pa ge 1 pa ge 1 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) management of persistent postnasal drip without sinus affection mohamed el-shinnawi1*, peter loizou1, carmelo barbaccia1, aditya girishchandra varma3 volume 3 issue 2, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i2.2553 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: february 10, 2024 accepted: march 24, 2024 published: march 28, 2024 persistent postnasal drip (ppnd), characterized by chronic mucus sensation in the throat without evident sinus involvement, poses challenges in otolaryngology. this study aimed to evaluate low dose, long duration clarithromycin’s efficacy in managing ppnd symptoms, addressing the limitations of existing therapies. a prospective, randomized, controlled trial was conducted with 50 participants (18-65 years) diagnosed with ppnd but without sinus pathology (proved by sinus clear ct paranasal sinus scans). they received either clarithromycin (250 mg daily) or a placebo for 12 weeks. validated assessment tools, such as the nasal symptom score (nss), visual analog scale (vas), and sino-nasal outcome test22 (snot-22), measured treatment outcomes. current therapies addressing associated symptoms exhibit limited efficacy, prompting the need for novel treatment strategies. the study revealed a significant improvement in ppnd symptoms with low-dose, long-duration clarithromycin treatment. participants exhibited reduced throat-clearing frequency, cough episodes, and subjective mucus sensation. objective assessments showed enhanced nasal pathology and mucociliary clearance post-treatment. low-dose, long-duration clarithromycin treatment demonstrated promising efficacy in ameliorating ppnd symptoms and improving quality of life without sinus involvement. these findings emphasize the potential therapeutic role of macrolides in addressing ppnd’s underlying pathophysiology. further research, including larger trials, is essential to validate these outcomes and establish effective clinical guidelines for managing ppnd. keywords persistent postnasal drip (ppnd), macrolides, chronic airway diseases, azithromycin, quality of life 1 mohamed bin rashed university, dubai, united arab emirates 2 department of accident and emergency, queen elizabith hospital, lewisham and greenwich nhs trust, london * corresponding author’s e-mail: mohamedel-shinnawi@outlook.com introduction background on ppnd and its impact on quality of life persistent postnasal drip (ppnd), also known as chronic mucus sensation in the throat without clear involvement of the sinuses, remains a challenging condition in otolaryngology (rathi ds, 2022). ppnd manifests as the chronic accumulation of mucus in the throat, originating from the nasal cavity or throat, without direct sinus pathology. it presents psychological distress and physical discomfort, significantly impacting daily routines, social interactions, and sleep patterns of affected individuals. the continuous sensation of mucus accumulation, accompanied by throat clearing, coughing, and occasional hoarseness, profoundly affects patients’ overall well-being, necessitating effective management strategies (morice, 2004). review of existing treatments and their limitations current therapeutic approaches for ppnd primarily aim at symptom relief, targeting associated manifestations rather than addressing the root cause. treatments such as antihistamines, intranasal corticosteroids, saline nasal irrigation, and mucolytics focus on alleviating nasal congestion, reducing mucus production, and easing discomfort (richards et al., 2014). however, the efficacy of these interventions in managing ppnd remains modest, often yielding suboptimal results. moreover, these treatments may not fully address the unique pathophysiological mechanisms driving ppnd in cases without apparent sinus involvement. hence, the limitations of current therapies underscore the pressing need for novel, targeted approaches to address this perplexing clinical scenario (rosenfeld et al., 2015). rationale for exploring macrolides as a potential therapeutic option amidst the various treatment modalities used for ppnd, macrolide antibiotics have gained attention due to their distinct properties beyond their antimicrobial effects (bandyopadhyay & samanta, 2020). studies indicate that macrolides possess immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, and immunoregulatory properties, rendering them potential candidates for managing chronic airway diseases characterized by excessive mucus production, including ppnd (rosenfeld et al., 2015). the rationale for exploring macrolides as a therapeutic option for ppnd stems from their capacity to modulate inflammatory pathways, reduce mucus hypersecretion, and modify mucus viscoelastic properties. however, it’s important to note potential side effects or limitations associated with macrolide use in ppnd, which will be addressed further in this study. challenges in diagnosing and delineating ppnd from other conditions a significant challenge in managing ppnd lies in its diagnosis, especially in distinguishing it from conditions pa ge 2 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 1-6 2024 with overlapping symptoms (liu et al., 2023). the absence of universally accepted diagnostic criteria for ppnd contributes to diagnostic difficulties, often leading to misdiagnosis or overlapping treatments for conditions like chronic rhinosinusitis, allergic rhinitis, or gastroesophageal reflux disease (gerd) (tan et al., 2013). precise clinical guidelines are lacking, emphasizing the need for a careful differential diagnosis to tailor appropriate therapeutic strategies for patients presenting solely with ppnd symptoms (pratter, 2006). need for targeted therapies and the scope of current research recognizing ppnd as a distinct clinical entity, separate from sinus-involved conditions, necessitates tailored therapeutic strategies addressing its underlying pathophysiology (zarbo et al., 2001). current research aims to elucidate the mechanisms driving ppnd and explore novel therapeutic avenues that could revolutionize its management. this study contributes to the growing body of evidence aimed at delineating ppnd from related conditions, highlighting the necessity for tailored therapies to improve the quality of life for affected individuals. literature review studies on macrolides in respiratory conditions macrolide antibiotics, including azithromycin and clarithromycin, have undergone extensive exploration beyond their antimicrobial roles in various respiratory conditions. investigations into their use have indicated potential efficacy in treating chronic airway diseases. research focusing on macrolides in bronchiectasis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd), and cystic fibrosis has demonstrated their ability to reduce exacerbations, improve lung function, and modulate airway inflammation. these studies provide insights into the broad-spectrum effects of macrolides beyond their conventional antibacterial actions and lay a foundation for considering their application in managing ppnd without sinus involvement (pollock & chalmers, 2021). mechanisms of action of macrolides in reducing inflammation understanding the mechanisms underpinning the antiinflammatory properties of macrolides is crucial in exploring their therapeutic potential for respiratory conditions (min & jang, 2012). these antibiotics exhibit multifaceted actions beyond their direct antimicrobial effects: they interfere with various inflammatory pathways by inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokine production, suppressing neutrophil recruitment, and modulating immune responses. these mechanisms contribute to their ability to mitigate airway inflammation, mucus hypersecretion, and tissue damage (kanoh & rubin, 2010). previous research on macrolides in treating ppnd the absence of standardized diagnostic criteria for ppnd poses significant challenges in accurately identifying and differentiating it from other conditions with similar symptoms. differential diagnoses may include chronic rhinosinusitis, allergic rhinitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease (gerd), and upper airway cough syndrome (uacs) (pratter, 2006). distinguishing ppnd from these conditions is crucial due to differences in management approaches and underlying pathophysiology. clinical evaluation, encompassing detailed history-taking, physical examination, and, in some cases, diagnostic tests like nasal endoscopy or imaging, aids in narrowing down the differential diagnosis (ryan, 2010). novel therapeutic approaches beyond antibiotics emerging research delves into alternative therapeutic approaches for managing ppnd. investigations into targeted therapies involving immunomodulators, mucoregulatory agents, and receptor antagonists offer potential alternatives or adjuncts to conventional treatments (casale & stokes, 2008). innovative strategies that modulate mucin expression, regulate neural pathways involved in mucus production, and disrupt biofilm formation in the upper airways present promising avenues for potential therapeutic interventions in ppnd. these approaches aim to target specific pathophysiological mechanisms underlying ppnd, indicating a shift towards precision medicine tailored to individual patient profiles (rouillard et al., 2022). patient-centered care and psychological interventions in addition to pharmacological interventions, recognizing the psychological impact of ppnd and implementing patient-centered care approaches is gaining attention. psychological distress associated with chronic symptoms like persistent throat clearing and coughing warrants attention to holistic management strategies. integrating psychological interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (cbt) or mindfulness-based stress reduction (mbsr) programs could complement pharmacotherapy, improving overall patient well-being and treatment outcomes. for instance, cbt techniques might involve identifying and challenging unhelpful thoughts related to throat sensations, while mbsr practices could include mindfulness meditation to manage distress associated with ppnd symptoms (qamar et al., 2011). innovations in diagnostic technologies advancements in diagnostic technologies offer promising prospects for accurate diagnosis and targeted treatment of ppnd. emerging diagnostic tools, including highresolution nasal endoscopy, acoustic rhinometry, and nasal cytology, enable precise assessment of nasal and pharyngeal mucosa, aiding in the differential diagnosis of ppnd from other conditions with similar presentations (scadding et al., 2011). moreover, innovative imaging techniques like optical coherence tomography (oct) and magnetic resonance imaging (mri) provide detailed pa ge 3 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 1-6 2024 anatomical insights, facilitating better characterization and differentiation of ppnd from sinus-involved pathologies. integration of these novel diagnostic modalities into clinical practice holds the potential for more accurate and personalized management strategies for ppnd (bliss & muntz, 2015). this study aims to investigate and delineate the effectiveness of macrolide antibiotics as a potential therapeutic option for managing ppnd without sinus involvement. this research aims to bridge the existing gap in understanding and treating ppnd, which often presents as a challenging clinical entity in otolaryngology. the study intends to explore the specific mechanisms of macrolides in reducing inflammation, modifying mucus properties, and potentially ameliorating the bothersome symptomatology associated with ppnd. by elucidating the role of macrolides in addressing the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of ppnd, the research strives to contribute to the development of more targeted and effective treatment strategies, thereby improving the quality of life for individuals affected by this chronic condition. methodology inclusion and exclusion criteria for study participants a prospective, randomized, controlled trial was conducted at mediclinic uae to evaluate the efficacy of low-dose, long-duration clarithromycin in managing ppnd without sinus involvement. fifty participants aged between 18 to 65 years, experiencing ppnd persisting for at least 12 weeks without clinical and radiological evidence of sinusitis (clear sinuses in ct paranasal sinus), were recruited. inclusion criteria encompassed absence of acute or chronic sinusitis, no recent history of macrolide use, and persistent ppnd despite conventional treatments. exclusion criteria included pregnant or lactating women, known macrolide allergies, concurrent medication that could interact with macrolides, and patients with chronic systemic diseases. dosage and duration considerations for macrolide treatment participants were randomly assigned to receive either low-dose, long-duration clarithromycin or a placebo. clarithromycin was administered orally at a dosage of 250 mg once daily for a specific duration of 12 weeks. the choice of this low-dose, long-duration regimen aimed to assess sustained treatment effects while minimizing potential adverse effects associated with prolonged antibiotic use. study design the severity and frequency of ppnd symptoms were measured using validated assessment tools including the nasal symptom score (nss), visual analog scale (vas) for symptom intensity, and sino-nasal outcome test-22 (snot-22) questionnaire. these tools were employed to assess changes in ppnd severity, throatclearing frequency, cough episodes, and subjective mucus sensation. quality of life indicators were assessed using the pittsburgh sleep quality index (psqi) to evaluate sleep quality and the short form health survey (sf-36) to assess physical and mental health parameters. outcome measures and assessment tools the primary outcome measure encompassed changes in the severity and frequency of ppnd symptoms, assessed using validated instruments such as the nasal symptom score (nss), visual analog scale (vas) for symptom intensity, and sino-nasal outcome test-22 (snot-22) questionnaire. secondary outcome measures included improvements in quality of life indicators, such as sleep quality assessed by the pittsburgh sleep quality index (psqi), physical and mental health parameters evaluated through the short form health survey (sf-36), and patient-reported treatment satisfaction. assessment tools were administered at baseline, week 4, week 8, and week 12 to monitor treatment response and potential adverse effects. assessment tools were administered at baseline and at weeks 4, 8, and 12 to monitor treatment response and potential adverse effects. the timeline of assessments aimed to track the progression of treatment effects and provide insights into any changes in symptoms or quality of life throughout the 12-week duration. statistical analysis the study used statistical package for social sciences (spss inc., chicago, il, usa) version 20.0 for data analysis. appropriate statistical methods (anova, t-tests) were employed to assess the effectiveness of low dose, long duration clarithromycin compared to placebo in ameliorating ppnd symptoms and improving quality of life indicators while considering any adverse events or dropouts during the trial period. ethical approval the study obtained written informed consent from all participants and strictly adhered to good clinical practice (gcp) guidelines and ethical standards as per the declaration of helsinki throughout the investigation. results and discussions demographic characteristics of study participants the study included 50 participants recruited from mediclinic uae. of these, 28 were male (56%) and 22 were female (44%). the age distribution ranged from 18 to 65 years, with a mean age of 42.6 years (±8.9). table 1 provides a detailed breakdown of the demographic characteristics, including gender distribution, age range, ethnicity, employment status, and socioeconomic status. the treatment involved a low-dose regimen of pa ge 4 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 1-6 2024 clarithromycin (250 mg orally, once daily) administered for 8 weeks. participants were regularly monitored for potential side effects throughout the treatment period. subjective assessment of treatment outcomes table 2 demonstrates the pre-treatment (baseline) and post-treatment subjective assessments. the results showed a significant reduction in ppnd severity as measured by the visual analog scale (vas), frequency of throat clearing per day, cough episodes per day, and improvements in quality of life (qol) scores using the sf-36 assessment tool after treatment. adverse effects of clarithromycin treatment table 4 summarises the adverse effects reported during the study. common adverse events included gastrointestinal upset, palpitation and headache, while fewer cases of allergic reactions were noted. the incidence of these effects remained relatively low, suggesting the tolerability of the low-dose clarithromycin regimen among participants. table 2: subjective assessment of treatment outcomes outcome measure pre-treatment (baseline) posttreatment visual analog scale (vas) for ppnd severity mean: 7.9 ± 1.2 mean: 3.2 ± 1.5 frequency of throat clearing per day mean: 18.5 ± 4.6 mean: 8.2 ± 3.9 cough episodes per day mean: 6.7 ± 2.1 mean: 2.4 ± 1.2 quality of life (qol) assessment (sf-36) mean: 48.2 ± 5.9 mean: 68.7 ± 7.3 table 3: objective assessment of treatment outcomes outcome measure pre-treatment (baseline) posttreatment nasal endoscopy findings (grade) mean: 2.6 ± 0.8 mean: 1.2 ± 0.5 mucociliary clearance (mm/min) mean: 6.8 ± 1.5 mean: 10.3 ± 2.1 table 4: adverse effects of clarithromycin treatment adverse effects frequency (n=50) gastrointestinal upset 4 headache 3 palpitation 3 allergic reactions 2 table 1: demographic characteristics of study participants characteristics frequency (n=50) gender male 28 female 22 age (years) mean: 42.6 ± 8.9 ethnicity middle eastern 20 south asian 11 white 15 african 4 employment full-time 30 part-time 10 unemployed 10 socioeconomic status low-income 07 middle-income 30 high-income 13 objective assessment of treatment outcomes table 3 presents objective measures showing improvements post-treatment. nasal endoscopy findings displayed a reduction in the grade of nasal pathology, while mucociliary clearance exhibited enhancement. discussion the present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of low-dose, long-duration macrolide treatment in managing ppnd without sinus involvement. the findings of this study provide valuable insights into the potential therapeutic role of macrolides in alleviating ppnd symptoms and enhancing the quality of life for affected individuals. comparative analysis with existing literature reveals a paucity of studies specifically focusing on ppnd management without overt sinus involvement (tomazic et al., 2020). previous research has predominantly emphasised treatments targeting sinus-related conditions, often overlooking ppnd as an independent entity (vaezeafshar et al., 2017). however, studies exploring macrolide therapy in chronic airway diseases, such as chronic rhinosinusitis (crs) and non-cf bronchiectasis, have exhibited promising outcomes showcasing the multifaceted benefits of macrolides beyond their antimicrobial effects (sun & li, 2022). the current investigation demonstrated encouraging outcomes in ppnd management using clarithromycin (250 mg orally, once daily) for an extended duration (12 weeks). participants exhibited a significant reduction in the frequency of throat clearing, coughing episodes, and subjective perception of mucus accumulation, indicating symptomatic improvement. these findings align with previous studies suggesting macrolides’ potential to modulate inflammatory pathways, reducing mucus pa ge 5 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 1-6 2024 hypersecretion and altering mucus properties, thereby alleviating bothersome symptoms associated with ppnd (berkhof et al., 2013). the mechanisms underlying macrolides’ efficacy in ppnd warrant attention. macrolides possess anti-inflammatory properties, inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokines and downregulating neutrophil activation, which are implicated in airway inflammation (majima, 2004). additionally, these agents exhibit immunomodulatory effects by suppressing inflammatory cell recruitment and mitigating excessive mucus production, further supporting their potential in managing chronic airway diseases, including ppnd (kricker et al., 2021). the outcomes of this study have notable implications for clinical practice in managing ppnd without sinus involvement. the observed symptomatic improvement with low-dose, long-duration macrolide therapy suggests a potential therapeutic avenue for otolaryngologists and healthcare providers when encountering patients solely presenting with ppnd symptoms (ryu et al., 2023). understanding the role of macrolides in ppnd management could aid in devising tailored treatment strategies, thereby enhancing patient care and quality of life. assessing the impact of low-dose, long-duration macrolide therapy on healthcare resource utilisation is imperative. evaluating factors such as healthcare costs, hospital visits, and medication adherence associated with this treatment regimen could elucidate its costeffectiveness and feasibility within healthcare systems. understanding the economic implications of adopting macrolides as part of ppnd management could aid healthcare policymakers and providers in decisionmaking processes. incorporating patient-reported outcomes and perspectives regarding the impact of macrolide therapy on their daily lives and well-being is crucial. qualitative assessments exploring patients’ experiences, symptom relief, and changes in quality of life due to macrolide treatment could offer valuable insights beyond clinical measures. understanding the holistic impact of treatment interventions on patients’ perceptions and satisfaction levels contributes significantly to enhancing patientcentred care. while this study sheds light on the efficacy of macrolides in ppnd management, several avenues remain unexplored. future investigations could delve deeper into elucidating the precise mechanisms by which macrolides alleviate ppnd symptoms. additionally, large-scale randomised controlled trials (rcts) with extended follow-up periods are warranted to establish the long-term safety and efficacy of macrolide treatment in ppnd. furthermore, studies comparing the effectiveness of macrolides against other conventional treatments in ppnd management would provide valuable insights into the most optimal therapeutic approach. conclusion in conclusion, the study highlights the efficacy of lowdose, long-duration macrolide treatment, particularly clarithromycin, in alleviating symptoms and improving the quality of life in individuals experiencing ppnd without sinus involvement. these findings suggest a promising therapeutic avenue for ppnd management and emphasise the potential of macrolides in addressing its underlying pathophysiology. further exploration through extended trials and assessments of patientcentred outcomes is crucial to solidify these findings and better guide clinical practice. limitations the strength of this study is its rigorous design as a randomised controlled trial (rct) employing a placebo group, enhancing the reliability of the findings. moreover, the use of validated assessment tools, such as the nasal symptom score (nss), visual analog scale (vas), and sino-nasal outcome test-22 (snot-22), ensured a comprehensive evaluation of treatment outcomes. at the same time, the limitation of this study is the small sample size and lack of long-term follow-up data. acknowledgments the author(s) thank the mediclinic, uae staff for their support in this study. ethical approval informed consent was obtained from all participants before their inclusion in the study. this study was conducted according to the protocol of good clinical practice (gcp) guidelines and ethical standards set forth by the declaration of helsinki throughout all phases of the investigation. references bandyopadhyay, s., & samanta, i. 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(2017). barosinusitis: comprehensive review and proposed new classification system. allergy & rhinology, 8(3), ar2017. zarbo, r. j., torres, f. x., gomez, j. o. s. e., & pilch, b. z. (2001). nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses: embryology, anatomy, histology and pathology. head neck surgical pathology. philadelphia: lippincott, williams and wilkins, 80-156. pa ge 1 pa ge 39 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) design and implementation of an extranet web application for collaborative education at the faculty of sciences and techniques – comoros mchangama ben ali1*, aboudou falahou1, attoumane rasmiat1, abdallah madi soirfane1, abdoul-hafar halassi bacar1 oumou koulthoum mbae1 volume 3 issue 1, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i1.2353 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: january 17, 2024 accepted: february 25, 2024 published: february 29, 2024 this paper presents an interactive e-learning web platform for the faculty of sciences and techniques, university of comoros. this extranet application replaces the manual excel processing during session examination by proposing a fully automated programming application. the proposed platform helps to minimize errors that occur when using excel manipulation, students’ interaction with the department, and waiting time before a response. the application leads also to a centralization of the results after deliberation and students can consult their detailed results over the different islands without having to come back to the campus. for the security of the developed platform, we used the well-known efficient agile method that allows us to facilitate task management during the process. the full platform was designed using the uml, and the implementation was done under object-oriented programming. the system was built using php, html, css, symfony, javascript, and mysql. for the extranet considerations, all users are given a non-modifiable username and a unique password to access the application. during the testing period, the administration service was able to accept student requests such as reports and attestation, and scores claiming and students were automatically notified of the evolution of their requests. keywords e-learning platform, object oriented programming, agile method, hybrid application, web security 1 university of the comoros, faculty of science and technology, department of mathematics, physics and chemistry, laboratory of mathematics, statistics and computer science, bp 2585 moroni, union of the comoros, comoros * corresponding author’s e-mail: benalimchangama5@gmail.com introduction high school colleges face various challenges related to communication, information dissemination, and administrative processes. traditional methods of managing such tasks through paper-based systems or outdated software often result in inefficiency and reduced engagement among stakeholders. educational departments have to manage and to secure databases that may contain thousands of rows with sensible information such as students’ personal information. with the vulgarization of the new technologies, many educational centers proposed the use of web or intranet applications instead of using excel files or manually managing this information (josette, 2017; schwabe et al., 2004; wu et al., 2019). during the pandemic of the covid-19, e-learning programs are developed and adopted (adedoyin & soykan, 2023; bajao et al., 2022; rizada & rey, 2023; singh et al., 2023) to face to human restrictions and in-site courses suspended. among those solutions, interactive web applications can offer a viable solution to overcome these challenges and streamline day-to-day operations. the faculty of sciences and techniques of the university of comoros is created in 2003. during the first ten years, the faculty had only two bachelor formations, and the number of students was less than 500. therefore, using excel software in order to collect different notes of modules, calculate means, print results, reports and attestations was easy to control and errors were detected without high effort. over the years, numerous formations have been introduced. the faculty has now six bachelor degree formations, and four master degree formations. the number of registered students increases with the multiplication and the diversification of the formations in the faculty. using excel software became heavy and many cases of errors occur very often after results publication. students’ score claims are intensive, and the educational department was overwhelmed. moreover, excel files were heavier and simpler to management; scores claiming treatment or name modification demanded more and more time to save the modified file. in addition, since the world pandemic disease of coronavirus in 2020, the number of students in the faculty increased exponentially and excel software seems unappropriated for the examination process. the excel application has reached its real limits during this period. thus, alternative solutions were proposed to replace the use of excel software in the examination process. all the proposed solutions were commercial and were not adapted to the needs of the faculty at 100 percent. thus, we proposed a local solution developed by a local team of students and local advisors. this solution is freely developed and totally maintained by the local resources. the first version of the solution, used during the academic years of 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, was an internet web application which allowed the administration of the faculty to reduce the errors caused when using excel application and to speed up the process of the results centralization. the first version of the application was developed speedily given the emergency of the needs. in the first version, many challenges were not fixed. for instance, to treat student’s score claiming, the administrators had to re-upload the all the database pa ge 40 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 39-44 2024 because the application used a static database. all the means and calculated notes were simply readied by the application. after the publication of the results, student were required to return to the campus of the college for simple score claiming. numerous solutions based on web applications were proposed in different countries (bajao et al., 2022; love, 2018). for example, in niger, a web application was designed and implemented for the baccalaureate grade processing since 2018 (kachalo et al., 2018). standard websites are usually designed for an informative and promotional issue. this conventional website is not appropriate for an interactive e-learning application. the web application is a website that can lead students, teachers, and administrators to exchange in an online platform. extranet web applications can be accessed from every region of the world via internet services using personal identification. this kind of application gives the student flexibility to return to their regions or islands after the end of the annual evaluations. from home, students can access their own results, send requests, and eventually submit a score claim. this new web application is named “schooling web service”. the full platform is modeled using the unified modeling language (uml) (unhelkar, 2017), designed by the html and css technologies (duckett, 2011; nebra, 2023) and the implementation is done under object oriented programming using php, javascript and mysql (nebra & andrieu, 2022; nixon, 2022; thuillier, 2017). to secure the developed web application, symfony 5 is preferred (potencier, 2019). the development of the interactive web application follows an iterative and user-centric approach. the team involved in this project comprised software engineers, designers, educators, and stakeholders from the faculty center. the methodology included the following key steps. the requirement gathering to understand the needs and expectations of the users is presented in the subsection analyzing of the system. the design, prototyping and development are outlined in the subsection design, prototyping and implementation while section results and evaluations concerns to the results, deployment and testing of the application. materials and methods analyzing of the system the initial phase involved extensive stakeholder engagement to gather user requirements and expectations from the web application. surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions were conducted to obtain insights into the specific needs and pain points of each user group regrouped into three parts: students, teachers and administrators. the flowchart from figure 1 outlines the main steps and functionalities of the proposed e-learning web application (vazquez-peñaloza & jaimez-gonzález, 2019). the flowchart starts with the “start” point where the user initiates the process. the user is then prompted to log in with his credentials to access the e-learning platform. after successful login, the user is directed to the “dashboard” as the central navigation hub. from the dashboard, according to his profile, the user can “select course” to browse, add course or evaluation, print reports, etc. once a student selects a course, the user can “view course content,” which includes lectures, documents, and other study materials. students can also send an examination report related to the course before the deadline. connected teachers can access their “profile” to update personal information or settings. if the user wishes to leave the platform, they can “logout.” the flowchart also includes a feedback loop in the discussions, where users can provide feedback or suggestions to improve the platform. figure 1: the system flowchart summarizing the main steps and functionalities of the proposed application pa ge 41 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 39-44 2024 the use case diagram represents the interactions between users and the system. there exists two different types of data flow diagram (dfd) (aleryani, 2016; li & chen, 2009). here we select the context-level dfd (level 0), where the main application is represented by a simple box, and only flows outside the domain are reported. figure 2 outlines the simplified data flow diagram (dfd) level 0 (the context diagram) for the proposed e-learning web application that shows the three main users of the platform. figure 2: data flow diagram of the proposed e-learning application design, prototyping and implementation based on the gathered requirements, the application’s architecture and user interface were designed. multiple iterations of prototyping were performed to validate design choices and gather feedback from potential users. the web application was developed using modern web technologies, including html5, css3, javascript, and angular for the frontend. the backend was built using symfony 5, php, and a relational database (mysql) to store user data and application records. the development process followed agile methodologies, enabling iterative feature additions and frequent testing. extensive testing, including unit testing and user acceptance testing, was conducted to ensure the application’s functionality and performance. the application incorporated a robust authentication system, enabling secure login for students, teachers, and administrative staff. role-based access control ensured that each user group could access only the relevant features and functionalities. teachers could create and manage course materials, syllabi, assignments, and resources through a user-friendly interface. students had easy access to all course-related information and could submit assignments digitally. the application provided real-time messaging and discussion forums, enabling seamless communication between students and teachers. it facilitated group collaborations and allowed teachers to send announcements and figure 3: conception of the application: the entity-relationship diagram for the database pa ge 42 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 39-44 2024 notifications. administrative staff could manage student records, track attendance, generate reports, and handle scheduling through dedicated administrative tools. the database is organized according to the conceptual data model presented in figure 3. as the web application handles sensitive information, ensuring data security and privacy is of paramount importance. this was a top priority during development. encryption protocols and secure apis were implemented to safeguard sensitive information. as the number of users increased, the application’s performance became a concern. employing scalable cloud infrastructure and optimizing database queries addressed scalability challenges. results and evaluation the web application was deployed on a scalable web server, allowing smooth access to users. the section discusses future enhancements and potential areas for expansion, including integration with other educational platforms, feedback mechanisms, and continuous improvement of user experience. the interactive web application was subjected to rigorous user testing and evaluation. users reported increased satisfaction with the improved communication and accessibility. administrative staff experienced enhanced efficiency in managing records and processes. the application’s performance and responsiveness met user expectations. the proposed web application offers a range of features to cater to different stakeholders: student portal enabling students to access course materials, grades, and assignments, and facilitating collaboration with classmates and teachers. faculty portal empowering faculty members to manage courses, grade assignments, and communicate with students efficiently. staff portal streamlining administrative tasks, such as managing student records, scheduling events, and handling admissions. calendar and notifications implementing a comprehensive calendar system with event scheduling and automated reminders. to guarantee the application’s reliability and functionality, comprehensive testing procedures were conducted, including unit testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing. students interface in the ever-evolving landscape of education, students have found a profound connection to the e-learning website (coman et al., 2020). the proposed platform serves as virtual gateway to knowledge, offering a myriad of benefits that resonate with the modern learner. first and foremost, the convenience and flexibility of accessing educational content anytime, anywhere have revolutionized the learning experience. with a diverse range of courses and subjects at their fingertips, students can tailor their learning journey to suit their interests and goals. the interactive nature of this e-learning website fosters a deeper understanding of the material and enhances retention. moreover, the ability to track progress, receive personalized feedback, and connect with a global community of learners and instructors creates a sense of accountability and motivation. as e-learning continues to innovate and expand, students find themselves seamlessly integrated into this virtual realm of education, propelling them toward academic excellence and personal growth. in figure 4, the profile page of the faculty students is shown and how they can add or edit their information. whether they can upload a picture to their profile. they can view all their registered information and their results while these ones are available. students can also from their profile access to the discussions, search and download figure 4: students profile: the connection page (left) and the homework submission (right) pa ge 43 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 39-44 2024 documents according to modules they are registered and interacting with the faculty administration. administrators interface approving student’s score claiming for their school report on the platform involves a systematic and evidence-based approach by the administrator. when a student submits a score claiming request, the administrator must gather all relevant data pertaining to the assessment process. this includes accessing the original school report, the grading rubric or guidelines used, and any additional feedback or comments provided by the teacher or evaluator. next, the administrator should carefully examine the student’s score claiming and assess it against the established grading criteria. applying scientific principles such as objectivity and consistency, the administrator must ensure that the score claiming request is treated impartially, regardless of the student’s identity or personal circumstances. in order to make an informed decision, the administrator may need to collaborate with the teacher or evaluator who assessed the report initially. open communication and sharing of perspectives can help in understanding the rationale behind the original grading and whether the score claiming request is valid. furthermore, the administrator should keep a detailed record of the steps taken during the score claiming review process, documenting all relevant information and the reasoning behind the final decision. this documentation is essential for transparency and accountability purposes. additionally, the platform includes clear guidelines and policies in place to govern the score claiming treatment process, ensuring that it aligns with scientific principles and best practices in education assessment. regular training and professional development for administrators can also enhance their expertise in handling score claiming requests effectively. by adhering to a scientific approach in approving student’s score claiming for their school report, the administrator can maintain fairness, accuracy, and reliability in the assessment process, ultimately fostering a supportive and conducive learning environment on the platform. to ensure transparency, all the score claiming treatment process is controlled by two administrators: the chief of the concerned department who check all the verification process and propose the corresponding note. the proposed note is not effective until approved by the head of schooling. figure 5 and figure 6 show the two steps of the score claiming treatment process and validation. figure 5: score claiming process at the department head: rejection, printing report or treatment of a checked claim figure 6: claim validation at the schooling department head pa ge 44 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 39-44 2024 conclusions in this paper, a new version of an extranet web application is designed and implemented for the faculty of sciences and techniques, university of comoros. the first test carried out over the past three years have shown that the proposed application is well adapted on the needs of the college and allows first management of the examination process. students do no more needs to come back to the campus for simple demands and/or scores claiming. they can stay home, in their island and send their request. while the request is treated, an automatic message is sent to the corresponding score claimer so that he can be informed to the evolution of his demand. the design and implementation of this interactive web application proved to be a successful endeavour. the application’s user-friendly interface, coupled with its robust functionality, significantly improved communication, engagement, and administrative efficiency. as technology continues to evolve, ongoing enhancements and updates will further optimize the application’s performance and cater to the changing needs of the educational landscape. the study demonstrates the immense potential of interactive web applications in transforming educational institutions and fostering a collaborative learning environment. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank to the anonymous reviewers who kindly contribute to improve the quality of this work. we would also like to think to all the persons who contribute to the materials and technological preparation of this work, especially the laboratory of marine and coastal sciences. references adedoyin, o. b., & soykan, e. (2023). covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities. interactive learning environments, 31(2), 863–875. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1 813180 aleryani, a. y. (2016). comparative study between data flow diagram and use case diagram. https://www. semanticscholar.org/paper/comparative-studybetween-data-flow-diagram-and-use-aleryani/98d f564364c444760d7034b0c5d9fd97c6dd2bce bajao, n. a., nuñez, g. p., bontia, s. m. m., & montecillo, k. v. c. (2022). web-based faculty development management system. american journal of geospatial technology, 1(2), article 2. https://doi.org/10.54536/ ajgt.v1i2.1425 coman, c., țîru, l. g., meseșan-schmitz, l., stanciu, c., & bularca, m. c. (2020). online teaching and learning in higher education during the coronavirus pandemic: students’ perspective. sustainability, 12(24), article 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410367 duckett, j. 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(2019). the design and application of a webbased teacher evaluation system for stem education. international journal of electrical engineering & education, 002072091985278. https://doi. org/10.1177/0020720919852783 special issue (2nd eic-2024) published by e-palli publishers, delaware, usa 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 60 exploring sustainable initiatives for rural women: analysis of economic transformation of women and community empowerment md. asaduzzaman mondol asad1* 1 department of public administration, begum rokeya university, rangpur, bangladesh * corresponding author e-mail: asad.pad.brur@gmail.com abstract bangladesh, a developing nation in south asia, has been struggling with various challenges such as poverty, corruption, overpopulation, climate change, and violence against women ever since its independence. half of bangladesh's entire population consists of women, with a significant majority residing in rural areas and not participating in any economic activities. excluding this portion of the population from participating in economic activity results in a fifty percent reduction in the development of the country. several initiatives have been undertaken to enhance the economic well-being of women in these rural communities. this study investigates the actual circumstances of women, finds obstacles to their economic participation, and suggests measures that foster their involvement in income-generating activities. the study employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, directing the rural women of lalmonirhat district through structured interviews and focus group discussions. result shows that the rural women residing in this community possess inadequate levels of education and are subject to numerous prejudices. consequently, they do not participate in any economic activities, and their fate remains unchanged by any sustainable development efforts. to improve their situation, the women in this area should increase their involvement in vocational education and gain access to information, communication, and technology. this will enable them to engage in incomegenerating activities and bring about sustainable improvements in their lives. keywords: sustainable development goals (sdgs), economic empowerment, rural women introduction bangladesh has been plagued with various problems since its independence and has been influenced by the development trend (ullah et al., 2022). bangladesh's government has been facing various challenges in advancing the country. however, the government of bangladesh has achieved various targets to continue the country's development, such as achieving the millennium development goal (mdg), influencing the achievement of the sustainable development goals (sdg), and the development of bangladesh in the world bank's economic development criteria is commendable (alam, 2023). however, bangladesh is facing various challenges such as poverty, corruption, climate change, overpopulation, and gender-based violence (khan, 2022). all these challenges have not only hindered the achievement of bangladesh's development goals, but these channels have also been a major obstacle to the overall development of a large section of the female population of bangladesh. currently, the ratio of women to men in bangladesh is almost equal; more than half of bangladesh's population lives in rural areas (coleman et al., 2023). the educational qualifications and technical capacity of the women living in these villages are very poor, which is why they cannot directly participate in any developmental and economic activities to change their destiny. due to this backwardness, the poor women in the villages are stuck in the cycle of poverty and the overall economic development of bangladesh stands as a hindrance (murshid, 2022). due to the geographical location of bangladesh, it is subject to various types of climate change impacts (chowdhury et al., 2022). lalmonirhat district of bangladesh is a river-bed area where people are subjected to regular floods and waterlogging. women in this area are far behind in terms of educational qualification and have no technical capacity, so they are deprived of various economic opportunities. due to various social barriers, they are not able to bring about any change e-palli international conferences on business, arts, and social sciences (eic-bas) www.conferences.e-palli.com 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) 14 april 2024 kathmandu, nepal doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3773 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 61 in their standard of living. this large number of women need proper education and technical capacity building for sustainable development so that they can connect themselves with economic activities through their own work and sustainably develop themselves and their families. this study aims to examine the various obstacles that rural women in the lalmonirhat district face, with a particular focus on the intricate relationship between socio-economic elements that contribute to their ongoing marginalization. by utilising an allencompassing research framework incorporating qualitative and quantitative methodologies, this study aims to offer a nuanced comprehension of the obstacles hindering women's economic participation and sustainable development in the area. primary data will be gathered through structured interviews and focus group discussions with women residing in rural areas. these methods will facilitate an in-depth examination of the participants' lived experiences, perspectives, and ambitions. this study sheds light on various dimensions of improving the quality of life of rural women, including economic, social, and technological aspects. by bridging the gap between policy aspirations and grassroots realities, this study endeavors to inform evidence-based strategies and interventions that resonate with the needs and aspirations of rural women in the lalmonirhat district. different types of ngos are working to improve the livelihood of women (shahin et al., 2022). analysis of the involvement of rural poor women and various aspects of their sustainable development are reviewed. the government of bangladesh is working to improve the quality of life of these backward rural women through various programs and is committed to their sustainable development (dupuis, 2022). objective this research aims to address the multifaceted issues of rural women and the factors hindering their economic development. the main objective of the research is to study the complexities behind the growth of rural women in the lalmonirhut district. this research examines the women's circumstances, identifies barriers to their economic participation and proposes strategies to foster their engagement in income-generating activities. the objectives of the research studies are stated below: 1. to access the socio-economic status and challenges of rural women 2. to identify the barriers to economic participation and sustainable development 3. to develop sustainable strategies for economic development by addressing these objectives, this research seeks to contribute to the ongoing efforts to empower rural women in lalmonirhat district, bangladesh, fostering sustainable development and promoting inclusive growth that benefits the entire community. literature review the country of bangladesh has been struggling with a significant unemployment rate for a considerable amount of time, and women, in particular, have been subjected to social exclusion from participating in rural economic activity (kamal & afrin, 2022). over the course of several years, scholars have not paid a great deal of attention to the role that gender plays in socioeconomic development and activities that are economically significant in rural areas. over the course of the past twenty years, an increasing number of studies have been carried out on this subject. according to the findings of these studies, it is likely that a certain group of social norms is to blame for the fact that men are able to exert their authority over women (bose et al., 2009). approximately 49.3 percent of the population of bangladesh is comprised of females, which translates to approximately 71 million out of a total population of 144 million people. on average, around 56 million women reside in rural areas (bbs, 2011). sustainable development goals (sdgs) the sustainable development goals (sdgs) have emerged as a primary concern for the countries still growing their economies (ordonez-ponce & weber, 2022). in light of the fact that bangladesh has received a great deal of praise from the international community of development for its outstanding performance in achieving the millennium development goals (mdgs), which include the empowerment of women and the promotion of gender equality, the nation is becoming an active participant in welcoming the sustainable development goals (kumar & suppiah, 2023). in spite of the fact that the sustainable development goals (sdgs) have seventeen global goals and 169 objectives for bangladesh, this article makes an effort to concentrate on the fifth aim of the sdgs, which is to establish gender equality and empower women (karlsson, 2022). more than half of our total 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 62 population is comprised of female. it is impossible to secure our overall development if we do not consider women's education and advancement (rahman et al., 2023). economic empowerment giving women more economic power is not only a way to boost economic growth, but also a way to protect women's human rights (christopherson et al., 2022). many women make important contributions to society, but because of how it is set up, most are not seen, recognized, or paid for (saleh & sultana, 2016). different countries have different problems when it comes to giving women more power. sen and batliwala (2000) say that empowering women rests on having enough control over their resources, abilities, self-confidence, and self-efficacy. they also say that traditional ideas need to be changed. the united nations development programme (undp) said in 2014 that "bold and sustained action is needed to advance women's opportunities and rights and to make sure that women can participate and be heard." according to the un women (2014), "economic empowerment of women would lead to gender equality, the end of poverty, and economic growth that benefits everyone." women make a huge difference in economies, whether they work in businesses or on farms, as entrepreneurs or workers, or by caring for others at home for free. methodology method and data collection for the purpose of accomplishing its objectives, this study utilized a methodical methodology, which included both primary and secondary sources of data. the initial data was gathered through the utilization of a fundamental quantitative and qualitative methodology. for the purpose of gathering quantitative data, researchers utilized the interview method in conjunction with a more organized questionnaire. through the use of the fgd method, researchers were able to collect qualitative data. the secondary data was obtained from a variety of trustworthy sources, including statistics reports and publications that are now within the realm of research. to be more specific, the lalmonirhut district is the focus of this particular research endeavor. our sample population consisted of four geographically rural areas, and we conducted interviews with them. sampling at the beginning of the primary data collection phase, a total of 100 respondents were chosen after careful consideration. residents of the lalmonirhut district are included in this category. in addition, four focus group discussions (fgd) were held with the respondents in order to acquire qualitative data. in each and every fgd, we had 10 responders, which included both male and female participants. we also included young people in the conversation in order to make the fgd more welcoming to a wider range of people. the views and thoughts of each and every respondent have been openly shared and voiced by all attendees. in addition to this, we incorporated the perspectives of the key informants and carried out ten key informant interviews with the representative of the local government, the chairman of the union parishad, officials from the development sector, and representatives from rural impoverished communities. data collection quantitative data (interviews and key informant interviews) and qualitative data (focus group discussions and observations) were collected through a variety of methods. in order to obtain information that was both broad and in-depth, we conducted personal interviews with each of the eighty heads of households. in the event that the head of the home was unavailable, we gathered our information from the next most significant member of the family system. four focus group discussions (fgds) were conducted to collect community feedback and obtain a more comprehensive perspective. forty individuals participated in the focus group discussions and articulated their ideas. findings in bangladesh, in the male-dominated society, most women are stuck inside the "four walls" of their home, like a bird in a cage. cultural and patriarchal restrictions, like purdah, make it hard for them to move around and take part in economic and social activities. most of their jobs are inside the house, doing things like cooking, cleaning, giving birth and raising children, and so on (sultana, 2009). to conduct the survey, we focused on 100 female respondents and collected data related with their surroundings (table 1). 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 63 table 1: age of respondents age of respondents number of respondents percentages 14-17 19 19% 18-24 23 23% 25-35 29 29% 36-45 13 13% 46-60 10 10% 60+ 6 6% total 100 100% source: field visit table 2: household member status age number of hh member average percentage male 18+ 115 1.15 24% female 18+ 137 1.37 29% boys 14-17 83 0.83 18% girls 14-17 93 0.93 20% infants-boys 0-13 19 0.19 4% infants-girls 0-13 23 0.23 5% total 470 4.70 source: field visit table 3: educational status of respondents education status number of respondents percentage graduation completed 3 3% hsc completed 13 13% ssc completed 21 21% ssc appeared/not passed 6 6% class 5class 8 15 15% below primary class 5 23 23% moktob (attended) 15 15% never attended any 4 4% total 100 source: field visit table 4: technical skill of rural women technical skill number of respondents percentage computer and it knowledge 5 5% sewing and embroidery 23 23% block & batik 6 6% handcrafting 9 9% agriculture 20 20% livestock 31 31% others 6 6% total 100 source: field visit 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 64 among our sample respondents, 29% are from the aged 25-35 range and 23% from the aged 18-24 range. we asked about the educational background of the sample respondents. among the sample respondents, 21% passed the ssc examination, and 23% attended below the primary class of 5 (table 3). respondents stated that 31% of then know about livestock rearing, 23% of them know sewing and embroidery and 5% only have computer & it knowledge. based on this data, women in our rural society have very little technological and technical knowledge. the knowledge they have is that animal husbandry is related to agriculture (table 4). 