Responding to K-12 Implementation: A Case Study of an Adventist Secondary School in the Philippines

Abstract

The implementation of K-12 basic education curriculum in the Philippines has presented several challenges such as teachers’ training and deployment and infrastructure requirements (Sergio, 2011) to Seventh-day Adventist secondary schools that are already having difficulty in just maintaining their operation and suffering enrollment decline (Furst, 2013). This paper explores how the leadership of a Seventh-day Adventist secondary school in the Philippines responded to this phenomenon and its impact on the institution. A qualitative case study with semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion with the members of the school board and purposively selected teachers were used. Using the Taba inductive method of analysis, the result of the study would be useful as a reference for the leaders in the Education Department of the Church in policy and decision making to meet the further demands brought by the K-12 implementation in the Philippines. Overall, the effective response to the challenges brought about by the implementation of the K-12 curriculum was partly due to the strong support of the school leaders to comply with the government requirements that have resulted to (a) teachers’ improved engagement in professional development, (b) higher liquidity, and (c) increase in enrollment. The findings of this study show that the quality of support from school leaders may contribute to the development and growth of a school.