THE SHADOW OF CALAMITY: EXPERIENCES OF STEM TEACHERS IN SCHOOL SERVING AS EVACUATION CENTER

Baybay City Senior High School served as the evacuation center for the Barangay Kantagnos and Mailhi residents after the onslaught of Tropical Storm Agaton. This qualitative research uses the hermeneutic phenomenological design which aims to understand STEM teachers’ experiences at Baybay City Senior High School in a school serving as an evacuation center. A semi-structured interview through a focus group discussion with open-ended questions was utilized. Based on the results, nine themes emerged. First is tossed into open waters which characterizes the challenges experienced by the teachers, second is a box of disarray which presents a lot of problems encountered within the school campus, third is a warm embrace on a shivering night tells us about how teachers acted on the face of the aftermath of the calamity, fourth is life’s a weeping willow presents the emotional turmoil of teachers, fifth is a light in the dark tells us how teachers serve as hope and being gentle and understanding on the situation. Sixth is safe haven no more depicts the picture of how teachers feel unsafe in their own classrooms, seventh is a compass on the stormy sea tells us how teachers act as strong role models to their students, eighth is community resilience which talks about how teachers deal with the problems faced during school serving as an evacuation center, ninth theme, the antidote of a natural person tells us how a person turns to prayers showing faith in God. The study showed that teachers have negative and positive emotions toward schools serving as evacuation centers and that the role of teachers in an evacuation center is critical in ensuring the safety and welfare of the evacuees and maintaining an effective teaching-learning process. They had difficult experiences, but they were able to manage it.