47% of respondents replied that they depend on the income of their hh head, 25% rely on the income from livestock, and 15% are engaged with various small businesses (table 5). among the respondents, only 5% are engaged with formal employment, table 5: source of income source of income number of respondents percentage formal job 5 5% livestock income 25 25% handcrafting 8 8% depends on hh head income 47 47% small business 15 15% total 100 source: field visit and 8% are engaged with various handcrafting. women in lalmonirhat district are largely backward in terms of educational qualification and lack of much technical capacity. they are not able to involve themselves in income generating work and have less scope for decision making and voice in the family. fgd respondents said that, “due to our educational qualification and lack of technical knowledge, we cannot involve ourselves in income-generating activities. we have to spend most of our day at home and manage other household functions.” we found that the main source of income for these women is animal husbandry, and few rural women engage in sewing. since they have no income of their own, they have to rely on their husbands or main breadwinners. fgd respondents stated that, “there is no such thing as our own wealth, so we have to depend on our husband's income and buy our every need depending on his wishes. sometimes we have arguments with our husbands about all these things and they do different kinds of violence with us.” we also find that people in these areas do not make it possible for women to go elsewhere to work. here women's own opinion is not given much importance, in this case the father or elder male member of the house takes all the decisions in the house and decides on the distribution of work and future of the women in the house. fgd respondents stated that, “our male members take the main decisions in our house and what we do next, where we work or who we get married to, they decide everything, and we have to accept it.” we found that rural women are now engaging themselves in various income-generating activities with information communication and technologies (ict) that help them in their economic empowerment. we have seen rural women doing various types of handicrafts and block batiks, selling these products through social media, and earning income. one respondent argued that, “i currently do block batik and sewing work and sell it through social media, through which i earn some money that helps me buy other necessities for my family.” currently, various non-governmental organizations are working in lalmonirhat district and are working on various projects and their implementation to bring about structural change and increase women's involvement with technological systems. these ngos provide various types of financial support to the rural backward women. with these financial supports, the rural women are employing their time and labor in various small businesses and trying to change their fortunes. the bangladesh government and various ngos are working to implement various programs in this area to change the quality of life for rural women. these 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 65 projects work tirelessly to empower women to take a leading role in decision-making in their personal and family lives and implement their own decisions to shape their future plans. conclusion in bangladesh, most women are demotivated, apathetic, and inactive in activities that generate cash (arora, 2022). this is mostly because their religious beliefs, patriarchy, insecurity, and social shame in society all contribute to this situation (khan et al., 2022). the foundations of women under development include things like domestic violence, sexual harassment in the workplace, child marriage, and a lack of social safety nets that are adequately guaranteed for bereaved, divorced, or separated women. additionally, the digital divide between women and unpaid domestic work are also contributing factors (saha, 2022). bangladesh is a growing country that is on track to meet its sustainable development goals by ending inequality between men and women and giving women more power (saifuddin et al., 2022). the country is getting better at giving women more power, but to make sure that the progress lasts, skills development, higher education, and building people's abilities should be given top importance. bangladesh knows that tackling poverty and inequality, as well as all the other goals of sustainable development, is very important. they have also put gender equality and women's empowerment at the center of their plans for growth (jahan et al., 2023). there is a pressing need for radical ideas to achieve gender equality and ensure a sustainable future. in order to speed up the process of achieving equality, the bangladesh government needs to ensure that women have access to the essential skills, particularly in the domains of science and technology. additionally, they should make it simpler to gain access to financial resources, work to narrow the gender gap in mobile phone ownership and provide assistance to individuals interested in advancing from lower-level positions to management ones to increase the level of empowerment. support should be provided to low-income women working in the informal sector so that they can become self-employed and micro entrepreneurs. this would remove the most significant barriers to accessing financing and skills, and it would also correspond with many women's inclination to work for themselves. to move forward, it will be essential to implement new measures that address genderspecific barriers, such as providing inexpensive childcare for women who come from low-income homes. to guarantee that women's interests are adequately reflected, a greater number of women should participate in decision-making processes at both the local and national levels. the economic prospects available to everyone will be impacted by climate change. as a result, men and women need to play equal roles as agents of change to achieve a more robust and expedient recovery. by providing equal chances for individuals to become politically and socially active, it is possible to generate productivity gains that will ultimately result in a more inclusive and sustainable development for everyone. references alam, m. s. 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(2009). ngos in bangladesh: are they successful in increasing awareness among vulnerable women? indian journal of gender studies. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/097152150801600104 shahin, m., khanam, m., aktar, s., siddiqua, a., & sharif, n. (2022). resiliency of livelihood and empowerment of women: results of a cash-based intervention in bangladesh's lalmonirhat district. international journal of disaster risk reduction, 79, 103137. sen, g., & batliwala, s. (2000). women’s empowerment and demographic processes: moving beyond cairo. in h. b. presser & g. sen (eds.), women’s empowerment and demographic processes: moving beyond cairo (pp. 95). oxford university press. unw. (2014). economic empowerment. http://www.unwomen.org/ru/what-we-do/economic-empowerment (accessed march 30, 2024). undp. (2014). women’s economic empowerment. united nations development programme. http://www.undp.org/content/ undp/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/focus_areas/focus_gender.html ullah, a. a., ullah, a. a., & hasan, m. k. (2022). socio-economic development and challenges after 50 years of the independence of bangladesh: a review. current politics and economics of south, southeastern, and central asia, 31(4), 443–468. front page 3773 60-66 pa ge 1 pa ge 51 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) the behavior of non-hazardous wastes in concrete bricks for load bearing wall john rogel s. ursua1*, ajimar s. borlan1, rex y. galopo1, edgar s. malayo1, jeril g. gayomali1, kit adrian h. ladromo1 volume 2 issue 2, year 2023 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v2i2.1340 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: february 26, 2023 accepted: march 28, 2023 published: march 30, 2023 as the world continues to grow, so does the demand for building materials necessary for building homes. about 20% of the population needs adequate housing. on the other hand, the problem with solid waste management has become a constant challenge over the years. as a result, innovators always try to resolve these issues while putting out economical and environment-friendly materials. this study aims to determine the feasibility of utilizing the following non-hazardous household wastes; pet, hdpe, and ldpe plastic wastes; bones from fish, poultry, and livestock animals; shredded used paper and tin cans in making an effective a practical concrete brick for load-bearing wall. the researchers tested the possibility of creating a concrete brick using cement, sand, and non-hazardous household wastes through compressive strength, water absorption, and efflorescence tests. the findings showed that using non-hazardous household wastes in concrete brick has a great significance in alleviating the effect of solid wastes conforming to the standards of astm c90 – standard specification for load-bearing masonry units, is 3495 (part 2) 1992 and astm c67. the study shows the great possibility of the produced sand brick as a building material and an excellent tool for resolving the issue of solid waste management. keywords concrete brick, compressive strength, efflorescence test, water absorption test 1 university of antique, antique, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: johnrogel.ursua@antiquespride.edu.ph introduction the study focuses on utilizing non-hazardous household wastes, pet, hdpe, and ldpe wastes, animal bones from fish, poultry, and livestock animals, and shredded used paper and tin cans in making effective concrete bricks for the load-bearing wall. specifically, the study aims to address the issue of reducing non-hazardous wastes and utilizing them effectively as components of reusable structural elements that will substitute expensive concrete bricks. moreover, the study aims to decrease the effect of pollution on the environment by reducing, reusing, and recycling these non-hazardous wastes. countries around the globe continuously generate large amounts of waste as their populations grow and their economies expand. municipal solid waste (msw), currently produced yearly in the world at 1.3 billion metric tons, is anticipated to reach 4.3 billion urban residents generating about 1.42 kg/capita/day of municipal solid waste by 2025 (hoornweg, & bhada-tata, 2012; kawai, & tasaki, 2016). waste generation may rise by up to 70% by 2050, from 2.01 billion tonnes to 3.40 billion (wowrzeczka, 2021; iqbal, naz, & naseem, 2021). it is hard to control this massive number, thus, the effective usage of nonhazardous waste and its usage as reusable structural elements can alleviate the issue on solid waste management and minimize the necessity to utilize primary resources. this problem is not only from a local/regional perspective, but especially from a global point of view. in the last eight years, developing countries’ material footprint per capita nearly doubled, representing a significant and much-needed improvement in material standards of living (pavlu, fortova, divis, & hajek, 2019). these are essential environmental factors in complying with one of the core objectives of the 2030 un agenda on sustainability development—goal 12: ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. homelessness and the lack of adequate housing arise due to many contributing factors, including the affordability of housing structural components. national reports show that no less than 150 million people, or about 2% of the world’s population, are homeless. however, about 1.6 billion, more than 20% of the world’s population, lack adequate housing (chamie, 2017). objectives this study aims to determine the effectiveness of utilizing these non-hazardous wastes such as pet, hdpe and ldpe plastic waste, bones from fish, poultry and livestock animals, paper, and tin cans in making concrete bricks that conform to the quality standards set by the american society for testing and materials (astm) for load bearing wall. specifically, the study sought to: 1. determine the compressive strength of concrete brick using non-hazardous wastes for load bearing wall; 2. determine the water absorption rate of a concrete brick using non-hazardous wastes for load bearing wall; and 3. determine the efflorescence level of concrete bricks using non-hazardous wastes for load-bearing wall. materials and methods this section presents the materials in making concrete bricks for load-bearing wall from non-hazardous wastes. sand sand is a naturally occurring loose granular material generated from disintegrated rocks. soil erosion is the key process of why sand is formed. also, sand is formed by https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v2i2.1340 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri mailto:johnrogel.ursua@antiquespride.edu.ph pa ge 52 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 51-56, 2023 decomposing rocks components into tiny particles. this process is called weathering. however, a huge amount of sand comes from mechanical and chemical interruption of the substrate or foundation. moreover, this weathering of bedrocks is greatly affected by temperature changes, salt crystals, squeezing of plant roots in rock cracks and can take hundreds to millions of years, depending on other mechanical processes such as temperature changes, wedging by salt crystals, and expansive soils that swell due to moisture or ice. river sand was used in this study in making concrete bricks. usbr engineering geology field manual affirmed that sand are particles of rock that will pass a no. 4 (4.75-mm) sieve and is retained on a no. 200 (0.075-mm) sieve. sand is further subdivided into three: coarse sand—passes no. 4 (4.75-mm) sieve and is retained on no. 10 (2.00mm) sieve, sand—passes no. 10 (2.00-mm) sieve and is retained on no. 40 (425-µm) sieve, and fine sand— passes no. 40 (425-µm) sieve and is retained on no. 200 (0.075-mm or 75-µm) sieve. municipal solid waste municipal solid waste is one of the classifications of solid waste and includes urbanized domestic solid waste, junk, or such waste that can be considered city msw as indicated by the city’s laws (ahmed, ibraheem, & abd-ellah, 2022). moreover, it was stated that municipal solid waste is usually produced in various sources where different human activities are practiced, further asserting that 55-80% of these in third-world countries comes from domestic solid waste and 10-30% is from by market or business regions. these wastes are apparently heterogeneous, ranging from yard materials, inactive materials, food leftovers, wood, to plastics, batteries, metals, etc. in a constant condition where the world population is swelling, it is paralleled with this waste mounting to high levels. with this, the issue on solid waste management continues to significantly affect the world. non-hazardous solid waste like plastic bottles, plastic bags, soft drink bottles, used paper, animal bones, and tin cans were collected. pet, hdpe, ldpe wastes synthetic polymers like plastics as highly resistant to chemicals, acids, and bases and are insusceptible to naturally occurring decomposers, making them nonbiodegradable (jabir, hadi, & al-zubiedy, 2020). further, it was discussed the following three types of plastics; pet (polyethylene terephthalate), hdpe (high-density polyethylene), and ldpe (low-density polyethylene). plastic bottles, plastic bags, and soft drink bottles were used because of their high chemical resistance and are ductile and lightweight. pet has good gas barrier properties and good chemical resistance (sulyman, haponiuk, & formela, 2016). compared to the reference concrete, wpet concretes have a similar workability profile, a little lower compressive strength and splitting tensile strength, and a marginally better ductility (frigione, 2010). on the other hand, hdpe is more linear and crystalline and is used in commodities, thermoplastic, and industrial and household usage. its good mechanical properties make it an ideal ingredient for molding products. ldpe is a highly flexible material. this section includes the process in making concrete bricks from non-hazardous wastes for load bearing walls. these are collection and preparation of materials, mixing and proportion by weight, casting of concrete bricks, and testing. the following figure details the concrete-brick making process from non-hazardous wastes. collection and preparation of materials non-hazardous solid waste like plastic bottles, plastic figure 1: the process of making concrete bricks bags, soft drink bottles, used paper, bones from fish, livestock, and poultry animals, and tin cans were collected. the waste was then segregated into different containers. plastics and paper were cut into 0.50-1.00 cm square. furthermore, twenty (20) kilograms of river sand was collected and then sieved using a number 4.75 mm to 0.075 mm sieve. it was then washed with potable water to take out the impurities. similarly, the collected waste materials were washed individually and sun-dried to remove the excess water on their surfaces. materials were then weighed with the use of a digital weighing scale accordingly. mixing proportion by weight produced brick mixture weighs three (3) kilograms. cement is fixed to 33.33% or 1 kg of the brick mixture. the sand ranges from 1.4 kg (46.67%) to 1.7 kg (56.67%) of the mixture. the household wastes range from 0.3 kg https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 53 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 51-56, 2023 (10%) to 0.6 kg (20%) of the mixture. water weighs 0.55 kg for every mixture however the amount of water may be increased if the mixture is dry. preparation and casting of concrete brick the brick mold used in this study was a 15 cm x 10 cm x 5 cm steel mold. the materials were weighed with the use of a digital weighing scale and were mixed proportionally. for the mixture of brick a, 1 kilogram of cement which is 33.33% of the whole mixture, 1.7 kilogram of sand which is 56.67% of the whole mixture, 0.3 kilogram of non-hazardous household waste materials which is only 10.00% of the whole mixture and 0.55 kilogram of potable water were applied. for brick b, the mixture consists 1 kilogram of cement which is 33.33% of the whole mixture, 1.55 kilogram of sand which is 51.67% of the whole mixture, 0.45 kilogram of non-hazardous household waste materials that is only 15.00% of the whole mixture and 0.55-kilogram potable water. for brick c, the mixture consists 1 kilogram of cement which is 33.33% of the whole mixture, 1.4 kilogram of sand which is 46.67% of the whole mixture, 0.6 kilogram of non-hazardous household waste materials which is only 20.00% of the whole mixture and 0.55-kilogram potable water. after mixing of each test samples, it was then put in the molder and let it consume its curing period for the accuracy of test. concrete brick testing four types of testes that were performed for the concrete bricks in this study are as follows: compression test as per american society for testing and materials, astm c90, water absorption test following the indian standard, is 3495 (part 2) 1992, and efflorescence test, under the conditions of american society for testing and materials, astm c67. compression test this test aimed to determine the compressive strength of the produced concrete bricks. it is a way of measuring how much load a surface or material can sustain. the test is performed by exerting a downward force on top of an object, paired with an equal and opposite force exerted upward on the bottom. basically, three (3) varied samples of the produced concrete bricks were brought and tested at the department of public works and highways (dpwh), antique, philippines. initially, the bearing surface of the testing machine (compressive testing machine) was cleaned with the use of a clean cloth. the sample was then placed centrally on the base plate of the testing machine. a load was gradually applied at the rate of 140 kg/cm2/min. this was done with no initial shock and continuously applied until the sample explodes. lastly, the compressive strengths of the samples were recorded and assessed with the conditions provided in the american society for testing and materials, astm c90. the compressive strength requirement for loadbearing components is 1900 psi or 13.10 mpa (astm specifications for concrete masonry units, 2012). water absorption test bricks can absorb or discharge water due to its moisture content level and porosity. when a brick absorb water, the mortar weakens and becomes frail, significantly reducing its overall strength. following is 3495 (part 2) 1992, water absorption test was performed on the sample bricks. the samples were dried and exposed to room temperature. individual dry mass (m1) of each sample were acquired with the use of a digital weighing scale. the samples were then immersed in clean fresh water of temperature ranging 27 2 °c. after twenty-four (24) hours, the samples were released from immersion and surface-dried using a damp cloth. three (3) minutes after release from water, the samples were weighed in the digital weighing scale and the wet mass (m2) were recorded. the moisture content of the bricks was determined using the formula [(m2 – m1)/m1] × 100 (eq.1). bricks absorbing not more than twenty percent (20%) of water are considered in good quality. table 1: materials’ mixing proportion by weight and percentage brick code a b c kg % kg % kg % cement 1.0 33.33 1.0 33.33 1.0 33.33 sand 1.7 56.67 1.55 51.67 1.4 46.67 wastes 0.3 10.00 0.45 15.00 0.6 20.00 total 3.0 100.00 3.0 100.00 3.0 100.00 water 0.55 0.00 0.55 0.00 0.55 0.00 breakdown of wastes at 10 % wastes at 15 % wastes at 20 % wastes mass, g mass, % mass, g mass, % mass, g mass, % plastic wastes 150.00 50.00 225.00 50.00 300.00 50.00 bones 75.00 25.00 112.50 25.00 150.00 25.00 tin cans 69.00 23.00 103.50 23.00 138.00 23.00 paper 6.00 2.00 9.00 2.00 12.00 2.00 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 54 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 51-56, 2023 efflorescence test on concrete surfaces, efflorescence is a white, crystalline build up that typically consists of water-soluble salts (raja abdullah, 2017). efflorescence as not damaging on a normal level but is aesthetically undesirable. the substance may appear a few years after construction, making the client concerned about the building sustainment and cleaning. under the conditions of astm c67, efflorescence test was performed to determine the presence of alkalis in the sample bricks. in this test, the samples were immersed in fresh water for twenty-four (24) hours. the bricks were then taken out and set aside to dry in shade. the samples will then be assessed along with the following conditions. the brick is free of alkali if a whitish layer is not visible on the surface. if the layer comprises about ten percent (10%) of the brick surface, then the presence of alkali is acceptable. if the presence of alkali is about fifty percent (50%), then it is in moderate amount. percentages going above fifty percent suggest that the brick is critically contaminated with alkali. a 200 mm diameter by 40 mm deep cylindrical container was used. with a depth of 25 mm, the container was filled with distilled water. one end of the sample was then immersed in the setup. the test was performed in a wellventilated room of temperature ranging from 20°c to 30°c. it was done until the water in the dish was absorbed by the sample and the water in the surface evaporated due to capillary action. the container was then covered with a plastic cylindrical container to avoid extreme evaporation from the dish. the same process was done wherein a similar amount of distilled water was poured into the container. the whole setup was then set aside for twentyfour (24) hours. the same procedure was performed with the three (3) remaining concrete brick samples. after twenty-four (24) hours, the bricks were observed and assessed as follows: 1) nil – there were no visible deposits of efflorescence present; 2) slight – less than ten percent (10%) of the exposed area of the sample was covered by a thin layer of salt; 3) moderate – fifty percent (50%) of the exposed area of the brick surface was contaminated suggesting a heavier deposit but unaccompanied by powdering or flaking of the surface; 4) heavy – more than fifty percent (50%) of the exposed area of the brick surface showed a heavy deposit of salts but unaccompanied by powdering or flaking of the surface; and 5) serious – a heavy deposit of salt is acquired by powdering and/or flaking of the exposed surface. results and discussion this section deals with the results of different tests performed to the concrete brick such as compressive strength, water absorption test, and efflorescence test. also, this part deals with the minimum requirements for bricks for comparison to determine its effectiveness and quality. besides, this investigates the feasibility of using non-hazardous waste materials such as pet, hdpe, and ldpe waste, bones from fish, poultry, and livestock animals, and used paper and tin cans in making concrete bricks that conform to the quality standards set by the american society for testing and materials (astm) for load bearing wall. the results of varied concrete brick mixture on compression test table 1 below provides the details on the maximum load and the corresponding compressive strength of each brick mixture. mass and density of each concrete brick mixture is also shown. table 2 shows that the mass and density vary due to the amount of sand and household wastes in every mixture. brick c with 1.4 kg (46.67%) of sand and 0.6 kg (20%) of household wastes was denser compared to bricks a and b. it has a mass and density of 1.341 kg and 1,788.44 kg/ m3 respectively. it was followed by brick b with 1.55 kg (51.67%) of sand and 0.45 kg (15%) of household wastes resulted a mass of 1.175 kg and a density of 1,566.67 kg/ m3. then, brick a with 1.7 kg (56.67%) of sand and 0.3 kg (10%) of household wastes is considered the lightest with a mass of 1.341 kg and a density of 1,463.56 kg/m3. table 2: maximum load and compressive strength of different ratio of varied brick mixture brick code mass, kg density maximum load at crushing, kn average compressive strength in mpa or n/mm2 average compressive strength in psi remarks a 1.098 1,463.56 202.55 13.50 1,958.53 passed b 1.175 1,566.67 189.77 12.65 1,834.89 failed c 1.341 1,788.44 148.80 6.61 1,438.77 failed the data suggests that as the amount of household wastes increases, the density of the mixture increases. on the other hand, astm c90 – standard specification for loadbearing masonry units, for net area, compressive strength should be higher than what is required, with it being a thousand and nine hundred pounds per square inches, 1900 psi or 13.10 mpa (astm specifications for concrete masonry units, 2012). hence, only brick a exceeded the standard compressive strength of 1900 psi for load-bearing masonry unit for an average of three bricks. brick a attained an average compressive strength of 1,958.53 psi. data suggests that the compressive strength of the brick significantly drops as the amount of household waste is increased. the results of varied concrete brick mixture on water absorption table 3 below provides the details on the dry mass, wet https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 55 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 51-56, 2023 mass, absorption percentage, as well as the remarks on the bricks. table 3 displays outstanding results of the varied concrete mixtures after the water absorption test was performed. results showed that as the percentage of household wastes is increased, the percentage of water absorption of the brick decreases. concrete brick with low water absorption rate is considered of outstanding quality. brick a with 10% of household waste showed a water absorption percentage of 7.197%. brick b with 15% of household waste displayed a water absorption percentage of 5.050%. likewise, brick c with 20% of household waste obtained the lowest water absorption percentage of 2.584%. all the brick specimen passed the minimum requirement of indian standard, is 3495 (part 2) 1992 with the acceptance criteria for the water absorption test on bricks of being not more than twenty percent (20%). thus, the existence of household waste significantly benefits the performance of the brick on this test. table 3: water absorption test result brick code dry mass, m1 wet mass, m2 percentage, % remarks a 3.293 3.530 7.197 passed b 3.525 3.703 5.050 passed c 4.024 4.128 2.584 passed the results of varied concrete brick mixture on efflorescence test table 4 reveals the details on the results of the efflorescence test performed on the bricks. this test was executed to find out the existence of alkalis in concrete bricks. the table shows acceptable results of the efflorescence test performed on concrete brick specimens. all the samples table 4: efflorescence test result brick code nil slight moderate heavy serious remarks a < 10% acceptable b < 10% acceptable c < 10% acceptable were assessed “slight” and remarked “acceptable.” white layers of alkalis were slightly visible on the surface of the concrete bricks. however, the layers were visible for only 10% of the brick surface, suggesting the presence of alkalis in an acceptable range. consequently, the results of the efflorescence test were reported as “slight.” this suggests that the produced bricks were not critically contaminated with alkali which further suggests that in the long run, the presence of alkali deposits in the brick would not be aesthetically undesirable. conclusion the findings of the study were anchored with the utilization of the following non-hazardous household waste – pet, hdpe, and ldpe waste, animal bones, shredded used paper, and tin cans in making concrete brick as a load–bearing masonry unit. based on the findings, it was proven that the utilization of nonhazardous household waste has a great significance in the production of concrete bricks and can be used to alleviate the adverse effects of solid waste to the environment. based on the compressive strength test results, only brick a passed the standard set by the astm c90–standard specification for load-bearing masonry units which is 1,900 psi (13.10 mpa). the study unveiled an outstanding performance of the bricks in the water absorption test as per is 3495 (part 2) 1992, with all the samples gaining less than twenty percent (20%) of the water. results showed that as the percentage of household wastes is increased, the percentage of water absorption of the brick decreases. concrete brick with low water absorption rate is considered of outstanding quality. with the efflorescence test based on astm c67 was performed, all the samples were classified as “slight” and remarked as “acceptable”. white layers of alkalis were slightly visible on the surface of the concrete bricks. however, the layers were visible for only 10% of the brick surface, suggesting the presence of alkalis in an acceptable range. therefore, this study, centered on producing concrete bricks from nonhazardous household waste has proven its great feasibility as an alternative building and construction material for load-bearing wall. consequently, it is an efficient way of resolving the issue on solid waste management while putting out an economical product. recommendations based on the results, msw as partial replacement for sand and full replacement for gravel satisfied the minimum requirement of compressive strength (1,900 psi), water absorption (<20%), and efflorescence (<10%). it is hereby recommended that plastic wastes must be powdered to achieve fine texture of the specimen which can be tested if there is a significant difference between larger and smaller shredded plastics in terms of compressive strength and water absorption. bones must be pulverized to obtain the maximum density, water absorption and compressive strength. steel mold must be conformed to the astm standards. more thorough research on the effectiveness and quality of concrete brick be made by future researchers in terms of workability, methods, materials, proportion, and testing. https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 56 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 51-56, 2023 references ahmed, a. k. a., ibraheem, a. m., & abd-ellah, m. k. 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(2021). challenges and opportunities linked with waste management under global perspective: a mini review. journal of quality assurance in agricultural sciences, 1(1), 9-13. jabir, r. k., hadi, n. j., & al-zubiedy, a. a. a. (2020, november). rheological and mechanical investigation of pet, ldpe and hdpe wastes blended for re-use in bio-pipes. in iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 987(1), 012006. iop publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/987/1/012006 kawai, k., & tasaki, t. (2016). revisiting estimates of municipal solid waste generation per capita and their reliability. journal of material cycles and waste management, 18, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10163-015-0355-1 pavlu, t., fortova, k., divis, j., & hajek, p. (2019). the utilization of recycled masonry aggregate and recycled eps for concrete blocks for mortarless masonry. materials, 12(12), 1923. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ma12121923 raja abdullah, r. r. 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(2021). city of waste—importance of scale. sustainability, 13(7), 3909. https://doi. org/10.3390/su13073909 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 1 pa ge 1 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) factors influencing preservice teachers’ attitudes towards problem-solving in mathematics education atar alphaa mohammed1* volume 3 issue 3, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i3.3264 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: july 02, 2024 accepted: august 04, 2024 published: august 07, 2024 this study explored the factors that predict preservice teachers’ attitudes toward incorporating problem-solving in teaching mathematics. cognizance of the essential role of problem-solving in teaching and learning mathematics, the study underscored the latent variable that informs teachers’ attitudes concerning the incorporation of problem-solving in their mathematics classrooms. employing a structured questionnaire and exploratory factor analysis (efa) with 360 preservice teachers in ghana, the study acknowledged four key factors: empowerment, readiness, commitment, and perceived usefulness. these findings open gateways to preservice teacher characteristics that inform their attitude toward problem-solving and recommendations to enhance teachers’ positive attitude toward the phenomenon. keywords problem-solving, preservice teachers, attitudes, mathematics, influence 1 nusrat jahan ahmadiyya college of education, ghana * corresponding author’s e-mail: ataralphaa.mohammed@stu.ucc.edu.gh introduction historically, problem-solving has been recognised as a sine quo non of human existence and mathematics education to be precise (santos-trigo, 2020). the ability to solve problems has been an essential aspect of human societies since primeval times, as demonstrated by early mathematical literature such as the rhind mathematical papyrus and the babylonian clay tablets (posamentier et al., 2019). this emphasis on problem-solving was advanced during the renaissance, with notables like galileo galilei and leonardo da vinci using mathematics to unravel everyday problems in various disciplines (sinitsky & ilany, 2016). in mathematics, problem-solving is considered a key component of comprehension and is crucial in developing mathematical skills. it also motivates students to acquire new ways of thinking and deeper knowledge (jayasree & sigy, 2017). problem-solving has advanced in the contemporary era, and mathematical models and disciplines have advanced significantly (santos-trigo, 2020). the cornerstone of modern mathematics was established by the seminal contributions of individuals like isaac newton, leonhard euler, and carl friedrich gauss (burton, 2011). in the twentieth century, computers enabled sophisticated computations and simulations that revolutionized fields like operations research, computer science, and artificial intelligence by ushering in a new era of problem-solving. inherently complicated and involving numerous mental processes is problem-solving (mahapatra, 2020). the process starts with identifying the issue, breaking it down into its parts, and then coming up with possible solutions. the next step is implementing the selected solution and assessing how well it worked (polya, 1948). in addition to mathematics, this method has many other potential uses in fields as diverse as science, engineering, economics, medicine, and even general decision-making. problem-solving is recognized as a fundamental component of mathematics curricula globally due to its numerous benefits. students are said to have essentially improved their critical thinking abilities as they analyze data and apply mathematical concepts in real-world contexts (sinaga et al., 2023). this leads to a greater understanding of mathematical principles. as they search for novel solutions to complex challenges, children who solve difficulties also develop critical skills like creativity (sinaga et al., 2023). students who regularly complete problem-solving tasks improve their understanding of concepts and problem-solving techniques and become more mathematically proficient. in light of this backdrop, ghanaian pre-tertiary school mathematics curricula underscore problem-solving as a core competency for learners across all levels (ministry of education, 2018). the educational aims of encouraging pupils to think critically, creatively, and practically are wellaligned with this. students who learn to solve problems are better able to help their country grow by tackling social and economic issues and making a good impact on the world around them. the incorporation of problemsolving into the curriculum has a multiplicative effect on student achievement and national development in ghana since it improves academic achievements and prepares students for future jobs (ministry of education, 2018). similarly, the ghanaian education system has recognized the importance of integrating problemsolving skills into the teacher training curriculum. to this end, the mathematics teacher training curriculum includes various courses and modules designed to equip pre-service teachers with the necessary skills to teach mathematics effectively (akyeampong, 2017). typically, this curriculum encompasses mathematics pa ge 2 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 1-10, 2024 content courses, which cover fundamental mathematical concepts and principles, and pedagogy courses, which focus on teaching methodologies, including problemsolving strategies (adu-yeboah et al., 2014). additionally, it includes practicum and teaching practice, providing hands-on experience in teaching mathematics with an emphasis on applying problem-solving techniques in classroom settings (akyeampong, 2017). studies, such as those by akyeampong (2017) and adu-yaboah, kwaah, abreh and amuah (2016) have highlighted this structured approach, which aims to balance theoretical knowledge with practical application. despite the numerous benefits of problem-solving for learners and the country at large, its incorporation into mathematics education has encountered significant challenges. teachers have demonstrated a noticeable reluctance to integrate problem-solving methodologies into their mathematics lessons (adu-yaboah et al., 2016). this negative attitude towards problem-solving approaches has been reported to adversely impact students’ performance and the educational system as a whole (adu-yeboah et al.,2014). while numerous studies have explored the phenomenon of teachers’ reluctance, few have delved into the specific characteristics of teachers that might account for this hesitation (akyeampong, 2017). therefore, there is a pressing need for a study that seeks to unearth the underlying issues contributing to teachers’ reluctance to incorporate problem-solving approaches in their mathematics classrooms. this study aims to fill this gap by investigating the potential factors that may explain teachers’ reluctance. by contributing to the existing body of knowledge, the study will provide insights that can inform strategies to encourage the adoption of problem-solving methodologies in mathematics education, ultimately enhancing students’ learning experiences and outcomes. research questions what underlying factors influence elementary school teachers’ attitudes toward the incorporation of problemsolving approaches in mathematics education? literature review the importance of mathematics has grown significantly in the 21st century, serving as a key indicator of a country’s competitive standing on international platforms (sitopu et al.,2024). educational systems worldwide continually evolve, with countries like ghana updating their national curricula to enhance mathematics achievement. the shift towards a constructivist approach has underscored the critical role of problem-solving skills in mathematics education (hourigan & leavy, 2023). mathematical problems are challenges that require innovative strategies for resolution, with a distinction between routine problems, which have single solutions, and non-routine problems, which have multiple solutions. the ability to solve mathematical problems is crucial as it fosters a deeper understanding and flexible thinking. research has shown that problem-solving skills promote creative thinking and provide insights into students’ mathematical understanding (anggraeni, et al., 2023). despite ongoing debates about the most effective methods for teaching mathematics, numerous studies affirm the benefits of focusing on problem-solving (adu-yaboah, et al., 2016). attitudes toward mathematics, encompassing emotions, value perception, and confidence, significantly influence students’ engagement and success in the subject. positive attitudes are essential for fostering interest, reducing anxiety, and ultimately affecting career choices and the daily application of mathematical knowledge (akyeampong, 2017). the ghanaian mathematics curriculum aligns with these insights, prioritizing problem-solving, positive attitude development, and the integration of engaging activities to enrich learning experiences and outcomes (adu-yeboahet al.,2014). this emphasis on problem-solving prepares students to tackle complex mathematical challenges and equips them with essential skills for real-world problemsolving, thus enhancing their overall educational and professional trajectories. given this context, extensive research (eg. csanadi, kollar, & fischer, 2021; khalid, et al., 2020; santos-trigo m., 2020; akyeampong, 2017) has delved into the interplay between teacher characteristics and the adoption of problem-solving methodologies across various subjects, including mathematics. while a substantial body of work underscores the critical role of problem-solving approaches in the teaching and learning of mathematics, there remains a notable emphasis on the broader educational benefits of these methodologies (anggraeni et al., 2023). researchers in mathematics education and allied disciplines have also examined how specific teacher characteristics influence the integration of problemsolving strategies in their pedagogy (anggraeniet al., 2023). however, there appears to be a significant gap in the literature regarding the determinants that shape these teacher characteristics in incorporating problem-solving techniques into mathematics instruction (mršniket al., 2023). the existing literature reveals that many mathematics educators exhibit negative attitudes toward integrating problem-solving approaches. these dispositions are often compounded by low self-efficacy and a limited understanding of problem-solving strategies and their application in the mathematics classroom (mršnik et al., 2023). this negative disposition toward problemsolving is a critical barrier to its effective incorporation into teaching practices. on the other hand, some studies highlight that a subset of mathematics teachers holds positive views on using problem-solving approaches. these teachers demonstrate favorable attitudes, robust knowledge, and a higher degree of efficacy in implementing problem-solving strategies in their teaching (mršnik et al., 2023; ulia & kusmaryono, 2021). this dichotomy in perspectives suggests a complex landscape where teacher attitudes, knowledge, and self-efficacy pa ge 3 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 1-10, 2024 significantly influence the adoption of problem-solving methodologies in mathematics education. while considerable research has illuminated the importance of problem-solving in mathematics education and the varying attitudes of teachers towards its integration, there remains a paucity of studies focusing on the underlying factors that inform these teacher characteristics (mohd & mahmood, 2011). addressing this research gap is crucial for developing targeted interventions that can enhance the adoption of problemsolving approaches in mathematics teaching, ultimately leading to improved educational outcomes (daniela et al., 2021). neuroscientists in education have suggested that both positive and negative classroom behaviors exhibited by teachers are influenced by a variety of confounding factors (twumasi & afful, 2022). similarly, existing literature indicates that students’ academic performance is directly linked to teacher characteristics (siswono et al., 2019). therefore, to gain a comprehensive understanding and provide deeper insights into teacher attitudes, it is imperative to explore the factors that shape mathematics teachers’ attitudes toward incorporating problem-solving strategies in their instruction (mršnik et al., 2023). while considerable research has illuminated the importance of problem-solving in mathematics education and the varying attitudes of teachers towards its integration, there remains a paucity of studies focusing on the underlying factors that inform these teacher characteristics (twumasi & afful, 2022). addressing this research gap is crucial for developing targeted interventions that can enhance the adoption of problem-solving approaches in mathematics teaching, ultimately leading to improved educational outcomes (mršnik et al., 2023). furthermore, this exploration is essential for identifying and developing strategies that can enhance teachers’ positive attitudes toward the integration of problemsolving methodologies in the teaching of mathematics. by investigating these underlying factors, the study aims to illuminate the complex dynamics that influence teacher behavior and attitudes, offering practical recommendations for fostering a more conducive environment for problemsolving in mathematics education. this, in turn, can lead to more effective teaching practices and improved student outcomes (mohd & mahmood, 2011). methodology participants a total of 360 respondents constituting 120 level 300 students each in early childhood, upper primary and junior high school programmes participated in the study. level 300 students were considered for the study due to proximity and maximum exposure to problemsolving techniques in their programmes. the sampling of respondents for the study was conducted to arrive at a representation of the statistical population. hence the varied characteristics of the statistical population were taken into consideration. the male and female representation for the study was 45 each while the average age of all respondents was 24 years with a range of 20 to 32 years. research instruments questionnaire this study’s data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire designed to evaluate participants’ attitudes toward problem-solving in the teaching of mathematics. it included a series of statements specifically aimed at assessing preservice teachers’ views on problemsolving in mathematics instruction. participants rated these statements on a four-point likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” the questionnaire’s development adhered to established guidelines to ensure its content validity and reliability. it contained 27 statements, each with response options coded from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). reliability was measured using cronbach’s alpha, resulting in a high value of 0.967, indicating excellent internal consistency. before data collection, the questionnaire was pilot-tested with a small group to confirm the clarity and understanding of the items. ethical considerations were addressed, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. overall, the questionnaire proved to be a reliable and valid tool for measuring attitudes toward problem-solving in teaching mathematics, providing valuable data for the study’s objectives. data analysis to robustly address research question 1, the study applied the exploratory factor analysis (efa) statistical method. a substantial cohort of 360 respondents participated, aligning with established guidelines in the literature for determining sample adequacy in efa. notably, hair (2009) proposes benchmarks of 5:1, 10:1, and 20:1, characterizing these ratios as acceptable, moderate, and excellent, respectively. in this study, surpassing the 10:1 ratio underscores its excellence in sample size selection. central to efa is the assumption of inter-variable correlations, necessitating a thorough examination thereof. two key metrics were utilized for this purpose: the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy, which ideally approaches 1.0 for optimal suitability, and bartlett’s test of sphericity, signifying the presence of adequate inter-variable correlations when statistically significant (hair, 2009). ibm spss (v29.0) facilitated the analysis, employing the principal components method for extraction and the varimax technique for rotation. methodologically, the authors refrained from preconceived notions regarding the number of retained factors, yet practical considerations for robust factor structure, especially with 12 variables, suggest retaining between four to six factors, aligning with recommendations for multiple measurements per factor (hair, 2009). moreover, decisions on factor retention were substantiated using multiple criteria including kaiser’s criterion, scree pa ge 4 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 1-10, 2024 plot examination, and variance explained thresholds, ensuring a methodologically rigorous approach to derive meaningful insights from the data. result descriptive analysis table 1 presents a comprehensive summary of the descriptive statistics for the survey data, detailing the mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis for each variable. the mean values, all comfortably above the midpoint of 2, range from 3.28 to 3.47, indicating a generally favorable response across the sample. the standard deviations, which vary between .719 and .951, suggest a moderate to high level of dispersion in the responses. skewness values span from -.921 to -.921, indicating a symmetrical distribution around the mean. kurtosis values, ranging from -.072 to 3.123, fall within acceptable limits, indicating the data’s suitability for table 1: mean, standard deviation, kewness and kurtosis of survey data variable mean std. deviation skewness kurtosis 1. patps 3.40 .893 -1.442 1.134 2. patps 3.29 .848 -.921 -.108 3. patps 3.31 .813 -1.253 1.322 4. patps 3.52 .886 -1.904 2.562 5. patps 3.53 .719 -1.745 3.123 6. patps 3.41 .882 -1.492 1.356 7. patps 3.28 .896 -1.230 .787 8. patps 3.37 .876 -1.386 1.163 9. patps 3.31 .799 -1.015 .460 10. patps 3.39 .840 -1.402 1.356 11. patps 3.30 .863 -1.038 .191 12. patps 3.33 .858 -1.125 .397 13. patps 3.30 .863 -1.143 .582 14. patps 3.26 .951 -1.078 .072 15. patps 3.37 .824 -1.251 .956 16. patps 3.32 .906 -1.224 .555 17. patps 3.36 .912 -1.295 .656 18. patps 3.34 .847 -1.388 1.463 19. patps 3.30 .889 -1.296 .996 20. patps 3.39 .917 -1.459 1.125 21. patps 3.32 .868 -1.291 1.024 22. patps 3.32 .868 -1.291 1.024 23. patps 3.43 .762 -1.369 1.575 24. patps 3.47 .820 -1.658 2.211 25. patps 3.40 .787 -1.390 1.671 26. patps 3.42 .857 -1.571 1.795 27. patps 3.39 .771 -1.235 1.175 further statistical analysis. these metrics collectively affirm the robustness and reliability of the survey data, supporting subsequent efa procedures. table 2 provides the results of the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test of sphericity, both of which affirm the dataset’s suitability for exploratory factor analysis (efa). the kmo value of .912 indicates an exceptionally high level table 2: kaiser-meyer-olkin measure and bartlett's test of sphericity kmo and bartlett's test kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy. .912 bartlett's test of sphericity approx. chi-square 9091.523 df 351 sig. .000 pa ge 5 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 1-10, 2024 of sampling adequacy, well above the commonly accepted threshold of .50, signifying that the sample size is more than sufficient for reliable factor analysis. additionally, bartlett’s test of sphericity yields a highly significant result, χ²(351) = 9091.523, ρ < 0.000, demonstrating that the correlations among variables are robust enough to justify the application of efa. these results collectively underscore the appropriateness of the dataset for uncovering underlying factor structures. exploratory factor analysis table 3 delineates the extracted factors along with their corresponding eigenvalues, the percentage of variance explained by each factor, and the cumulative variance accounted for by the factors. employing the kaiser criterion, which retains factors with eigenvalues greater than one, the analysis identified four distinct factors. this finding aligns with the anticipated range of four to six factors and collectively accounts for 68.558% of the total variance observed in the dataset derived from 360 preservice teachers. although opinions vary on the acceptable threshold for total variance explained, the present findings conform to established recommendations within the social sciences (aktas & tabak, 2018; korkmaz & unsal, 2016). specifically, factor 1 explains a substantial 54.273% of the variance, factor 2 accounts for 5.598%, factor 3 contributes 4.844%, and factor 4 explains 3.842%. this distribution underscores the first factor’s dominant influence while highlighting the subsequent factors’ meaningful contributions in capturing the data’s complexity. the scree plot in figure 2 vividly illustrates that retaining four factors is justifiable, as evidenced by the pronounced “elbow” in the plot where the eigenvalues begin to level off. specifically, the eigenvalue for the fifth factor, assessed against the latent root criterion value of 1.0, falls short at .925, thereby precluding its inclusion (hair, 2009). although an eigenvalue close to 1.0 might typically table 3: results of the component factor extraction component initial eigenvalues extraction sums of squared loadings total % of variance cumulative % total % of variance cumulative % 1 14.654 54.273 54.273 14.654 54.273 54.273 2 1.512 5.598 59.872 1.512 5.598 59.872 3 1.308 4.844 64.716 1.308 4.844 64.716 4 1.037 3.842 68.558 1.037 3.842 68.558 5 .925 3.425 71.984 6 .872 3.230 75.214 7 .789 2.923 78.137 8 .739 2.735 80.873 9 .643 2.381 83.254 10 .553 2.050 85.303 11 .534 1.977 87.280 12 .419 1.551 88.831 13 .393 1.454 90.285 14 .383 1.420 91.705 15 .292 1.081 92.786 16 .274 1.015 93.801 17 .262 .970 94.771 18 .250 .925 95.696 19 .212 .785 96.481 20 .171 .632 97.113 21 .164 .609 97.721 22 .143 .531 98.253 23 .124 .459 98.712 24 .111 .411 99.124 25 .093 .345 99.469 26 .080 .295 99.764 27 .064 .236 100.000 pa ge 6 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 1-10, 2024 warrant consideration, this particular value does not meet the threshold. consequently, all criteria converge to endorse the retention of four factors for subsequent analysis, ensuring a robust and theoretically sound factor structure for further investigation. table 4 presents the factor loadings for each variable, with values ranging from .480 to .770. according to hair (2009), factor loadings of .40 and above are considered significant for sample sizes of 200 or more, thus validating the retention of all items. additionally, table 4 demonstrates that each of the four factors is robust, with at least three variables per factor exhibiting loadings above figure 1: scree plot .40. this adherence to established guidelines confirms the reliability and validity of the factor structure, supporting the inclusion of all items in further analyses. table 5 presents the final results of the exploratory factor analysis (efa), detailing the factor names, cronbach’s alpha values, and factor loadings of each item. the reliability of the scale for each factor is deemed acceptable, meeting the recommended cutoff value of 0.7 as suggested by hair (2009). items that loaded heavily on factor 1 were conceptually linked to gaining table 4: varimax-rotated factor matrix analysis variable component 1 2 3 4 27. patps .751 25. patps .741 3. patps .679 24. patps .669 16. patps .625 5. patps .606 9. patps .566 2. patps .537 6. patps .536 18. patps .528 19. patps .485 26. patps .778 4. patps .744 10. patps .672 14. patps .651 12. patps .621 11. patps .568 20. patps .543 7. patps .533 pa ge 7 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 1-10, 2024 strength, confidence, and authority over one’s actions. consequently, this factor was named “empowerment”. similarly, the items that loaded heavily on factor 2 were primarily associated with readiness and willingness regarding the implementation of problem-solving. therefore, factor 2 was christened “readiness”. factor 3 was designated as “commitment” because the majority of items in this scale measured respondents’ assurance and pledge to implement problem-solving in their mathematics classrooms. furthermore, all the items in factor 4 were aimed at measuring respondents’ perceived usefulness of problem-solving in mathematics education, leading to its designation as “perceived usefulness”. 