Accounts of Public Elementary School Teachers on Straight Teaching: A Narratology

Abstract

The study aimed to explore the accounts of public elementary school teachers in Grade 5 or Grade 6 who taught all the subjects in a single class. This is a qualitative-narratological study which tapped five (5) participants who were identified using the purposive sampling method. The five participants were concealed using the following aliases for their privacy and confidentiality: Jisoo, Amie, Jona, Primerose, and Constance. Thematic analysis was utilized to generate the results from the participants narratives. Overall, the participants closely shared the same stories in straight teaching. In the interviews, they highlighted the succeeding significant themes: (1) common challenges in straight teaching (2) ways of coping in straight teaching (3) application of non-traditional teaching practices (4) application of classroom management practices (5) lessons and insights gained from straight teaching and (6) the need to provide support to the teachers who handled all subjects in a single class. From these findings, it is implied that plenty of support and assistance should be provided to them by the concerned authorities such as the officials of the Department of Education (DepEd). Another is that their ways of coping and classroom practices should be emulated by all teachers in the service. Likewise, future researches are also encouraged to further validate the results found in this narratological study. Most importantly, the study is expected to contribute more information on the literature related to straight teaching and aboriginal education.