SILENT CRIES: ATTITUDES AND PROBLEMS OF TEACHERS TEACHING MTB-MLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to elicit teachers lived experiences of teaching Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) and its use as a medium of instruction in several primary subjects. Additionally, it seeks to understand the strategies employed in resolving problems and generating knowledge for the academic community. It used a snowball sampling technique to select six (6) teachers for in-depth interviews (IDIs) and five (5) teachers for focus groups with eleven (11) teachers from the regions five (5) public schools. Four (4) significant themes emerged from the participants attitudes and problems regarding the following: significant challenges in teaching MTB-MLE, difficulty understanding terminology, language use confusion, and translation challenges. Four (4) primary themes emerged in their strategies: translation, the use of additional instructional materials, the use of technology, and consultation with other teachers. Finally, three (3) significant themes were shared for their insights and knowledge, including the importance of MTB-MLE in student learning, the need for instructional materials development, and teacher readiness to teach. The findings of this study are critical for academic institutions to understand how teachers teach MTB-MLE daily. KEYWORDS: MTB-MLE, public teacher, problem, strategy, knowledge, phenomenological, thematic analysis, Region XI, Philippines