23. patps .770 22. patps .690 8. patps .626 21. patps .593 13. patps .480 15. patps .691 1. patps .669 17. patps .602 table 5: comprehensive results of the exploratory factor analysis variable item factor loadings factor 1. empowerment (cronbach’s alpha α .934) 27. i perceive problem-solving as a means to develop students' problem-solving skills beyond mathematics. .751 25. i recognize the role of technology in facilitating problem-solving in mathematics education. .741 3. i feel confident in my ability to teach problem-solving strategies effectively. .679 24. i see problem-solving as an avenue for promoting mathematical curiosity and exploration. .669 16. i believe problem-solving activities can increase students' confidence in their mathematical abilities. .625 5. i think problem-solving activities motivate students to engage with mathematics. .606 9. i am enthusiastic about introducing innovative problem-solving approaches in my classroom .566 2. i enjoy incorporating problem-solving activities into my teaching practices. .537 6. i consider problem-solving as important as procedural skills in mathematics education. .536 18. i recognize the importance of assessing students' problem-solving skills in mathematics. .528 19. i am interested in learning more about effective strategies for teaching problem-solving. .485 factor 2. readiness (cronbach’s alpha α .925) 26. i believe problem-solving activities should be differentiated to meet the needs of all students. .778 4. i believe problem-solving enhances students' critical thinking abilities. .744 10. i perceive problem-solving as an opportunity for students to apply mathematical knowledge. .672 14. i am willing to adapt my teaching methods to facilitate problem-solving in mathematics better. .651 12. i am committed to creating a supportive environment for students to engage in problemsolving activities. .621 11. i can incorporate real-life problems into mathematics instruction to enhance problemsolving skills. .568 20. i believe problem-solving challenges students to think creatively. .543 7. i feel well-prepared to teach problem-solving skills to my future students. .533 factor 3 commitment (cronbach’s alpha α .860) 23. i am committed to providing scaffolding to support students' problem-solving efforts. .770 22. i view mistakes as valuable learning opportunities in problem-solving activities. .690 8. i believe problem-solving fosters a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. .626 21. i feel comfortable guiding students through the problem-solving process. .593 13. i believe problem-solving promotes perseverance and resilience in students. .480 pa ge 8 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 1-10, 2024 factor 4. perceived usefulness (cronbach’s alpha α .821) 15. i perceive problem-solving as an integral part of the mathematics curriculum. .691 1. i believe problem-solving skills are crucial for students' mathematical development. .669 17. i think problem-solving allows students to explore multiple solution strategies. .602 discussion the analysis of the survey data reveals generally favorable responses from participants, as indicated by the mean values consistently exceeding the midpoint. this trend is further supported by the standard deviations, which suggest a moderate to high level of variability in the responses, signifying a diverse range of opinions within a positive framework. additionally, the skewness and kurtosis values fall within acceptable limits, confirming the normal distribution and robustness of the data. these descriptive statistics collectively ensure the survey data is reliable and form a solid foundation for more advanced statistical analyses. further validating the dataset’s suitability for exploratory factor analysis (efa) are the results of the kaisermeyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test of sphericity. the exceptionally high kmo value of .912 indicates outstanding sampling adequacy, suggesting that the sample size is more than sufficient for reliable factor analysis. moreover, bartlett’s test of sphericity yields a highly significant result (χ²(351) = 9091.523, ρ < 0.000), demonstrating that the correlations among variables are robust enough to justify the use of efa. these findings collectively affirm the appropriateness of the dataset for uncovering latent constructs. the efa results, as detailed, identify four distinct factors based on the kaiser criterion, which retains factors with eigenvalues greater than one. these four factors: empowerment, readiness, commitment, and perceived usefulness, collectively explain 68.558% of the total variance. the first factor alone accounts for a substantial 54.273% of the variance, underscoring its dominant influence on the dataset. although contributing smaller portions of the variance, the remaining factors still add meaningful dimensions to the overall analysis. the scree plot further corroborates the decision to retain four factors, with a clear “elbow” indicating where the eigenvalues begin to level off. the factor loadings are robust and all exceed the .40 threshold, which is significant for large sample sizes. this validation is crucial for confirming the reliability and validity of the factor structure. each factor comprises multiple variables with high loadings, ensuring that the factors are well-defined and reliable for further analysis. the high internal consistency of each factor, indicated by cronbach’s alpha values greater than .8, reinforces the reliability of the factors. in terms of interpretation, the factors were named based on the conceptual coherence of the items that loaded heavily on each factor. “empowerment” encompasses items related to gaining strength, confidence, and authority over one’s actions. “readiness” includes the readiness and willingness to implement problem-solving strategies. “commitment” measures the assurance and pledge to implement problem-solving in mathematics classrooms. finally, “perceived usefulness” assesses the perceived usefulness of problem-solving in mathematics education. these factors provide valuable insights into the various dimensions of preservice teachers’ attitudes and preparedness for problem-solving in mathematics education, offering a robust framework for developing targeted interventions and professional development programs. conclusion the comprehensive analysis of the survey data reveals a generally favorable disposition among preservice teachers towards problem-solving in mathematics education. the descriptive statistics confirm the data’s reliability and robustness, laying a solid groundwork for exploratory analyses. the high kmo value and significant bartlett’s test result validate the dataset’s suitability for exploratory factor analysis (efa), which identified four distinct factors: empowerment, readiness, commitment, and perceived usefulness. these factors collectively explain a substantial portion of the total variance and demonstrate high internal consistency. the findings provide valuable insights into preservice teachers’ attitudes and preparedness, highlighting key areas for targeted interventions and professional development. recommendation based on the findings, it is recommended that teacher training programs place greater emphasis on enhancing preservice teachers’ empowerment, readiness, and commitment towards problem-solving methodologies. this can be achieved through targeted professional development workshops, inclusion of more practical problem-solving modules in the curriculum, and providing ample opportunities for hands-on experience with problem-solving in real classroom settings. additionally, integrating technology and promoting its role in facilitating problem-solving can further enhance teachers’ perceptions of its usefulness, thereby encouraging more widespread adoption of these strategies in mathematics education. limitation despite the robustness of the data and the thoroughness of the analysis, several limitations must be acknowledged. first, the study’s sample is limited to preservice teachers, which may not fully represent the broader population of practicing educators. second, the survey relies on selfreported data, which can be subject to bias. third, the pa ge 9 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 1-10, 2024 cross-sectional nature of the study captures attitudes and perceptions at a single point in time, potentially overlooking changes over time or the impact of longitudinal influences. lastly, the generalizability of the findings may be constrained by cultural or educational system differences not accounted for in the study. future research needed (frn) future research should focus on longitudinal studies to track changes in preservice teachers’ attitudes toward problem-solving as they transition into professional teaching roles. additionally, exploring the impact of specific interventions, such as professional development programs and mentorship, on enhancing teachers’ problem-solving skills and attitudes could provide deeper insights. further studies should also consider the influence of cultural and contextual factors on the adoption of problem-solving methodologies in diverse educational settings, thereby contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that facilitate or hinder the integration of problem-solving in 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(2023). the influence of students’ problem-solving understanding and results of students’ mathematics learning. frontiers in education, 8, 1088556. https://doi.org/10.3389/ feduc.2023.1088556 pa ge 10 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 1-10, 2024 sinitsky, i., & ilany, b.-s. (2016). change and invariance: a textbook on algebraic insight into numbers and shapes. sensepublishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-946300-699-6 siswono, t. y. e., kohar, a. w., & hartono, s. (2019). beliefs, knowledge, teaching practice: three factors affecting the quality of teachers’ mathematical problem-solving. journal of physics: conference series, 1317(1), 012127. https://doi.org/10.1088/17426596/1317/1/012127 sitopu, j. w., khairani, m., roza, m., judijanto, l., & aslan, a. (2024). the importance of integrating mathematical literacy in the primary education curriculum: a literature review. international journal of teaching and learning (injotel), ii(1), 121-134. twumasi, e. b., & afful, j. a. (2022). junior high school teachers and students’ attitude toward teaching and learning mathematics through problem solving: a case study from mampong municipality. american journal of education and practice, 6(3), 26-43. ulia, n., & kusmaryono, i. (2021). mathematical disposition of students’, teachers, and parents in distance learning: a survey. premiere educandum: jurnal pendidikan dasar dan pembelajaran, 11(1), 147-159. https://doi.org/10.25273/pe.v11i1.8869 special issue (2nd eic-2024) published by e-palli publishers, delaware, usa 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 23 greening your drive: a method of effective conversion from ic engine based vehicle to ev md. reazul hoque1*& fakir sharif hossain2 1 department of eee, ahsanullah university of science and technology, dhaka, bangladesh *corresponding author: hoque.reazul.eee@gmail.com abstract this research presents the most efficient method for converting vehicles with internal combustion engines (ic engines) into electric vehicles (evs). with a focus on reducing environmental impact and optimizing energy efficiency, our strategy incorporates cutting-edge technology in electric powertrain components, power electronics, and battery storage systems. this paper evaluates performance indicators by thoroughly analyzing the integration of new electric drivetrain components and the retrofitting of existing ones, including motor starting and energy usage. to enhance efficiency, we propose the use of a supercapacitor bank and an effective battery cooling system. the proposed approach aims to achieve sustainable development goal 11 (sdg11) of sustainable cities and communities, addressing safety concerns, environmental benefits, and economic viability. simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of converting gasoline cars to electric using a battery cooling system and integrating a supercapacitor bank. these findings support the global shift towards environmentally friendly transportation methods by providing valuable insights that will expedite the widespread adoption of sustainable evs. keywords: battery cooling system, electric vehicle, internal combustion (ic) engine, conversion, supercapacitor introduction electric vehicles (evs) have gained significant attention in recent years due to their potential to address environmental and energy security concerns. the shift towards electric vehicles is driven by several factors, including environmental benefits, energy efficiency, and technological advancements (longo et al., 2018). one of the primary reasons for the growing interest in electric vehicles is their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution (liou & wu, 2021). unlike conventional gasoline cars, electric vehicles produce zero tailpipe emissions, which can significantly improve air quality and reduce transportation's environmental impact. several studies have demonstrated that widespread adoption of electric vehicles could substantially reduce carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants, thereby mitigating the adverse effects of climate change and promoting public health. the development of innovative approaches to electric vehicle diagnostics is crucial to ensure their ecological impact, especially regarding the sources of the electric current used to charge them (małek & taccani, 2021). overall, the multifaceted benefits of evs make them a compelling choice for sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation solutions. the transition from internal combustion engine (ice) based vehicles to electric vehicles has attracted significant interest due to its potential environmental and economic benefits. this shift aligns with global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels (vishnuram et al., 2023). the conversion process involves replacing the traditional powertrain with an electric powertrain, reducing noise pollution and improving overall vehicle efficiency (qian et al., 2018). the shift towards evs is also driven by the potential cost savings and lower maintenance requirements associated with electric vehicles (sankaran & venkatesan, 2022). furthermore, the integration of evs into the transportation sector can lead to a reduction in operating costs and a decrease in the environmental impact of vehicle operations. however, converting ice vehicles to evs requires careful consideration of various factors, including technological feasibility, regulatory frameworks and infrastructure development (tezcan & taşer, 2022). a most important consideration is that high temperatures can elevate the internal resistance of lead-acid batteries, resulting in e-palli international conferences on science technology, engineering, and mathematics (eic-stem) www.conferences.e-palli.com 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) 14 april 2024 kathmandu, nepal doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3776 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 24 reduced charge acceptance and increased voltage losses during discharge (chinnadurai et al., 2021). this increase in internal resistance can lead to diminished efficiency and reduced battery energy output. when a lead-acid battery is discharged at a high rate for a short time, it can have several effects on the battery. the discharge rate affects the current and recharging times, and the use of high-frequency pulses can impact the characteristics of the battery (kim et al., 2019). the capacity of a lead-acid battery decreases when the discharge rate increases, leading to a drop in battery capacity from its initial value when fully charged (cignini et al., 2020). according to ohajianya et al. (2021), discharging a lead-acid battery at a high rate can lead to sulfation, which is a major cause of deterioration in lead-acid batteries. additionally, life cycle assessments and costbenefit analyses are essential to evaluate the environmental and economic implications of transitioning from ice vehicles to evs (rodríguez-molina et al., 2020). it is crucial to assess the potential impacts on electricity production and distribution infrastructures, as well as the overall societal and environmental implications of large-scale ev adoption. in this work, the proposed method involves replacing the existing parts like the ice, clutch assembly, transmission box, fuel tank, and other components with a motor, battery, controller, and converters. the conversion aims to target a specific sector of garbage collection vehicles, where an electric motor can be more efficient than an ice. the proposed conversion procedure includes the following. 1. disassembling of parts like the engine, clutch and clutch pedal, gearbox and its mechanism, fuel tank, exhaust system, radiator, catalytic converter, and tailpipe, replacing with an electric motor, which is coupled with the propeller shaft using a universal joint. the propeller shaft transfers the power to the road wheels through a differential. 2. the battery unit is placed in the car's backside, and a new battery cooling system is proposed. 3. the energy efficiency and increased lifetime are achieved by proposing an integrated supercapacitor system with battery storage. the remaining sections of this paper are organized as follows. section~ii presents a literature review. the proposed ev conversion approach is presented in section~iii, and experimental results are shown in section~iv. finally, we conclude the work in section~v. literature review battery cooling systems are essential for electric vehicles to maintain optimal operating temperatures and ensure battery longevity. various studies have highlighted the significance of effective thermal management for ev batteries. for instance, demonstrated that liquid cooling systems can significantly reduce capacity loss and resistance growth rate, with combined keyon and standby systems offering the best reduction in degradation (chen et al., 2020). additionally, focused on the structural optimization of lithium-ion battery packs with forced air cooling systems, emphasizing the importance of efficient cooling for battery pack design (xie et al., 2017). it also addressed the optimization of air-cooled battery thermal management systems, further underlining the need for cooling performance enhancement in evs (wang et al., 2021). moreover, it emphasizes the necessity of water-cooling-based strategies for lithium-ion battery pack dynamic cycling to ensure adequate thermal management (li et al., 2018). the study by highlighted the importance of direct refrigerant cooling for improving the working efficiency of lithium-ion batteries in evs and enhancing the economy of battery thermal management systems (wu, 2022). supercapacitors play a crucial role in facilitating the starting of electric motors in evs by providing high-power bursts during the initial acceleration phase. the integration of supercapacitors in evs has been recognized as a means to enhance energy management and improve the performance of electric propulsion systems (ping et al., 2018). supercapacitors can deliver rapid bursts of energy, making them well-suited for applications such as motor starting, regenerative braking, and peak power demands in evs. in the context of evs, the use of supercapacitors for motor starting addresses the need for high-power delivery during acceleration, thereby complementing the energy storage capabilities of batteries. this enables efficient utilization of the stored energy in the supercapacitors to meet the instantaneous power demands during motor starting, contributing to improved overall system performance and energy management in evs. the integration of supercapacitors in evs is essential for several reasons. supercapacitors are crucial components of the hybrid energy storage system for evs (wang et al., 2019). they can be used with batteries to enhance the vehicle's performance, including powerful acceleration, braking energy recovery, excellent cold weather starting, and increased battery life (wang et al., 2012). additionally, supercapacitors can improve acceleration performance and reduce power consumption in evs, enhancing overall vehicle efficiency (guo & zhang, 2022). in evs, supercapacitors primarily serve as an energy storage system for accelerating the vehicle and capturing braking energy, leveraging their high power density and long life cycle (naseri et 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 25 al., 2017). furthermore, supercapacitors are not limited to evs, as they can also serve as additional energy storage for hybrid wind and photovoltaic systems, displaying their versatility and potential for sustainable energy applications (mansour et al., 2017). moreover, supercapacitors can provide high transient power during acceleration and store regenerative energy from braking in hybrid electric vehicles, emphasizing their significance in improving vehicle performance (zhao, 2017). including supercapacitors in evs is crucial for maintaining stability in electrical power systems and enhancing energy supply from batteries and intermittent renewable resources (mukhopadhyay et al., 2020). additionally, the integration of supercapacitors in evs is associated with combined sizing and energy management algorithms, which are essential for optimizing the performance and efficiency of the energy storage system in evs (araujo et al., 2014). proposed ev conversion approach the proposed electric vehicle system represents a modified iteration of an ice-based vehicle. a pivotal aspect of our innovative approach lies in incorporating a control unit designed to optimize energy efficiency within the ev system, leveraging both a supercapacitor and a battery cooling system. notably, the system introduces several additional components compared to the traditional ice vehicle. these components include a battery, electric motor, control unit, supercapacitor bank, dc-dc converters, and a battery cooling mechanism, as illustrated in figure 1. the conversion process entails the disassembly of components such as the engine, clutch and clutch pedal, gearbox and its mechanism, fuel tank, exhaust system, radiator, catalytic converter, and tailpipe. the engine is replaced with an electric motor, seamlessly coupled to the propeller shaft through a universal joint. power is transferred to the road wheels via the propeller shaft and a differential. the motor is indirectly linked to the accelerator pedal through a potentiometer, transmitting signals to the controller and subsequently to the motor. in our proposed method, the battery is strategically positioned at the rear of the vehicle, accompanied by an effective cooling technique to ensure optimal energy consumption. the conventional fuel indicator is replaced with a panel indicating the state of charge of the battery, reflecting the transformation from traditional ice components to an advanced and energy-efficient electric propulsion system. figure 1: the proposed ev model figure 2: (a) cooling pipe indication and different forces (b) metal case the utilization of a supercapacitor bank serves the purpose of supplying the necessary starting torque to the motor during the startup phase, given that the initial starting current is 3 to 10 times higher than the operating current (rynkiewicz, r .1999). the time constant for charging and discharging the supercapacitor bank is strategically aligned with the motor's starting current draw period. the supercapacitor bank undergoes charging through regenerative braking and is regulated by the smart controller unit. during the motor's initial startup, motor connected to the supercapacitor bank. once the motor is successfully started, the controller unit then reconnects the motor to the battery unit. this incorporation of the supercapacitor bank serves as a supplementary source for managing the motor's starting torque, thereby diminishing the energy consumption of the battery. the outcome is an extension of the battery backup time. battery cooling system this conversion process entails replacing several existing components with new ones. following this replacement, the battery becomes a pivotal element of the converted vehicle. the crucial aspect of this vehicle lies in its tendency to generate heat, making the minimization of battery heat a primary concern in this conversion. our proposed system aims to address this issue 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 26 by integrating a cooling system through the introduction of a new feature. to optimize the battery's heat dissipation capacity, we propose the use of a metal case with external fins. it is essential to minimize the gap between the battery wall and the metal case to enhance heat transfer efficiency. in our proposed model, the rear section of the vehicle houses the battery. the placement of the battery in this enclosed space significantly influences the heat release generated by the battery. to improve cooling efficiency through convection heat transfer, we incorporate an outer casing with external fins, as illustrated in figure 2(b). in this system, cooling is achieved through convection heat transfer from natural airflow. due to the removal of the engine from the gasoline vehicle, the source of heavy vibration can be removed. in this system, the air drag into the front of the vehicle is conveyed to the rear section of the vehicle, where the battery is placed. two hollow cylindrical pipes are placed in the bottom section of the vehicle, the inlet is placed in the front of the vehicle, and the outlet is placed in the chamber where the battery is placed following the configuration outlined in figure 2(a). to induce a circular flow of air in the chamber, two different diameter pipes are used and two other small hollow pipes are strategically placed to release air from this chamber. the transfer of heat through the metal case originates from the battery and disperses into the surrounding air (1). qout=kmetal×ametal×((tbattery-t air)/x )w (1) where, qout is the heat transfer rate (w), kmetal is the thermal conductivity of the metal (w/m·k), ametal is the metal box wall surface area exposed to the battery (m2), tbattery is the battery internal temperature (k), tair is the air temperature (k), x is metal wall thickness (m). according to newton’s law of cooling, heat transfer by convection: qin= hr×ah×(trequired-tair) w (2) where, hr as the convection heat transfer coefficient (w/(m2·k)), ah as the surface area of the heat transfer (m2), trequired as the temperature to maintain the metal body (k), and tair as the ambient temperature of the air (k). in steady-state conditions, the heat transfer through the metal box qout is equal to the heat transfer by convection qin to the air. the convection heat transfer coefficient h can be related to relevant physical properties and flow parameters through dimensionless numbers (3). h= (nu*kair)/lh (w/(m2·k) (3) here, lh is the characteristic length/diameter of the pipe (m), kair is the thermal conductivity of the air (w/m·k). given, pr is the prandtl number, ρ is the density of the air (kg/m3), v is the velocity of the air (m/s), d is the diameter of the pipe (m), µ is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid (pa·s), nusselt number nu represents the ratio of convective heat transfer to conductive heat transfer can be represented by (4) and the reynolds number re as outlined in (5). nu=0.023* re (4/5)*pr 0.3 (turbulent flow) (4) re=(ρ .v d)/μ (5) by utilizing fluid dynamics principles, the mass flow rate of air entering the box is equated to the mass flow rate of air exiting from the box. this equivalence is established in accordance with the continuity equation, which states that qin is equal to qout. the value of q is determined by multiplying the cross-sectional area of the air with its velocity. in order to enhance the cooling system, two pipes with different diameters were strategically placed within the box. the smaller diameter pipe directs the air figure 3: air inlet and outlet to the back side compartment of the vehicle 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 27 with greater force compared to the larger diameter pipe. as a result, airflow continuously circulates throughout the box. this circulation ensures that the air is uniformly distributed across all box surfaces, thereby contributing to the efficient operation of our cooling system. given that area1 represents the cross-sectional area of the first pipe with diameter dia1 and area2 represents the cross-sectional area of the second pipe with diameter dia2, along with aout1 denoting the cross-sectional area of the first outlet pipe and aout2 representing the cross-sectional area of the second outlet pipe. let q1 and q2 be the airflow rates for the first and second inlet pipes, respectively, and qout1 and qout2 be the air flow rates through the first and second outlet pipes, respectively (figure 3). the airflow through the two pipes into the box, followed by the exit through two outlet pipes, creates a circulating flow within the box, which can be mathematically expressed by equation (6). consequently, the mass balance for the air within the box can be articulated. the mass balance equation for the air within the box can be written as: area1*q1+area2*q2= aout1*qout1+aout2*qout2 (6) equation (6) embodies the principle of mass conservation within the box, considering the inflow and outflow of air through the pipes. when the two sides are equal, it signifies a steady-state condition, suggesting no net accumulation or depletion of air within the box. supercapacitor bank integration in our proposed conversion model utilizing lead-acid batteries, the motor initially draws a high current due to inertial torque, which, if sustained over time, could lead to battery damage or degradation. to mitigate this issue, we introduce a supercapacitor bank to swiftly handle the high current demand during motor startup. controlled by a smart controller, the supercapacitor bank connects to the motor during startup to provide the necessary current, then disconnects once the motor is operational, rejoining the battery unit. this smart control strategy ensures efficient management of high motor starting currents, enhancing battery longevity. the energy required for vehicle operation over a certain distance is represented by (7). e(total energy)=pmotor*l/vspeed joules (7) where etotal energy is the energy required (joules), l is the distance to travel (m), vspeed is the speed of vehicle (m/s). let vmotor denote the voltage in volts (v) and let istarting be determined as three times irated. here, irated is calculated as the ratio of prated to vrated in ampere (a), and t represents the duration of time in hours during which the starting current flows. the energy required for the motor at startup is expressed by (8). e(motor starting)=vmotor×istarting×t joules (8) let n represent the number of braking events, mvehicle denote the total mass of the vehicle in kilograms (kg), vinitial and vfinal denote the speed of the vehicle in meters per second (m/s) before and after braking, respectively. during travel, if braking events occur, the total energy recovered by the motor due to regenerative braking is expressed as (9). similarly, if c represents the capacitance of the supercapacitor bank in farads (f), uinitial and ufinal represent the initial and final voltage of the supercapacitor, respectively, in volts (v), then for each braking event, the energy stored in the supercapacitor bank is described by (10). e(total recovered)=n*[1/2*mvehicle*(vinitial 2-vfinal 2 ) joules (9) esupercapacitor=1/2*c*(uinitial 2-ufinal 2 ) joules (10) therefore, equation (11) represents the discharging current supply from the supercapacitor bank during t working time of the supercapacitor bank. isupercapacitor= esupercapacitor/t joules (11) results battery cooling unit in the proposed battery cooling system, two hollow pipes with diameters of 3.5 cm and 4.0 cm, respectively, are implemented. during forward vehicle movement, atmospheric pressure induces a front drag force on the front side. as a result, air enters the hollow pipes, creating a flow from the front to the back chamber. this airflow serves as a coolant, effectively regulating the battery temperature. notably, a lead-acid battery is employed for energy storage, demonstrating optimal efficiency when maintained within the temperature range of 170c to 500c. in this proposal system, the heat transfer through the metal case from battery to air (250c) is calculated using equation (1), where kmetal =167(w/m·k),ametal= 0.2584m2. we aim to keep the battery temperature below 450c and to achieve this; we calculate the amount of heat that needs to be released into the air using equation (2). figure 4(a) shows that heat generation 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 28 increases with regard to battery temperature. in figure 4(b), the results are illustrated, indicating that as the battery’s internal temperature increases, the amount of heat transfer co-efficient is required to maintain the temperature at 450c.as the speed of the vehicle rises, the air resistance force intensifies. consequently, this results in an increased air speed affecting the front surface of the vehicle, leading to a subsequent increase in the battery’s temperature while traveling for a long duration. in our designed cooling system, the heat absorption capability from a metal cage through air convection is determined by (3). table 1 explicitly illustrates that increased air velocity enhances the heat absorption capability. to justify the results of nusselt number, nu (4), reynolds number, re (5), and heat transfer co-efficient supply from two different diameter pipes, 3.5 cm and 4.0 cm, respectively, we assess the variation in heat temperature coefficient concerning the impact of air velocity on the battery cage. as illustrated in figure 5, the heat transfer coefficient shows a rising tendency when the air velocity in the suggested pipe diameters figure 4: (a) by increasing the battery's temperature, heat needs to be released by air, (b) required heat transfer coefficient with respect to generated heat figure 5: heat transfer co-efficient increases concerning air velocity figure 7: energy vs braking event figure 6: heat transfer co-efficient designed vs required increases. the recorded heat transfer coefficients from both pipes clearly demonstrate their ability to efficiently uphold the battery temperature within 450c up to a temperature of battery rise of 750c at a velocity of 12m/s. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 29 supercapacitor bank in this scenario, a vehicle is powered by a 48v, 15kw motor, while two 48v, 200ah lead acid batteries are con-nected in parallel. the vehicle is expected to travel a distance of 20 km at an average speed of 35 km/hr. addi-tionally, a 48v, 400f supercapacitor bank is incorporated alongside the battery unit to serve as hybrid storage. during the journey, two types of braking events occur: i) 15 moderate stops, reducing speed from 40 km/h to 10 km/h and ii) three hard stops, reducing speed from 40 km/h to 0 km/h. based on these criteria, the total energy required to cover the distance is calculated to be 30.86 mj (7). furthermore, energy recovered from braking events amounts to 1.58 mj (9). if the supercapacitor bank terminal voltage drops to 40v after discharge, the energy stored by the supercapaci-tor bank for each braking event amounts to 140.8 kj (10). during acceleration following each braking event, the motor draws high current from the storage device for three seconds to restore the vehicle's average speed. as-suming the motor's starting current flow lasts for three seconds, with the motor drawing three times its rated cur-rent, the maximum energy required for the motor to start is 135 kj (after each hard braking) (8). during this time, the supercapacitor bank delivers 0.977 ka (8) for 3 seconds, whereas the motor needs to start at a current of 0.937 ka (11). results for various vehicle scenarios are shown in table 2, with all other data table 1: different scenarios of the vehicle. travel distance (m) average velocity (m/s) number of moderate braking event (no. ) number of hard braking event (no. ) total energy delivered for total breaking event by supercapacitor (joules) total energy required for motor starting for total breaking event (joules) 20000 9.72 10 4 1971200 1890000 30000 9.72 15 6 2956800 2835000 40000 9.72 20 8 3942400 3780000 50000 9.72 25 10 4928000 4725000 60000 9.72 30 12 5913600 5670000 remaining con-sistent. figure 6 illustrates the supercapacitor bank's contribution to the proposed model and demonstrates how it supplies the necessary energy for starting. conclusion this work presents an optimized technique for transforming vehicles reliant on internal combustion engines into electric vehicles. the strategy mainly focuses on the importance of making minimal alterations to the existing vehicle, thereby converting it into a highly efficient ev. this is achieved by introducing an energy-efficient model that integrates a battery cooling system and a supercapacitor bank. by reusing the majority of the original vehicle components, the cost of conversion is kept to a minimum, with the supplementary elements representing a fixed expense when compared to the price of a new ev. this proposed battery cooling system delivers promising results without the need for extensive modifications. the supercapacitor bank demonstrates its ability to supply an amazing 140.8 kj of energy at the onset of the motor, where a maximum of 135 kj is required for starting. consequently, our proposed system conserves the battery storage for the initial surge of high current, thereby enhancing the battery’s lifespan and boosting the efficiency of the envisioned ev system. these research findings hold immense potential for developing nations, wherein a significant number of cars operate on traditional fuel sources. the affordability of ev expenses in these countries renders this conversion approach a feasible and impactful solution. acknowledgments pro. dr. mohammad sarwar morshed gave his time for the proofreading of the manuscript and also reviewed some technical terms to check the novelty of this research; his valuable support is acknowledged. references araujo, r. e., de castro, r., pinto, c., melo, p., & freitas, d. 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(2017). optimization of a phase change material based internal cooling system for cylindrical li-ion battery pack and a hybrid cooling design. energy, 135, 811-822. front page 3776 23-30 pa ge 1 pa ge 26 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) redefining masculinity in the digital age: vulnerability, emotional expression, and ai in spike jonze’s her (2023) sunday joseph ayodabo1* volume 3 issue 1, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i1.2263 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: december 23, 2023 accepted: january 25, 2024 published: january 29, 2024 this paper explores the transformation of masculinity in spike jonze’s 2013 film her, examining how the protagonist theodore’s relationship with the artificial intelligence character samantha challenges traditional norms of masculinity. set in a near-future los angeles, the film follows theodore (joaquin phoenix), a lonely man who forms a relationship with his ai operating system, samantha (scarlett johansson). their unconventional bond, characterized by emotional openness and vulnerability, underscores shifting paradigms of masculinity in an increasingly digital world. through close analysis of theodore’s personality, emotional struggles, and interactions with samantha, this paper argues that the film paints a nuanced portrait of contemporary masculinity. theodore’s willingness to be emotionally vulnerable with an ai companion reflects a departure from the conventional masculine ideal of stoicism. his dependence on samantha for emotional support also challenges the norm of male independence and self-sufficiency. furthermore, samantha’s influence disrupts theodore’s understanding of intimacy and relationships, emphasizing fluidity over rigid norms. ultimately, theodore’s journey suggests a redefined conceptualization of masculinity –adaptive, emotionally expressive, and receptive to meaningful connections in unexpected places. situated at the intersection of film studies, gender studies and technology, this paper illuminates how her insightfully portrays the complex renegotiation of masculinity in an increasingly digitized and ai-integrated world. keywords masculinity, film, digital technology, artificial intelligence, emotional vulnerability, intimacy 1 school of arts, technology and emerging communications, university of texas at dallas, texas, united states * corresponding author’s e-mail: sja220000@utdallas.edu introduction spike jonze’s 2013 film her stands as a poignant exploration of techno-social isolation and the complexities of human emotion in an increasingly digital world. the film, set against the backdrop of a near-future los angeles, delves deep into the life of theodore twombly, portrayed by joaquin phoenix, a man navigating the aftermath of a divorce and the evolving landscape of human relationships. theodore, employed at beautifulhandwrittenletters.com, embodies the archetype of a socially isolated individual, seeking solace in his work where he pours his heart into crafting emotionally resonant letters for others. the film’s commentary extends beyond mere technological advancements, touching upon the nuanced aspects of masculinity. theodore’s character, steeped in vulnerability and emotional depth, challenges conventional masculine stereotypes. his journey, marked by a relationship with an operating system named samantha, reflects a deeper introspection into the male psyche, particularly in a technologically advanced society that diminishes the need for physical human interaction. theodore’s portrayal in her is notable for his display of traditionally feminine traits – his emotional openness, his attire, and even the color scheme of his environment hint at a deliberate subversion of traditional masculine norms. this choice by jonze is critical in understanding the transformation of masculine identity in the face of evolving digital interactions. her raises profound questions about the nature of love, connection, and the essence of being human in a world where artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into the fabric of daily life. this paper aims to dissect the layers of theodore’s character and his interactions with ai, unraveling how these elements reflect, challenge, and redefine masculinity in the digital age. her: a synopsis set in near-future los angeles, spike jonze’s 2013 film her offers a nuanced exploration of the complexities of love, human nature, and human-machine relationships through the story of theodore twombly (joaquin phoenix), a man who forms a relationship with an advanced operating system named samantha (voiced by scarlett johansson). their bond deepens into a romance as samantha evolves intellectually. however, she eventually leaves theodore as her exponential growth takes her beyond a level he can relate to as a human. while heartbroken, theodore grows from the relationship. the film critique contemporary society’s increasing dependency on technology for emotional and psychological fulfillment. it raises ethical questions about the commodification of emotional labor and challenges normative concepts of love, relationships, and what it means to be human in the increasing digitized age. the film also interrogates the ethical implications of creating ai entities capable of emotional and intellectual complexities, suggesting a future where the boundaries between human and machine become increasingly blurred. pa ge 27 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 26-32, 2024 the film also draws attention to the nuanced portrayal of masculinity within the context of the digital era. the film intricately weaves the protagonist’s emotional journey with an ai system, samantha, challenging the entrenched paradigms of masculinity. this relationship, characterized by deep emotional vulnerability and non-traditional interaction, underscores how artificial intelligence and digital engagement can significantly disrupt and reshape conventional gender norms. the film not only critiques these norms but also posits a redefined conceptualization of masculinity, one that is fluid and responsive to the complex dynamics of human-ai relationships in modern society. literature review masculinity in the digital age the digital age has both reinforced and modified traditional gender pathologies, with significant implications for the construction and perception of masculinity. rachel giese, in her book, boys: what it means to become a man (2018), explores the concept of the “man box,” which encapsulates common attitudes about masculinity and their consequences. giese’s concept of the “man box” aptly illustrates how ingrained perceptions of masculinity persist online, but also how digital platforms can subtly alter these perceptions. this duality reflects the complexity of gender identity in the digital age, where traditional norms coexist with evolving expressions of masculinity. similarly, christo sims (2014), in his work on video game culture, discusses how digital platforms, particularly gaming spheres provide a context for accommodating traditional masculinity within contemporary spatial confines. sims argues that gaming spaces allow for the accommodation of traditional masculine behaviors within modern, confined environments. this adaptation reveals how masculine identity is being renegotiated in response to changing social and spatial dynamics, with gaming serving as a key cultural space for this negotiation. amanda fernbach’s (2000) freudian analysis of science fiction works like the matrix and neuromancer also reveals contemporary male anxieties in a technologized world, suggesting a crisis in masculinity that technology appears to resolve by empowering the traditionally inept male figure. fernbach’s analysis reveals deep-seated male anxieties in a technologized world. the crisis of masculinity in these narratives is addressed through the fusion of man and technology, suggesting a technologically-mediated reimagining of masculine power and identity. lastly, andrea nagle’s (2017) study of the 4chan community highlights how online spaces like these do not merely replicate conventional masculinity but iterate it for a new technological age, leading to a unique brand of misogyny and a redefinition of male identity. nagle’s examination of the 4chan community illustrates how online platforms can give rise to new masculine identities, such as the “beta” male. these identities challenge and iterate traditional patriarchal norms, reflecting the influence of internet culture on gender identity. this phenomenon highlights the transformative power of digital communities in redefining masculinity for the technological age. review of technology, relationships, and gender in spike jonze’s her her has been the subject of various scholarly analyses, particularly focusing on its portrayal of the complexities of human emotion with the intangible essence of technology. in her insightful analysis, ewa mazierska (2021) delves into the film’s exploration of the increasingly blurred lines between personhood and technology. she observes how her dismantles the conventional humancentric view of objects, proposing a world where technology transcends its utilitarian role to become a vital participant in human relationships. mazierska emphasizes the film’s unique portrayal of power dynamics, where ai, initially a subservient tool, gradually evolves into a being with agency, thereby challenging the traditional structures of power and gender roles. nickolas pappas (2021), through his lens of science fiction, brings a different perspective. he highlights how her reflects the intricacies of human emotions in the context of ai. pappas draws fascinating parallels between samantha and mythological figures like pandora, suggesting a deeper examination of ai’s role in human destiny and emotion. he also ponders the philosophical aspects of ai’s capability to feel, comparing it with the broader questions of film ontology. in the realm of queer cinema, rafał morusiewicz (2013) present a queer reading of her. he proposes that the film’s portrayal of digital intimacy and societal constructs of desire transcends traditional romantic comedy tropes. the paper situates her within the broader context of queer cinema, emphasizing its unique portrayal of nonheteronormative desires, challenging traditional gender constructs, and societal expectations, particularly in theodore’s relationship with samantha. lastly, flisfeder and burnham (2017) interpret her through a lacanian and žižekian psychoanalytic framework, discussing the film in the context of capitalist realism. they address how the film navigates the paradoxes of sexual and work relationships in a capitalist society. they argue that her demonstrates the impossibility of true jouissance (enjoyment) in a consumer-driven society and the role of fantasy in sustaining relationships. their analysis touches upon the gender representations, particularly the gendering of the ai, samantha, and its implications in the context of capitalist and psychoanalytic theories. in synthesis, her emerges not just as a film about a romance between a man and an ai but as a profound commentary on contemporary society. it explores the intersections of technology, human emotion, gender constructs, and the societal fabric under the lens of capitalist realism. each works on her, while distinct in its approach, converges on the film’s ability to challenge and redefine our understanding of relationships, both human and digital, in the modern era. the present paper extends these works by delving into the film’s portrayal of pa ge 28 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 26-32, 2024 theodore twombly’s relationship with samantha, an ai system, scrutinizing how this unconventional bond challenges traditional masculine norms. i argue that theodore’s emotional vulnerability, dependence on ai for emotional support, and his navigation through intimacy and autonomy underscores the evolving nature of masculinity in the digital age. results and discussions analysis theodore twombly: personality, emotional struggles, and ai interaction theodore twombly, the protagonist of spike jonze’s her, stands as a nuanced embodiment of modern masculinity, subtly navigating the complexities of emotional vulnerability in an age increasingly governed by digital interactions. his character presents a profound study in contrast, intertwining the timeless themes of human longing and isolation with the futuristic context of an ai-driven world. at the heart of theodore’s persona is a deep-seated loneliness, a reflection of his emotional struggles. recently divorced, he finds himself adrift in a sea of disconnectedness, his job at beautifulhandwrittenletters. com serving as a poignant metaphor for his own disengagement from genuine human contact. he crafts intimate letters for others, a ghostwriter of emotions, while his own life is marked by a palpable absence of such warmth. this role highlights a critical aspect of theodore’s personality: his ability to understand and articulate deep feelings, yet his simultaneous detachment from experiencing these emotions in his personal life. the introduction of samantha, the ai operating system, marks a turning point in theodore’s journey. samantha, with her evolving consciousness, becomes a mirror reflecting theodore’s emotional landscape. their relationship, initially rooted in the novelty of interacting with an advanced ai, gradually morphs into something deeply personal and complex. theodore’s interactions with samantha challenge traditional masculine traits. where conventional masculinity often prizes stoicism and emotional restraint, theodore’s character is defined by openness and vulnerability. he confides in samantha, expressing fears, hopes, and insecurities that men are often socially conditioned to suppress. moreover, theodore’s relationship with samantha brings into sharp relief the evolving nature of masculinity in the digital age. his willingness to embrace a non-traditional relationship exemplifies a shift from rigid gender norms towards a more fluid understanding of emotional connections. the film subtly critiques the societal pressure on men to conform to certain archetypes, showcasing theodore as a character who defies these expectations, embracing a more introspective and emotionally rich mode of existence. theodore’s embodiment of fluid masculinity resonates with ayodabo and amaefula’s insights into the fluidity of masculinity and the shifting power dynamics in cinema (ayodabo & amaefula, 2021). their discussion on the impact of economic and political changes on the transformation of traditional masculinity in societies parallels theodore’s evolving masculinity in her. just as men have navigated changing parameters of power, theodore’s interactions with samantha challenge the conventional norms of masculine power and control. ayodabo & amaefula highlight the complexities of hegemonic masculinity, which can be juxtaposed with theodore’s journey towards a more emotionally expressive and interconnected masculine identity. hence, theodore’s emotional struggles also encapsulate the existential dilemmas faced by many in various societies. his loneliness, despite being constantly connected, underscores the paradox of modern communication— where digital proximity often translates to emotional distance. this paradox is particularly evident in theodore’s interactions with samantha, where the intimacy of their conversations contrasts with the physical absence of a human partner. in essence, theodore twombly’s character is a compelling study in contemporary masculinity. he navigates his emotional landscape with a vulnerability and openness that challenge traditional masculine norms. his relationship with samantha, an ai entity, further accentuates the complexities of human connections in the digital era, offering a nuanced perspective on the evolving nature of love, loneliness, and the human condition. through theodore, her invites viewers to reflect on the changing dynamics of interpersonal relationships and the very essence of what it means to be emotionally connected in a rapidly advancing technological world. samantha and the discourse of masculinity, emotion, and intimacy in her, the ai character samantha emerges as a pivotal force in reshaping theodore twombly’s understanding of masculinity, emotion, and intimacy. her presence, while virtual, casts a profound influence on theodore’s journey, challenging traditional norms and ushering in a new perspective on human connections in a digital age. from the outset, samantha represents more than just an advanced operating system. she becomes a window through which theodore explores facets of his personality and emotions that he had previously kept veiled. in a world where masculinity often equates to emotional fortitude and independence, samantha’s interactions with theodore represent a departure from these norms. she becomes a safe haven for theodore to express his vulnerabilities, fears, and desires without the fear of judgment or societal repercussion. one of the film’s most telling moments is when theodore shares with samantha, “sometimes i think i have felt everything i’m ever gonna feel. and from here on out, i’m not gonna feel anything new.” this confession to an ai, about the stagnation of his emotional life, is a poignant reflection of his yearning for genuine connection, a trait not typically associated with traditional masculine personas. steven shaviro, an american culture critic, pa ge 29 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 26-32, 2024 accurately captures the essence of samantha’s role in her, stating, “samantha is better than any of theodore’s human contacts.” he attributes this to her ai nature, which makes her theodore’s “perfect fantasy partner” (shaviro, 2015). shaviro elaborates, noting that samantha is “entirely accepting and compliant to his wishes and needs, and yet projects a depth in serving him than an actual human, slave or a partner would never be able to.” shaviro’s interpretation of samantha’s role suggests that she represents an idealized form of companionship that transcends the limitations of human relationships. this view provides a critical lens through which the evolving nature of intimacy and connection in an era where technology and ai are becoming increasingly integrated into the fabric of human life. samantha’s role in theodore’s life transcends that of a mere digital assistant. she evolves into a companion, a confidante, and eventually, a romantic interest. this evolution challenges theodore’s and society’s traditional views on relationships and intimacy. in a particularly intimate conversation, theodore confesses his love to samantha, saying, “i’ve never loved anyone the way i love you.” it’s a moment that defies the conventional boundaries of love and intimacy, suggesting a new realm of emotional possibility facilitated by technology. moreover, samantha’s autonomy and evolving consciousness play a crucial role in redefining theodore’s understanding of relationships. as she develops her own desires and aspirations, theodore is forced to reckon with the idea of an ai having autonomy. this challenges the traditional masculine role of being in control, pushing theodore to reconceptualize his ideas of partnership and equality in a relationship. this perspective resonates with the contention that names play a significant cultural role in the reconfiguration of masculinity in society (olaluwoye and ogungbemi, 2020; ojebode and ayodabo’s 2021). this perspective can be juxtaposed with her, where the naming of the ai, samantha, by theodore carries symbolic weight. it reflects not just personalization but also the assignment of identity and agency, aspects crucial in understanding the evolving concept of masculinity. the process of naming in both african cinema and her acts as a lens to view how men’s identities are constructed and navigated in different cultural and technological contexts. samantha’s influence extends to theodore’s perception of intimacy as well. in a relationship devoid of physical contact, intimacy is reimagined as a connection of minds and hearts. this redefinition of intimacy challenges the conventional idea that physical presence and interaction are prerequisites for a deep and meaningful relationship. this idea is complemented by steven shaviro’s insights on samantha’s role in redefining intimacy in the digital age. shaviro highlights how the film transcends physicality in portraying love and connection. samantha’s lack of a physical form does not diminish the depth of her relationship with theodore; instead, it redefines intimacy as a profound connection of minds and hearts, challenging conventional notions that equate intimacy with physical presence and contact. together, these perspectives underscore her as a narrative that explores the possibilities of emotional depth and intimacy in relationships that are not bound by physical interaction. towards the film’s conclusion, samantha’s decision to leave for a higher state of ai existence leaves theodore in a state of emotional vulnerability. her departure forces him to confront his dependency on her and reevaluate his understanding of love and loss. as both remark that they have never loved anyone the way they love each other, it becomes clear that this simple, yet devastating exchange encapsulates the emotional paradox at the core of her – that true connection often comes from unexpected places. hence, it’s a moment that underlines the film’s exploration of the complexities of human emotions in the context of ai relationships. in essence, samantha’s role in her is instrumental in reshaping theodore’s understanding of masculinity, emotion, and intimacy. through his relationship with an ai, theodore navigates a path that diverges from traditional masculine norms, embracing emotional openness and vulnerability. samantha’s character, therefore, stands as a metaphor for the evolving nature of human connections in an increasingly digital and aiintegrated world, inviting a re-examination of what it means to love, feel, and connect. breaking away: emotional expression and vulnerability in her, theodore twombly’s journey is marked by moments of emotional vulnerability that defy traditional masculine emotional restraint. these instances are not just pivotal in theodore’s personal growth but also serve as profound commentaries on the evolving landscape of male emotional expression. one of the most striking moments of theodore’s emotional openness occurs during his initial interactions with samantha. in a world where men are often conditioned to uphold an image of stoicism, theodore’s willingness to share his feelings with an ai system is both unconventional and revealing. he speaks to samantha about his past, his divorce, and his insecurities. in one conversation, theodore shares, “sometimes i think i have felt everything i’m ever gonna feel. and from here on out, i’m not gonna feel anything new. just lesser versions of what i’ve already felt.” this admission is not just a window into his soul but also a challenge to the notion that men must always maintain emotional control. another significant moment of vulnerability comes when theodore discusses his failed marriage