The identity affiliation and educational experiences among Muslim Maguindanaoan high school students in Cotabato City, Mindanao, Philippines

This dissertation aimed to examine the influence of interactional dimensions of school experiences to identity affiliation among Muslim high school students in Cotabato City, Philippines. This study on identity was framed based on the three assumptions. First, the self is a multi-dimensional construct. Second, an individual identifies one aspect of the many selves to be the most salient or central. Lastly, social interactions influence the invocation of an individual’s identities and the centrality of identity affiliation. This examination primarily focused on the ethnic, religious and national identities. Correspondingly, this dissertation examined the influence of personal, parent and family characteristics to the relational dimensions of education. A survey among 520 randomly selected students and focus-group discussion with 47 participants from private Madaris, integrated Madaris, and public secular schools were conducted. The results of the study suggest that there is high level of affiliation to being Muslim, Maguindanaoan and Filipino among the participants of the study. However, the evidence suggests that Muslim identity was the most central among their social identities. The seeming fusion of both religious and ethnic values, customs and traditions promotes the understanding that the Muslim and Maguindanaoan self-understanding are inseparable. Thus, advancing the idea of the presence of ethno-religious self-understanding among Muslim-Maguindanaoan youth. Additionally, this study provides strong evidence on as regards to the significant relationship between student-teacher relationship (STR) and student-classmate relationship (SCR) with their identity affiliation. Furthermore, this investigation determined that only grade level, religiosity of parents and parent-child relationship (PCR) were related with the relational dimension of their educational experiences (STR & SCR). This dissertation advances the conceptualization of identity affiliation, formation of central identity, the predictive relat