The New Normal Through the Lense of Public Elementary Teachers: A Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this research was to explore the lived experiences of public-school teachers at San Rafael Elementary School in the delivery of Modular Distance Learning in time of COVID-19 pandemic. By employing the qualitative-phenomenological study, the following themes occurred from the conversation partners who satisfy the inclusion criteria and voluntarily participated in the study; (a) the challenges of the teachers in the new normal which was based on the following subthemes: sentiments about being isolated at home; health related concerns of oneself and significant others; difficulty brought by the new learning modality; mental health of teachers; difficulty in balancing workload, pregnancy, and parenthood; communication barriers with significant others; exposure to physical exhaustion; and unreadiness and incompetence to teach of home learning partners; (b) teachers’ response to the challenges which are taken from the following experiences: optimism among teachers; flexibility and adaptability of teachers; teachers’ faithfulness to God; support from significant others; teachers as part of the solution; and coping mechanisms of teachers; (c) the positive side of the new normal of education was the third major theme identified in this research; (d) teachers’ realizations composed of sense and fulfillment among teachers; learners’ and parents’ dedication; and teachers’ expectations from the department of education. Rigors of findings were established using thick description for transferability, checking rechecking for confirmability, dependability, and member checking for credibility