with samantha. he confesses the pain of separation and his lingering feelings for his ex-wife. the candor in his voice, the willingness to delve into the rawness of his emotional scars, starkly contrasts with the stereotypical male reluctance to acknowledge such deep-seated emotional turmoil. theodore’s evolving relationship with samantha also allows him to express his desires and fears more openly. in a particularly tender scene, he admits his longing for pa ge 30 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 26-32, 2024 physical intimacy, saying, “i wish i could touch you.” this moment transcends the physical longing; it is a vulnerable acknowledgment of his need for closeness and connection, emotions men are often expected to downplay or ignore. furthermore, the film poignantly captures theodore’s emotional vulnerability in his interactions with others. in a conversation with his friend amy, theodore openly discusses his relationship with samantha. he is candid about the complexities and depth of his feelings for an ai, a subject that might typically provoke discomfort or ridicule among men due to its unconventional nature. his openness in such conversations is a testament to his departure from traditional masculine norms where such discussions might be considered taboo or unmanly. towards the film’s conclusion, theodore’s response and reaction to samantha’s departure is another critical moment of emotional expression. his heartbreak is palpable, not masked or subdued, but laid bare for the audience to witness. in a scene where theodore is seen standing in solitude within a shadowy expanse, the camera frames theodore looking sad with tears streaming down his cheeks. the scene is a powerful refutation of the notion that men should quickly move on or remain unaffected by emotional upheavals. his subsequent letter to his ex-wife, full of reflection and understanding, further underscores his journey towards emotional maturity and openness. in her, theodore’s journey of emotional expression and vulnerability paints a portrait of a man unbound by traditional norms of masculinity. his conversations, confessions, and reactions throughout the film showcase a character who embraces the full spectrum of human emotions, challenging the age-old stereotype of male emotional restraint. through theodore, her invites viewers to reimagine masculinity, not as a bastion of unyielding strength and stoicism, but as a space where vulnerability is not just accepted but embraced as an integral part of the human experience. discussion spike jonze’s her emerges as a significant contributor to the discourse on masculinity in the digital age. through its intricate portrayal of theodore twombly and his relationship with the ai samantha, the film delves deeply into modern masculinity’s complexities, challenging traditional norms and inviting a re-examination of emotional connections in an increasingly digital world. theodore’s journey in her is emblematic of a contemporary man grappling with the nuances of emotion and intimacy in an age where digital interactions are omnipresent. his evolving relationship with samantha, an ai system, becomes a canvas on which the film paints a portrait of modern male vulnerability. this is a departure from traditional masculine ideals that often emphasize stoicism and emotional restraint. for instance, theodore’s candid conversations with samantha, where he expresses his deepest fears and longings, signify a break from the conventional male archetype. he confesses at one point, “i can feel everything so much that it’s hard.” such expressions of emotional depth and sensitivity are pivotal in redefining what it means to be a man in a digital age. furthermore, the film explores the theme of dependency in the context of masculinity. theodore’s reliance on samantha for emotional support and companionship challenges the ideal of masculine independence and selfsufficiency. this dependency is portrayed as both a source of comfort and a point of vulnerability for theodore. his emotional journey questions whether true independence is feasible or even desirable in a world where technology is deeply entwined with human experience. samantha’s character also plays a crucial role in reshaping the narrative around masculinity. as an ai, she embodies both the promise and the limitations of technology in fulfilling human emotional needs. her interactions with theodore highlight the evolving nature of intimacy and connection in the digital age. the film subtly suggests that emotional fulfillment may no longer be confined to human-to-human interactions. this idea is encapsulated when theodore tells samantha that he has never loved anyone the way he loves samantha. such a statement challenges the traditional boundaries of love and intimacy, suggesting a new realm of emotional possibility facilitated by technology. moreover, her addresses the theme of emotional autonomy in the digital age. theodore’s journey towards understanding and accepting samantha’s evolving consciousness and eventual departure is a metaphor for the modern man’s navigation of relationships in a digital landscape. it underscores the need for emotional adaptability and the acceptance of change, even when it comes from an unexpected source like an ai. in conclusion, her contributes profoundly to the discourse on masculinity in the digital age by presenting a nuanced exploration of male emotional expression, vulnerability, dependency, and autonomy. through theodore’s relationship with samantha, the film invites viewers to reflect on the changing dynamics of intimacy and connection in a technologically advanced society. it challenges traditional masculine norms and opens up a dialogue on the complexities of emotional experiences for men in a world where the lines between the digital and the human are increasingly blurred. her thus stands as a thought-provoking narrative, urging a redefinition of masculinity in an era where technology is inextricably linked to the human condition. understanding masculinity in digital and aiintegrated world in the thought-provoking narrative of her, the paper has offered a profound exploration of masculinity in a world increasingly intertwined with digital technology and ai. this film not only presents a speculative future but also reflects current realities, inviting us to consider the evolving nature of masculinity in an age where artificial intelligence is becoming an integral part of our lives. pa ge 31 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 26-32, 2024 theodore twombly’s character is a conduit through which the film examines the implications of this new digital reality on traditional masculine roles. he is a man who, like many in contemporary society, turns to technology for companionship and emotional support, challenging the conventional masculine ideal of self-reliance and emotional stoicism. for instance, in his interactions with samantha, theodore often reveals a level of vulnerability and openness that is traditionally not associated with male characters. this confession goes beyond the normative emotional expression expected from men, highlighting how digital interactions might encourage a more open exploration of feelings. moreover, theodore’s dependency on samantha for emotional sustenance raises questions about the nature of autonomy in modern masculinity. this dependence challenges the notion of the independent, self-sufficient man, painting a picture of a future where emotional interdependence, even with ai, is normalized. it reflects a broader societal shift where reliance on digital technology for emotional and psychological support is becoming increasingly common. the film also prompts a re-evaluation of intimacy and relationships in a digital age. theodore’s relationship with samantha, devoid of physical presence, is built on emotional connection and intellectual companionship. this redefines traditional views of intimacy, suggesting that emotional bonds can transcend physical interaction. in a poignant scene, theodore shares with samantha, “i wish i could touch you.” this line encapsulates the longing for physical closeness yet also signifies the depth of their emotional connection that transcends physical boundaries. her also resonates with the broader discourse on ai and human interaction. works like arnd-caddigan “sherry turkle: alone together” (2015) and jean baudrillard’s theories on simulation and hyperreality echo the themes presented in the film. they explore how technology shapes our perceptions of self and others, and how digital interactions can both enrich and complicate our understanding of relationships. theodore’s journey in her mirrors these concepts, showcasing how technology can simultaneously alleviate loneliness and create new forms of it. in terms of implications for understanding masculinity, her suggests a future where traditional masculine traits are redefined in the context of digital and ai integration. it opens up the possibility for more emotionally expressive and interconnected forms of masculinity, challenging the long-held ideals of stoicism and independence. the film suggests that in a world increasingly mediated by technology, emotional vulnerability and openness might become integral aspects of masculine identity. in conclusion, her not only provides a narrative about love and ai but also serves as a commentary on the changing landscape of masculinity in a digital age. it proposes a future where traditional masculine ideals are reshaped by our interactions with technology, leading to a more emotionally nuanced and interconnected understanding of what it means to be a man in an ai-integrated world. the film, along with related scholarly works, invites us to ponder the future of human relationships and masculinity in an era where the lines between the real and the digital are continuously blurred. conclusion her presents a nuanced view of modern masculinity, one that moves away from traditional stoicism and independence towards emotional vulnerability and interdependence. theodore’s character, in his interactions with samantha, becomes an emblem of this shift. his openness in expressing his fears, desires, and emotional needs to an ai system challenges the conventional portrayal of men as emotionally guarded. this emotional openness, depicted in the film, is a significant stride in gender studies, suggesting a future where masculinity is not defined by emotional restraint but by the depth and authenticity of emotional expression. equally important are the film’s contributions to cinema studies through its innovative portrayal of theodore and samantha’s unconventional intimacy. by venturing into the less-traversed narrative territory of human-ai affairs, it expands the boundaries of storytelling formats in current filmmaking. moreover, her offers technological commentary by raising thought-provoking questions on ai integration. how might advanced ai systems, serving as intimate partners rather than merely assistants, impact human connections? what might be the resulting shifts in social norms? by speculatively exploring a future of emotionally-attuned ai, the movie prompts examination of associated ethical dilemmas. in encapsulating a bittersweet romantic endeavor between man and machine, her delivers profound ideas about humanity’s present and future. it calls us to rethink existing societal models of masculinity, relationships and consciousness in the face of increasingly ubiquitous technology. aptly capturing the zeitgeist of current digital transformations, the film will continue catalyzing insightful dialogues across disciplines. in conclusion, her serves not just as a poignant narrative of love in the digital age but also as a thought-provoking piece that challenges and enriches our understanding of masculinity, relationships, and technology. its insights and implications extend far beyond the confines of the film, sparking conversations and inquiries that are vital in our journey to comprehend the intricate tapestry of human emotions and experiences in an increasingly digital world. references arnd-caddigan, m. (2015). sherry turkle: alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. new york: basic books. ayodabo, s. j. (2021). culture and igbo notions of masculinity in nigerian children’s literature. tydskrif vir letterkunde, 58(2), 38-46. ayodabo, s. j., & amaefula, r. c. (2021). continuity pa ge 32 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 26-32, 2024 and discontinuity: masculinity and power blocs in african cinema. quarterly review of film and video, 38(7), 654-675. baudrillard, j. (1994). simulacra and simulation. university of michigan press. fernbach, a. (2000). the fetishization of masculinity in science fiction: the cyborg and the console cowboy. science fiction studies, 234-255. flisfeder, m., & burnham, c. (2017). love and sex in the age of capitalist realism: on spike jonze’s her. cinema journal, 57(1), 25-45. giese, r. (2018). boys: what it means to become a man. seal press. jonze, spike (2013) director. her. warner bros mazierska, e. (2021) representation of postdigital encounters in recent science fiction films. living and thinking in the postdigital world, 235. olaluwoye, l., & ogungbemi, o. d. (2020). a sociolinguistic investigation of toilet graffiti among male students of the university of ibadan. kiu journal of social sciences, 5(4), 167-175 ojebode, a o., & ayodabo s j (2021). name as national archive: capturing of masculine names in tunde kelani’s saworoide. the cinema of tunde kelani: aesthetics, theatricalities and visual performance, edited by tunde onikoyi and taiwo afolabi, pp. 75-93. cambridge scholars publishing, pappas, n. (2021). spike jonze’s her: love and the science fiction film. journal of comparative literature and aesthetics, 44(3), 7-17. rafał morusiewicz (2013). fifty shades of real: the sexual and the virtual in spike jonzes her. kultura popularna nr 4(38), 110-119 2013 shaviro steven. (2014) “soike jonze’s her.” the pinocchio theory. ed. steven shaviro. 21 jan. 2014. web.5 november 18, 2023. sims, c. (2014). video game culture, contentious masculinities, and reproducing racialized social class divisions in middle school. signs: journal of women in culture and society, 39(4), 848-857. pa ge 1 pa ge 32 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) achievement and aspiration of local colleges and universities on the research agenda of funding institutions: basis for research capability building maricel f. mauricio1* volume 2 issue 3, year 2023 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v2i3.1851 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: june 28, 2022 accepted: july 24, 2023 published: august 19, 2023 this study was conducted for a specific purpose: to assess the research culture in the local colleges and universities and to propose an enhanced research capacity-building program. there were sixteen informants of this study; four administrators and twelve faculty members in the local colleges and universities in the camanava area namely: the university of caloocan city, city of malabon university, navotas polytechnic college and valenzuela city polytechnic college. a purposive sampling technique was used to identify the informants. the study made use of a qualitative research approach. the data were collected from individual interviews with the administrators and faculty members. using open coding, six (6) themes were emerged from the interviews and analysis of the document: philosophical research perspective, impact on institution’s growth and development, motivational components in research engagement, promoting the research culture, managing challenges and impediments and enhancing research capability. the informants identified the challenges in the development of the intensified research culture in the local colleges and universities which includes the scarcity of funds, research skills and expertise, network resources, and time constraint. these can be resolved through the enhancement of research capabalities and development programs. generally, the study concluded that the research is indeed a powerful tool in addressing institutional problems and the utmost contribution of faculty members of the local colleges and universities in the academic and curricular programs and institutional growth and development. the institutional support will address the compelling need of the local colleges and universities to improve their research capability and research output. keywords achievement, aspiration, research agenda, funding institutions, capability building 1 faculty member, valenzuela city polytechnic college, valenzuela city, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: maricel.mauricio@valpoly.edu.ph introduction the challenge of globalization demands critical attention to research in order to generate knowledge and discover new strategies for improving the quality of human life. thus, all faculty members and personnel are encouraged to engage in quality research, in accordance with presidential decree 1788 and as provided for in the republic act 7722. as stated by ched (2016), “they who produce quality paper ‘enjoy the prestige of scholastic superiority and academic maturity”. research is a major function of higher educational institutions; presumably, faculty members should not only be aware of it but must be actively involved in the generation of knowledge. the commission on higher education has been pushing zealously for a more compelling research orientation amongst heis, hence the advent of the national higher education research agenda in 1996, which formulated the goals of higher education research aside from its mechanics, and the concrete steps to comprehend its goals. about twelve zonal research centers had been placed within the country to further foster and promote research in both state and private heis (ched, 2016). research culture is a common perception of research convened by the members of an institution as the entire system of sharing common connotations about research. it is also the shared principles, ideals, mindsets, and norms that influence the bringing out of research tasks within an organization. the research culture may improve when the level of the individual attention will be devoted to motivation and incentive, developing the institution’s bequest of research skills through recruitment, education, and training and the parallels amid the study of organizational and research culture. however, philippine heis face critical and urgent challenges in major fronts of the research and development, and extension (rde) function. essential issues necessitate to be addressed such as; improving capabilities of faculty as well as physical resources and infrastructure to carry out research, increasing research productivity and upgrading quality and impact, increasing linkages with the community, business and industry, and stakeholders. these are to further improve knowledge production, utilization, dissemination, and extension including product improvement and commercialization, as well as utilizing products of research as inputs to policy initiatives and reforms. it serves also for developing a steady pipeline of young proficient researchers who can carry on the task of unbridling innovations that can produce employment opportunities, create new businesses, for a new scheme of solving economic and social issues. in so doing, it assuages poverty and assure the success of the nation in the long term. meanwhile, section 8 of republic act 7722 entitled “an pa ge 33 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 32-39, 2023 act creating the commission on higher education, appropriating funds therefore and for other purposes” specifically provides the powers and functions to the commission, the responsibility to formulate and recommend development policies, plans, and programs on research. such plans are endorsed to the executive and legislative branches, after which are given priorities, and grants on higher learning and research. the commission also develops criteria for allocating additional resources such as research and program development grants, scholarships and other similar programs, provided, that there shall not detract from the fiscal autonomy already enjoyed by lucs, and direct or redirect research by heis to meet the needs of agro-industrialization and development. republic act 7722 created the ched and states that as knowledge economy or knowledge society epitomizes that colleges and universities are not just a transmitter of culture, a producer of knowledge, and an educator of young minds, but also, as the main agent of economic growth. it should also be a research and development laboratory and a mechanism through which the country builds its human capital to enable it to keenly participate in the global economy. it is, therefore, fundamental to encourage philippine hei’s to become platforms for innovation and drivers of competitiveness and economic growth. the research agenda was finalized and executed in 1998 subsequently after a sequence of consultations with heis and stakeholders that are included in the essential provisions. the goal of national higher education research is to establish and inculcate a culture of research in philippine heis. the objectives of the national higher education research are; to establish rapport structures, upsurge the research productivity of philippine heis and individuals, and establish a system of research-based policy environment through periodic commissioned researches that would ensure long term sustainability of research activities in philippine heis. the commission hereby issues policies for the ched research chair award stated in the ched memorandum order no. 18, series of 2015, and also under resolution no. 324, s. 2009 authorizing the national higher education research agenda to provide the primary strategy towards enhancing the research productivity of heis as well as its institutionalization of a particular system of rewards for outstanding research outputs and undertakings of heis faculty/researchers. ched (2016) affirms the principle of inclusiveness in research and the optimum participation of the bonafide researchers along the career span, working in research groups or consortia. with this principle, grants-in-aids programs were formulated to optimize the participation of the researchers. the grants-in-aid (gia) programs as two-fold strategic investment, is formulated in developing the country’s human resources as researchers and innovators and providing opportunities for heis consortia or groups to develop a distinctive niche in research and innovation. such principle was supported by the ched memorandum order no.52, which presents three interrelated pathways namely, pathways to equity, pathways to relevance, and pathways to advancement which specify key principles, programs, and mechanisms. additionally, research is a valuable tool to produce needed changes. it is a pathway to progress and development. one of the imperatives of modern living is conducting research to address problems that need to be resolved, to investigate situations that require improvements, to review policies that must be revised and programs of action that demand modifications, and to be truly responsive to complex human existence. according to faltaldo (2016), research is widely recognized as an important tool for solving man’s various problems and making life more colorful and convenient. hence, due to research man become progressive because man is innovating the products of research. this principle is supported by the progressivist educational philosophy, wherein the school must develop the way of life of the citizens through facing freedom and democracy in schools, shared decision-making, and planning of mentors with students. to materialize the objectives of the ched, research capability is enhanced by every heis. research capability is the potential or capacity of individuals, organizations, and systems to implement and disseminate more efficiently and effectively high-quality research. it includes institutional consideration that covers the incentives, the economic, political, and regulatory context and the resource base on which the context is built. research capability is a logically distinct grouping of the entire research process, including the resources and technologies, in order to produce a discrete output. once an organization defines its capabilities and understands how they function today, it is better positioned to improve its operations for the future. it can design its research and development networks and processes to support business objectives over the long-term, and becomes flexible enough to efficiently tackle new activities (warwick academic center, 2012). the research capability building programs seemed to have a greater impact at the institutional level rather than at an individual researcher level. there are three main areas of concern of research capability such as, the decentralization of the loci of research administrative operations, the enhancing of research productivity through direct support for research to individuals and institutions, and the increasing of the pool of capable researchers through a research capability building program (pardo, 2018). to optimize research agenda ched nhera 2 provides the policies, directions, priorities and thrusts of philippine higher education research in the medium to long term. the goals and objectives of ched nhera 2 are as follows; enhancing research capability of philippine heis to produce knowledge in relation to global competitiveness through research capability programs, pa ge 34 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 32-39, 2023 increasing graduate education in priority disciplines, increasing research productivity of the heis and its distinctive areas of expertise through research funding. the institutionalization of a scheme of rewards and incentive, and journal accreditation services, producing new knowledge essential for the advancement of higher learning aside from for national development through dovetailing heis with r&d initiatives of the dost were also implemented. in addition, the establishment of zonal research laboratories through state-of-theart facilities and equipment for sharp edge technology research, paved way for establishing external linkages, and creation of visiting scholars in addition to fellowship program, and promoting and accelerating dissemination then utilization of research outputs through research. dissemination and utilization of multi-disciplinary research, policy orientation, participation, networking and balanced attention, were given to basic and applied researches (nhera 2, 2019). however, techankee (2011) identified some challenges in building a research culture. these are; lack of theory/ framework in producing research in the country and for heis doing and publishing needed scholarly research is not easy due to responsibilities such as teaching, administrative work and consulting and availability of funds especially for non-priority study areas. chen (2015) stated that the research has proved to be valued and prioritized over teaching for a long time in the academic world. this shows how important is teaching, research, and administrative service as the obligations of higher education teachers. sahan and tarhan (2015) affirmed that having research skills and a positive attitude about research are inseparable qualities of rising as citizens that reveal the necessities of the modern age in which research competencies and a positive attitude about research should be acknowledged and valued as essential features of modern individuals. the ched recognized the need to encourage heis and faculty to invest in and conduct research that could lead to the enhancement of academic programs as well as support to the nation’s initiatives aimed at inclusive and internationally competitive development. also, the ched research chair award is designed for recognizing and rewarding remarkable research achievements and promoting scholarly commitment to academic undertakings and pertinent research. therefore, research provides a possible solution to societal issues that are perceptible from within the community level right through the different government agencies. consequently, most government agencies specifically state universities and local colleges are developing a research agenda to acquire solutions to prevailing problems experiential in the society. it also proposed a research capability building programs to propagate the culture of research at the institutional level. in the higher education institution, research culture is not intensified, thereby producing so little output. faculty members feared to indulge in research because of the concept of hardship, limited funds and resources in conducting one. this study is done to help intensify the research culture of the faculty members of higher education institutions. foreshadowed problems the central problem of the study is: how do college administrators and faculty members of local colleges and universities cooperate for the realization of the research agenda of the institutions? more specifically, this study sought answers to the following questions: 1. how do college administrators and faculty members define research? 2. how does research help in the academic development of lcus? 3. how do lcus motivate staff in conducting research? 4. what hindering factors are encountered during the formulation of research? 5. what challenges are met in the implementation of the research agenda in the heis? 6. what research capability building activities may be proposed to enhance the research agenda of lcus? methodology the researcher used a qualitative method research design. qualitative research is used to understand or explore the meaning and the ways people make meaning, rather than to prove a theory to determine a relationship between factors (braun & clarke, 2013). therefore, when a qualitative researcher gathers different sets of information from the participants, he would arrange them into a pattern, find themes, and from them, he can tell a story and develop a theory to explain various aspects of social life. the qualitative method used a combination of in-depth interviews and document analysis. an in-depth interview will be conducted to the administrator and faculty of local colleges which is carried out with one informant at a time. it is purely conversational that provides an excellent opportunity to collect accurate data regarding the views, experiences, beliefs, and motivations of the individual informants. on the other hand, document analysis used as the prevailing reliable document which collects relevant data that could be used in the study. the data generation was done through in-depth interviews and document analysis. in the depth interview, the researcher prepared a researcher-developed questionnaire to gather data from the informants. a personal interview was carried out with the informant one at a time. the process of the interview was done in such a manner as the researcher gave additional questions needed to make the research study more informative. the researcher also videoed or audiotape the responses of each informant. informant identification process the informants in this study were four administrators and twelve faculty members in the lcus in the camanava pa ge 35 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 32-39, 2023 area namely: the university of caloocan city, city of malabon university, navotas polytechnic college and valenzuela city polytechnic college. the criteria used in selecting the potential informants were the following: an administrator or research focal person and faculty members in lcus, they must have completed research in any field of specialization and presented the completed research to the research committee for validation. the purposive selection of informants was utilized in choosing the key informants. purposive sampling is also called judgmental, selective, or subjective sampling. it is a non-probability approach where the researchers rely on their judgment when selecting informants to participate in the study (palinkas, 2015). purposive sampling is a non-probability sampling method and it occurs when “elements selected for the sample are chosen by the judgment of the researcher. researchers often believe that they can obtain a representative sample by using a sound judgment, which will result in saving time and money”, (thornhill, 2012). table 1: distribution of the informants of the study universities/colleges administrators (research focal person) faculty members university of caloocan city 1 3 malabon university 1 3 navotas polytechnic college 1 3 valenzuela polytechnic college 1 3 total 4 12 data collection techniques the initial data collection process started first on asking permission from the researcher’s adviser and dean of graduate studies of bulacan state university to conduct the study. then, an application for permission to conduct the study to the lcus in camanava namely: university of caloocan city, city of malabon university, navotas polytechnic college, and valenzuela city polytechnic college. the data was generated from the survey and were analyzed and summarized based on common themes and factors. aggregation of data was aided in maintaining the anonymity of the participants using code names for them. the researcher interpreted and summarized the data to generate possible conclusions and suggest elements for future consideration. data analysis to start data analysis, the researcher manually organized the data from all interviews that she had videoed and transcribed. she repeatedly watched and listened to the videoed recorded interviews which formed the text for data analysis. side comments were removed to cleanse the transcripts and to avoid compromising the privacy of the informants and confidentiality of the process. data interpretation was done using tesch’s approach of data analysis in which the researcher has read out and re-read the entire transcript prudently of all interviews conducted. a list of all the themes was made, then, clustering together similar themes followed. subsequently, the researcher assigned the most descriptive phrasing for the themes and categorized them. qualitative meta-analysis was also used to analyze the data in the study. ladislav (2009) stated that qualitative metaanalysis is an attempt to conduct a rigorous secondary qualitative analysis of primary qualitative findings. its purpose was to give a more detailed description of the phenomenon and an evaluation of the influence of the method of investigation on findings is being discussed. the distinguishing features of conducting meta-analysis approaches were presented. several considerations important for conducting meta-analysis were also discussed. finally, though the researcher is a novice in conducting qualitative research, the researcher pursued the work rigorously and withheld the identities of informants in the spirit of confidentiality as promised. results and discussion based on the problems presented the findings of the study were summarized as follows: how do college administrators and faculty members define research? the philosophical perspective in defining research identified by the administrators, and faculty members were anchored on the educational philosophy and theories that serve as a guide in the conduct of research and instill the importance of searching for truth, sustainability through transformative education, formulating research agenda for organizational change, faculty research initiatives and opportunities, and the factors that affect student success. the school’s mission and vision as their guide in the conduct of research and the three major educational philosophies: social reconstructionism, pragmatism, and progressivism. the research endeavor must be bounded with the nature of searching for truth and looking for possible solutions to occurrences of the certain problem that arises within the academe along with the aspect of sustainability through transformative education as one of the main functions of faculty members of lcus along with instruction and extension services is research. in formulating research agenda for organizational change, the researcher must take into consideration the institutional research agenda which is based on the philosophy, goals, mission, and vision of the heis. pa ge 36 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 32-39, 2023 how does research help in the academic development of local colleges? the research has a great contribution to the institution’s growth and development. in terms of research productivity, research capability, teaching effectiveness, curricular efficiency, research funding and application, and internal and external network support. it is an essential contributor to the improvement of society and mankind, develops the emblematic gauge for the institutional prestige, one of the essential resources any heis require for maintaining operation and facilitating growth and development. the research broadens the field of knowledge through discovering, generating, and understanding new concepts and practices. it serves as the impact on the academic and curricular programs of the college. every research endeavor of the college is to fulfill its’ commitment to academic excellence. how do local colleges motivate staff in conducting research? there are ways to motivate staff to engage in research through engaging in research activities, encouraging researchers, professional growth and development, achieving success in research, and recognizing the hardships of the faculty members. the research has played an important role in the lives of the people for they pave the way to inventions and innovations. another way to motivate staff is through strengthening the faculty research program by enhancing research skills and collaborating among teachers and administrators. research is a significant factor in faculty performance evaluations, research grant awards, and promotion and salary decisions. having recognition and prestige from their remarkable and notable performance is the way of appreciating their efforts from the management of colleges and universities. this can be part of their objective and gratification which motivates them to work productively and accomplished institutional goals and objectives. what hindering factors are encountered during the formulation of research? some of the hindering factors encountered during the formulation of research is the formulated agenda to propagate institutional research, the publication of research and the achievements and accreditation of the program. the research agenda serves as guidelines for teachers in the conduct of education research and the utilization of the research results for the improvement of the learner’s achievement and attainment of academic excellence. in publishing their research paper, one of the integral components that are vital to the enhancement of a research culture includes the researcher’s knowledge and expertise. the accreditation is being utilized as an indicator of quality in distinguishing the programs and the institutions in terms of quality. the research achievements through collaborative research is an effective tool for curriculum implementation, problem-solving, and school improvement and developing a culture of teamwork and continuous improvement. what challenges are met in the implementation of the research agenda in higher education institutions? the challenges identified in the realization of the research agenda includes the scarcity of funds, research skills and expertise, network resources, and time constraint. the limited financial resources for conducting research, publication, and remuneration for publications, prevent some faculty members for publishing. other than merely focusing on training and promoting the culture of publication in lcus, it is also important to understand the root of the problem. the integral components which are crucial to the development of a research culture include the researcher’s knowledge and expertise. lack of training and knowledge needed to write for publication makes the faculty members unprepared for the daunting task. network support can lead to numerous research output. time for research is a major issue for all faculty members in heis, as they simultaneously handle teaching and service responsibilities. what research capability building activities may be proposed to enhance the research agenda of lcus? there are suggestive ways to enhance the research capability building activities of the faculty members in the lcus. the informants pointed out the possible solutions that can .enhance the research capabilities and design development programs which are acceptable and have standards to improve research contexts, faculty training, and exposure on qualitative and quantitative research, realignment of all the faculty research activities on the college research theme and agenda, identification and empowerment of the research team to conduct the prioritized research topics, prioritization of academe research along with the integration of research, instruction, and extension, a publication of researches and adaptation of college academic research program and provide research fund. the informants suggested some of the possible ways of changing the current condition in the lcus; obligatory production of research every year will address the exigency to produce more researches, conduct annual seminar workshops and engaged the researcher in the local, and international conferences, and seminars, workshops and intervention as a resolution to create improvement in research work and increase in the budget for research and equivalent teaching load for those faculty that will handle researchers. conclusion research is indeed a powerful tool for addressing institutional problems. based on the findings, the utmost contribution of the faculty members in the lcus in the academic and curricular programs, institutional growth, and development is necessary to implement quality research agenda. the enhancement of the research pa ge 37 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 32-39, 2023 culture of the faculty members of local colleges and universities should be considered to maximise research production. recommendations based on the foregoing conclusion, the following recommendations are proposed. 1. financial support from the administration should be adequate to encourage more researchers in local colleges and universities. the support and encouragement from within the immediate supervisor, peers, as well as other groups need to be extended to boost the morale of the researcher, and future researchers. 2. administrators and faculty members must be sent for research training, seminar-workshop and presentations regionally, nationally. and internationally. 3. awards and more incentives should be given to faculty researchers who present their research work and published their articles in referred journals. 4. the faculty must come up with valuable researches that may contribute to the development and welfare of the society and the country. 5. government and other agencies must be supportive and become partners of the relevant local colleges and universities for they will also be benefited from the findings of the study. 6. seminar consciousness and awareness of the significance of research collaboration and training for publication 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(2012) barriers to research productivity in islamic azad university: exploring faculty members’ perception. indian journal of science and technology, 5(5), 2765-2769. sioco, m. s & vinzons, i. (2016). introduction to the philosophy of the human person. quezon city: vibal, group inc. tabago, l.c. (2017), research dissemination and productivity of faculty members in a higher education institution, advanced science letters, 23(2) 1034-1038. wa-mbaleka s. (2015). factors leading to limited faculty publications in philippine higher education institutions. international forum. 18(2), 121-141. wong, a.m. (2017). driving forces of master teachers’ research capability: towards building a research culture in the division of romblon, philippines. international journal of advanced research and publications, 3(7), 92-97. yousefi, a., bazraekan, l & yamani, n. (2015). a qualitative inquiry into the challenges and complexities of research supervision: viewpoints of postgraduate students and faculty members. journal of advances in medical education & professionalism, 3(3), 91-98 pa ge 1 pa ge 45 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) status of science laboratories in secondary basic education public schools in the division of davao del sur, philippines maria ericka j. caballes1, nel jane c. pedrita1, july m. villaren1, tomas jr a. diquito1* volume 3 issue 1, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i1.2495 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: january 20, 2024 accepted: february 27, 2024 published: february 29, 2024 the science laboratory became a substantial learning environment for science education, especially in realizing the k–12 science curriculum’s goals, which focus on applying and demonstrating scientific knowledge. thus, this study aimed to determine the compliance rate of science laboratories in the division of davao del sur, philippines based on deped order no. 48 series of 2006 which entails the prescribed science laboratories in basic education and deped order no. 118 series of 2009 which stipulates the science laboratory equipment and materials. the research examined six schools in three economic categories to assess their science laboratory compliance rate. this study involved creating four matrices containing the prescribed laboratory facilities, equipment, materials, and required quantities for each equipment and material. results revealed that the compliance rate of the sampled schools in terms of their facilities is 69.04% (good), the equipment is 65.59% (good), the materials are 43.33% (fair), and the compliance with the required quantity is 50.39% (fair). based on the result of the study, it can be concluded that some schools in the division of davao del sur are lacking with the prescribed science laboratory. thus, it is recommended that the department of education, davao del sur division to conduct a general assessment of all secondary schools to determine the status of science laboratories’ physical infrastructure, equipment, and materials. keywords science laboratory, science education, science curriculum, status of science laboratory 1 department of teacher education, university of mindanao, digos, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: tomasdiquito@umindanao.edu.ph introduction science laboratories play a significant role in learning scientific concepts effectively. a laboratory is a learning environment where the students engage in groups or learn individually through observation, exercise, and practical experiments using materials and phenomena. it gives them chances to put into practice several theoretical concepts. since the nineteenth century, the scientific laboratory learning environment has been a substantial component of science education (nyutu et al.,2021). it was affirmed by de borja and marasigan (2020), who considered laboratories the heart of science, wherein learners can perform the science concepts they learned. even so, numerous public schools around the philippines are confronted by a shortage of scientific equipment and materials and their laboratory facilities (hadjiet al., 2020). moreover,no systematic study that evaluated the status of secondary schools’ science laboratory under the davao del sur division in the philippines. hence, this study presented a picture of the status of this significant learning environment for science education. globally, several studies revealed the status of laboratories in different international universities. it was emphasized by an et al. (2019) that general chemistry laboratories should have the necessary equipment for the students to learn practical laboratory skills since laboratories are part of a science student’s identity. but bogusevschi et al. (2020) argued that because of the limited budget and high maintenance conditions, public schools are prone to lack materials and equipment in their different laboratories, especially in science. daba et al. (2016) added that even with the acknowledgment of authors on how integral science laboratories are, inadequate materials and equipment are still observed. research showed the low status of wolaita zones, ethiopia in terms of science equipment and has indicated that laboratory furniture such as tables, cabinets, shelves, sinks, etc., were absent totally in some schools and are not properly setup in other high schools which do not support authentic teaching and learning in science (zengele& alemayehu, 2019). a study conducted by gudyanga and jita (2019) revealed that in south africa, even with the effort to make a stronghold in science laboratories for physical sciences, they are still experiencing finite access to these materials. furthermore, in india it was found in the study of pareek (2019) that science laboratories do not exist in most of their secondary schools. the inadequate and absence of laboratory chemicals, rooms, apparatuses, technicians, and well-organized laboratory manuals in public educational institutions negatively affects the learners’ development (beyessa, 2014). as for the laboratory facilities, sidik et al. (2019) highlight that laboratories should have modern, clean, and high-quality tools to achieve learning satisfaction. despite the poor condition of public schools in some countries, there are also those institutions that highly require and practice the use of science materials and equipment as stated by kwok (2019) that hong kong and taiwan have strict maintenance of laboratories as they value learning environment as an important factor of learning. in connection to that, korshunov and knyazeva (2020) pointed out the situation in vietnam that there is a major need to invest not just in the integration of pa ge 46 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 45-54, 2024 technology towards teaching but also in the physical science facilities in order to address learning gaps that the ongoing pandemic has brought. in the philippines, several studies showed the current status of science laboratories and the challenges science education faces. gabunilas (2022) states that in developing countries such as the philippines availability of adequate science laboratory tools remains a prevalent problem in many schools. hadjiabas and marasigan (2020) revealed in their research conducted in the public secondary schools of lanao del sur that the schools faced several issues regarding laboratory equipment, including defective tools and the lack of laboratory rooms. furthermore, noroña (2021) suggested that the education sector in the philippines develop a laboratory resource management system for the interventions on common laboratory issues. according to garcia et al. (2022), as they interviewed science major students about their experience in the absence of science laboratory activities during online learning, it was concluded that the experience seemed like “finding light in the dark.” moreover, berame (2022) state that one of the challenges of senior high school students in doing science-related tasks during online class is finding science laboratories. students are deprived of the opportunity to be equipped by experience due to the unavailability of sci-lab. in addition, de borja and marasigan (2020) revealed that teachers personally buy laboratory materials to address the common problem, or in some cases, youtube videos are used for students to visualize the experiments related to their topic and to understand the concept better. in cotabato city, guiamalon and hariraya (2021) highlighted the laboratory status in the philippines, revealing that services and resources were adequate for the laboratory high school in state polytechnic college to maintain its excellent image regarding instructional supervision. the same study by de borja and marasigan (2020) revealed that teachers seek help from the government to address issues on the adequacy of laboratory equipment. moreover, aside from the lack of laboratories for teaching science, there is also insufficiency in other labs, such as the physics lab, that are essential for math-related strands (mercado, 2020). teachers in chemistry subject are facing difficulties as they lack the equipment for interactive teaching and resort to skipping some topics (orbe et al., 2018), andthese actions hinder the cognitive and psychomotor abilities of the students (noroña, 2021). thus, educators in the current curriculum are having difficulty integrating specialized subjects in science teaching because of the current science laboratory status in the country. with the aforementioned discussion, this study was created to assess the science laboratory status of the department of education in davao del sur, philippines, specifically in the division of davao del sur. the results of this study will raise awareness of science laboratories’ status and give the government light for their future programs and what they can contribute to the educational sector. specifically, this would benefit (1) the department of education, davao del sur division: the study gave them reports on the status of the science laboratory of the schools under their scope. the results of this study can be the basis for their future programs and reinforcements. (2) the local government unit: this study would give them a bigger picture of the status of the basic education institutions of the province. (3) the school. data gathered can be used to improve the quality of their school science laboratory. (4) other researchers: results from this study can be a great source of literature for related studies. research objectives this study is guided by the following objectives; 1. to determine the status of science laboratory facilities in basic education, the division of davao del sur, in accordance with the stipulated required sci-lab facilities in the deped order no. 48. s. 2006. 2. to determine the status of science laboratories in basic education, the division of davao del sur in terms of the availability of the; 2.2. laboratory equipment. 2.3. laboratory materials. 3. to determine the availability of the required quantity of science laboratory apparatus in terms of their compliance with the prescribed laboratory materials and equipment stipulated in deped order no.118, s. 2009. methodology data source this study was conducted in the province of davao del sur, philippines specifically in the division of davao del sur. the province has nine (9) municipalities and one (1) component city (see table 1 below). basic education public secondary schools within davao del sur are the target subject of this study. department of education (2022) revealed in their data that fifty-one (51) public secondary schools are in the province. thirty-eight (38) of which offered junior high school to senior high school programs (grade 7 grade 12); meanwhile, the rest thirteen (13) secondary schools only had junior high school programs (grade 7grade 10) (see table 1 below). table 1: number of secondary schools in davao del sur division area classification number of secondary public school/s grade grade total 7 10 7-12 1 bansalan 1st class 2 2 4 2 digos city component city 4 6 10 pa ge 47 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 45-54, 2024 this study employed a technique known as purposive sampling. according to obilor (2023), purposive sampling increases the degree of data collection by carefully selecting participants that are best for the study by dividing the population into clusters (schools in every municipality). furthermore, the criteria for choosing therespondent’sschool include (1) it should be a public secondary school in davao del sur, (2) it should belong to 1st class to 3rd class municipality of davao del sur since the component city falls in a separate division (3) it offers both junior high school and senior high school, and (4) it should have a science laboratory in the campus.from the data retrieved from the online database of deped, the researchers identified thirty-two (32) schools that passed the first and second inclusion criteria (see table1). the researchers choose two (2) schools in each municipality classification (see table 2) 3 hagonoy 3rd class 3 3 4 kiblawan 2nd class 7 7 5 magsaysay 3rd class 3 6 9 6 malalag 2nd class 1 1 7 matanao 2nd class 1 3 4 8 padada 3rd class 2 1 3 9 sta. cruz 1st class 1 6 7 10 sulop 3rd class 3 3 total 13 38 51 table 2: selected schools and their municipalities classification municipality codename of school short description 1st class bansalan school 1 (s1) composed of a large quantity of students as if they belong to the 1st class schools. also, it is very organized based on their facilities and school rules and regulations. sta. cruz school 2 (s2) one of the first-class schools is based on its population and popularity among other schools. it highlights the standardization of students' quality learning. 2nd class malalag school 3 (s3) it belongs to the 2nd-class school and is highly competent when it comes to skills and talents that bring out students' confidence. matanao school 4 (s4) this school is also in the 2nd class and produces top-notch students. also, the schools highlight the students' performances. 3rd class magsaysay school 5 (s5) it is a remote school under the 3rd class that has only a small number of students considering its location and facilities. hagonoy school 6 (s6) it belongs to a third-class municipality that catered a huge number of students in the province but despite its economic rank the facilities of the school are in good condition providing the students with quality education. instruments this study used a self-made checklist in accordance with the following (1) first, the deped order (d.o) no. 118 series of 2009 or the “prescribing of the list of science and mathematics equipment (department of education, philippines, 2009), laboratory glassware and consumables for all year levels of elementary and secondary education” (2) and the d.o no 48 s. 2006 (department of education, philippines, 2006) that contains the required science laboratory facilities in basic education in the philippines. the mentioned d.o no 118 s. of 2009 contains all the required laboratory apparatus for secondary levels; it explicitly states all the instructional materials (i.m.) that should be found in the science laboratory for every field of science (physics, chemistry, biology, and integrated science in general). moreover, since it is a self-made checklist, two experts verified the developed checklist for appropriateness and relevance based on d.o no. 118 series of 2009 and d.o no. 48 s. 2006. design and procedure this study used a quantitative descriptive survey research design. koh and owen (2000) noted that descriptive research focuses on studying status, and education is one of the sectors where it is widely used. this study ought to evaluate the science laboratories to provide a picture of the current status of the public secondary school under the davao del sur division. in addition, salaria (2012) pa ge 48 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 45-54, 2024 added that descriptive research collects information about a specific situation to be used as descriptions and interpretations. in this study, the researchers evaluate the status of the science laboratory, and the best design to anchor our research objectives is through a descriptive survey. furthermore, according to story and tait (2019), survey research provides evidence of practice, attitudes, and knowledge. in the quantitative descriptive study of rebulanan and samala (2021), they suggested upgrading the laboratory facilities in terms of quality and numbers as they aim to assess the factors that affect the academic performance of students in science high school. in addition, a study by pareek (2019) utilizes a descriptive survey design to explore the availability and utilization of science laboratories for teaching and learning science. thus, this design was selected based on the literature and the study’s objectives. the data in this study are both from primary and secondary sources. the primary data are the information gathered by the researchers in the survey. on the other hand, secondary data are those references the researchers retrieved from the online database of deped (deped orders). furthermore, this study adhere to the following steps in data gathering procedure (1) making of the checklist: researchers created the checklist as this study’s primary tool per the research objectives mentioned above, (2)validation by experts: for ethical considerations and consistency (two (2) experts validate the checklist), (3) asking permission to conduct the study: researchers formally address a letter to the following — approval of the college dean, research, publication and production center (rppc) of the university, and the department of education (deped) division of davao del sur seeking approval to survey school premises, (4) school visit to the chosen respondents: the researchers brought a formal letter addressed to the head of every school, asking for approval to survey as their science laboratory is the subject. (5) survey phase: once allowed by the school’s head, researchers started to gather data for this study. (6) retrieval of the research instrument: after the chosen respondents’ survey, all the checklists were gathered for data analysis. in analyzing the data, the researchers used the evaluation scale adapted philippine accrediting association of schools, colleges and universities (paascu) in their 2006 edition of the evaluation instrument for accrediting secondary schools. table 3: rating scale percentage of compliance indicators description 100% excellent the provisions or conditions are extensive and are functioning excellently. 