Perspectives of the Private High School Teachers on the Modular Distance Learning Modality: A Phenomenology

This study explores the lived experiences of private high school teachers confronted with the new challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It also seeks to determine the participants’ profile in age range by generation, relevant training attended, the highest level of education attained, years in service, and module involvement. The researcher also investigates the participants’ problems experienced in work-family conflict, opinions on support by a supervisor, views on distance education, and what had been gained from the experiences. Ten (10) teachers from Buenavista Institute and 20 teachers from Saint James High School participated in the study. The researcher employed purposive sampling and applied statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, and thematic analysis. Findings show that the millennials garnered the highest percentage among the participants, and 50% were trained at the national level. Nineteen (19) out of 30 participants obtained baccalaureate degrees, and in terms of module involvement majority of them were module users and developers. Further probing indicates that a large percentage of the participants claimed to balance work and family life. The supervisor and school heads provided emotional and essential support in meeting the demands of modular distance learning (MDL). In addition, participants viewed distance education as having many flaws and being burdensome, including difficulties in delivering lessons and challenges in conducting the lessons, but they still coped. At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the sudden transition from face-to-face to distance learning caused different implications for teachers’ time management, complications in the resp