, including health and psychological issues and the digital divide. These difficulties led to adapting to the newness, including tapping resources for learning, prioritizing, and compromising. Achieving expected and unexpected outcomes were reached, including the attainment of skills and competencies and the gap in the learning acquisition. Realizing new perspectives was the resolution of the transformational journey of SARDOs, which includes the power of grit, perseverance, tenacity, and critical hopefulness. The lived experiences of these SARDOs in the PMDL in the middle of the pandemic is not just an obstacle course on its own but instead, an arduous metamorphic experience that metamorphosed them into resilient and solution-driven learners that aimed higher to reach their academic goals.