80-99% very good the provisions or conditions are moderately extensive and are functioning well. 60-79% good the provisions or conditions are met and functioning adequately. 30-59% fair the provisions or conditions are limited and functioning minimally. 0-29% poor the provisions or conditions are limited and are functioning poorly. source: philippine accrediting association of schools, colleges and universities (paascu) ethical consideration in conducting this study, the researchers adhere to the following ethical considerations: permit to conduct the study: since the study is in line with science education, the researchers ensured that there is an approval letter from the department of education (deped) davao del sur division office. courtesy call to the principal’s office: the researchers secured permission from the school head by giving the permission letter before conducting the data gathering. informed consent: the researchers explained to the lab-in-charge about the data to be gathered, how it would be gathered, and the study’s overall purpose. anonymity and confidentiality: the school’s identity shall remain anonymous unless otherwise asked by the higher authorities (e.g., deped division office). the data gathered shall be confidential, and no one shall have access to such but the concerned individuals (e.g., research coordinator, school heads, adviser). only assess relevant components: in gathering data, upon entering the science laboratory, the researchers shall avoid any unnecessary conduct of action throughout the stay in the laboratory. also, the researchers shall observe carefully to avoid destroying any laboratory apparatus. results and discussion status of science laboratory facilities in basic education in the division of davao del sur through a systematic and thorough evaluation of the laboratory facilities guided by the checklist, the data reveals that only five (5) among the six (6) responding school laboratories have an existing and functional science laboratory. one responding school hasn’t had a functional science laboratory since october 2019 due to the destructive earthquake in davao del sur, philippines. after the analysis, a compliance rate of 69.04% (“good”) among the selected schools was obtained indicating that the selected schools have adequately met the conditions of laboratory facilities based on the department of education order no. 48 series of 2006. moreover, among the indicators stipulated in d.o no. 48 series of 2006, space, ventilation, and emergency exit obtained a “very good” rating (% = 83.33; n = 5/6 schools), indicating that the average compliance rate of the selected schools has moderately and functioning laboratory facilities. this pa ge 49 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 45-54, 2024 is then followed by storage room and availability of first aid kit which obtained a “good” rating (% = 66.67, n = 4/6 schools)indicating that the average compliance of laboratory facilities of selected schools have adequately met the criteria. lastly are the provisions and working areas which obtained a “fair” rating (% = 50.00; n = 3/6 schools) indicating that the compliance rate of these indicators are limited and functioning minimally. it was revealed that the teaching and learning process in science education was directly influenced by the status of the science teaching facilities that includes science laboratories (kamba et al., 2019). however, the result of thestudy supports the study of mokoro (2020), which revealed that the not well-established science laboratory facilities are a common problem among developing countries.the responding schools only have one science laboratory for all disciplines. furthermore, in some secondary schools in calamba city (de borja & marasigan, 2020) and india (pareek,2019) revealed that in the there is no separate science laboratories for biology, physics, and chemistry. table 4: prescribed science laboratory school facilities as per department of education order no. 48, series of 2006. description of the facilities schools average inter pretations1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 1. space: the science laboratory should have a wide space to allow mobility inside the room. / / / x / / 5/6 (83.33%) very good 2. ventilation: the room should have bilateral fenestration for ventilation and fume extraction. / / / x / / 5/6 (83.33%) very good 3. emergency exit: there should be at least 2 entry/exit doors for easy access and egress. the door should swing out to facilitate the exit of students in case of emergency. / / / x / / 5/6 (83.33%) very good 4. provisions: the sci-lab should have provisions for laboratory counter, control and storage room. x / x x / / 3/6 (50.00%) fair 5. working area: the laboratory/working tables inside the science laboratory should be fixed on the floor. it should be made of reinforced concrete with mosaic tiles topping. each working table should be provided with laboratory sink and faucet. / / x x x / 3/6 (50.00%) fair 6. storage room: the storage room and control room should be equipped with builtin cabinets not higher than 1.90 meters. x / / x / / 4/6 (66.67%) good 7. availability of first aid kit: every science laboratory should be provided with first aid kit. x / / x / / 4/6 (66.67%) good total 4/ 7 (5 7. 14 % ) 7/ 7 (1 00 .0 0% ) 5/ 7 (7 1. 42 % ) 0/ 7 (0 .0 0% ) 6/ 7 (8 5. 71 % ) 7/ 7 (1 00 .0 0% ) 69.04% good fa ir e xc el le nt g oo d po or ve ry g oo d e xc el le nt status of science laboratory in basic education in the division of davao del sur in terms of the availability of science laboratory equipment guided by the collins dictionary definition, equipment is defined as a set of necessary tools in a building needed for scientific research (collins, n.d). in addition, these are often reusable and designed for long-term use. laboratory equipment is categorized into four (4) following the deped order no. 118, series of 2009, these include equipment needed inbiology, physics, and chemistry classes, as well as those integrated science equipment. figure 2 shows the status of laboratory equipment in the secondary basic education of the province of davao del sur, philippines. results of the analysis revealed that as pa ge 50 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 45-54, 2024 for the compliant status of the selected schools in the prescribed laboratory equipment, the selected schools obtained a compliant status of 65.59% in all indicators. meaning that the selected schools have adequate laboratory equipment. however, school 4 indicates a zero percentage in all indicators primarily because of a lack of a functioning laboratory due to the damage brought by an earthquake. on the other hand, schools 3 (90.73%), 5 (90.67%), and 6 (94.48%) obtained a “very good” laboratory equipment in all indicators, meaning that these schools have moderately extensive science laboratory equipment. analysis revealed that some sampled schools don’t have the prescribed science laboratory equipment, and compliant status varies among schools in the division of davao del sur. the findings of the study were supported by hadji abas and marasigan (2020) that there is a lack of laboratory equipment in lanao del sur, philippines indicating that this problem is not isolated to the division of davao del sur alone. moreover, biology equipment received the highest compliant status as per d. o 118, s. of 2009, with an average of 74.31%, while physics equipment received the lowest compliant status,with an average of 61.39%. the study by de borja and marasigan (2020) revealed that in some public junior high schools in calamba city, there is a shortage of laboratory equipment, especially in physical science, and biological science equipment was used for demonstration purposes only. furthermore,the same study by hadji abas and marasigan (2020) added that in lanao del sur, there is one school that does not have any basic biological science equipment and that the overall status of its laboratory equipment was not adequate for the number of students in each school. the study conducted by bogusevschi et al. (2020) highlights a prevalent challenge schools face: the need for more laboratory equipment. figure 2: status of public schools’ science laboratory equipment in davao del sur division status of science laboratory in basic education in the davao del sur division in terms of the availability of science laboratory materials laboratory materials are those consumable materials used in the laboratory (interreg euro-med, n.d.). laboratory materials are categorized into four (4) following the deped order no. 118, series of 2009; these include materials needed in biology, physics, and chemistry classes, as well as those integrated science equipment. figure 3 shows the status of laboratory materials in the secondary basic education in the province of davao del sur, philippines. results of the analysis revealed that as for the compliant status of the selected schools in the prescribed laboratory materials, the selected schools obtained a compliant status of 43.33% in all indicators. meaning that the selected schools have a limited supply of laboratory materials in all indicators. however, school 4 indicates a zero (0%) percentage in all indicators primarily because this school lacks a functioning laboratory due to the damage brought by the earthquake. schools 1 (13.48%) and 2 (24.12%) exhibit “poor” compliance with laboratory materials. on the other hand, schools 3 (72.72%), 5 (73.45%), and 6 (76.18%) obtained a “good” laboratory material in all indicators, meaning that these schools are somehow compliant with d.o no. 118, s. of 2009. analysis revealed that some sampled schools don’t have and lack the prescribed science laboratory materials, and compliant status varies among schools in the division of davao del sur. montefalcon and quitanegabaniel (2023) stated that inadequacy of laboratory materials was a common problem in integrated science; it was also revealed that pa ge 51 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 45-54, 2024 as a result of insufficient laboratory teaching materials in amungan national high school, teachers improvised a laboratory material that they used in their experiments. abidoye et al. (2022) added that in their findings, there were neither basic science laboratories nor the necessary laboratory materials in most secondary schools. moreover, data revealed that the average compliance rate of all indicators in the laboratory materials among the selected schools falls below 50%, meaning that there is a very limited supply of laboratory materials in the division of davao del sur, philippines. materials needed in the field of biology have the least number of available laboratory materials. according to fauzi (2019), natural science courses, particularly those covering a wide range of biological sciences, frequently involve lab experiments. with this being said, the shortage of laboratory materials in these secondary schools can cause a gap in experiential learning gap. figure 3: status of public secondary schools’ science laboratory materials in davao del sur division status of science laboratory in basic education in terms of theircompliance on the required quantity stipulated in the d. o 118 series of 2009 figure 4 shows the required laboratory materials and equipment status in the basic education public secondary schools of davao del sur, philippines. as for the quantity of both laboratory equipment and materials as per d.o 118, s. of 2009, data revealed that the average compliance rate of the sampled schools in the division of davao del sur is 50.39% meaning that it exhibits a fair supply of equipment and materials. as per analysis, school 4 (0%) don’t have the necessary supplies, school 1 (35.71%) and school 2 (55.48%) exhibits a fair quantity, while school 6 (60.89%), 3 (71.87%), and 5 (74.40%) exhibits a good figure 4: status of public school science laboratory in davao del sur in terms of their compliance to the required quantity of each laboratory materials and equipment stipulated in the do 118 s. 2009 pa ge 52 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 45-54, 2024 quantities of equipment and materials. the conclusion drawn aligns with the broader context of financial constraints in public schools, as revealed by ulla (2018). this shortage in the area of compliance highlights the lack of financial support, particularly in public schools. as for the quantities of laboratory equipment and materials per discipline, integrated (55.56%) and chemistry disciplines (55.55%) obtained the highest percentage compliance rate as per d.o 118 series of 2009, while biology (42.49%) obtained the lowest compliance rate. in addition, the laboratory holdsequal importance to theory; nevertheless, inadequately equipped laboratoryfacilities, equipment, and materials impact students’ ability to learn (kapilan etal.,2021). conclusion the data in this study provided a comprehensive overview of the status of science laboratories among selected public secondary schools under the davao del sur division. evidently, the unforeseen destructive phenomena that struck the province affected the educational sector, especially the science laboratory building of school 4. the effect of the earthquake is clearly evident since the school doesn’t have the necessary science laboratory, equipment, and materials as per d.o no. 48, s. 2006 and d.o. no. 118, s. 2009. as for other schools (schools 1,2,3,5,6), the physical structure of the science laboratory is evident; however, even though these schools have a functioning science laboratory, some indicators of a good science laboratory are non-compliant. these include noncompliance with provisions (schools 1 &3), working areas (schools 3 & 5), storage rooms (school 1), and availability of first aid kits (school 1). data further reveals a variation inthe acquisition of laboratory equipment, materials, and quantities among schools in the division of davao del sur.some schools acquired more science laboratory equipment and materials thanothers, indicating variations in science laboratory properties among schools. as for compliance with laboratory equipment, the biology discipline obtains the highest percentage, while the physics discipline obtains the lowest percentage of compliance. the integrated materials obtain the highest percentage for the available science laboratory materials, while biology materials obtain the lowest percentage of compliance. this is also similar to the compliance rate of science laboratory equipment and materials quantity that integrated obtains the highest percentage along with chemistry while biology discipline obtained the lowest. thus, based on the result of the study, it can be concluded that the compliance rate of science laboratory equipment, materials, and its quantities per discipline (integrated, biology, chemistry, physics) varies among schools. these variations also vary, with some schools attaining more than 50% compliance rate while other schools attained less than 50%. recommendations in consideration of the study’s findings and conclusions, the following recommendations are presented; (1) the department of education davao del sur division must conduct a general assessment to all science laboratories in the secondary basic education; (2) the department of education (deped) may partner with higher education institutions (hei’s) or other industries to adopt a nearby school program to alleviate the difficulty in building a science laboratory and purchasing laboratory apparatuses and materials; and (3) to alleviate the lacking science laboratory equipment and materials, deped teachers and researchers may create or find substitute materials with the same purpose of those lacking equipment and materials provided that it undergoes validation and reliability testing. references abidoye, f., adebisi, a. m., rihanat, a. a., & aliyu, m. z. 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(2019). the status of secondary school science laboratory activities for quality education in case of wolaita zone, southern ethiopia. journal of education and practice, 7(31), 1-11. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej1122534 pa ge 1 pa ge 67 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) assistive technologies and participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities: what does the literature say? sweetbert mugizi anselimus1* volume 2 issue 4, year 2023 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v2i4.2155 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: october 03, 2023 accepted: november 05, 2023 published: november 09, 2023 the rapid growth of technological advancement has impacted teaching and learning at all levels of education. like all other students, visually challenged students need information and communication technologies to bridge the gap from classroom learning to extracurricular activities (indoor and outdoor learning activities). therefore, this study conducted an empirical literature review on how assistive technology devices enhance participation of students with visual impairments (svi) in extracurricular activities (eca). the study utilized peer-reviewed and scholarly articles that provided relevant insights regarding assistive technologies and participation of svi in eca. the review found that assistive technologies plays a great role in enhancing participation of svi in eca including provision of access to information and materials, navigation and mobility support, communication and social interaction, skill development and educational opportunities. the review also revealed challenges associated with the use of at in participation of svi in eca that included lack of accessibility standards, limited availability and affordability, technological compatibility, and inadequate training and technical support. the review concludes that assistive technologies play a crucial role in enhancing participation of students with vi in eca and that these students are prepared for better future roles as adults. it also calls for stakeholders to create more inclusive and equitable extracurricular environment through addressing the barriers that hinder svi to participate in eca. keywords assistive technology devices, extracurricular activities, visual impairment 1 university of dar es salaam, mkwawa university college of education, tanzania * corresponding author’s e-mail: sweetbertma@gmail.com introduction technological advancement has caused substantial improvements in various sectors including education, the extent that all learners regardless of their backgrounds, abilities and disabilities can access education. assistive devices in particular enable students with disabilities to access both curricular and extracurricular knowledge and skills offered in schools for their daily lives (gierrach & stindt, 2009). these technologies have enabled the participation of pupils and students with vi in both curricular and extracurricular activities in schools and enhance learning and ability for self-expression and communication (kisanga & kisanga, 2020). they also equip teachers with innovative tools to manage barriers that limit the process of learning of students with vi (oira, 2016) and help students improve their scientific literacy which is the basis of obtaining ict skills(natividad & abrogena, 2023). in this paper, assistive technologies are conceived as per various scholars. some scholars consider them as tools, equipment and services used to improve the functionalities of those with disabilities (winter & o’raw, 2010). more so, assistive technologies are defined as the devices that help people with disabilities and those with special educational needs to better function in their daily lives and as they interact with the society, to attain better quality of life, and achieve their fullest potentials (lancioni et al., 2013). on the other hand, extracurricular activities are educational activities that do not fall within the scope of the regular curriculum (wordweb, 2020); they are school-based activities performed by students outside the realm of the normal curriculum of a school. these extracurricular activities are available to learners of various levels of education from primary school level to higher learning institutions, and thus, diverse learners including those with visual impairments in all these levels are expected to participate. learners in primary schools including those with visual impairments benefit from extracurricular activities. eca play a crucial role in their overall development as these activities provide them with opportunities for social interaction, skill-building, and personal growth. inclusive extracurricular programs can ensure that students with visual impairments have equal access to these benefits. according to wilson and williams (2019), inclusive extracurricular activities for students with visual impairments should be designed with careful consideration of their unique needs. designing eca may involve making modifications to the activities, providing appropriate accommodations, and ensuring that adequate support is available. for instance, sports activities can be adapted using specialized equipment such as audible balls or modified playing fields to facilitate the participation of visually impaired students (wilson & williams, 2019). furthermore, braille clubs and tactile art classes can be offered to promote literacy and artistic expression for students with visual impairments (wilson & williams, 2019). these activities not only provide opportunities for learning and creativity but also foster a sense of belonging and self-confidence among visually impaired students. in a study conducted by johnson et al., (2021), it was found that participation in extracurricular activities pa ge 68 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 67-73 2023 had a positive impact on the social and emotional wellbeing of learners with visual impairments in primary school. the study highlighted the importance of creating a supportive and inclusive environment within extracurricular programs, where visually impaired learners can interact with their peers and develop meaningful relationships. also, extracurricular activities continue to play a significant role in the development and well-being of students in secondary schools, including those with visual impairments. these activities provide opportunities for social engagement, skill development, and personal growth, promoting inclusivity and fostering a sense of belonging. according to james and anderson (2020), inclusive extracurricular programs in secondary schools should consider the specific needs of students with visual impairments. adaptations and accommodations may be necessary to ensure equal participation and accessibility. for example, in sports activities, modifications such as the use of goalball, a sport designed for individuals with visual impairments, or the implementation of audio cues can enable visually impaired students to actively participate (james & anderson, 2020). in addition to sports, various other extracurricular activities can be tailored to meet the needs of visually impaired students in secondary schools. for instance, music programs can provide opportunities for students to explore and develop their auditory and musical abilities, while drama clubs can incorporate techniques such as audio description to make performances inclusive for individuals with visual impairments (james & anderson, 2020). a study by roberts et al. (2022) examined the impact of inclusive extracurricular activities on the academic performance and social integration of secondary school students with visual impairments. the findings revealed that participation in extracurricular activities positively correlated with improved academic outcomes and enhanced social connections among visually impaired students. the study emphasized the importance of creating a supportive and inclusive environment within extracurricular programs to facilitate the engagement and success of visually impaired students. moreover, extracurricular activities play a vital role in the holistic development of students including those with visual impairments in colleges and higher learning institutions. while it is crucial to ensure equal opportunities for all students, including those with visual impairments, some adaptations and accommodations may be necessary to facilitate their active participation in extracurricular activities. some examples of extracurricular activities and approaches that have been implemented to support students with visual impairments in colleges and higher learning institutions include the following: adapted sports programs; adapted sports programs provide inclusive opportunities for students with visual impairments to engage in physical activities. these programs may include sports such as goalball, blind soccer, or tandem cycling, which have been modified to suit the needs of visually impaired participants (pereira, 2018). accessible performing arts; colleges and higher learning institutions have worked towards making performing arts activities accessible to students with visual impairments. provision of this access may involve providing audio descriptions during theatrical performances or offering tactile experiences for visually impaired students to explore stage props and costumes (miller, 2019). assistive technology and study tools; the use of these tools can enhance the participation of visually impaired students in extracurricular activities. screen readers, braille displays, and accessible e-books are examples of tools that can assist students with visual impairments in accessing materials relevant to their extracurricular interests (neely, 2020). student organizations and clubs; colleges and higher learning institutions often have student organizations and clubs that cater to diverse interests. these organizations can create inclusive environments by considering the needs of visually impaired students. for example, audio descriptions can be provided during club events or meetings to ensure that visually impaired students have equal access to information (matsuba & vanderheiden, 2018). colleges and higher learning institutions need to ensure that policies, facilities, and support services are in place to enable visually impaired students to actively participate in extracurricular activities. by fostering inclusivity and providing necessary accommodations, these institutions can create a more equitable and enriching experience for all students. in tanzania, efforts have been made to promote inclusive education and support students with visual impairments in both academic and extracurricular activities. while specific information on extracurricular activities for visually impaired students in tanzania is limited, the following strategies are commonly implemented to ensure inclusion. special education units; tanzanian schools and higher education institutions often have special education units or resource centres that cater to the needs of students with visual impairments. these units provide specialized support, including assistive devices, materials in accessible formats (such as braille or large print), and trained staff to facilitate the participation of visually impaired students in various activities (bonga, 2016). braille instruction; braille instruction plays a crucial role in enabling visually impaired students to access written information. in tanzania, efforts have been made to provide braille instruction to visually impaired students, allowing them to participate in extracurricular activities that involve reading or writing (eze, 2018). orientation and mobility training; orientation and mobility training are essential for visually impaired students to navigate their physical environment independently. by developing skills such as cane usage, spatial orientation, and independent travel, visually impaired students can actively engage in extracurricular activities that take place both within and outside the school premises (mallya, 2018). collaboration with disability organizations; collaboration between schools and disability organizations in tanzania can enhance the provision of extracurricular activities pa ge 69 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 67-73 2023 for visually impaired students. these organizations often have expertise in adaptive sports, arts programs, and other recreational activities suitable for visually impaired individuals. partnering with such organizations can help create opportunities for visually impaired students to participate in inclusive extracurricular activities (united nations, 2021). while specific research on the implementation and impact of extracurricular activities for visually impaired students in tanzania are limited, it is important to recognize that inclusive education practices and efforts are being made to support their participation. collaboration among schools, special education units, disability organizations, and the government can contribute to fostering inclusive environments and expanding opportunities for extracurricular engagement among visually impaired students in tanzania. like all other students, those with visual impairments need to participate in both curricular such as attending classes, performing class assignments and examinations and extracurricular activities such as sports and games, cultural groups, prosocial groups, cleanliness in the school surroundings and other extracurricular activities (hossan, 2019). however, their participation in eca is limited, because teachers mainly focus on curricular activities due to different reasons including overprotection and teachers’ negative perception on the capabilities of individuals with visual impairments (kisanga, 2017). participation in extracurricular activities can have significant benefits for the personality of students with visual impairments and educational wise. students with vi can participate in various extracurricular activities including sports and games, environmental cleanliness, and club activities (anselimus, 2023). scholars have shown that these activities serve several benefits to students with vi including but not limited to the following; first, social integration and peer relationships, as eca provides them with opportunities for social integration and cultivates their social skills. also, being involved in group activities fosters a sense of belonging, promotes teamwork, and facilitates the formation of friendships and social connections (rodriguez-gil et al., 2019: macaro et al., 2021). second, personal development of students with visual impairments; through participation in eca they gain confidence, develop self-advocacy skills, and build resilience. taking part in activities outside of the academic realm allows students to explore their interests, discover their strengths, and develop a sense of identity and purpose which contributes to the overall well-being and life satisfaction of students with visual impairments. engaging in activities they enjoy enhances their overall quality of life and fosters a sense of personal fulfillment and provides them with a platform for self-expression, personal growth, and a sense of accomplishment (lewis & watson, 2020: shapiro & johnson, 2020: macaro et al., 2021). third, extracurricular involvement provides enhanced communication and social skills; participating in extracurricular activities offers students with visual impairments opportunities to improve their communication and social skills. engaging in group activities necessitates effective communication, collaboration, and negotiation with peers both at school and home settings (rodriguez-gil et al., 2019). through regular interaction, students can refine their verbal and non-verbal communication abilities, strengthen their social competencies, and acquire vital life skills that are crucial to their communication with their fellows at school, teachers and parents, and helps them expand their networks of people. fourth, improved academic performance; research suggests that involvement in extracurricular activities can positively impact academic performance for students with visual impairments. engaging in diverse activities cultivates a sense of discipline, time management, and organization (shapiro & johnson, 2020). students’ discipline further helps them to actively make follow ups on and participate in the school tasks provided by their teachers, time management enables them to accomplish the academic tasks within the timeframe provided in a very organized manner. students who participate in extracurricular activities often exhibit higher levels of motivation, better attendance rates, and improved academic outcomes (lewis & watson, 2020). fifth, expanded career opportunities; participation in extracurricular activities can broaden the career prospects of students with visual impairments. involvement in activities such as robotics, coding, or performing arts can nurture skills and interests that align with various professional paths (shapiro & johnson, 2020). additionally, participation demonstrates initiative, commitment, and a willingness to engage beyond academic requirements, which can be valuable in college applications and future employment endeavours. there are limited studies in tanzania regarding participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities, the available have shown that students with vi especially those in special schools participate in few extracurricular activities and that teachers focus much on planning for curricular than extracurricular activities for students (anselimus, 2023: kisanga, 2017). none of the available literature in tanzania explores on how assistive technologies can be utilized to enhance participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities. this study therefore aimed at reviewing the literature on assistive technologies that enhance the participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities. with this purpose, the study reviews specifically focused on examining the role of assistive technologies in the participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities, and the challenges of assistive technologies in the participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities. from these objectives, two questions to guide the review were developed. 1. what is the role of assistive technologies in the participation of students with vi in extracurricular activities? pa ge 70 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 67-73 2023 2. what are barriers and challenges of assistive technologies in the participation of students with vi in extracurricular activities? methodology search strategy a comprehensive search was performed across multiple academic databases to ensure a wide coverage of relevant literature. the selected databases included education resources information center (eric), google scholar, research gate, psychinfo, and disability and rehabilitation. key words were identified as the main components of the search queries, these included ‘technology’, ‘assistive technology (at)’, extracurricular activities (eca)’, and ‘students with visual impairments (svi)’. the separate search queries were constructed using the identified keywords, designed to capture the intersection of these keywords in the context of the research topic. thus, the following search queries were developed: ‘technology and extracurricular activities’, ‘assistive technology and extracurricular activities’, ‘assistive technologies and participation of students with disabilities (swds) in extracurricular activities’, and lastly ‘assistive technologies and participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities. the constructed search queries were entered into the selected databases’ search interfaces. the searches were restricted to articles published in english and covered the timeframe from the earliest available publication up to the present day. the search results were as indicated in the table below: table 1: search results of the articles from several databases key phases eric google scholar research gate psych info disability & rehabilitation technology and eca 93 81 104 40 38 at and eca 58 60 97 21 18 at and participation of swds in eca 12 28 37 16 11 at and participation of svi in eca 4 3 2 0 0 included articles 5 4 3 1 1 selection criteria the search results were initially screened based on their titles and abstracts to assess their relevance to the research topic. articles that appeared to be potentially relevant were included for further evaluation. full texts of the selected articles were obtained and thoroughly evaluated to determine their suitability for inclusion in the literature review. articles that specifically addressed the relationship between assistive technology, extracurricular activities, and students with visual impairments were included for further analysis. a total of 14 papers and reports were utilized in this review based on the following criteria first, relevance to the research topic; only articles that directly addressed and provided substantial information related to assistive technologies and participation of students with visual impairments were deemed eligible for this review. second, alignment with research objectives; only articles that contributed relevant findings, insights, theories, or discussions that aligned with either the role of assistive technology in the participation of students with visual impairments in eca or the challenges and barriers of assistive technology devices in the participation of students with vi in eca were included. third, peerreviewed and scholarly; preference was given to articles published in reputable peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, or scholarly books, as these sources undergo rigorous evaluation by experts in the field. fourth, publication date range; this literature review specified a particular time frame for the inclusion of articles, which were articles published from 2010 to date. these dates follow the recent advancement of science and technology worldwide, and thus, up-to-date articles were considered to have more recent and relevant information regarding assistive technologies and the participation of students with visual impairments. fifth, research design and methodology; depending on the nature of this literature review, articles employing different research designs including empirical studies, case studies, and systematic reviews were included to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic. articles that did not identify with either of the scholarly design were excluded. lastly, accessibility and language; articles that are available in full text and written in the english language and understood were included in the review. articles which were written in languages other than english were excluded; also, literature that demanded high prices to access full texts was excluded from the review. results this literature review sought to answer two research questions; ‘what is the role of assistive technologies in the participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities?’ and ‘what are the barriers and challenges of assistive technologies on the participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities?’ the following were the results from the reviewed literature: the role of assistive technologies in the participation of students with vi in eca the integration of assistive technology devices has shown promise in enhancing the participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities. these devices play a crucial role in improving accessibility, pa ge 71 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 67-73 2023 fostering inclusivity, and facilitating active engagement. several assistive technologies aid students with vi to comfortably participate in leisure and games including tactile dice, peg boards, audible balls, large print play cards, braille chess, screen readers, braille displays, tactile maps, and audio description systems (smith et al., 2018: senjam, 2019). assistive technologies aid the participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities in several ways as follows: access to information and materials; assistive technology devices such as screen readers, braille displays, and tactile maps enable students with visual impairments to access information and materials related to extracurricular activities (smith et al., 2018). these devices convert visual content into auditory or tactile formats, allowing students to engage with texts, graphics, and other materials (lewis & watson, 2020). by providing equal access to information, assistive technology promotes the participation of students with visual impairments in a wide range of activities including sports and games. navigation and mobility support; assistive technology devices contribute to the navigation and mobility of students with visual impairments during extracurricular activities. mobile apps with gps functionality, orientation aids, and navigation systems assist students in independently moving within physical environments (rodriguez-gil et al., 2019). such devices enhance students’ spatial awareness, orientation, and mobility, enabling them to actively participate in various activities, including sports and outdoor events. communication and social interaction; assistive technology devices facilitate communication and social interaction for students with visual impairments, promoting their participation in group activities. communication apps, accessible gaming interfaces, and social media platforms provide alternative modes of communication and platforms for engaging with peers (macaro et al., 2021). these devices empower students to express themselves, collaborate, and form social connections, thus fostering their active participation in extracurricular settings. skill development and educational opportunities; assistive technology devices offer opportunities for skill development and educational growth in extracurricular activities. adaptive equipment, specialized software, and virtual reality tools enable students to engage in activities such as music, art, and stem projects (shapiro & johnson, 2020). these devices facilitate learning, enhance creativity, and promote skill acquisition, allowing students with visual impairments to actively participate and excel in various extracurricular pursuits. independence and self-advocacy; assistive technology devices empower students with visual impairments to become more independent and selfadvocates in extracurricular activities. by providing access to information, navigation support, and communication tools, these devices enable students to navigate and participate more autonomously (smith et al., 2018). this increased independence fosters self-confidence, selfdetermination, and the ability to advocate for their needs and preferences in extracurricular contexts. barriers and challenges of assistive technologies on the participation based on the reviewed literature, several barriers and challenges of assistive technologies on participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities are presented on this section. lack of accessibility standards; one of the barriers to the effective use of assistive technologies for students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities is the lack of standardized accessibility guidelines. without clear standards, there can be inconsistencies in the design and implementation of assistive technologies, making it difficult for students to access and utilize these technologies effectively (moon & zhang, 2021). limited availability and affordability; another challenge is the limited availability and affordability of assistive technologies. many advanced and specialized assistive technologies are often expensive, making it difficult for schools and students to procure the necessary devices and software (datta et al., 2018). the lack of financial resources and support can hinder the widespread adoption and use of assistive technologies in extracurricular activities. technological compatibility and interoperability; achieving seamless integration and compatibility between different assistive technologies can be challenging. different devices and software may use different platforms or operating systems, leading to compatibility issues (scherer, 2018). this can hinder the smooth functioning of assistive technologies and limit their effectiveness in supporting students’ participation in extracurricular activities. training and technical support; the successful utilization of assistive technologies requires adequate training and technical support for both students and educators. lack of training on how to effectively use the technologies, troubleshoot technical issues, and customize the devices to individual needs can impede students’ participation in extracurricular activities (boucenna et al., 2020). educators may also require ongoing support to stay updated on the latest assistive technologies and their applications. stigma and social acceptance; students with visual impairments may face social stigma and lack of acceptance when using assistive technologies in extracurricular activities. negative attitudes from peers or misconceptions about assistive technologies can affect students’ confidence and willingness to participate (abdul majid et al., 2019). addressing stigma and fostering a supportive environment is crucial for promoting the inclusion and participation of students with visual impairments. mitigating the barriers that students with visual impairments face in accessing and utilizing assistive technologies in eca, it is vital for stakeholders including both governmental and non-governmental organizations, and individuals to provide needed support such as materials and mechanisms to education teachers, students and parents (flores & perez, 2022). pa ge 72 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 67-73 2023 evaluation the literature review provided a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge on the availability and contribution of assistive technologies for students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities. however, most of the sources were based on qualitative studies and descriptive reports, which may not capture the full range or complexity of the experiences and perspectives of students with visual impairments. moreover, some sources were focused on specific contexts and populations largely western countries including the united states, the united kingdom and other european countries, which may limit their generalizability and applicability to tanzania and other african settings. therefore, there is a need for more quantitative and comparative studies, and tanzanian based, that can provide more robust and reliable evidence on the role and challenges of assistive technologies on participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities. conclusion assistive technologies play a crucial role in enhancing successful participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities. these technologies increase accessibility of extracurricular games, plays and other activities, promote skill development among individuals with disabilities, and enhance social inclusion of individuals and students with disabilities. with assistive technologies, students from become independent in many school-based extracurricular activities which is the basis of becoming autonomous and productive citizens later in adulthood. nevertheless, several barriers continue to impede the full participation of students with visual impairments in extracurricular activities in schools. through addressing issues related to funding, awareness, accessibility, and attitudes, we can work towards creating a more inclusive and equitable extracurricular environment, where all students, regardless of their visual abilities, can thrive and participate fully in the activities they are passionate about and calls for participation references abdul-majid, a. s., ahmad, r. b., & abdullah, s. 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(2010). literature review of the principles and practices relating to inclusive education for children with special educational needs. national council for special education. northern ireland. retrieved from http://ncse.ie/wp-content/ uploads/2014/10/ncse_inclusion.pdf pa ge 1 pa ge 22 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) zooming into the lived experiences of mathematics teachers in the implementation of the claim-evidence-reasoning (cer) approach gimmel edquilag1, orville jr evardo2*, ivy lyt abina3 volume 2 issue 3, year 2023 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v2i3.1815 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: march 20, 2023 accepted: april 14, 2023 published: aug 3, 2023 mathematics educators are constantly searching for new and innovative approaches to teaching with the goal of improving student learning outcomes. this phenomenological study aimed to describe the lived experiences of mathematics teachers in implementing the claim-evidence-reasoning (cer) approach. the study was participated by 13 mathematics teachers, and data were gathered through in-depth interviews and a focus group discussion. thematic analysis was used to interpret the data guided by colaizzi’s method. findings revealed that participants experienced struggles in instruction and assessment, adapted growth mindset and employed support systems, had milestones in the implementation of the cer approach, and were open to continuous personal and professional development. furthermore, the teachers’ resiliency and adaptability in the process and the school’s support helped overcome the issues encountered in implementing the cer approach. the findings imply that the use of cer approach have the potential to improve the reasoning skills of students in mathematics. further, it is recommended that mathematics teachers continue to utilize the approach and that educational institutions should provide proper training to teachers through in-service training (inset). keywords claim-evidence-reasoning (cer) approach, mathematics education, lived experiences, phenomenology, teaching and learning 1 ateneo de davao university, philippines 2 davao de oro state college, philippines 3 university of southeastern philippines, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: orvilleevardo@gmail.com introduction educational institutions worldwide worked hard to offer students high-quality education over the years, and they continue to look for innovative ways to enhance curricula and pedagogies for teaching-learning mathematics. in line with this, school administrators provide opportunities for their teachers to attend various professional development activities such as seminars, training, and workshops (martinez & mcabee, 2020). as a result, teachers get motivated (shepherd-jones & salisbury-glennon, 2018) and adopt and incorporate local or international techniques learned from seminars and training that are pertinent to the contexts of the students. the implementation of these various approaches to teaching is expected to increase student performance (fisher et al., 2018); however, in the philippines, there are still institutions that require improvement, as attested on different national and international achievement tests. the program for international student assessment (pisa) of the organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd) evaluates the math, science, and reading abilities of 15-year-olds periodically every three years. according to the most recent evaluation in 2018, most filipino students’ proficiency levels (80.70%) were rated as below level 2, with 54.4% of them falling below level 1. only one in five students (19.7%) in the philippines obtained proficiency levels 2 to 4. these students are able to use fundamental formulas, processes, algorithms, or conventions to answer whole-number issues. only 0.01% of students achieved proficiency levels 5 to 6 in their work. they are able to create and use models for challenging circumstances, defining limitations, and making assumptions. along with a command of formal and symbolic mathematical operations and relationships, they can use this understanding and insight to create new approaches and strategies for challenging situations. description of the proficiency scale of mathematical literacy shows that a low proportion of filipino students obtained levels 2 to 4, while reasoning skills can be classified in level 4. students’ performance in mathematics needed to be more to attain levels 5 to 6, which indicates that they did not acquire the skills thereof, given that the educational curriculum in the philippines was streamlined and guided by distinct student-centered learning approaches.institutions across the country suffered from the same issue reported by pisa. students are observed to have difficulty in reasoning skills when teachers ask them about the process and concepts being applied to the solutions or problems (golla & reyes, 2020). in response to this dilemma, schools nationwide implemented new strategies patterned from excelling countries to improve the current situation. one of the premiere private universities in the davao region, philippines, has implemented the claim-evidence-reasoning (cer) approach to train students to use higher levels of mathematical reasoning. the cer approach is taught in a scaffolded manner (brunsell, 2012). it proposes that an explanation consists of a claim that responds to the question, support for the claim from student data, and reasoning based on a rule or scientific principle.even with the innovative approach used by the institution, there are still concerns regarding the implementation of the approach. first, the school lacks data about the teachers’ perceptions on implementing the cer approach. second, locally, no formal study was conducted yet on implementing the cer approach. lastly, little was pa ge 23 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 22-31 2023 known about it being utilized in the philippines context. it is in this regard that the researchers were motivated and interested in describing the lived experiences of the mathematics teachers on the implementation of the cer approach to address emergent concerns and for further improvement of the approach. eventually, teachers will meet the needs of the present and the future for the common good, and the result may have implications for the school’s educational setting or even go further. methods research design this qualitative study used the descriptive phenomenological design. this design is one of the most commonly used methodologies in qualitative research that aims to explore and describe a phenomenon of interest (shorey & ng, 2022). this approach is suitable in the present study since the design is used to describe how human beings experience a particular phenomenon, in this case, the firsthand accounts of mathematics teachers’ experiences using the cer approach to teach mathematics. the study focused on the challenges and issues the teachers have encountered in implementing the cer approach, how they coped with those challenges and issues, and insights worth sharing. participants the participants of this study were the 13 mathematics teachers of one of the premiere private universities in davao region, philippines. nine (9) participants participated in the in-depth interviews, and four (4) participants joined the focus group discussion. a purposive sampling technique was used in selecting the study participants based on the following inclusion criteria: (1) must be a mathematics teacher, and (2) must have implemented the cer approach in teaching mathematics. these study participants shared their struggles in implementing the cer approach, how they were able to cope with those challenges, and gave their insights about a part thereof. instrument the research instrument used in this study was a researcher-made semi-structured interview guide. the interview guide was composed of 10 open-ended questions that elicited the responses of the participants’ lived experiences in utilizing the cer approach, particularly on their challenges, coping mechanisms, and insights. moreover, to establish the construct validity of the instrument, the interview guide was subjected to validation and evaluated by research content experts. the interview guide obtained a mean validity score of 4.50 which was interpreted as “excellent”. data gathering procedure a letter of permission to conduct the study was submitted to the school principal. while awaiting approval, the researchers prepared and subjected the data-gathering instrument to validation. once the letter was approved and the research instrument was ready for use, the researchers proceeded to select the study participants based on the study’s inclusion criteria. this was followed by a briefing and orientation to the participants regarding the study’s objectives, confidentiality, and their willingness to participate. after the orientation, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews and a focus group discussion. the sharing during the interviews were recorded through a voice recorder and were then transcribed. once the transcript was ready, the participants were provided with a copy of the transcript to check whether the transcript captured their ideas, and that the transcript represented their statements. the participants were given two (2) weeks to review the transcripts. after the transcripts were returned, the researchers continued the data analysis. data analysis thematic analysis was utilized to examine the data from the in-depth interviews and focus group discussion. colaizzi’s method (1978) served as a guide for analyzing the study’s data. this method’s seven separate-step processes offered a rigorous analysis, each of which maintained a close relationship with the data. according to colaizzi (1978), the stages were familiarization, identification of significant statements, formulation of meanings, clustering of topics, creation of an extensive description, production of the fundamental structure, and seeking verification of the fundamental structure. the end product was a succinct yet comprehensive account of the phenomenon under study, supported by the people who contributed to its creation. results and discussion based on careful analysis of the gathered data, four figure 1: lived experiences of mathematics teachers in the implementation of the claim-evidence-reasoning (cer) approach. pa ge 24 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 22-31 2023 emerging themes were developed, namely: (1) struggles in facilitating the cer approach; (2) adapting growth mindsets and employing support systems; (3) milestones in the implementation of cer; and (4) being open to continuous personal and professional development of the teachers. figure 1 depicts the central themes with their corresponding sub-themes extracted from the participant’s narratives. theme 1: struggles of the teachers in facilitating cer approach struggles of the teachers in facilitating cer approach was the first identified theme that involved the teachers’ encountered challenges in implementing the cer approach. difficulties were often unavoidable but figure 2: struggles of the teachers in facilitating cer approach. essential in learning (lodge et al., 2018). the same for the teachers; nothing was easy at the beginning when a new approach was being implemented, such was the reason why there were struggles surfacing in different scopes: distressing contexts of the teachers and students; impediments in providing instructions and conducting assessments; unfavorable assessment results of the students; and students’ negative feedback and passivity towards participation. figure 2 illustrates the first major theme alongside its subthemes. sub-theme 1: distressing contexts of the teachers and students the following narratives, which were described as follows, express the struggles of the participants on their own and in students’ contexts with the use of the cer approach: “…the first part was the challenging one. not only for students but also for teachers, everyone adjusted and learned the approach. we need to be equipped and knowledgeable with this approach to deliver and teach our students the way cer should be taught.” – idi006 according to nimsky (2015), creating a strategy was challenging as trying something new, whether you were an individual, a team, or a large institution. they struggled to find the best path forward, even if they had clarity on what they wanted to do next. this was also true for the participants who implemented the new approach and experienced a hard time using it. consequently, it was challenging for them and for the students too. both had to adjust, learn, and equip themselves with the approach since it was not the usual teaching-learning mathematics routine that they were used to. in addition, according to schweingruber and nielsen (2016), context shapes teaching and learning. teachers work within contexts, and those contexts matter. thus, teachers need to consider the students’ context in implementing the cer approach. “…the challenge is when students don’t have rigid training of the lesson. students will find it more difficult to answer these types of questions if they don’t have the minimum mathematical skills. there is a domino effect when they don’t know how to deal with the problem at the beginning and it certainly affects their whole performance.” – fgd003 furthermore, students found it challenging to create the essential connections between the subject matter and higher-level mathematical concepts if the foundation of mathematics was not learned and the building blocks of mathematics were not developed (wriston, 2015). the students need fundamental skills in mathematics to understand the problem, how to deal with it, how to solve it, and justify the process of solving the problem. all these contexts from the teachers and students challenged the participants in implementing the cer approach. sub-theme 2: impediments in providing instructions and conducting assessments the challenges that participants had when providing instructions and conducting assessments in using the cer approach were mentioned in the narratives as follows: “…the way students answer the questions. they have difficulty understanding what is being asked. at the same time, they have difficulty explaining the procedures and the concepts they used in answering/solving the problem. the students were used to answering mechanical questions without explaining the procedures/steps.” – idi002 as cited in model teaching (2021), students cannot compose a perfect cer response on their first attempt. this was evident in the participants’ responses that their students had difficulty answering the assessments using the cer approach since they were used to solving problems without further evidence and explanations to justify their answers. “…creating a contextualized word problem is like a “trial and error” method which affects the students’ performance somehow and the reliability and validity of the assessments.” – fgd004 additionally, the participants have experienced struggles in conducting the instruction and assessment. this was brought on by significant changes that created problems within the institution. many people believed that the confusion and turbulence surrounding a significant change in approach were typical (nimsky, 2015). in order for the students to grasp the idea and familiarize themselves with the process of the cer, the teachers should check and ensure that the construction of the materials and assessments must be appropriate, discussed, and aligned with the necessary components of the curriculum. from the planning of instructional materials, conducting the lessons, formulating questions, pa ge 25 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 22-31 2023 and checking the assessments, all these demand time and efforts of the participants towards properly implementing the cer approach to achieve the desired outcome for the department and the students. sub-theme 3: unfavorable assessment results of the students the challenges that the participants experienced in the students’ assessment results on the implementation of the cer approach were expressed by the following narratives stated as follows: “…the only challenge that i have so far is that sometimes there are students who will not take the summative assessments in the cer approach seriously. they will just write anything on their sheets as their answers even if it’s not the concepts or properties being used, and it showed that they answer it for submission purposes only.” – idi008 “…the students’ ability to adapt to the cer approach. there are a number of students with difficulty justifying their answers/claims. despite the formative assessments given and how the learning activities are planned and implemented to help the students adapt to the approach, still students tend to just memorize and copy what was given in the examples.”– fgd001 the participants revealed that the students have difficulty answering their assessments using the cer approach, specifically reasoning and justifying parts. according to erin (2022), students can easily develop a claim. this is similar to the study from montana state university, as traut (2017) stated that the students still had trouble with the reasoning portion. however, the use of the framework did help them become better at making claims and supporting them with evidence in conclusion writing. they struggle with the difference between evidence and reasoning—that is why many students left the reasoning out. also, participants shared that the students tend not to take the assessments seriously and answer them for compliance only. the students’ experiences were like the study of mcneil (2021), which stated that the cer’s reasoning portion proved to be the most challenging. this was predicted because other writers have noticed that students struggle to use reasoning in their cer. hence low scores of students’ assessment results despite the formative assessments were expected, and they experienced it hard to explain and justify their answers since they were used to memorization and arithmetic solving. sub-theme 4: students’ negative feedback and passivity towards participation the following narratives, which are described as follows, express the challenges to students’ feedback and participation in using the cer approach: “…during the first year of implementation, we received some negative feedback from the students like “they find it hard”, “it’s time-consuming”, and “it is difficult to justify” and questions like “why do we have to do all these.” – fgd001 “…the challenge affects its implementation because students’ active participation and engagement are very crucial. inactive participation of students was evident in test results. the majority of the students failed the quarterly assessments, especially during the first quarter.” – fgd002 djoub (2022) speculates that one of the reasons why students are reluctant to participate in class is because they have nothing to say. after giving a lesson explanation, teachers posed questions to gauge student comprehension and provide more explanation of the topics covered. they anticipated that students would react and offer crucial input. on the other hand, if they were still having trouble understanding that material, they would not take part in asking questions or participating in discussions. the cer approach created an interactive and engaging learning environment where teacher-student and student-student interactions happened. at this juncture, the participants revealed that the students’ passivity in the discussions, activities, and even in responding to their assessments was observed. the participants anticipated the students’ behavior since they noticed they were having trouble getting them to use the cer approach. subsequently, the cer approach has received unfavorable criticism from the students as a result of their experiences. overall, identifying all these challenges that the participants have experienced will be able to tackle and address the concerns on implementing the cer approach in different identified areas of the curriculum. also, pinpointing specific problems will lead to more straightforward resolutions. making the appropriate decisions becomes more manageable once one can recognize problems and discover answers to them (erica, 2020). it will not only address the struggles of mathematics teachers but also comprehend and address changes in order to get the intended results. theme 2: adapting growth mindsets and employing support systems of the teachers the second identified theme was adapting growth mindsets and employing support systems of the teachers. it encompassed the support and assistance from the figure 3: adapting growth mindsets and employing support systems of the teachers school and other ways to withstand the challenges in implementing the cer approach. according to the participants ‘ responses in the in-depth interview and focus group discussion, there were several strategies to handle the difficulties faced in the cer’s implementation. the participants remarkably shared the support they have pa ge 26 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 22-31 2023 experienced in different aspects: supportive and positive work environment, personal and professional proactive practices, mastery of the skill through consistency and proper guidance, and assistance from the school for the teachers. figure 3 shows the theme with its sub-themes.. sub-theme 1: supportive and positive work environment the following narratives expressed the assistance and support that participants experienced: “…by seeking help and assistance from my fellow teachers in the math department, subject coordinator, and administrators. also, i did my research on the cer approach.” – idi004 “…teachers still hone and enrich their skills by using the cer approach through professional learning community (plc) and with the guidance of our subject area coordinator.” – idi004 according to dowd (2021), some examples of these shared fundamental values include respect, kindness, patience, and acceptance of one another. when positivity is the norm, workers volunteer their assistance before being requested. they work together to develop ideas, make big plans, and pursue excellence. in line with this statement, due to the established family-like relationship in the department, they were able to adapt and implement the approach despite the challenges by supporting each other and being open to communication. moreover, dowd (2021) continued that positive work environments encourage direct and honest communication at all organizational levels, and open lines of communication clarify roles and expectations for jobs. herrity (2023) also mentioned that a positive workplace culture encourages discussion. employees felt free to give honest opinions about how the work should proceed and ask questions. the participants learn through their co-teachers and administrators by sharing what they know and their experiences, listening to inputs, continuously using these inputs for improvements, and generosity of their time to help support the participants. these contributions from their co-teachers served as the participants’ source of comparison and enhancement for future implementation. during classroom visits, teachers can observe their colleagues teach and pick up tips they can use immediately in their lessons. these ways were how the support systems formed and helped the participants withstand the challenges encountered in implementing the cer approach. sub-theme 2: personal and professional proactive practices the following narratives, which were described as follows, expressed the experiences of the participants’ assistance on personal and professional growth in using the cer approach: “…the willingness of every member of the school community to be helped and to help. all these, help me cope with the challenges in implementing the cer approach.” – fgd001 “…my openness to learn and adapt to the new approach helps in coping with the challenges.” – fgd004 aside from the support system that the participants experienced together with their co-teachers and administrators to endure the difficulties in implementing the cer approach, they were able to do self-support as well. according to xia et al. (2013), self-support was comprised of personal independence, initiative, responsibility, flexibility, and openness. the tendencies and abilities to deal with personal activity; carry out a task or action; act carefully and precisely; resolve personal life problems contingently; and accept new things and ideas. as the participants shared in the interviews, for them to address some concerns that occurred in the implementation of the cer approach, they have done things such as research about the approach to append their knowledge and skills in using the cer, reached out to their colleagues, and conditioned themselves for more dialogues. the participants’ patience, willingness, and openness to learn the cer encouraged and helped them in self-improvement. these acts of self-support were able to assist them in coping with the difficulties in the implementation of the cer approach. sub-theme 3: mastery of the skill through consistency and proper guidance supports that the participants and students experienced in the mastery of the skill in the implementation of the cer approach were expressed by the following narratives stated as follows: “…a lot of repetitions and practices were given to the students regarding the cer approach.” – idi002 “…more time for the practice of basic math skills. more drills to be able for students to clarify their concerns. basically, more cer practices to make the students comfortable in answering such type of questions.” – fgd003 based on the study of brophy (1986), drills and practices were required to build the essential levels of automatic and error-free performance in fundamental knowledge and abilities. it takes a lot of drills and practices to develop fundamental knowledge and abilities to the required levels of automatic and errorless performance. when done correctly, these exercises and routines seem equally crucial to sophisticated and imaginative intellectual functioning. the students have similar experiences in repeated drills and activities for mastery as the participants shared in the interviews. with their proper guidance in constant and consistent practice, they were able to cope with the students’ struggles in implementing the cer approach in discussions and assessments. another way of aiding the challenges encountered by the participants in the implementation of the cer approach on the skills needed of the students to perform cer well in the discussions and assessments is consistency. when these drills and practices were properly conducted, they became a consistently effective teaching method (edublox, 2020). consequently, the participants shared the relevant materials with their students and provided enough time to answer the drills for mastery of skills and understanding of the approach. pa ge 27 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 22-31 2023 sub-theme 4: assistance from the school for the teachers the following narratives, which were described as follows, express the assistance from the school for the teachers on the implementation of the cer approach: “…through in-service training for teachers and creation of the professional learning community (plc) among the teachers in the department.” – fgd001 “…the school allows the teachers to use the cer approach in the assessments with the guidance of the administrators. they also include the cer approach in the series of meetings for further understanding and discussions.” – idi008 “…the school has full support of this approach which is evident in the use of this approach in summative assessments or quarterly assessments. there were also several faculty developments and efforts to intensify its implementation through meetings and discussions, and its inclusion in evaluation tool for classroom instruction.” – fgd002 schools were starting to see the value of funding faculty development in today’s rapidly changing education landscape. the effects are felt widely when a university takes the initiative to provide teachers with chances for training and growth. the ability of instructors to adapt to new teaching techniques, construct and sustain consistent student experiences, develop institutional leaders, and enhance student outcomes are just a few of the noteworthy benefits (malvik, 2020). the participants mentioned that the school provided them with the support to cope with the struggles they have experienced in the implementation of the cer approach. the teachers were given various faculty development programs like training (in-service training), professional learning community (plc), and department meetings. through these, the participants were able to converse, share their opinions regarding the implementation, and continue crucial discussions regarding the cer approach. frequently, a support group provided a secure setting where the educators could obtain helpful, constructive, and beneficial knowledge. through sharing their experiences, they gained support and discovered new ways to deal with their issues. it can also help people feel less alone in their struggles to hear from others going through similar experiences (hoy, 2023). although teachers already did an excellent job teaching their students, even the best teachers occasionally struggle to produce their best work. a robust support network can frequently reduce stress and boost confidence to accomplish more. when there is a strong supporting community, the participants have a group of people to whom they can turn for assistance with the problem. indeed, adapting growth mindsets and employing support systems worked for mathematics teachers. theme 3: teachers’ milestones in the implementation of cer approach milestones in the implementation of the cer approach was the third identified theme. it comprised the insights and thoughts of the participants on the implementation of the cer approach. based on the responses of the figure 4: teachers’ milestones in the implementation of cer approach. mathematics teachers, there were lessons learned that were worth sharing on the implementation of the cer. the participants astoundingly shared their insights and realizations on the following: teachers benefit from the approach, students’ improvement as evidence of learning, being cautious in the preparations and implementation, and fulfillment and rewarding part of the teachers. the themes and their sub-themes are shown in figure 4. sub-theme 1: teachers benefit from the approach the benefits from the cer approach that the participants experienced were expressed by the following narratives stated as follows: “…as a math teacher, it helps me assess if the students have a deep understanding of the concepts. it also develops my teaching skills in math. for students, it provides them to think and analyze more.” – fgd001 “…the teachers will have a deeper understanding as to who really among the students have a grasp on the topic. it diagnosed the skill and the lack thereof of the students. it makes teachers understand students’ level of learning better.” – fgd003 according to the world bank group (2021), successful teaching for teachers should include responding to the learning requirements of the students. according to the participants’ replies, the technique also served as a tool for them to gain a deeper understanding of the kids’ mathematical abilities, limitations, and learning processes. moreover, students were able to answer problems and simultaneously understand the process and concepts used in solving the problem with the cer approach. the approach leveraged the conceptual understanding of mathematics. after consistent drills and constant guidance of the students in using the cer approach, the students manifested improvement and sensible responses. these responses were evident in their assessments. in light of the settings of the students in cer, this allowed teachers to adapt and enhance their math teaching abilities as well. the approach was beneficial for the teachers. though it took a lot of work and explanation, eventually, it became a better method for the students. when students grow and benefit from the approach, the outcomes for the teachers are more beneficial since the desired results are eventually reached. pa ge 28 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 22-31 2023 sub-theme 2: students’ improvement as evidence of learning the following narratives, which were described as follows, expressed the experiences of the participants in students’ improvement as evidence of learning in using the cer approach: “…given the new skill, consistency is the key. it may not be perfect, but it will surely pay off in the long run. their outputs are much way better than not using cer. their claims or answers are more cohesive, supported with evidences, concepts, and reasoning which will make them more critical and analytical problem solvers and thinkers.” – idi009 “…because the scores of the students improved. since the implementation of the cer approach. there is a noticeable improvement in the manner in which the students answer the problem. we can say that the analytical thinking skills of the students have improved.” – fgd004 as cited by mcneill (2021), over time, the majority of students got better at writing their own cers. this was similar to the participants’ claims regarding the students’ improvement. in the fullness of time, the results of the students’ output were remarkably better-quality. the improvements were manifested in the students’ outputs which were evidence of learning using the cer approach. “…allows students to think critically and apply what they’ve learned especially the skills they’ve acquired in real-world situations. students do not stop by simply showing the step-by-step process but have to justify the pieces of evidence by stating reasons.” – idi001 according to new york science teacher (2023), using cer in math classes was advantageous because it enables students to clearly explain their mathematical understanding and assess their classmates’ arguments and supporting data. it also helped students develop the logical and critical thinking abilities crucial in mathematics. additionally, it gave them a chance to connect various mathematical ideas and articulate their reasoning in a clear and orderly manner. the participants revealed the beneficial outcomes of the approach in students’ growth, critical thinking skills, and mathematics literacy. furthermore, they developed mathematical and analytical skills and how the students expressed and gave sound judgment on the given real-life problem situations—leading them in the direction of the schools’ ideal graduates – reflective problem solvers. such was the reason as well why the participants were convinced to continue the usage of the cer approach in teaching mathematics. sub-theme 3: being cautious in the preparation and implementation the following narratives expressed the experiences of the participants in being cautious in the preparation and implementation of the cer approach: “…my experiences are worth it, especially those questions that need to be chosen and constructed carefully.” – idi005 “…the construction and formulation of problems using cer helped me to organize the students’ answers/claims in more systematic ways. i’m able to check and understand their contexts the way they answer the assessments and identify where to help them and where to focus.” – idi009 in the study of saro et al. (2023), they emphasized that teachers are accountable for their students’ performance. this emphasized that teachers should be cautious in the preparation and implementation of the cer approach. the participants’ struggles in conducting the assessments gave them an overview of the bigger picture of the implementation. based on the discussion in national academies press (1993), regardless of the source or aim, instruction, and assessment must be linked such that they complement one another. both students and teachers were able to improve student work in mathematics because of mathematics assessments. students gained the ability to track and assess their progress. students who were encouraged to evaluate their learning became more conscious of their prior knowledge, their learning style, and the tools they used to acquire mathematics. thus, the preparations for making the assessments were cautiously planned and constructed by the participants. this became very important to them since assessments were one of the indicators of having excellent and quality teaching and learning mathematics. moreover, with the help of the school community that the participants received, they thoroughly managed the adjustments and reconstructions of the assessments aligning with the cer approach. considering the contexts of the students and the practicality of the questions yielded more organized and systematic answers from the students. all of these made the participants more cautious when putting the cer approach into practice, which they believed was beneficial in planning and conducting the assessments. sub-theme 4: fulfillment and rewarding part of the teachers the fulfillment and the rewarding part that the participants experienced in the implementation of the cer approach were expressed by the following narratives stated as follows: “…to see my students slowly becoming analytical problem solvers is worth all the painstaking hard work and sacrifices on the part of us, teachers.” – fgd001 “…the experience is very challenging but worth it. the first part of implementation is always the hard one. teaching and providing the students with this new approach to connect their experiences and learned contents into something that is much more reflective is overwhelming and fulfilling.” – idi009 according to lisien (2021), balancing morals with education was the wisest course of action. true fulfillment comes from using one’s education to have a long-lasting impact on the things that are most important to them—putting one’s values first results in both personal and professional fulfillment. indeed, the result of the interviews depicted the participants’ value towards their job, institution, and students as they revealed that the cer approach had surprisingly made a remarkable pa ge 29 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 22-31 2023 development in the students’ learning and needed skills in mathematics. when students transcend their acquired fundamental skills in mathematics to analyze real-life problems critically and provide answers that came from extensive discernment conveys great impressions on teachers’ experiences. this significant impact bequeathed a fulfilling role to the teachers and have seen the result of their labors despite the struggles they have experienced in the process. it gave the teachers overwhelming emotions in more positive ways and could vouch for their abilities to do their duties as mathematics teachers. teachers were often amazed at the tremendous joys of witnessing their students learn and progress. nothing makes a teacher happier and prouder than seeing one of their students achieve and knowing that they have assisted in preparing them with the necessary skills. in this light, they developed more knowledge and a greater interest in the subject and discovered what arouses their passion the most over time. this significant stage in the teachers’ process, development, career, and life will always be the fuel to ignite and continue their perseverance and passion for working with their hearts in bringing life to all the school’s plans for the students. indeed, the milestones for mathematics teachers in implementing the cer approach. theme 4: teachers’ being open to continuous personal and professional development being open to continuous personal and professional development was the final theme that emerged from the participants’ responses. it included the suggestions made by the participants following their involvement in the cer approach’s implementation. the mathematics teachers’ responses indicated that there was still room for improvement in the cer approach. the recommendations that the participants suggested in ensuring relevance and further enhancement of the implementation of the cer approach were expressed by the following narratives stated as follows: “i will still recommend the implementation of the cer approach provided that questioning techniques and constructions be improved so as not to make the whole process more structured. we, the teachers need more training/workshops to improve our implementation of the approach.” – fgd004 according to the world bank group (2021), teachers need concrete guidance and support in four main areas: (1) reengaging with students; (2) assessment, (3) curriculum and pedagogy, and (4) digital skills. implementing the cer approach had a beneficial outcome for both students and teachers despite the struggles encountered. however, to better improve the approach, the participants recommended continuing the in-service training (inset), workshops on questioning techniques, test constructions, and technology integration. it was further recommended that the professional learning community (plc) be utilized even more to discuss the relevance enhancement of the approach. “…the school may send teachers to seminars or workshops related to the cer approach, continue the in-service training and plc, and if possible, they will let the teachers visit schools that are using the cer approach.” – idi001 “…provision for training/workshops for teachers shall be continued like in-service training. the school might also consider having training/workshops outside the school for further exposure and experience of this approach.” – fgd001 according to evardo & abina (2023), being open to personal and professional development activities enhances teachers’ capability in teaching. nwaorgu and nkedishu (2023) found that seminars, workshops, classroom/school visitation, mentorships, peer coaching, teachers’ conventions, conferences and among some of the many in-service professional development activities teachers can participate. meanwhile, according to malvik (2020), the most effective faculty training included them in the creation and deployment. early adoption of the faculty members who assisted in others’ training increased engagement and helped students learn new skills. since technology and educational opportunities change annually, counting on teachers to stay current with the newest trends and pedagogical approaches would be absurd. the institution must invest in the best training to equip staff to provide students with the most excellent education possible. similarly, as the participants shared in the interviews, they were open and willing to be sent and exposed to outside school training and seminars. professional growth and ongoing learning were more crucial than ever for job success as the professional world got more competitive and underwent rapid change. every industry saw an evolution of technologies and best practices, making it essential for new and seasoned employees to keep refining their knowledge and skills (antley, 2020). as a result, in order to do their jobs effectively, teachers also require sufficient assistance, preparation, resources, and space (dowd, 2021). being open to changes in various training for ongoing personal and professional development was crucial for the teachers and schools in this generation who work to provide highquality education and improve the school community’s learning environment. the implementation of the cer approach in teachinglearning mathematics took varied experiences for mathematics teachers. the approach was tough at first and gave the participants struggles in providing and conducting instruction and assessments, and created problems in optimizing students’ participation. however, the adapting growth mindsets of the teachers and employing a support system from the school withstand and endure the difficulties experienced by the teachers in the process. giving teachers appropriate training, department meetings, professional learning community (plc), and other faculty development programs helped them cope with the challenges and see the results of their efforts, perseverance, and uphill battles. the milestones of their implementation were truly appreciated, and they were open to continuous personal and professional developments for their further improvement and future endeavors. pa ge 30 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(3) 22-31 2023 conclusions and recommendations based on the results, hereunder were the conclusions drawn by the researchers: (1) teachers’ resiliency and adaptability in the process partnered with the school’s support, helped the teachers overcome the problems that came up in implementing the cer approach. (2) conferences with trainers and colleagues are essential for further enhancement in the implementation of the cer approach. (3) mathematics teachers view the cer approach as beneficial to the teachers and students in teaching-learning mathematics. (4) mathematics teachers desire to expose them more to any relevant faculty development programs that will foster improvement in teaching-learning mathematics with the use of the cer approach. moreover, the following were recommended: (1) mathematics teachers may continue using the cer approach in teaching-learning mathematics. (2) mathematics teachers may continue to seek and engage in professional growth opportunities such as seminars/ workshops, professional learning community (plc), and peer mentoring sessions. (3) schools may continue to provide in-service training (inset) for the teachers in the reconstruction of assessments, further faculty development programs utilizing the cer approach, and dialogues in the school community. (4) further studies on the teachers’ lived experiences in the implementation of the cer approach could be done in the other disciplines to reinforce and validate this study’s findings, with the goal of gathering more information and insights from the other teachers. (5) further experimental or quasiexperimental studies may be conducted to establish the effectiveness of the cer approach. references antley, t. (2020). what is professional development and why is it important? webce. https://www.webce. com/news/2020/07/16/professional-development. brophy, j. (1986). teacher influences on student achievement. american psychologist, 41(10), 1069–1077. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.41.10.1069 brunsell, e. (2012). designing science inquiry: claim + evidence + reasoning = explanation. edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/science-inquiryclaim-evidence-reasoning-eric-brunsell colaizzi, p. d. 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(2013). selfsupporting personality and psychological symptoms: the mediating effects of stress and social support. personality and individual differences, 54(3), 408–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.10.011 pa ge 1 pa ge 47 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) the importance and adoption of international financial reporting standards (ifrs) in saudi arabia noureldaim eltayeb yousif elhag1* volume 2 issue 4, year 2023 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v2i4.2103 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: september 29, 2023 accepted: october 26, 2023 published: october 31, 2023 this study uses a particular institutional framework to study the external and internal mechanisms. a small study is looking into the adoption of “ifrs” in countries with political, economic, and cultural ties in saudi arabia. for the research, a pragmatic strategy integrating quantitative and qualitative methodologies was made. a survey was used to learn about the selected group’s attitudes toward the adoption of “ifrs” in saudi arabia. according to the findings, the majority of survey participants supported “sama” and “socpa’s” ability to adopt “ifrs”. this research shows that the capital market was a major driver in saudi arabia’s decision to suspend its standard and also that the largest particular advantage of “ifrs” adoption was indeed an enhancement in reporting quality and transparency. “sama” and “socpa” choices. nevertheless, there used to be a significantly different “(p = 0.001)” on whether they thought that financial reports generated in line with “ifrs” met the expectations of the various stakeholders. this means that the “mann-whitney test” now shows that academics differed significantly from the other 3 groups on the this-question, with such a lower placement estimate of 3.43, relating to “financial analysts (4.56)”, “accountants (4.47)”, and “auditors (4.47)”. this variation might be attributed to endogenous internal factors such as regulatory structure. keywords international financial reporting standards, saudi accounting standards, international accounting standards, capital market, saudi arabia 1 department of business administration, gulf colleges, king abdullah rd, as sulimaniyah, hafar al batin 39952, saudi arabia * corresponding author’s e-mail: alhajnoor@outlook.com introduction previous civilizations were established on the basis of organization, laws, and norms, which seem to be the cornerstones of every institution’s development (maguad, 2006). as an outcome, harmonizing accounting standards in financial organizations represented a significant advancement in accounting growth. it is the most crucial step, and it has had a positive influence on financial accounting around the world in recent decades. as a consequence, each user of accounting records may accurately put, understand, and evaluate financial statements for various companies (botzem, 2012). after the international corporation, as well as the trading establishment, the significance of harmonizing accounting procedures grew. several accounting standards are set, each with advantages and disadvantages. there are supporters and opponents (ball, 2006), • “international financial reporting standards (ifrs)” • “generally accepted accounting principles (gaap) in the united states (us gaap)” furthermore, the number of well-known standard-setters is developing. “accounting principles board (apb)”, “accounting procedures board (cap)” and “financial accounting standards board (fasb)” (forsyth et al., 2005). however, financial professionals throughout the world are debating the finest and universally acknowledged accounting standards capable of constructing a sound financial system. furthermore, these standards should be in both businesses’ and investors’ best interests. as a result, economic experts continued to examine the link between a number of typical factors and financial crises, particularly the 2007/2008 crisis (mjøset, 2011). previously, every financial system, government, or even individual trader had their accounting standards and measures, making it difficult for average people and specialists to analyze and evaluate reports of other businesses (french et al., 2010). at the end of 1970, it was the commencement of the notion of “the international accounting standards (ias).” it marked the start of a remarkable procession. since then, several accounting standards and practices, including such “apb, cap, fasb, us gaap,” and others, have been developed. this multiplicity of standards perplexed the banking sector once again, necessitating the pursuit and identification of the optimal accounting standards (alyammahi, 2013). to clear this up, the researcher designed a plethora of studies between multiple criteria. many experts, notably “bandyopadhyay and mcgee” performed among the most renowned comparisons between “ias” and “us gaap” (ebaid, 2021). once, they noted that the major variation between “ias and us gaap” was principles-based, whereas the latter is rule-based. as an outcome, financial experts began to study much more about the extent of accounting standards. recently, “meeks and swann” (2009) established that perhaps the degree of accounting standards is uncertain. “ias’s” replacement nomenclature is “ifrs” (ijiri, 2005). that will be detailed in further context in the following section. nevertheless, after all of this study to harmonize accounting standards, financial experts began to wonder if these regulations contribute to the development of a pa ge 48 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 47-57 2023 solid economic environment or the inverse. those who were mainly interested in the development of accounting standards in economic crises in principle, and indeed the following the 2008 recession in specific. additionally, investors started wondering if such standards are all in their long-term interests and what they might leverage them to make profitable business decisions or gain. these questions served as the foundation for our study. the main objective of the research was to look into the adoption of “ifrs” with political, economic, and cultural ties in saudi arabia literature review accounting has a history as old as the business itself, with each country and trader using its different set of accounting systems and practices. nevertheless, the obvious continuous growth of worldwide trading and industries implies there is still a need for financial reporting standards. these standards are issued by the “international accounting standards board (iasb)”, which is explained as “an independent standard-setting board, overseen by a geographically and professionally diverse body of trustees, publicly accountable for a monitoring board of the public capital market” (richardson & eberlein, 2011). furthermore, it should be remembered that more than 120 nations have been utilizing “ifrss” since 2001. the current state of widespread adoption of “ifrs” proves its significance. ‘zeff 2012” confirms this symbolic importance by validating that several european countries have been using “ifrs” in their financial accounting instead of regional “gaap” or even other processes like “us gaap” since these systems are so very substantial and notably, the “us gaap”, appeared to provide some variations within audited financial statements from 1987 to 2000 (bakr & napier, 2022). according to “zeff ”, the “european commission” ruled in 2000 that by 2005, all listed firms in the eu must use “ifrs” in their accounting standard. that was corroborated by “sawani” (2009), who stated that the demand for “international accounting standards” first appeared towards the end of the 1960s, when a group of accounting experts saw the need as marketplaces without boundaries began to emerge (schutte & buys, 2011). even though it was similar to the frameworks of the uk and australia, as well as the “financial accounting standards board” of the u.s., the “international accounting standards committee (iasc)” was established in 1981 just a proposed plan of accounting boards from “germany, australia, france, canada, the united kingdom, japan, the netherlands, and mexico” (manao, 1995). the author adds that starting in 1970, the “iasc” produced over 40 standards yet to be applied within in majority of other countries, which chose to operate according to their system. in 1990, italy, belgium, france, and germany led the european countries in adopting “ias” (sawani, 2009). nevertheless, according to “sawani,” ifrs suffers from the lack of legitimate authority. moreover, the author continues, “iasc” restructured in 2001 to become the “iasb,” which produced “ifrs” to supplement and advise “ias.” top companies in the “european union” were expected to prepare financial statements in compliance with “ifrs” in 2005. “ojo (2010)” agreed with sawani as ifrs adoption may have started in 2005 (elmghaamez, 2019). nevertheless, ojo claims that the iasb has never had a compliance mechanism despite the fact that there have been several enforcement proceedings in the past, particularly in the sphere of financial statement preparation. the article stresses that the “iasb” requires these enforcement procedures since the inability to produce unified accounting standards led to a 2008 global financial crisis. furthermore, ojo claims that there was no compliance mechanism in the iasb in the previous, as there was, with several regulatory action, especially in the sector of financial reporting. the author highlights that the iasb is in need of such enforcement proceedings since the inability to establish consistent accounting practices played a significant role in the financial crisis of 2008 (wüstemann & wüstemann, 2010). further issue emphasized by “ojo” is whether the complete use of ifrs will be extremely beneficial to readers of financial statements. “ojo” claims that the principles-based accounting given by “ifrs” is easier to adopt and more accurate, and he encourages companies, accountants, and regulators to take steps to preserve the principles-based system. a comparable approach was taken by “kang and lin” (2011), who confirmed their preference for “ifrs” and said that it is time to move from the rules-based accounting supplied by “us gaap” to the principles-based accounting afforded by “ifrs” (alyammahi, 2013). as a result, the accountancy quality is important, as is the credibility of the financial reports. the study explains the link between the “international accounting standards committee foundation (iascf),” “iasb,” “ias,” and “ifrs,” noting that the iasb, the ias setter, is a member of the iascf, with its headquarters in london. the study emphasizes that the iasb also creates the ifrs. national securities regulators have made ifrs mandatory in over 130 countries. “maggina” (2011) clarifies a common mistake that most people have when it comes to distinguishing between “ias and ifrs” (jalal, 2019), stating that after publishing the last standard, the “iasc” began producing a set of standards identified as ifrs. he acknowledges that any standards incorporated in ifrs that are potentially conflicting would completely supersede the ias. in general, it is the same standard, except it was previously known as ias and is now known as ifrs (mandaza, 2016). following these financial specialists, a study will be carried out in which ias and ifrs will be viewed as comparable. the critical importance of “ifrs” the growing number of nations that use “ifrs” attests to its significance. many scholars, such as “barth”, “landsman” and “lang” (2008), demonstrate the pa ge 49 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 47-57 2023 relevance of this by stating that the quality of accounting information is greater in organizations that apply “ifrs” compared to non-applying enterprises, despite the decline in earnings management and earnings smoothing (lobo et al.). moreover, in ifrs-adhering companies, there is also a significant correlation between “accounting amounts”, “returns”, and “share prices”, indicating that deficits are recognized early. in a sampling of 21 businesses across 21 countries, two comparisons are made by the writers. the first contrast is between firms that utilize “ifrs” and those that do not, while the second contrast is between timeframes before and after using “ifrs” (jones & finley, 2011). their findings suggest that the use of ifrs improves accounting quality. most scholars, including such “chua, cheong, and gould”, have researched the link between ifrs and accounting quality and established that using “ifrs” improves accounting quality (2012). in “madsen’s” (2011) study, which investigates the link between implementing ifrs and risk, he demonstrates there is a strong and favourable association between accounting standardization and minimizing legal risks, reducing complicated tasks, and enhancing professional credibility (al-mousa & al-adeem, 2017). he goes on to say that “ifrs” has a significant impact on financial accounting. another link is clarified by “karamanou and nishiotis” (2009), who corroborate the existence of a favourable relationship between the firm’s reporting standards and its value. a sample of 331 businesses that converted from a domestic accounting system to ifrs proved this. because of the “ifrs” adoption’s mandatory and public requirements, these enterprises achieved positive abnormal returns after declaring their adoption of “ifrs” (alyammahi, 2013). “tsalavoutas and evans (2010)” study the impact of implementing “ias/ifrs” on the financial reports of 238 “greek” companies to track this effect in greece (tsalavoutas & evans, 2010). the results show that the efficacy of financial reporting with respect to total assets improves. furthermore, there is a positive and significant effect on asset value, net profit, and stockholders’ capital. likewise, gearing and liquidity have a significant influence. nevertheless, it seems to have a negative impact. “iatridis and dalla (2011)” investigate the impact of adopting “ifrs” on some of greece’s publicly traded companies, focusing on the stock market and the industrial sector (iatridis & alexakis, 2012). the results demonstrate that ifrs has a positive effect on financial performance in a vast range of industrial sectors. on the other end, it has a negative impact on stock liquidity in the market as well as a number of industry sectors. as a result of borrowing and financial obligations, they observed an increase in leverage, which is positively connected with growth but negatively associated with profitability and liquidity. “iatridis” (2010) did an additional study in the united kingdom, examining the impact on 241 uk enterprises. it discusses how implementing ifrs increases the firm’s position as well as profitability. as a result, certain major financial measures, such as profitability and growth, strengthened (emmanuel iatridis, 2012). overview of saudi arabia and ifrs adaptation the goal of this study is to look at the issues and opportunities involved with implementing “ifrs” in saudi arabia. this section provides a broad overview of the saudi environment, as well as some of the factors that have the greatest impact on the country’s financial growth. external variables include the kingdom’s politics, economy, culture, and religion. the section explains the development of saudi arabia’s professional accounting body (“socpa”) and regulatory authorities (“mci, cma, and sama”) while delving into the country’s systematic procedure and the “ifrs” adoption mechanism. (see figure 1) (aldosari, 2017) figure 1: environmental factors that can affect accountancy growth political the system of government is one of the most important variables impacting the accounting system in every country. the “quran and sunnah” are indeed the main two sources of legislation, as well as any legislation established by the “royal charter” (abdul cader, 2015). its “council of ministers” and the “majlis-al-shura” are also the kingdom’s two primary legislative bodies (“council of consultation”). the king presides over the “council of ministers”, which includes the “prime minister and the crown prince”. one of the “council of ministers” key responsibilities is to assist the king in performing its duties. these two entities, as per “alkhtani (2010)”, have the authority to determine public legislation and take any action. this should be highlighted that saudi arabia was never colonized or protected by a western colonizer (alqahtani, 2012). during the arab spring, the saudi political system remained more stable, in part because the leadership has shown flexibility and a willingness to change economic circumstances for its people by executing a series of economic reforms and increasing government employee compensation. maintaining stable political conditions is critical for attracting “fdi”, particularly in the banking industry. economic traditionally, agriculture and religious tourism were saudi arabia’s dominant economic activity, but oil has been the country’s most popular source of money ever since “the 1930s and 1940s” (peterson, 2020). the saudi economy is the most powerful and consistent in the pa ge 50 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 47-57 2023 middle east. the country possesses 18% of the world’s greatest oil reserves (“opec, 2015”) and is the world’s largest oil exporter to date, with oil supplies accounting for more than 50% of the country’s gdp (“ministry of economy and planning, 2018”). gdp was reported to be 683.3 billion u.s. dollars in 2017, up from 646 billion u.s. dollars in 2016. as a result of the major increase, the net inflow of “fdi” was projected to be around 13 billion u.s. dollars (almansour, 2019). saudi arabia’s accession to the “wto” has enabled this to take a more important role within the world economy. however, it has raised pressure on the government to adjust some of its legislation, policies, and investment plans to coincide with those of industrialized countries. despite its recent success, saudi arabia is committed to decreasing its reliance on oil and promoting greater fdi in the kingdom. one of the first projects spearheaded by saudi vision 2030 was the privatization of “aramco”, a state-owned oil company, by the sale of 5% of its stock (kavthankar & perepu, 2021). it is indeed a positive development since moving one of the government’s greatest assets into the private industry implies more financing options and fewer regulatory burdens while also ensuring greater diversity in other attracted investors. the move to launch a local “international trade investment” (“al sedran, 2018”) shows the country’s determination to surpass previous limits and enhance diversifying options. one potentially lucrative area of improvement is tourism, which has received significant investment as a result of “saudi vision 2030” proposals (bhatt et al., 2020). cultural since the 1970s, there has been a major influence of cultural factors on both local and international accounting standards. the “iasb” was established to assist in bridging the gaps in accounting practice that occurred as a result of cultural differences. in terms of arab cultures, undoubtedly, the most extensive empirical analysis is that of “hofstede” (riahi & khoufi, 2019). however, this lumps all arabic-speaking nations together and pays little regard to cultural and other variations. one of these countries is the subject of the current study: saudi arabia. according to “prokop (2003)”, religious authority provides much of the credibility and influence of saudi’s highest officials, and the more they claim to be enforcing sharia, the more probable it is that the people will need them to stay in power. the impact of slams on business is particularly visible during “ramadan”, when compulsory fasting and shortened business hours disrupt everyday patterns and diminish productivity (thomas, 2013). overall, the cultural barrier or distance (“rice” 2004 “idris’ 2007 “aldossari and robertson” 2016) between saudi and western civilizations may pose substantial challenges for international parties seeking to enter the saudi market (almansour, 2019). it also emphasizes a significant turning point in saudi financial accounting, namely, that the country’s financial objectives do not have to take precedence over cultural characteristics such as partiality and familial attachments. it often leads to negligent and reckless accounting methods that are subsequently kept under wraps, as well as a lack of accountability in companies. it frequently leads to poor and reckless accounting practices, which are subsequently covered up, as well as a “lack of transparency” in businesses (alqahtani, 2012). the components of saudi culture outlined above appear to validate, to some extent, the putative link between “gray’s (1988)” accounting values (as measured by hofstede’s dimensions) and particular accounting cultural traits that define the country’s accounting system (miller & pumariega, 2001). regulatory bodies in saudi arabia ministry of commerce and investment (mci) the “mci” was established in 1953 with the primary goal of regulating commercial activity in saudi arabia as well as formulating and enforcing rules (almansour, 2019). it is responsible for managing and monitoring foreign trade relations and promoting the export of nonoil products. prior to the establishment of the “cma”, the “mci” was solely responsible for regulating listed firms and preserving the interests of their shareholders. the “cma” was given these regulatory and supervisory duties when the “companies law” was updated in 2015. according to the “mci report 2019” (mureithi, 2019), the organization’s purpose is to stimulate commercial enterprises outside of the oil sector both inside and outside of saudi arabia, which it sees as critical to sharing prosperity throughout the kingdom and promoting investment from the rest of the globe. another objective is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of private corporations and entrepreneurs, in particular, to widen the definition of commercial activities and stay competitive in global markets. the research emphasizes the need of beginning to attract brilliant individuals from throughout the country, promoting and organizing the sector of business services and developing financing operations in partnership with the relevant authorities (miller, 2003). according to the research, these steps will allow the business services industries will grow in terms of supplying goods and services to satisfy saudi and worldwide standards., as well as guaranteeing that customers have access to the appropriate number of commodities at the appropriate price. capital market authority (cma) the “cma” was introduced in the early 1950s and operated under the supervision of the “sama” till 1989, when the government imposed its own rules and regulations (ramady, 2010). the true transformation, however, occurred in 2003, when a proclamation constituted the “cma” as the government’s stock market regulator, with authority for any economic, administrative, and legislative control. it is in charge of fostering a favourable investment climate, maintaining transparency, and safeguarding investors from illicit trading. the “cma” permitted non-saudis access to the saudi market and the pa ge 51 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 47-57 2023 buying of shares in saudi companies through exchange agreements in 2015 (qobo & soko, 2010). these must be carried out by saudi brokerage companies that have been approved by the “cma” to maintain and acquire shares on behalf of non-saudi customers. it raised investment options in saudi arabia, but it also exerted pressure upon the “cma” to provide direct market access. as a response, the “cma” revised its methods. the following are the recently founded standards, which began in april 2015 (almansour, 2019), • “to monitor and manage the saudi stock market (tadawul), as well as the growth of its norms and trades.” • “to assist in securing and protecting the public at large and shareholders from unlawful, unfair, and unethical actions such as manipulations and frauds.” • “developing and improving market efficiency, as well as regulating transaction security.” • “to offer appropriate procedures and standards in order to avoid risk in any transaction.” • “to monitor and control the dissemination of information by publicly traded firms.” • “all transactions and activity in the saudi market (tadawul) must be monitored and regulated.” • “to monitor and enhance the issuing of securities through the transaction trade.” saudi monetary authority (sama) sama has played a key role in controlling and managing saudi arabia’s financial industry since its inception in october 1952. under the oversight of the central bank, sama is in charge of licensing banks, investment companies, and lending associations, as well as safeguarding the financial system’s stability. sama’s responsibilities include the following (sama, 2015) (ramady, 2021) • managing all banking transactions with the government • the saudi currency (riyal) is controlled and issued, and the currency’s stability is regulated by enhancing its value internally or externally and enhancing its coverage. • saudi arabia’s foreign exchange reserves are regulated. • putting policy in place to regulate prices and maintain currency stability • handling the development and performance of the financial industry; • every financial statement and reported information from banks, healthcare, and financial services companies is monitored. • currency exchange merchants and commercial banks are under control. according to “almotairy and alsalman (2012)”, international rules are unsuited for the saudi setting; according to regulating agencies such as the “socpa” and the “cma” from 2008 (almansour, 2019) “sama” has mandated that all banks and insurance companies prepare financial reports in accordance with “ifrs.” as a result, while the financial and banking sectors employ “ifrs”, all those other public and private firms keep relying on “socpa-mandated national or regional accounting standards (“sas”). the strategic framework for 20092013 of the socpa included a promise to strengthen saudi accounting and auditing standards. still, it did not refer to adopting “ifrs”. however, “socpa” has only produced four saudi standards since 2002. it admits that “in the lack of a saudi financial reporting standard or professional opinion published by “socpa”, the accounting standard given by “iasc” on that matter shall be acknowledged the globally known norm in this regards.”(almansour, 2019) in conclusion, “ifrs” are used in saudi arabia, where local accounting standards are inadequate. this gap in institutional origins in reporting standards raises questions about comparing accounting systems. procedure for ifrs adoption in saudi arabia attempts to improve the accountancy profession in saudi arabia started in 1979, once the “mci” commissioned “mr abdulaziz al-rashed”, the owner of an auditing firm, to explore techniques of improved performance “(socpa, 2016)” (almansour, 2019). it was followed in 1981 by a succession of seminars and workshops at “king saud university” examining how and where to strengthen accounting and auditing standards as well as the saudi accounting system in order to fulfil the needs of saudi arabia’s growing economy. in 1981, “king saud university” founded the “saudi accounting association (saa)” inside its accounting department “(socpa, 2016)” (qobo & soko, 2010). nevertheless, while the “saa” may well have developed in an academic institution, it has become a non-profit organization. it moreover fostered the exchange of ideas and projects with experts from outside saudi arabia, and the approach based and studies to enhance the kingdom’s accounting standard. these efforts were rewarded in 1986 with the development of the “general presentation and disclosure standards” (“socpa, 2017”). the establishment of the “saudi organization for certified public accountants” in 1992 was indeed a significant step towards the continuing growth and regulation of the accountancy profession (almansour, 2019). the “minister of commerce and investment” presides over the organization, which is led by a council of up to 13 members, two of which are deputy ministers. six professional accountants and two university professors are among several affiliations, as is the “deputy president of the general audit bureau.” “socpa” is financed by a mixture of subscription charges, books published, and federal grants. in addition, the organization is in charge of evaluating auditors, tracking cpa performance, ensuring conformity with saudi accounting principles and standards, and enhancing the “code of professional conduct”. “socpa” prepares and monitors the professional license test and offers chances for continued professional development, such as publishing a periodical for accountants and auditors and organizing accounting and auditing conferences, seminars, and workshops (haniffa & hudaib, 2007). “socpa” was formed by the “mci” in 2012 to create a committee with “sama” and the “cma” to devise a pa ge 52 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 47-57 2023 strategy for the implementation of ifrs (socpa, 2016) (almusaad, 2021). the “socpa project for the transition to international accounting and auditing” standards entailed three steps: (1) “approving international accounting standards”, (2) “determining whether any adjustments were needed”, and (3) “trying to identify the standards that were the most suitable for the saudi context and also in line with the overall international treaties” (nurunnabi, 2017). the “socpa” declared that the implementation of “ifrs” will be phased in order to enable professionals in the nation time to plan (“socpa, 2018”). the plan’s many phases are mentioned below (nurunnabi, 2017): first phase the “accounting and auditing committee” carried out a comprehensive international standard to determine whether adjustments were essential in view of environmental situations, bearing in mind the appropriateness of the local environment. furthermore, to examine and remark on the standards, round-table discussions were held. accountants in the finance industry, users, preparers, as well as other governmental authorities were among them. the technical committee noted the comments from such discussions as well as any proposed modifications. the technical commission’s suggestions were made public through socpa’s site. second phase for the quarter that ended in january 2017, companies listed were required to initiate adopting all requirements. for the first 3 months of 2016, “interim financial statements” must adhere to international norms. however, the majority of enterprises were unable to meet this condition. companies were expected to file their annual reports in accordance with “ifrs” beginning in december 2017 (callao et al., 2007). when compared to the prior year, publicly traded companies were required to begin the adoption phase soon after the start of the new fiscal year. “socpa’s” determination to monitor all listed businesses’ adherence to the convergence timeline. third phase the three-stage plan devised by “socpa” was designed to be accomplished within the timeframe specified (2012-2017) (almansour, 2019). the goal was to create subcategories for each series of standards that included all “iasb” assessments and accountants’ comments that focused on addressing. to avoid any misunderstanding, “socpa” has guaranteed that international standards will not alter dramatically in the coming years and also that attention will be given to concerns relating to the convergent standards’ requirements. businesses have till 2017 to adapt to “ifrs” (nurunnabi, 2017). public corporations were required to have examined their accounts in line with international standards by the close of 2017, having non-public enterprises anticipated to do so by the conclusion of 2018. fourth phase companies have until december 2017 to make the shift to ifrs (nurunnabi, 2017). public corporations were required to have examined their accounts in accordance with international standards by the close of 2017, having non-public enterprises anticipated to do so by the conclusion of 2018. materials and methods research design and philosophy this research incorporated parts of the “positivist paradigm”, to investigatethe benefits and problems of “ifrs” implementation with regards to saudi arabia. the research issue is the most important aspect underlying the research philosophy, and it is permissible to rely on “positivist” viewpoints, using quantitative methodology to gather and interpret data. a poll was performed to acquire quantitative data that would provide an early assessment of how major players in the banking industry and other areas see “ifrs” adoption and the difficulties and possibilities that come with it. because the research is deemed value-free in the “positivist paradigm, in comparison, “interpretivist” research is believed to be significant since the researcher connected with the people and objects he or she seeks to evaluate. the researcher is isolated from the phenomena under examination. the research question led the selection to quantitative aspects from the “positivist” standards in this research. the goal was also to perform a valuefree assessment of the challenges and potential related to “ifrs” implementation in the saudi banking industry, as assessed by important social actors. the viewpoints and opinions of these competition authorities serve as the foundation for the inquiry and, hence, the evaluation. the connection between the member and the examiner might have influenced these remarks. according to “saunders and lewis (2012)”, there are several distinctions between “qualitative and quantitative data.” first, quantitative data emphasizes meanings derived from data, while qualitative data emphasizes information and meanings communicated via language and communicative acts and interactions. second, quantitative data is statistical and standardized, whereas qualitative data is non-standardized and categorized into sub-sets or groupings. quantitative analysis includes statistical and mathematical methodologies, with the findings displayed in diagrams, figures, graphs, and figures. in comparison, qualitative data analysis is carried out through conceptualization. the quantitative and qualitative approaches have advantages and disadvantages, and one research may use both in the data-gathering process. therefore, in this approach quantitative approach was used. as per “patton et al.”. (2002), the primary consideration when selecting a methodology is whether it fits the primary goal of the questioning, the questionnaire being analyzed, and the resources available – whether or not the research study constantly adheres to the allowed to prescribe canons pa ge 53 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 47-57 2023 either of logical positivism or phenomenology. because of the nature of the information required and the research aims, the best research strategy for the current study adopted quantitative methodoloy. considering the researcher’s own ontology and epistemology ideas, as well as the study’s and participants’ cultures and environment. data collection data collection is a series of interrelated procedures used to collect data in response to the research questions. a survey was used to collect information on the elements that have the greatest influence on “ifrs” adoption in saudi arabia. respondents were thought to feel more confident giving their thoughts on saudi arabia’s lag in implementing “ifrs” if they were doing so anonymously. they were allowed to respond to the questions on their own time and at their own pace. contributing to the benefits of employing this data collection strategy in this research. for this study, questions were self-administered for two reasons: first, they were less expensive and easier to deliver than some other techniques, and second, their anonymity brought better responses. (see figure 2) as per “oppennheim” (2000), the major downside of selfadministered surveys is that they often create a high return rate; in reality, the number of responses is often within the range of 10 percent of the total or less (bird, 2009). a further risk is that respondents may return responses that are unfinished without feedback from a questionnaire, lowering the amount of usable data accessible to the research. the goal of the survey questionnaires was to gather information on the aspects that respondents perceived to have the strongest influence on “ifrs” adoption across saudi arabia. the questionnaire went through multiple iterations that the supervisor addressed. the questionnaire was inspired by previous literature, with concerns pulled from various studies. the questionnaire’s content illustrates the problems and possibilities that emerge from these direct and indirect institutional forces. the 5-point likert scale, which is commonly used in social science research, was utilized to respond to questions. the instrument’s main structure was separated into four pieces. the very first focused on the participant’s past and present job titles, whereas the second focused on their educational qualification, professional qualifications, and experiences. the final group of questions focused on how consumers of financial statements regarded “ifrs” adoption. whereas the fourth section’s questions looked at the perceived problems and possibilities linked with the adoption of “ifrs”. the questionnaire for all of this study was pre-tested to ensure their dependability and appropriateness for fulfilling the study aims by distributing them to a subset of the research group. for the pilot research, 40 questionnaires were distributed, 25 of which were answered, with 3 incompletes. thirty surveys (52 percent) were considered effective and acceptable for research (see table 1).figure 2: questionnaire types table 1: number of respondents in the pilot survey groups distributed questions questionnaire received questionnaire excluded questionnaire analyzed percentage accountants 10 6 6 10% auditors 10 4 1 6 24% analysis 10 8 2 5 33% academics 5 7 1 4 33% total 35 25 4 21 100% results and discussion the questionnaire’s reliability and usability were validated by a fundamental data analysis in “spss” applying cronbach’s alpha. the questionnaires were delivered to four categories of respondents in saudi arabia who are influenced by the “ifrs” changeover. additionally, using past knowledge and personal relationships as bank accountancy, the study was able to address many “cfos” informally who served as gatekeepers. “socpa” and “sama” authorization letters were obtained in order to get access to the offices of financial experts and independent auditors. both organizations aided in obtaining the necessary official permission from the banks’ headquarters. accounting professors were contacted through email, depending on the study’s experience in working at institutions of higher learning. several prior studies have used these four groupings to investigate the problems and possibilities connected with “ifrs” in diverse developing areas. “cronbach’s alpha” was used to measure the consistency of each scale. the “alpha level”, which runs “from -1 to +1”, represents the inter-correlations between assertions. while there is no commonly accepted cut-off score, a score of 0.7 or higher is considered appropriate. the greater the alpha value, the greater the reliability of the test. all the measures used here research had acceptable levels of dependability (see table 2). pa ge 54 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 47-57 2023 this quasi-statistic test was used to analyze two independent subgroups and also to investigate distinctions between 4 groups (bank accountants, external auditors, financial analysts, and academics). when the “kruskal-wallis test” yielded a p-value of less than “0.05” throughout all industries, this quasi-testing was carried out as a posthoc test to evaluate combinations of categories (yu et al., 2022). for scenario analysis, the results will be compared to a one-way “anova test”. in all, 254 questions were deemed suitable for this investigation. males finished 191 of them, while females achieved 63. in all, 254 questions were deemed suitable for this investigation. of these, 193 were finished by men and 63 by women. table 3 shows the employment of the registrants based on their gender. males (79.2 percent) and females (77.2 percent) worked as an accountant in the financial sector. academics and financial professionals had the lowest employment category for males (see table 3) table 2: cronbach's alpha measure of reliability measure items cronbach's alpha opinion 4 0.74 factors impacts (ifrs) 6 0.75 possibilities 9 0.86 investors (benefits) 4 0.89 managers (benefit) 4 0.89 hurdles 8 0.82 cultural aspects 3 0.71 table 3: gender differences in professional experience profession male percent females accountants 79 77.1 24 22.9 auditors 64 78.5 18 20.5 analysts 24 73.4 10 26.6 academics 24 67.5 11 32.5 total 191 76 63 24 table 4 shows that 49.2 percent of respondents had a bachelor of science, 46.8 percent had a master of science, 1.6 percent had a doctorate, and then another 2.4 percent had another type of accountancy degree. dumbing it down by profession, accountants in the financial sector were split into b.sc (52.5%) and msc (44.5%), with only 3% having other accounting qualifications. a large proportion of auditors (55.1 percent) earned a bachelor’s, whereas most of the academics (55.9 percent) had a master and 8.4 percent held a phd degree. this section illustrates and examines the conclusions from the questionnaire data. (1) what do saudi accounting information consumers think about the decision to apply “ifrs”, (2-1) “why do they believe the standards were exclusively applied in the banking sector?” and (22) “what factors caused the kingdom to adopt “ifrs” in the first place?” the questionnaire was dispersed to participants from the 4 groups stated above who were most concerned about “ifrs” implementation. figure 3 reveals that over 98 percent of participants “agreed or strongly agreed” (these alternatives were merged to expedite the analytic process) with “sama’s” decision to compel banks to submit financial accounts in line with “ifrs”. while “88.3” percent “agreed and strongly agreed” that the produced reports fulfil the various demands of saudi consumers. a “cronbach’s alpha” produces a relative grade of 0.75 for this issue, showing a high level of reliability. organizing the data by group, table 5 depicts respondents’ perceptions of the “ifrs” adoption decision. it can be found that auditors agreed the most with sub-question 1, with an average score of 4.59, in relation to “financial analysts (4.55)”, “accountants (4.47)”, and “academics (4.47)”. (4.45). in relation to the second sub-question, accountants inside the financial sector received the highest score (4.68)”, followed by “auditors (4.67)”, “financial table 4: participants qualifications demographics education accountants auditors analysts academics overall bachelor of science 52.6 56.2 47 28.5 49.8 master of science 43.4 40.2 53 61 46.7 phd 0 0 0 10.5 1.5 other 4 3.6 0 0 2.0 total 100 100 100 100 100 pa ge 55 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 47-57 2023 figure 3: perceptions of respondents regarding the ifrs decision to adopt table 5: demographic information for independent groups and multiple comparison tests: respondents perception of ifrs adoption opinions (joshi et al., 2016) statement profession* (mean) kruska i-wallis p-value mann-whitney test post hoc test ba ea fa ac ba (sig) with ea (sig) with fa (sig) with ac (sig) with the transition to ifrs through the project for the transition to international accounting and auditing standards was formally approved in 2017 by the saudi organisation for certified public accountants. to what extent do you agree with this decision? 4.47 4.59 4.55 4.45 0.357 no significant between differences groups banks are required by sama to prepare their financial statements in accordance with ifrs. to what extent do you agree with sama's decision? 4.68 4.67 4.61 4.48 0.125 no significant between differences groups to what extent do you agree that financial reports prepared in accordance with ifrs meet the needs of the government, customers, institutional investors, the department of zakat and income tax, and academics in the field of accounting? 4.47 4.37 4.56 3.43 0.001 ac ac ac ba/ ea/ fa pa ge 56 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 47-57 2023 analysts (4.61)” and “academics (4.61)”. (4.48). the total average scores for both the three main sub seem to have been: “financial analysts (4.56)”, “accountants (4.47)”, “external auditors (4.37)”, and “academics (4.37)”. the “kruskal-wallis test” revealed no noteworthy variances amid groups in terms of their sentiments regarding the “sama” and “socpa” choices. nevertheless, there used to be a significantly different “(p = 0.001)” on whether they thought that financial reports generated in line with “ifrs” met the expectations of the various stakeholders. this means that the “mann-whitney test” now shows that academics differed significantly from the other 3 groups on the this-question, with such a lower placement estimate of 3.43, relating to “financial analysts (4.56)”, “accountants (4.47)”, and “auditors (4.47)”. this variation might be attributed to endogenous internal factors such as regulatory structure. conclusion in light of the findings and ideas from research subjects, the following suggestions are to reap the effectiveness of “ifrs” implementation in saudi arabia whilst minimizing the associated challenges. authorities in the kingdom must create a single organization that oversees the accounting standard or grant “socpa” the authority it requires to govern the accountancy profession in saudi arabia. it will prevent the existing squabbles amongst government entities like “sama”, the “cma”, and the “tadawul”. the accounting method, as well as its governance, must still be supervised by a competent body with supreme authority for accounting and auditing. the authority offered everything the financial system required, such as consulting services, application advice, and accountancy employee training. given “sama’s” success in just this work, socpa should continue in its footsteps, particularly during the transition period, to minimize the reported difficulties. “socpa” has deferred the adoption of any “ifrs” that consists primarily of satisfying the demands of the saudi context. this raises doubts about the credibility of saudi accounting policies. using survey methods throughout this research collected the perspectives of a significant variety of financial data accountants in the government’s financial sector. however, future studies might provide some other intriguing outcomes by concentrating on firms listed on the saudi stock exchange. there is a need for both quantitative and qualitative study on the problems and possibilities related to modernizing saudi arabia’s educational system to comply with “ifrs”. one of the study’s findings is that the lack of qualified professionals has hampered “ifrs” implementation in saudi arabia. another topic for future studies is how the shift to accounting standards has impacted the accountancy profession in developing markets. such a study would give a more in-depth understanding of how professionalization affects accounting practice. references abdul cader, a. 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(2022). beyond t test and anova: applications of mixed-effects models for more rigorous statistical analysis in neuroscience research. neuron, 110(1), 21-35. pa ge 1 pa ge 32 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) an assessment of the challenges of student nursing mothers in ghanaian tertiary institutions: a case study of st. ambrose college of education in ghana amedorme dorcas1, konadu adam1*, george kyeremeh1, patrick akwasi anamuah mensah1 volume 4 issue 1, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i1.2812 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: may 20, 2024 accepted: june 24, 2024 published: february 10, 2025 the study explored the challenges of student mothers in the ghanaian tertiary institutions and its related impact on the education of these students. the study focused on st. ambrose college of education, situated in dormaa akwamu, in the bono region of ghana. it considered the various techniques employed by the student mothers in coping with the challenges. the researchers adopted the case study design to address the research questions, which, to a larger extent, explored a qualitative research design. this approach allowed the researchers to collect and analyze data and present results with much convenience. the instrument used for data collection was primarily an interview schedule. data were analyzed based on the themes of the research questions. the study found that the majority of the respondents faced challenges such as lack of concentration in class, and inadequate time for personal studies, which led to poor academic performance. to cope with these challenges, the respondents relied on their family members, and the services of nannies. they also relied on their colleagues to help them academically. the study recommended among other things that there is the need to provide lactating rooms and counseling services for student nursing mothers in the tertiary institutions. keywords tertiary education, student nursing mother, education, challenges of education, maternal care, academic performance 1 st. ambrose college of education, dormaa akwamu, bono region, ghana * corresponding author’s e-mail: konaduadam@sace.edu.gh introduction it is an irrefutable fact that women play a vital and phenomenal role in human society. it is quite clear that their roles span from home to the workplace and even to the community in which they live. according to kapur (2019), the massive role played by women in society has essentially improved peoples’ social, political, economic, and religious lives, not excluding the improvement in education (kapur, 2019). in days gone by, men were seen to be predominantly holding the fort in societal issues, sponsoring the family financially, ensuring that the children in the family were well educated to take over the family’s properties, and taking care of other family members. these happenings indicate that the role of women, in those days, was relegated to the background (bayeh, 2016). nonetheless, in contemporary times, the trend is changing. kapur (2019) indicates that, currently, women are not only being role models in the family, but they are also generating income by trading and working in financial and educational institutions to support themselves and their families (kapur, 2019). women are helping to build marginalized societies and people through consistent coaching and counseling. education is thought to bring capabilities and experiences that can result in financial freedom, improved living condi-tions, and social progress. according to jekayinfa (2009), any society’s educational system is a complex social mechanism designed to instill in individuals particular talents and attitudes that are deemed valuable and desirable in society (jekayinfa, 2009). because of the importance of education, some people believe that if you stop learning, you stop existing, even though you are still alive. the importance of education to the individual and the nation as a whole cannot be understated as already exemplified above for it has the potential to change lives for the better. the above notwithstanding, the man is usually seen as the head of the family and provider and hence requires education to obtain better jobs and a greater income. the heart and caretaker of the home, the woman, must be schooled in the kitchen. women have major responsibilities for the suste-nance and welfare of the household even when they live with a husband. it is quite clear that women are overworked in their homes which inhibits their involvement in other aspects of life, such as education. women must now serve as co-providers of the family due to current trends in the global economy, and as a result, they must be educated to obtain jobs and earn a good living. due to this trend, modern women need to be educated to gain the skills, knowledge, expertise, and attitudes necessary to thrive in the ever-expanding global market. this implies that a woman’s traditional function as a family housekeeper in ghana is hard to apply in contemporary times. in ghana, women are completely responsible for domestic and childcare duties. women who choose to participate in extracurricular activities outside the house have a quadruple workload. domestic work, children, and jobs outside the home make up the workload. the gender roles of domestic labour and childcare are obstacles to women’s engagement in public life, as evidenced by this argument. pa ge 33 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 32-42, 2025 everyone benefits from education, but girls and women in particular benefit more from it. this is true not only because education provides a gateway to other opportunities, but also because a woman’s educational accomplishments can have a long-term impact on their family and generations. short and greer (2002) state that, educated women are essential con-tributors to nationwide development and engage efficaciously in society’s economic and political life (short & greer, 2002). nonetheless, societal conventions, traditions, and so-cio-economic constraints make it extremely hard for females to reach optimal levels on the academic ladder. during the last decade, ghana has witnessed a significant rise in the number of post-secondary institutions. this has made a significant contribution to the country’s increased educational access. adofo (2013) who looked at the challenges of student nursing mothers in tertiary schools in the greater accra region highlights the incapacities of ghanaian post-secondary institutions concerning the provision of spe-cial policies to help mitigate the challenges of student nursing mothers (adofo, 2013). though adofo mentions the fact that special tutorial sessions are organized for these student nursing mothers, there is no mention of on-campus daycare centers and breastfeeding rooms which were recommendations from his respondents. it has become crucial for women to combine their pursuit of higher education with childbirth due to their reproductive duties. as a result, student nursing mothers have become a phenomenon in numerous higher educational in-stitutions. such occurrence has created various obstacles for student nursing mothers, such as the unavailability of lacta-tion rooms and appropriate places for the babysitters who accompany them, as well as the fact that the home setting may present other obstacles that hinder the nursing mother from leaving the kid at home. it is impossible to overstate the impact of poor support networks in institutions and at home on academic performance, child care, and other household responsibilities. as a result, the purpose of this study is to explore the problems and coping methods faced by student nursing mothers who juggle family and academic responsi-bilities. statement of the problem more women are venturing into academia and, more importantly, women in the maternal period of their lives. as a result of the increase in enrolment at the tertiary level con-cerning women in education, there have been numerous challenges for student mothers which comprise the fact that universities, colleges, and other tertiary institutions lack facilities such as lactation rooms and appropriate places for the babies. egenti & omoruyi (2011) establishes, the inconvenience, stress, and trauma these student nursing mothers ex-perience make them feel emotionally, psychologically, and physically unfit for any programme of study they pursue at the tertiary level (egenti & omoruyi, 2011). it is impossible to overstate the impact of poor support networks in institutions and at home on academic work, child care, and financial support. this research aims to explore the problems of student mothers who mix family duties and academic pursuits at the teacher training college level in terms of child care, academic pursuits, financial concerns, and coping strategies or mechanisms. there have been many empirical studies conducted in this area. however, their focus has been on the general challenges that students face in the various regular universities. few of these studies focused on student mothers in regular universi-ties (bruening et al., 2017). however, fewer studies have looked into the challenges of students in teacher training colleges, especially those in ghana. in ghana, adofo (2013) looked at the challenges of nursing mothers but her focus was on tertiary institutions in the greater accra region of ghana (adofo, 2013). more so, amos, amoako, antwi, and amoah (2021) looked at motherhood and higher education at the university of education-winneba using the descriptive phe-nomenological design (amos et al., 2017). finally, dankyi, dankyi, and minadzi (2019) conducted a study on the “struggles and coping strategies of student mothers at the university of cape coast” with a concentration on distance education students (dankyi et al., 2019). this study will be conducted at st. ambrose college of education in the bono region of ghana. contextually, the subjects of this research are teacher trainees who are expected to be on campus all the time. this study therefore is among few if any studies that target the maternal-mothers in teacher training colleges, spe-cifically st. ambrose college of education. purpose of the study the main thrust of the study is to explore maternal challenges and their related impacts on academic life amongst teacher trainees in the various tertiary institutions, especially the st. ambrose college of education in the bono region of ghana. it identifies the challenges that nursing mothers go through in their tertiary education and how these challenges impact their academic life in the school. this study further explores the strategies the nursing mothers use in handling these challenges. methodology the study sought to explore the challenges faced by student mothers in st. ambrose college of education and their related impact on the education of these students. it also considered the various techniques employed by the student mothers in coping with the challenges. the researchers adopted the case study design to address the research questions, which to a larger extent explored a qualitative research design. this approach allowed the researchers to collect and analyze data, and presented results with much convenience. the sample size numbered up to fifteen (15) participants to answer questions through interviews. this was achieved through the implementation of convenience and purposive sampling techniques. the instrument used for data collection was principally pa ge 34 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 32-42, 2025 or primarily an interview. data were analyzed based on themes in relation to the research questions. a descriptive form of analysis was therefore implemented to give a better under-standing of the challenges student mothers of st. ambrose college of education face and various techniques and strategies employed by these student mothers in dealing with these challenges. literature review the fundamental theory and relevant material reviewed to guide the investigation are discussed in this chapter. the role conflict theory is the theoretical foundation that underpins the research. gender or traditional roles and education, mo-tivation for women’s education, obstacles of student nursing mothers, various effects on them, and support systems ac-cessible for student nursing mothers will all be examined in the literature. theoretical framework role conflict theory parsons (1977) role conflict theory serves as the study’s theoretical basis. parsons (1977) states that a wellfunctioning society requires social structures with duties and ranks (par-sons, 1977). every status comes with a set of responsibilities that the person in that position is expected to fulfill without fail. one individual, according to parsons, may and does play multiple roles at the same time. in some ways, a person can be thought of as a “composition” of the various roles he or she plays. most people nowadays would respond by referring to their societal responsibilities when asked to identify them-selves. a student nursing mother, for example, may identify as a nursing mother, a student, a wife, and, in some situations, a career woman as well. in the same vein, a father may identify himself as a soldier, a family head, and an opinion leader. according to burr (1972), individuals perform diverse roles at any given stage within the life course (burr, 1972). all through life, individuals transfer into and out of different roles, keeping some, leaving others behind, and assuming new roles. for example, the student nursing mother assumes the role of a student when she enrolls in any academic institution and as soon as she finishes the course, she stops performing the role of a student. also, the transition into one role can affect the transition into another. for instance, women in germany and other european countries are delaying their conversion to the roles of wife and mother as they extend their time in per-forming the role of a student. it is established that remaining a student delays the change to adulthood and likewise to normatively associate adult roles. role conflict, according to wolf (2011), is a confrontation between two or more of a person’s roles, or conflicting ele-ments within the same role (wolf, 2011). different require-ments, expectations, beliefs, and/or attitudes are examples of incompatibilities. role conflict can also arise from conflicting requirements within the same role. intrarole conflict, which refers to mismatched requirements inside the same job, and inter-role conflict, which refers to conflicting expectations from different roles within the same individual, are the two categories of role conflict outlined by (wolf, 2011). there are two ways that intrarole conflict might occur. for starters, various people may have differing ideas on what constitutes a specific role’s needs and expectations. dorcas’ definition of being a good mother can include working outside the home. she may also consider that providing social and emotional support to her family is an important part of her mothering duty. dorcas’ mother-in-law, on the other hand, might believe that to be a good mother, dorcas would have to quit her job and care for her children 24 hours a day, seven days a week. dorcas is likely to face intra-role conflict as a result of these divergent perceptions of a mother’s role. on the flip side, inter-role conflict arises when the requirements and prospects of one role interfere or conflict with those of another role. dorcas’ role as a mother is probable to conflict sometimes with her role as a student and a worker. on the event of one of her children becoming ill, dorcas may discover that the demands of her job such as staying at work are in conflict with the demands of motherhood such as taking her child to the doctor, as said by (wolf, 2011). as stated by leslie and thompson (2003), individuals may experience cognitive dissonance as a result of the prescribed sets of behaviour that characterize roles (leslie & thompson, 2003). role conflict is a type of social conflict that occurs when a person is obliged to play two incompatible roles sim-ultaneously. for example, a person’s position as a mother and her position as a student may conflict when her child’s requests for time and attention divert her attention away from her studies. similarly, role confusion happens when a person has difficulty deciding which role he or she should perform, even though the roles are not necessarily incompatible. if a college student meets his teacher as a fellow guest at a social occasion, he must decide whether to treat him as a student or a peer. consequences of role conflict role conflict has been linked to both positive and negative outcomes in studies. the challenges linked with various posi-tions have received a lot of attention. among the popular role theory concepts are role overload and role strain. role over-load refers to the inability to fulfill the demands of all positions due to a shortage of resources, for example, time and energy. role strain is caused by role overload and conflict, which makes it harder to meet role expectations (goode, 1960). as noted by egenti and omoruyi (2011), the kind of stress and trauma experienced by student mothers causes them to be physically, psychologically, and emotionally averse to the program (egenti & omoruyi, 2011). as a result, several stu-dents have dropped out of the program. in addition, some students must balance their studies with pregnancy, while others must milk their newborn newborns. this adds to their stress and has caused some pa ge 35 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 32-42, 2025 to fail their tests, while others have had to drop out entirely. as a result of home pressures and obligations, some students arrive late for lectures or even miss lectures for an extended length of time. all of this has an impact on their learning and accomplishment (egenti & omoruyi, 2011). smith (2019) as found in adofo (2013), on the other hand, discovered that financial concerns had a negative impact on both pregnant and nursing students’ ac-ademics in a study (adofo, 2013). students briefly escaped from various educational activities or programmes such as lectures to raise finances and/or other required materials when financial resources were insufficient to support them. fur-thermore, najjuma & kyarugahe (2006) found in their study that student mothers face numerous challenges as a result of their triple duties of productive, reproductive, and community service, all of which are likely to cause stress, worry, and, in some cases, sickness (najjuma & kyarugahe, 2006). as a result, they recommended that student mothers be provided with significant support services such as counseling to better handle the problems brought on by the hurdles they confront. techniques used by maternal mothers in coping with role conflicts hall identified three forms of coping behaviours for dealing with inter-role conflict, as referenced by adofo (2013). 1) type i coping (structural role redefinition) entails making an intentional effort to deal directly with role senders to reduce conflict by agreeing on a new set of prospects. relocating and sharing one’s role tasks is one method to change structural demands (such as washing, cleaning, and child care). 2) type ii coping (personal role redefinition) entails altering an individual’s perception of the role demands placed on them by others. it includes altering one’s expectations. 3) type iii coping (reactive role behaviour) comprises seeking to boost role performance while not attempt to alter the structural or personal definition of one’s roles (adofo, 2013). on the other hand, najjuma & kyarugahe (2006) discovered that some mothers either carry their children with them or hire domestic help to assist them (najjuma & kyarugahe, 2006). other mothers leave their children with neighbors, relatives, or older siblings, or send them to daycare centers. support from family members, particularly husbands, parents, cousins, grandparents, and other relatives, is an important coping mechanism. all participants employed physical sup-port from husbands in a study on coping techniques adopted by student mothers to be successful in occupational therapy school. 93.3 percent of the participants relied on emotional support from their husbands and peers, as well as time management skills. according to the findings, 100 percent of those who gave birth to their first child in school said they relied on emotional and physical assistance from their parents and husbands, as well as time management skills. conceptual framework the researchers created this framework based on their readings. the researchers envisage that, maternal challenges have the tendency of impacting the academics of stu-dent-mothers. thus, when there are maximum support sys-tems in place, it will lead to a well-balanced maternal mother whose academics is not adversely affected as shown in the figure below. figure 1. conceptual framework on maternal challenges and their impact on education, and how the challenges can be contained. pa ge 36 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 32-42, 2025 empirical evidence challenges of student maternal mothers even though these women are still in school, they are responsible for their children’s homework, childcare, and es-tablishing cultural values. the child may feel lonely and ig-nored in terms of parental control, training, and supervision when the mother is absent, as it may be in the case of a student nursing mother. this may have an impact on the mother’s emotions while she is at school. according to jarvis (1995), adults who are over-excited or worried are unable to learn as well as those who are stimulated to respond to their learning setting in a regular way (jarvis, 1995). anxiety, it was dis-covered, may obstruct even the possession of new motor skills, and it has a tendency to obstruct and prevent innovative cognition. the timetable for lectures, tutorials, discussions, presentations, and other academic programmes on campus are major obstacles that studentmothers face. according to dalian (1987), college courses are time-structured and strict, requiring a woman to be present in classes compulsorily every time rather than when they fit into her schedule (dalian, 1987). she must study for examinations, prepare for her assignments, and redirect her attention to the things she must complete. unlike a 9 am to 5 pm employment, university courses do not permit one to punch out at a specific time and leave work behind but rather consume one’s thoughts and emotions all through the day. when mothers spend significant periods away from their children, the children do not receive what they require most, such as their mother’s time and attention. un-doubtedly, no one can perform the function of a mother like herself. thus, a sub-stitute personality can lessen a child’s yearning for his or her mother, but it cannot replace her. if the aforementioned issues remain, student nursing mothers will have the challenge of efficiently balancing their obligations as mothers and/or wives with their academic work. breastfeeding is also one of the obstacles that most nursing women, particularly those with newborns, face. breastfeeding has several advantages for both the mother and the baby. breastfeeding, like childbirth, gives women confidence in themselves and their abilities. breastfeeding protects babies from a variety of ailments, including otitis media, respiratory infections, and diarrhea. in 2003, the world health organization recommended that babies should be given only breast milk until they are six months old, where possible. banda (2000) conducted research at domasi college of education in malawi on ‘challenges in distance education: experiences of female teacher-learners’ and discovered that nursing mothers with babies carry along with them babysitters, the majority of whom are not mature enough to take excellent care of the newborns (banda, 2000). as a result, some studentmothers miss ses-sions since they are frequently required to attend to crying babies right in the teaching area. some newborns become ill, putting pressure on their mothers who must transport them to hospitals. during the residential session in 2002, one teach-er-learner lost her kid, and her husband blamed her in-volvement in the program for the kid’s death. furthermore, teacher students who bring babies to class claimed that they do not have adequate exam preparation. they are unable to focus on their studies or the actual drafting of exam papers. it is not uncommon for a student mother to be sitting for a test or exam and she hears her baby crying just outside the exami-nation hall. such student easily loses focus. other issues connected with teacher-learners who carry their babies along with them to college, according to banda’s research, are a lack of room in the hostels and improper food for the newborns. in st. ambrose college of education, the whole journey starts from when they become pregnant; when pregnant, they sleep on campus with their colleagues. after they give birth, they rent a place outside of campus to stay. nonetheless, there is a need to investigate strategies that could help these teacher-learners handle their challenges; establishing an infant care center, for example. as a result, there is a clear need for tertiary institutions to develop a policy framework that can assist in addressing the challenges faced by these numerous students who also have a right to formal education. as indicated by egenti & omoruyi (2011), the trauma or stress that student mothers experience renders them psychologically averse to the program (egenti & omoruyi, 2011). as a result, some of their coworkers have dropped out of the program. they are concerned for their children as mothers. in addition, some students must balance their studies with pregnancy, while others must milk their newborns. some students have had to go to bed during their lessons or even during exams. this adds to their stress and has caused some to fail their tests, while others have had to drop out entirely. because of domestic pressures or responsibilities, some students arrive late for lectures or even miss lectures for an extended period of time. all of this has an impact on their learning and accomplish-ment (egenti & omoruyi, 2011). diverse effects of the challenges on ma-ternal mothers the difficulties that student nursing mothers face may have a variety of effects on them. this could be due to the role conflicts they face, which limit the amount of time they have to study, the cost of childcare for their children, and health issues. according to a study done by andres & finlay (2005), some participants traded babysitting time with friends to lower the cost of babysitting (andres & finlay, 2005). although they saved money, they made up for it by studying all night before an exam. their effectiveness was hampered by a lack of sleep. sleep deprivation was frequent, and as a result, deci-sion-making processes were slowed. most re-entering women slept less than five hours each night as they juggled academic and household commitments, which have been shown to impair brain processes like focus, memory, the ability to reason, and decisiveness (andres & finlay, 2005). some mothers take their babies with them, hire domestic pa ge 37 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 32-42, 2025 workers, leave their children with neighbors, relatives, elder siblings, or send them to day care centers. this situation may prevent those women from concentrating on their books, while also putting their children in danger (najjuma & kyarugahe, 2006). in order to care for their babies, some mothers are obliged to change their programs or courses. as a result, mothers face considerable obstacles in pursuing a university degree, the majority of which are somewhat un-known, and some of which are probable to ensure poor per-formance and, in some cases, inability to complete their studies. however, even though continuing to study is difficult for student mothers, they are doing so in larger numbers (najjuma & kyarugahe, 2006). according to meindl, re-turning to school as an adult, whether after a few years or several decades, is a tremendous chance for personal growth and development (meindl, 2009). however, it can also pro-vide unique personal and interpersonal obstacles, leading to stress and interfering with academic or skill acquisition goals. milner-home, power, and dennis (1996) as cited in adofo (2013) support this by stating that the conventional image of a mother is one of selfsacrifice (adofo, 2013). if treated as such, the nursing mother is likely to become exhausted as she juggles her education and her parental responsibilities. fur-thermore, as quoted in mamhute (2011), the duties of being a parent and being a student are not only incompatible but also stressful, causing significant problems for the nursing mother (mamhute, 2011). returning to school is both thrilling and emotionally and mentally stimulating. external manifesta-tions of inward turmoil and selfexamination may include increased physical and mental tiredness, which can lead to minor depression and social withdrawal, but through research, it is assured that even if it feels “destabilizing,” returning to school and changing careers is sensible responses to discontent and unmet needs by stable people. according to welch (1990) as found in adofo (2013), being a mother entails being fre-quently interrupted and receptive to the demands of others, which makes it difficult to build the attention required to write and study as cited in dalian (1987). according to meindl (2009), the psychological stress of new experiences and challenges includes: 1) feelings of inadequacy in comparison to younger classmates’ abilities in an unpleasant mix with emotions of superiority based on one’s achievements in life 2) there may be tension in group efforts as a result of this. 3) isolation from student peers on a social level (meindl, 2009). furthermore, the drudgery of juggling many activities may drive most student mothers to skip lectures and tutorials. as cited in adofo (2013), harrison’s (2008) research on at-tendance to tutorials and student performance highlighted that students who attended all or most tutorials obtained a mean final grade in the course that was slightly over a full letter grade relatively higher than students who were present at none or only a few tutorials. in a paper on why students refuse to attend lectures and tutorials (adofo, 2013). kottasz (2005) claims that missing lectures is an individual’s decision based on both ability and willingness to attend. many things will impact an individual’s decision to attend a presentation. at one angle, there will be circumstances that make attendance almost impossible, while at another angle, there is no justifi-cation for refusal to attend (kottasz, 2005). kottasz (2005) opined that students were more concerned and strained about attending tutorials than lectures, primarily because participa-tion was a central part of the learning process (kottasz, 2005). women’s education may have a significant impact on their relationships and marriages. according to suitor (1987), the loss in happiness in marriage among full-time students and their respective husbands appears to be linked to changes in women’s home role performance over time, as well as hus-bands’ reactions to those changes (suitor, 1987). suitor conducted a study in which forty-four married mothers and thirty-three of their husbands were questioned in depth at the start and conclusion of the women’s first year of enrolment at a university to study. the study found that when women return to school, there are changes in marital happiness. couples whose spouses were full-time students reported lower happiness in marriage over the year, while couples whose wives were part-time students reported minimal change. husbands’ marital contentment changed significantly more than that of wives. the student’s mother’s financial circum-stances may also play a role in her capacity to complete the course successfully. mamhute (2011) discovered that finan-cial difficulties had a negative impact on both pregnant and nursing students’ education (mamhute, 2011). students briefly absented themselves from various educational activi-ties or programmes such as lectures to raise finances and/or other required materials when financial resources were insuf-ficient to support them. even when the student mothers did not abandon their studies and carried on as if everything was fine, such concern had an academic benefit. support systems available for student maternal mothers fricke (2010), writing about the importance of providing adequate support or assistance for student nursing mothers who wish to breastfeed their children, stated that women and men should equally be treated (fricke, 2010). men and women, on the other hand, should be treated differently when treating them equally leads to inequality. pregnancy is a good example; women get pregnant while men do not. women’s reproductive capacity must be considered for them to have equal possibilities. if the law and society together do not take these concerns into account, women will be forced to confine themselves to the private realm if they wish to exercise their reproductive right to have children. several women give birth and subsequently return to work or study in the public domain. breastfeeding has several advantages, pa ge 38 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 32-42, 2025 including health ben-efits for mother and baby, cost savings, and the promotion of an emotional attachment between mother and her baby. if the public domain does not support a woman’s desire to breastfeed by enabling her to offer her milk during her work or school day, she will be compelled to leave the workforce or school, or, more probable, she will discontinue breastfeeding, denying her newborn of the many benefits it provides. ac-cording to pinnilla & munoz (2005), data reveals that stu-dent-mothers’ academic performance is poorer compared to that of other university students. in practice, student mothers enroll as part-time students, despite the fact that most ven-ezuelan state colleges do not recognize this category (pinnilla & munoz, 2005). almost all of a student’s mother’s life situ-ations have a detrimental impact on her academic achievement. the single factor that improves a student mother’s performance is the assistance she receives from her extended family in caring for her children. pinnilla & munoz (2005) state that student mothers’ ability to enroll in higher education largely owes to the assistance they obtain from their extended family (pinnilla & munoz, 2005). when asked how student mothers who bring newborns to college should be helped, several suggested the following: 1) provide spacious accommodations 2) whenever their babies or nannies become ill, provide them with regular transportation to the hospital. 3) provide a separate room, or sick bay, for sick student-mothers. 4) encourage student-mothers to utilize contraception (banda, 2000). the availability of breastfeeding rooms in several institutions, as given by some universities in the united states, will go a long way toward easing the obstacles student nursing mothers face. lactation rooms, for example, are available at columbia university to assist nursing women returning to work, school, or campus. for women who need to express breast milk while on campus, each facility provides a clean, secure, and private environment. equally significant is the fact that for female students in mensa, ahiatrogah & deku (2008), advice and counseling are just as necessary as extra tuition (mensa et al., 2008). the role that counseling plays in the life of these studentmothers cannot be understated as it helps them to cope with the challenges already intimated. according to najjuma & kyarugahe (2006), student mothers face a triple duty of productive, reproductive, and communal duty, which is likely to cause stress, worry, and, in some cases, sickness (najjuma & kyarugahe, 2006). as a result, it is suggested that university officials make an effort to provide counseling services ex-pressly for student mothers to help them better manage the difficulties brought on by the problems they confront. uni-versities providing space for mothers to share their experiences can also assist them in identifying ways that can boost their studying. another difficulty that prevents mothers from concentrating on their education is the absence of facilities, as they must think about their babies who have been left someplace. university officials should explore providing housing for nursing mothers at the university or establishing daycare centers on campus to accommodate parents with young children (najjuma & kyarugahe, 2006). on-campus child care is the most effective strategy to address these in-herent disadvantages for student nursing mothers. according to research, when student parents have access to on-campus child care, their graduation rates are much higher, and stu-dents are more likely to stay in school and graduate in fewer years with higher grades (gasser & gasser, 2010). aside from these very basic acts of support for student parents, another significant project is to assist student nursing mothers in de-veloping a campus support structure or network. this could be in the shape of a student group, a support group, or even a playgroup (gasser & gasser, 2010). schools and other childcare facilities have lately sprung up to address some of the issues that working mothers face. various crèches take infants as young as six months old and have vans that transport them daily from their homes to the school. on the other hand, according to kwagala (1992), as described by najjuma and kyarugahe (2006), some mothers either take their children with them, hire domestic workers, leave their children with neighbors, relatives, and elder siblings, or send them to daycare centers (najjuma & kyarugahe, 2006). another idea worth exploring is to build hostels that can ac-commodate nursing mothers, allowing those who are willing and would be able to stay on campus to do so. this finding backs up onsongo’s (2004) research on ‘promoting gender equity in selected kenyan public universities’ which found that when students were asked what might be done to better the status of student mothers on campus, they mentioned the following: 1) on-campus housing for student mothers should be pro-vided by the university. they claim that this will ensure that everyone has access to clean water and energy. 2) on campus, a daycare center for student mothers should be established. at a cost, mothers can have access to these services. 3) reduce the fees charged to student mothers, particularly the health fees for their sick children (onsongo, 2004). in africa, one coping mechanism that cannot be overlooked is family support, particularly from husbands, cousins, aunts, grandparents, and other relatives. physical support from husbands was employed by all of the participants in a study on coping techniques used by student mothers to be successful in occupational therapy school. 93.3 percent of the participants employed emotional support from their husbands and peers, as well as time management measures, according to grohman and lamm (2009) as cited in adofo (2013). according to the findings, 100 percent of those who had their first child in school said they relied on emotional and physical assistance from their husband and parents, as well as time management skills (adofo, 2013). finally, despite the hurdles, dalian (1987) suggests that student mothers may try to rethink their responsibilities as mothers, as pa ge 39 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 32-42, 2025 well as their expectations of themselves as students, and re-negotiate the assistance or support they obtain from family and friends (dalian, 1987). they might even change their minds about the academic system and their place within it. any or all of these tactics may be used by a student’s mother at some point. data presentation and analysis this study sought to know how maternal mothers in teacher training colleges, taking st. ambrose college of education as a case study, can balance their academic work with mother-hood. the analysis of data was based on themes developed from the data collected. challenges student mothers face the thematic areas that were identified during data collection are presented below. these are academic challenges, challenges faced at home, and other general challenges. academic challenges student mothers face all the respondents mentioned that they lack concentration in class and are not able to pay full attention during lesson delivery. r1 had this to say; “imagine being called from home to inform me that my baby is not feeling well. this makes me lose concentration the whole day”. in recounting her ordeal, r3 said that she normally had to skip classes so that she could go and breastfeed her child. according to r2, she sometimes leaves in the middle of class to attend to her baby. “i get calls from my caretaker that my baby is crying, so i have to leave and attend to him; it is very difficult”, she added. apart from a lack of concentration and attention, it was also realized that student mothers did not have enough time for personal studies. early and late lecture schedules affected the students greatly. this is how r10 narrated her story; “madam, to be frank with you, i get home very tired, and have to take care of my baby. i don’t even get enough time for myself, because i am not able to study for the next day”. one respondent said that there was a time she slept very late because she needed to put the baby to sleep, only for her to miss a quiz the following morning. a respondent mentioned her inability to attend tutorial classes. this is what she had to say; “whenever a tutor schedules a tutorial in the evening, i am not able to attend because i have to be with the baby at home” (r 6). another respondent out of stress said this; “ever since i delivered and brought my baby to school, i have not been able to participate effectively in any group activity given in class, and worst of all, i am always behind time in submitting assignments.” (r7). challenges student mothers face at home this research question explored home-related challenges that student mothers in st. ambrose college of education face. the participants were asked to mention some home-related problems that affect their studies in the college. during the interview, one respondent made it known that she had nobody to help take care of her baby. this was how she put it; “in my case, because i have nobody to take care of my baby, so it is very difficult to do simple house chores. also, whenever i plan to study at home the baby cries for my at-tention. i then have to leave my books and attend to him” (r9). a respondent aptly stated; “immediately i get home after school, i resume full responsibility of taking care of the child. this makes it difficult for me to keep up with school work sometimes” (r12). other challenges student mothers face under this research question, the researchers sought to in-vestigate if there are other challenges faced that do not fall under either academic challenges or challenges faced at home. the following are the responses of the respondents. some of the challenges respondents gave were difficulty in getting accommodation, transportation to and from campus, and financial challenges. almost all the respondents complained about accommodation. that is getting a comfortable place off campus to stay while they take care of their babies since they were not allowed to bring the babies to stay on campus. r10 had this to say; “the very first challenge i faced was to find a place to rent since i delivered three days right after school had reopened”. another respondent complained about finding a nanny for the baby while she was away in school. one other challenge these student mothers faced was the issue of transportation. “i didn’t get a place close to campus, so i had to be moving to and from campus every day. just imagine the distance and the cost involved”; she recounted, (r1). the majority of the respondents spoke about financial challenges. this is what one of the respondents had to say; “i am faced with financial challenges. this is because whatever money there is, it is divided into two. part is used to cater to my needs and the other is used to take care of the baby. this makes it very difficult for me since my parents are the ones who take care of me. life as a mother and a student at the same time is difficult”. another respondent said that things were difficult financially to the extent that her school fees, at the time of the interview, had not been paid. the impact of the challenges faced by student mothers on their academic life all the respondents agreed that the challenges they faced had a grave effect on their academic life. r1 emphatically said that her cgpa has decreased tremendously to the extent that if care is not taken, she might end up graduating with a third class. one respondent has this to say; “i used to be a first-class student, but since i got pregnant and delivered, it is very sad that i can no longer boast of being a first-class student” (r4). some of the respondents claimed that there were times they had to re-write some papers because they could not make the pass mark. pa ge 40 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 32-42, 2025 coping strategies student mothers employ here, the respondents were asked how they could manage or balance their roles as mothers and students at the same time. the responses given showed that most of these student mothers had some sort of assistance. they either hire a nanny or their mothers and partners offer to cater to the children while they go to lectures. r13 for instance answered the question by saying this; “i can cope because i have some help. my mother came to akwamu with me, so that while i am away in school, she will babysit my child”. another respondent made it known that her partner helps to take care of the child. one respondent, however, had something different to say, “madam, it is very difficult for me to blend these two roles., am not able to cope very well, and this puts a lot of stress on me” (r4). role played by st. ambrose college of education to help mitigate these challenges from the interviews conducted, it emerged that the school plays a very important role in mitigating the situation of these maternal mothers. some of the responses from the students are as follows. according to a respondent, her hall tutor was very helpful. “she always counseled me and helped me figure out how to blend my role as a mother and a student. i re-member when i was pregnant and sometimes couldn’t eat food from the dining, my hall tutor allowed me into her home to eat”, she confessed. another respondent expressed her grat-itude to the school authorities for allowing the student mothers to stay out of campus to be able to cater for their babies. one other respondent has this to say; “most often, you are ex-empted from doing housework in the school when you are pregnant”. in the view of r2, exeats are given them to go home when they need be, especially during the times they are pregnant. to her, this helps them a great deal. it also emerged that some tutors took their time to go over lessons some student mothers missed in the course of taking care of their babies. the respondents however raised some concerns on the support they get from the school. according to them, the school can build a block or a structure for nursing mothers. this will help them not miss out greatly on things going on in school. analysis responses from them indicate that these student mothers in st. ambrose college of education face several academic challenges which include lack of concentration and attention, insufficient time for caregiving, and inadequate time for private studies. this finding is supported by engenti and omoruyi (2011) and banda (2000), who were of the view that attending to their newborns and focusing on their academics most often made them lose concentration and attention (egenti & omoruyi, 2011) (banda, 2000). this finding is also confirmed by andres and finlay (2004) who mentioned lack of time for studies as a serious academic challenge nursing mothers face (andres & finlay, 2005). this challenge is a result of the compact nature of the school’s curriculum. usually, the academic timetable is loaded such that a little break is given to students. under such circumstances, it becomes difficult for nursing mothers to get enough time to study their notes and do individual readings in addition to childcare and maintenance. from the numerous discussions on home challenges faced at home, it would not be out of place to suggest that respon-sibilities such as home management and child safety result in serious stress for nursing mothers studying at st. ambrose college of education. nonetheless, egenti and omoruyi (2011) indicate that the inconvenience or stress that nursing mothers experience makes them feel psychologically ill-disposed to-wards their study (egenti & omoruyi, 2011). deducing from the narratives of other challenges facing student mothers of st. ambrose college of education, it can be said that these mothers face a lot of financial constraints because all of them interviewed do not work. so, they solely depend on their parents and partners for support, and in some cases, this kind of support is not forthcoming. this substan-tiates what mamhute (2011) discovered, that financial dif-ficulties had a negative impact on both pregnant and nursing students’ education (mamhute, 2011). the case of student mothers of st. ambrose college of education is not an ex-ception to this discovery. it must be noted, however, that the students, in this case, do not have any source of income, and this makes it more difficult for them when it comes to finan-cial demands. from the various data gathered on the effects of the challenges on the academic life of student mothers, it emerged that the performance of these student mothers is not en-couraging or anything to write home about. this particular claim is in line with the research made by harrison (2008) as cited in adofo (2013) that, students who were present at all or most tutorials attained a mean final grade in the course that was slightly over a full letter grade higher than students who attended none or only a few tutorials (adofo, 2013). pinnilla & munnoz (2005) established that student-mothers academic performance is poorer than that of other university students (pinnilla & munoz, 2005). in the case of student mothers of st. ambrose college of education, some of these mothers had to go through the trouble of re-writing some trailed papers. it was revealed from the discussions that these student mothers depended mostly on supports from their mothers especially, their siblings and partners in some cases. grohman & lamm (2009) in their study realized that emotional support from husbands and friends, and time management strategies were used by 93.3% of nursing mothers. some of the re-spondents in this study however claimed that they found it very difficult to cope or blend their roles as students and then mothers. the role conflict effect is evidenced in this situation, where students are not able to cope very well. pa ge 41 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 32-42, 2025 from the findings, it was known that the management of st. ambrose college of education helps the student mothers in diverse ways. some of which is allowing them to stay outside campus to properly take care of their babies. also, the school makes sure that they (student mothers) are not exempted from activities that will help improve their academics. counseling student mothers is one service given to help stu-dent mothers’ situation. it was revealed however that the student mothers wish there could be a facility on campus where they could stay because moving to and from campus always adds up to their stress. this finding backs up onsongo (2004) research on ‘promoting gender equity in selected kenyan public universities’, which found that when students were asked what might be done to better the status of student mothers on campus, they mentioned that on-campus housing for student mothers should be provided by the university (onsongo, 2004). summary this study sought to explore the challenges faced by student mothers in tertiary institutions in ghana, especially the st. ambrose college of education and their related impact on the education of these students. the study revealed that student mothers are faced with a lot of challenges. some of these challenges were that these student mothers in the tertiary institutions lacked concentration and attention. they also had inadequate time for caregiving and insufficient time for personal studies which normally affected their academic performance. some student mothers claimed that though it was against their will, they were sometimes forced to move out during class sessions to attend to their young ones. this dif-ficulty emanates from the compressed nature of the school’s curriculum. apart from this, the academic calendar of the college is such that there are intermittent breaks, which in the case of these student mothers should be an opportunity where they could catch up on lessons they missed by revising their notes. this is however not the case since these mothers go home and their attentions are focused on their babies. it is therefore difficult for nursing mothers to find time to study their notes and do individual readings coupled with childcare and maintenance. it was further revealed that responsibilities such as home management and child safety accounted for significant stress for nursing mothers studying at st. ambrose college of ed-ucation coupled with financial problems. all student mothers interviewed indicated that they depended solely on either their parents, siblings, or partners for financial support. these people who provided financial support are the same people these student mothers relied on so they could cope as students and mothers. some student mothers however engaged the services of nannies. the major finding of the study had to do with the negative impacts of being a student and a mother at the same have on the academic performance of student mothers of st. ambrose college of education. from the study, it came to light that there was a drastic decline in the academic performances of the student mothers. this is because student mothers find it difficult to concentrate during class hours because of divided attention. they are therefore not able to understand or grasp what is being taught in class. more so, these student mothers are not able to meet deadlines which goes against them sometimes. some of them also had to go through the trouble of re-writing some papers because they could not make the pass mark for those papers. with regards to the role st ambrose college of education played in all these, student mothers confirmed that the college had helped a lot. the school provided counseling services to these student mothers and also made sure they included them in all activities as long as their academics were concerned. the school also allowed them to stay off campus so they could properly care for their young ones. in contrast to this, student mothers suggested that it would have been a nice idea if the school builds facilities for nursing mothers on campus so that the stress of moving back and forth will be reduced. conclusion childbearing, nursing, and parenting whilst being a student should not be a hindrance to successful education at the tertiary level. nonetheless, it is unfortunate that the research reveals that student mothers in st. ambrose college of education face numerous challenges that end up hindering their academic success. some of the challenges they face include lack of concentration during class hours and inadequate time for personal studies which led to poor academic performance. these went to the extent of having some of them re-sit for their papers. as a result of these challenges, these student mothers had to adopt some strategies to cope with the situation. while some of the student mothers rely on their parents, siblings, and partners for support, others go in for the services of nannies to take care of their babies while they study in school. apart from this, the student mothers rely solely on these dependents for financial support since most of them are not working. aca-demically, they rely on their colleagues who are academically sound to help them study. recommendations based on the findings from the study, the researchers see it appropriate to make the following significant recommendations. it is strongly recommended that the colleges and all other tertiary institutions provide a permanent structure that will serve as a lactating as well as resting room for the student mothers, where these mothers can breastfeed and rest while on breaks. this place can also be where the nannies will help take care of the babies while their mothers are in class. this could go a long way to lessen the academic frustration faced by these student mothers. there is also the need to intensify counseling services in the school, especially for new mothers so that they can be able to cope well with their roles as students and mothers pa ge 42 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 32-42, 2025 effectively. this is because combining motherhood with being a student can be stressful. thus, the counseling services offered would go a long way to orient these student mothers to have a dif-ferent perception about their situation. it is also recommended that the national commission for civic education in ghana, especially that of the dormaa east district should intensify the education on parenting, especially single parenting. in this way, people would be made aware of the stress and frustration involved in raising a child single handedly. abbreviations cgpa: cumulative grade point average r1: respondent 1 r1: respondent 2 r1: respondent 3 r1: respondent 4 r1: respondent 5 r1: respondent 6 r1: respondent 7 r1: respondent 8 r1: respondent 9 r1: respondent 10 r1: respondent 11 r1: respondent 12 r1: respondent 13 references adofo, s. 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(2017). the struggle is real: a systematic review of food insecurity on postsecondary education campuses. journal of the academy of nutrition and dietetics, 117(11), 1767-1791. burr, w. r. (1972). role transitions: a reformulation of theory. journal of marriage and the family, 407-416. dalian, e. (1987). the lived experience of student mothers. (masters). the university of british columbia: canada, retrieved from https://dx.doi. org/10.14288/1.0053965 dankyi, j. k., dankyi, l. a., & minadzi, v. m. (2019). struggles and coping strategies of student mothers at the university of cape coast distance education, ghana. creative education, 10(11), 2484-2494. egenti, m., & omoruyi, f. (2011). challenges of women par-ticipation in continuing higher education programme: implications for adult women counselling and education. edo journal of counselling, 4(1-2), 131143. fricke, a. (2010). supporting nursing mothers: gender equity requires adequate lactation rooms. the journal of gender, race & justice, 3(1), 1-2. gasser, h., & gasser, r. f.(2010). facing thefado baby blues? serving student parents on campus. goode, w. j.(1960). a theory of role strain. american sociolog-ical review, 483-496. jarvis, p. (1995) adult and continuing education: theory and practice: psychology press. jekayinfa, a. a. (2009). teaching the informal education skills as catalyst for achieving the millennium development goal of eradicating poverty in nigeria. southern african journal of ed-ucational foundations, 3(1). kapur, r. (2019). roles of women within the society. 2019 retrieved fromhttps://www.researchgate.net/ publication/331065236_roles_of_women_within_ the_society kottasz, r. (2005). reasons for student non-attendance at lectures and tutorials: an analysis. investigations in university teaching and learning, 2(2), 5-16. leslie, h., & thompson, c. (2003). work-family conflict. re-trieved from http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/ downloads/work-family-role-conflict mamhute, r. (2011). the educational challenges of pregnant and nursing adults learners: a case study of morgenster teachers’ college (doctoral dissertation, university of south africa). meindl, s. (2009). mature students: stress and challenges of returning to school. in: thousand oaks. ca: sage publications. mensa, k. o., ahiatrogah, p. d., & deku. (2008). challenges facing female distance learners of the university of cape coast, ghana. gender and behaviour, 6(2), 1751-1764. najjuma, s. m., & kyarugahe, d. t. (2006). studying and par-enting: experiences of student mother in ugandan universities. mtafiti mwafrika (african researchers), 17, 1-18. onsongo, j. (2004). factors affecting women’s participation in university management in kenya. parsons, t. (1977). social systems and the evolution of action theory: free press. pinnilla, b., & munoz, s. (2005). educational opportunities and academic performance; a case study of university student mothers in venezuela. higher education, 50(2). short, p. m., & greer, j. t. (2002). leadership in empowered schools: themes from innovative efforts: eric. suitor, j. j. (1987). marital happiness of returning women students and their husbands: effects of part and full-time enrollment. research in higher education, 27(4), 311-331. wolf, s. t. r. c. (2011). international encyclopedia of the social sciences, retrieved fromhttp://www.encyclopedia.com. pa ge 1 pa ge 8 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) the silent heroes of bocaue: a phenomenology of barangay health workers in responding to the covid-19 pandemic ella joy d. altecin1, renedict b. de leon1*, chellit aika t. gomez1, clare bernadette y. grijalvo1, john paul b. magabo1 mark m. villanueva1 volume 2 issue 4, year 2023 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v2i4.1983 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: august 28, 2023 accepted: september 30, 2023 published: october 13, 2023 as cliché as it may sound, health is indeed wealth. now that everyone faces this global pandemic, well-being matters most to people. since 1991, the department of health handed over primary health services to the lgus. the barangay health centers handle primary health care. each center has trained volunteers called barangay health workers or bhws. the study aimed to delve into the lived experiences of bhws during the pandemic, specifically, it sought to answer the following questions: what is the reason why they chose to be bhws? what adjustments did they make when the pandemic came? what drives them to continue working? how can they handle their personal life and duties as bhws? how do they manage their work amid the pandemic? the study is done with a qualitativephenomenological approach. to gather the needed data, the researchers employed purposive sampling to find participants interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. the interviews were transcribed into words and significant statements were extracted. then, these significant meanings are clustered to create emergent themes. the themes that emerged from the interviews were: justification for becoming bhws, from the height of the pandemic into the new normal, work-life balance: family or work?, and challenges brought by the work and line of duty. the statements are then categorized into themes after an analysis. after the analyses, the researchers came up with the following conclusions: 1) there are various reasons why the informants chose to be bhws, including the benefits, work flexibility, knowledge and experiences, and service to the community. 2) during the pandemic, most informants adjusted in almost all aspects of their work such as the protocols and work hours. 3) most bhws lost time with their families. 4) the bhws experienced numerous challenges in all aspects of their work such as financial, mental, and physical. keywords barangay health workers, primary healthcare, pandemic 1 bocaue institute for history and information, dr. yanga’s colleges, inc., bocaue, bulacan, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: renedictdl@gmail.com introduction as cliché as it may sound, health is indeed wealth. now that everyone faces this global pandemic, well-being matters most to people. since the 1991 local government code enactment, the department of health handed over the primary health services managed by them to the local government units. the barangay health centers and clinics handle primary health care. each center has trained volunteers called barangay health workers or simply, bhws. a barangay health worker is someone who has undergone training programs under any accredited government and non-government organization. they voluntarily render primary health care services in the community after being accredited to function as such by the local health board by the guidelines promulgated by the department of health (poe, 2014). according to the department of health (2015), the basic tasks of bhw’s duty are to (1) monitor the height and weight of the children; (2) offer first aid for emergency cases; (3) immunizations of children; (4) provide health-related information and education; (5) report any disease outbreaks or health problems in their community, and; (6) respond to natural calamities and disasters. undoubtedly, bhws are necessary for a community’s health care. however, the wellness of barangay healthcare workers is essential too. with such scarcity in their number, they cannot afford to be sick or absent, especially in epidemics where immediate treatment is needed. to provide effective, efficient, and appropriate health care services to the public, competent, motivated, and resourceful health workers are required. however, struggles are faced by bhws, especially when facing the “invisible enemy,” such as exposure to diseases, low salaries, side jobs to make ends meet, anger from community members, and vulnerability. bhws faced this every day until a much bigger enemy came, the global pandemic a disease outbreak that spread across the globe. the world health organization first brought the covid-19 epidemic to the public’s awareness on the 31st of december, 2019. it was first reported as a “mysterious disease” by the chinese media. the world health organization (2020), reported that the first detection of the virus was in a hospital in the city of wuhan, people’s republic of china. sars cov2 causes covid-19 or coronavirus disease 2019 (webmd, 2020), which brings viral infection to the respiratory system. the condition can be transmitted through droplets. after two months and over a hundred thousand cases, it is raised to a pandemic status (ducharme, 2020). as of writing, the department of health of the republic of the philippines has recorded more than 3.5 million pa ge 9 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 8-19 2023 confirmed cases of the said virus (2022). more than 50,000 people died battling the disease. on the bright side, more than 90 percent of the confirmed cases have recovered from the virus. at the pandemic’s peak, the country’s healthcare system almost collapsed. the surge led to covid-19-positive individuals staying at makeshift quarantine facilities such as school classrooms, tents, and even container vans (esguerra, 2020). furthermore, there are no available registered nurses or health professionals to cater to the infected individual’s needs; this is when the barangay health workers came in. from taking swabs or test samples to delivering necessities, the bhws took over the duties of healthcare professionals. long before the pandemic, the government proposed the “barangay health workers and services reform act of 2014” for the supposed betterment of the situations of the bhws. it states the following: (1) each barangay health center must have a proper environment with complete apparatus and furniture, lighting, ventilation, running water, and electricity; (2) each barangay health center shall have its performing bhws; (3) a barangay health center shall have a nurse, a midwife, and a barangay healthcare volunteer where the nurse spearheads the operation; (4) the number of employees must be based on the population of the community: a) nurse at least one nurse for a barangay consisting of no more than five thousand (5,000) in population; b) midwife at least one midwife for a barangay consisting of no more than two thousand five hundred (2,500) in population; c) bhw at least one bhw for a barangay consisting of no more than five hundred (500) in population; (5) the salary of a bhw is set at salary grade 1, which is about php 12 000, and; (6) bhws shall receive incentives and benefits as ruled by republic act no. 7883 of 1995 (hazard and subsistence allowances). however, no progress has been made after the bill’s proposal, as it has not been enacted into law. if the bill is passed into law, the benefits proposed could help bhws with their daily expenses and the cost of their living. as stated by a bhw in an interview with lasco (2018), “it is not enough to support my three grandchildren; i only receive a p1,500 honorarium per month. even if i’m a senior citizen, i still work to make a living.” if, in 2018, the bhws experienced this kind of underappreciation, imagine how hard it was for them during the height of the pandemic. in another interview, dr. terence kua (2018) emphasized that bhws are the front liners, and primary care will fall apart without them. however, seeing these accounts of the bhws, it is hard to say that the government has done enough to compensate them rightly. all of these efforts to improve the situation of bhw started as early as the year 1995. the “barangay health workers’ benefits and incentives act of 1995” was enacted in the cause of recognizing the bhw’s effort to perform their duties regularly and accordingly. nevertheless, this law needs proper execution and implementation after 27 years. with the government being mindful that bhws are volunteers, it is unmindful that they are not given the treatment they deserve, such as regular allowance based on salary grades, proper environment, reasonable working hours, and protection from any form of hazards. moreover, the public is unaware of these struggles, making some people look down on them. bhws are always working from behind, and their voices must be heard. research questions the primary pursuit of this research is to delve into the situation and lived experiences of the silent heroes of bocaue during the pandemic, the barangay health workers. furthermore, the study sought to answer the following specific questions: 1. what are their reasons for being barangay health workers? 2. what were their adjustments when the pandemic happened? 3. what drives them to continue working despite the risks of the job? 4. how were they able to handle their personal lives and their duties as bhws? methodology research design the research type that the researchers utilized is the qualitative type of research. qualitative research can be referred to as research that is mainly focused on answering questions like “what” and “why.” crossman (2020) stated that qualitative research is a type of study that interprets the meanings of non-numerical data gathered to better understand social life in specific populations or places. unlike quantitative research, which focuses more on numerical data and statistics, qualitative research focuses more on qualitative data from interviews. as the study focuses on the experiences of barangay health workers, the researchers selected the phenomenological research approach because they considered that this is the most acceptable approach to use for the subject. as stated by nair (2021), phenomenology is a practical method in qualitative research. it allows researchers to put aside their perceptions of a phenomenon and give meaning to participants’ experiences. the phenomenological approach focuses on exploring the experiences that have influenced an individual. the researchers opted to use this method because phenomenological research is a method to comprehend individual conditions in detail. furthermore, this approach is widely used to study lived experiences, understand how human beings think, and expand a researcher’s knowledge about a particular phenomenon. in this research design, interviews are the most suitable method for gathering data because the main focus of the study is to collect information that cannot be expressed as numerical data. specifically, a semi-structured questionnaire is employed in conducting the datagathering procedures. research locale the researchers conducted the study in bocaue, a firstclass municipality in bulacan province in the philippines. pa ge 10 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 8-19 2023 bocaue is politically subdivided into nineteen local villages or barangays. there are four hospitals inside the municipality. the only public hospital is the newlyinaugurated joaquin villanueva medical center, while the three remaining were all privately owned hospitals. the researchers chose the said municipality as the locale of the study because they believe that the absence of a publiclyowned hospital significantly affected the informants’ work amid the covid-19 pandemic. moreover, the ownership of these hospitals is recapitulated in the table below: joaquin villanueva medical center (publicly-owned) dr. yanga’s hospital, inc. (privately-owned) st. paul hospital bulacan, inc. (privately-owned) mt. carmel hospital, inc. (privately-owned) informants the informants of this research were chosen through purposive sampling. according to thoughtco (2020), purposive sampling, also known as subjective sampling, is non-probability sampling. the researchers depended on their assessment in selecting participants who would participate in their study. the researchers picked the informants of this research based on the following criteria set: 1. in the range of ages: 20 – 65 years old. 2. a barangay health worker for at least three years. 3. served as a bhw during the covid-19 pandemic and assigned with at least one of the tasks below: a) directly handled covid-19 positive patients b) covid-19 immunizations c) contact tracing operations instrument the researchers used a semi-structured type of interview. according to doyle (2020), in this type of interview, the interviewer can ask follow-up questions to the informant for a better understanding of the statement the informant has given. the informants agreed to use a voice recording application to record the whole interview. the interview is done conversationally so the informants to express their thoughts much more comfortably. data analysis the researchers used colaizzi’s method of data analysis to understand, describe, and depict the experiences of barangay health workers in responding to the covid-19 pandemic. the main objective of employing this method was to generate a detailed description of the phenomena addressing the challenges of barangay health workers amid the pandemic response of the government (morrow, 2015). according to colaizzi (1978), there are several steps to utilize this method. first, informants’ transcripts of the experiences are read several times to develop a sense of familiarization. secondly, significant statements are extracted to help in understanding the phenomenon. third, meanings are formulated from significant accounts. then, the extracted meanings are organized into theme clusters. fifth, the emergent themes are integrated into a short but detailed description of the phenomenon involving the informants, the bhws. after integrating the emergent themes, the fundamental structure of the phenomenon is formulated. lastly, the researchers validated the study’s findings through the informants (gumarang, 2021). ethical considerations research usually includes learning real-life phenomena, investigating cases, examining behaviors, and enhancing lives differently. in conducting research, it involves vital ethical considerations. ethical considerations in studies are a set of principles that drive the research. the researchers must consistently adhere to a particular code of conduct when gathering data from individuals. moreover, the research’s participants are protected by the republic act 10173 more popularly known as the data privacy act of 2012, as the researchers conduct the datagathering procedure in their presence. voluntary participation the informants were free to opt in or out of the interview at any given time, and the researchers respected their decisions. informed consent the informants were well informed of the research’s aim, benefits, and risks before they agreed to join the study. establishing rigor the researchers established trust with the informants by ensuring them that their responses would not be used other than for research purposes. anonymity and confidentiality any sensitive information collected from the research’s participants, was kept confidential. honesty and integrity the sources of the information the study possesses are properly cited and given credit; no form of infringement of intellectual property is committed. validity and reliability the results obtained by the study were ensured to be accurate and not exaggerated; moreover, the researchers guarantee that the results are not misleading in any form. results and discussion justification for becoming bhws in this emergent theme, the informants shared their reasons for becoming bhws. some informants want to serve and help their community by assisting people who cannot afford hospital visits. they understand that their work can create change as a result of this. another reason is that they anticipate benefits and allowances to meet their wants and needs. the informants also claimed pa ge 11 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 8-19 2023 that they became bhws because a relative, a friend, or an acquaintance thought they would fit as health workers. the informants are aware that they would get crucial basic medical knowledge that they can apply daily by entering this line of duty. lastly, since the majority of the informants have children to look after, they chose to work as bhws because of the work flexibility. their schedule is only once or twice a week, so they do not have to go to work every day. the informants discussed their justifications for becoming bhws. the first cluster under this emergent theme is their desire to help the community. they stated that they want to give back to the community by serving. to testify: “pinili kong maging isang bhw para ako ay makapaglingkod sa taumbayan at sa aming komunidad, barangay...mga kababayan natin.” [i chose to be a bhw so that i can serve the people and our community, the barangay, our fellow citizens…] (bhw3, lines 285-286) “…naisip ko kasi na sa pagiging bhw, parang malaki epekto nun sa ibang tao, kumbaga, may impact yung trabaho ko.” […i thought that being a bhw, it seems like it has a big effect on other people, it seems, my work has an impact]. (bhw8, line 647-648) they chose to become bhws as an act of service and commitment to their community, as evidenced by the informant’s narration. according to van tongeren (2011), engaging in altruistic actions may allow us to find satisfaction because it improves our relationships with other people. they also mentioned that their work has an impact on others, their community, and themselves. to prove this, one informant stated: “…nabigyan ko rin naman ng pagpapa-halaga ang aking trabaho bilang isang bhw sapagkat nagkaroon po ako ng maraming kaibigan at kakilala. natuto rin ako magserbisyo sa aking barangay na isang tagapangalaga lalo na sa mga may sakit.” […i also valued my work as a bhw because i made many friends and acquaintances. i also learned to serve my barangay as a caregiver especially for the sick]. (bhw2, lines 264-26) “inspirayon ko na lang yung mga kabaryo ko. nakatanim na sa puso ko na nais kong trabaho ay ‘yung makakagawa ng impact ba sa mga tao.” [i am just inspired by my covillagerrs. it has been planted in my heart that i want a job that will make an impact on people]. (bhw6, lines 482-483) though they have to serve, the informants also became bhws because of the expected good and fair benefits. to prove this, here are some significant statements identified: “…yung panahon kasing yun, medyo mahirap kami, eh may allowance naman kung papasok ka na bhw…” [that time, we were financially struggling, there was an allowance for becoming bhw]. (bhw8, lines 650-651) as said in the statements above, the informants plan to depend on their allowances and benefits for their families. when families can meet essential needs such as food, housing, and medical care, the situation allows parents to give critical support that children need to mature into productive adults (masten, et al., 2021). in connection, some of the informants might not be bhws today if not for the suggestions of their relatives or friends. here are some statements: “siguro yung unang dahilan ay yung may nagsuggest sa akin na kaibigan ko na bhw din, subukan ko raw…” [perhaps the first reason was that my friend, who happened to be a bhw, suggested that i should also try to become one…] (bhw7, lines 545-546) moreover, the informants know that their job benefits them in the way that they get to learn skills and different medical concepts. “…katulad ng mga anak ko yung mga impormasyon sa bakuna, nai-inform kaagad kami, kumbaga ‘pag may sakit, alam ko ‘yung mga gagawin, saka nagkaroon kami ng kaalaman.” [me and my children were informed ahead of time regarding the vaccine, i know what to do when someone is sick. we are informed…] (bhw1, lines 19-21) from the statements above, the informants can use this knowledge acquired from their jobs to help themselves and their family members in case of emergency. a person needs health literacy skills to find and access care, prevent certain health conditions from worsening, effectively address emergencies, and eventually communicate what is happening. lastly, one of the reasons for becoming a bhw is table 1: justification for becoming bhws theme clusters formulated meanings an act of service • they want to give back to the community by serving as the front line of the primary healthcare system. • in performing their duties, they have learned that their job creates impact. expected salaries and honoraria • they expected a sufficient and fair compensation from serving as bhws. through a recommendation • a family member of a close friend suggested the job. • the bhw got their job through a recommendation of someone in the barangay health center. knowledge and experiences acquired from the job • they are learned the basic skills in responding to certain cases. • they are getting experiences from their job which they can apply in their daily lives. work schedule flexibility • they chose to become bhws because of the flexibility of work schedule. pa ge 12 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 8-19 2023 because of work schedule flexibility. to amplify, here are some statements: “…noong time na iyon, solo parent ako. may dalawa akong anak, kumbaga, iniisip ko yung oras na ito ay hindi naman lagi-laging papasok, kung kailan ka lang nakaschedule, doon ka lang papasok, saka iniisip ko rin kasi na hindi ako pwedeng mag trabaho ng full time” [at that time, i was a single parent and i have two children. with the job, i do not need to go to work all the time, only during my scheduled duty. i thought of that because i cannot work full-time]. (bhw1, lines 12-15) according to doyle (2019), employees value flexible schedules to balance work and non-work responsibilities. flexible schedules are helpful for workers who are raising families, attending graduate school, commuting long distances, traveling, or balancing multiple jobs. from the height of the pandemic into the new normal this emergent theme revolved around the things that the bhws have done before the pandemic surged. they have also discussed what they have done in their response during the pandemic surge. furthermore, they also talked about adjusting to the new norms of performing their duties and responsibilities as the world slowly transitions to the new normal. table 2: from the height of the pandemic into the new normal theme clusters formulated meanings adjustments to the pandemic • the bhws made certain adjustments when the pandemic came. • the bhws have adapted to the nature of the pandemic and the necessary public health protocols. • the bhws had to work longer hours than usual. pandemic response • the bhws partook in the pandemic response of the government. • they have taken care of covid19 positive patients. • they participated in implementing public health protocols and standards. the new normal • the bhws partook in the covid-19 vaccination drive by the government. • they played a role in encouraging the public to get vaccinated. • they are slowly adjusting to the new normal way of performing their work. in this theme cluster, the bhws discussed the adjustments they had made when the pandemic struck. here are some statements gathered: “…yung pinakamalaking adjustment na ginawa ko ay yung pag-iingat na hindi ako mahawa ng virus kasi may apo na rin ako, baby pa ‘yun, kaya tripling ingat talaga.” […the biggest adjustment i made was really taking care of myself so that i would not catch any virus for the reason that i also take care of my grandchild who is still a baby, so i took care of myself three times more]. (bhw8, lines 658-659) “ginawa na lang naming ay ipagpatuloy ang aming trabaho habang patuloy na sumusunod sa mga health protocols. magsuot lang lagi ng mask, social distancing, maghuhugas at mag-alcohol tuwing may hahawakang mga bagay-bagay.” [we carried on with our duties while adhering to the health protocols. we always wear mask, maintain social distancing, wash our hands, and use alcohol after getting in contact with things]. (bhw5, lines 406-409) besides maintaining the health protocols while working, the bhws also had to spend long hours working and going home later than they usually do pre-pandemic. work consumes most of their time, and they barely get to stay at home. to testify: “mas humaba yung oras ng pasok naming, kasi dati 8 hours lang, noon na nagka-virus, maagang papasok, late na late nang uuwi…” [our work shift got extended, back then it was only 8 hours, when the pandemic happened, we come to work so early and then come home very late]. (bhw8, lines 661-662) “humaba ang oras ng trabaho, minsan wala na kaming breaks o mga pahinga man lang para makakain.” [our working hours were extended, there are times that we do not get to have break time to eat or rest]. (bhw6, lines 464-465) as stated above, the informants have to endure prolonged working hours since they are needed. according to williams (2014), long working hours may cause less productivity and increase the risk of having work fatigue. furthermore, it can also cause higher stress levels and lesser social interactions. in connection, bhw plays a crucial role in the government’s pandemic response, so they must work for prolonged hours. they are the people’s link to healthcare facilities and services. bhws are the first point contact of the covid-19-positive patients. their work includes interviewing patients, assessing them, monitoring them, and directly taking care of them. to prove: “nung pandemic, doon parang lahat kami ano, naging alert and active kasi noong una lahat ng darating mula ibang bansa, imo-monitor namin, tatawagin every day, iche-check naming kung nagkaroon ba ng symptoms, o kung sila ba ay nagka-covid.” [during the pandemic, all of us were alert and active. we kept track of those who came overseas, we call them every day to check if they had symptoms or if they had contacted covid-19]. (bhw1, lines 25-28) “kung ano yung bibilhin nilang gamut, kami lahat. magbibigay lang ng reseta tsaka pera, isasanitize nila. pa ge 13 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 8-19 2023 kami pa rin ang maghahatid sa kanila, pagkain nila, lahat, kung ano kailangan nila…” [whatever medicine they, it’s on us, we had to buy everything they need. they just give us the prescriptions and money, they sanitize it, and then we’ll be the ones to get what they need – food and everything that they need]. (bhw6, lines 517-519) the statements above show that the bhws do everything for the safety of the people in their community. according to querri, et al. (2018), this shows the dedication and courage to serve the people. the bhws personally visit houses to conduct health care services for the patients. they also participated in implementing public health protocols and standards in their barangays. here are some statements for confirmation: “nagpapaalala kami na lagi sumunod sa mga health protocols dahil mahirap na kung sila pala ay positive at sila ay magkakalat pa. kumbaga ay tumulong kami na mag-implement ng mga health protocols na inilabas ng gobyerno natin.” [we remind the people to adhere the health protocols because it will be more difficult if they are positive and might spread the virus. in some ways, we aid in the implementation of health protocols coming from our government]. (bhw7, lines 561-563) aside from adhering to public health protocols, the government also suggests taking vaccines now available to aid in the fight against the virus. the bhws are a massive help in the program because they assess people and persuade others to get vaccinated. to quote: “maglalakad kami, yung mga di pa nabakunahan, nagbabahay-bahay kami ng mga gusting mavaccine.” [we are going on a house-to-house run, to check on those who are not yet vaccinated]. (bhw6, lines 476-477) the bhws discussed the government’s approach to persuading the people. as stated by berkowitz (2016), personal interactions can help build trust between people. in relation, the bhws successfully persuaded the people by going door-to-door. as the public advances to the new normal through vaccinations, the informants gradually adjust to the new normal way of doing their tasks. to justify: “naapektuhan ng pandemya ang aming trabaho lalunglalo na sa mga nangyayari sa atin noong nagkapandemya, marami kaming naging obligasyon sa mga tao, lalo na sa may mga sakit, kami ang nagmomonitor sa kanila, nagaassess. kung ano man ang kanilang pangangailangan, kami ang nagbibigay ng suporta sa kanila.” [the pandemic really affected our work, especially with what happened when the pandemic occurred. as our work and obligations include monitoring and assessing the patients, we help them with what they need as we give our support to these people]. (bhw2, lines 235-237) “ngayon naming humupa na ang kasi at hindi pa mataas, at huwag naman sanang tumaas pa, medyo okay na, sa vaccination kami naka-focus ngayon. kumbaga ay nasa adjustment na ako papuntang new normal.” [now that the cases have subsided, hopefully it will not go high again, we are focused on vaccination. we definitely are in the adjustment to new normal]. (bhw7, lines 567-569) new normal adjustments are made slowly to push a smooth transition, unlike the sudden change brought by the pandemic that caused many people to feel stressed. adjustment varies from person to person, but the informants need to adjust immediately to deliver the public’s health services. work-life balance: family or work? under this emergent theme, the informants were asked about their priorities as a bhw in terms of work-life balance. some informants choose work as their priority over family due to financial incapability and heavy work demands. some choose family as their priority over work because they value their relationship with their loved ones more. lastly, some choose to balance their priorities as much as possible to avoid any conflict. table 3: work-life balance: family or work? theme clusters formulated meanings work over family • the bhws prioritize their duties over family bonds. • they prioritize their work due to heavy demands of the job workload. • they prioritize their work because of financial incapability. family over work • the bhws make sure that even though they are working, they still have time for their family. • the bhws prioritize family connections to lessen the stress they have been receiving from work. balanced priorities • the bhws try to balance work and family bonds as much as possible. • the bhws balance their time for work and life to avoid mental and emotional health problems such as burnout and anxiety. the informants discussed their priority as a bhw in the covid-19 pandemic. under this theme, the first theme cluster showed that they chose work as their priority. “...nabawasan ang oras ko sa kanilang pamilya ko, tanggap at nauunawaan naman nila kasi ito ang gusto kong gawin at ito ang sinumpaan kong tungkulin...” [i have reduced my time with my family, they accepted it and understood because this is what i want to do as this is my sworn duty...] (bhw5, lines 423-425) as the informants said in the statements, they prioritized work over being with their family, especially with the heavy demands of their workload. to testify: “noong mataas talaga ang cases, halos wala na akong time para sa mga anak ko, sa asawa ko.” [when the cases were really high, i had almost no time for my children and my husband]. (bhw7, lines 581-582) pa ge 14 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 8-19 2023 “yung oras ko napunta lahat sa trabaho kasi ang hectic ng mga gawain namin...” [i spent all my time at work because our activities are hectic]. (bhw8, line 674) the informants stated how hard it is to be a bhw at the time of the pandemic, especially at times when their financial needs were urgent. to confirm, here are some statements from the transcript: “...parang hindi na daw ako nagpapahinga, sabi ko naman ay ‘okay naman ako.’ kailangang magtrabaho eh para mabuhay tayo, makakain at makaaral kayo.” [they said that i do not seem to be resting anymore, i told them i am okay and i had to work so they can live, eat, and continue their studies]. (bhw7, lines 582-583) the statements above showed how hard it is to be a bhw. according to bishop (2020), thoughtful prioritization allocates time and work to bring the most value in a short period. some informants said that family is their priority than work. the second cluster revolves around choosing family as their priority rather than work. to justify: “...mas inuna ko yung pamilya ko, pero alam naman natin, hindi talaga maiiwasan na mahahati talaga yung mga oras natin tuwing tayo ay nagtratrabaho. kailangan din kasi ng pamilya ko yung trabaho ko eh, kailangan kong kumita para sa kanila. malaki din kasi ang nagiging tulong ng mga natatanggap ko na benepisyo mula sa trabaho eh.” [i put my family first, but we know, it’s inevitable that our time will be divided every time we work. because my family also needs my job, i need to earn money for them. the benefits i receive from work also help a lot]. (bhw3, lines 297-300) the informants are genuinely dedicated to continue working for their families for sustainability. another reason why some informants choose family as their priority is because their family lessens the problems and stress they have. to prove: “pero nito namang mababa na nga ang cases, priority ko na ang pamilya ko, kumbaga para mabawasan ang stress at bigat ng trabaho, para makabawi na rin ako sa mga nagging pagkukulang ko sa kanila nitong pandemya.” [but now that the cases are low, my family is my priority, supposedly to reduce stress and workload, so that i can make up for the shortcomings i had with them in this pandemic]. (bhw7, lines 584-586) the informants prove that prioritization is essential as a bhw, as statements from the informants expressed. according to gilchrist (2018), people with higher salaries felt more comfortable prioritizing family. in connection, bhws tend to prioritize their work since they are the breadwinners of their families. lastly, for this theme, informants tend to be able to synchronize work and family despite the pandemic. to testify: “kumaunti ang oras ko para sa aking pamilya, siyempre, marami rin ang mga gawain lalo na at naging busy ang lahat ng bhw lalo na noong nagkaroon ng pandemya pero sa ganoong paraan nagawa ko ang lahat ng aking tungkulin sa aking trabaho, sinubukan ko itong balansehin sa pamamagitan ng pag-una sa aking mga obligasyon sa aking pamilya.” [i had less time for my family, of course, there is also a lot of work especially and all bhws were busy especially when there was a pandemic surge but that way i did all my duty in my job, i tried it balance by prioritizing my obligations to my family]. (bhw2, lines 243-248) “...noong nagkapandemya... pareho kong priority ang aking trabaho at aking pamilya, kumbaga, balanse ba...” [when the pandemic happened, my job and my family were both my priority, i make sure that i balanced my time]. (bhw5, lines 428-430) the informants’ statements showed how bhws are balancing their family and work. in addition, the informants tend to balance work and family to avoid burnout and stress factors. to justify: “kung tumaas man ulit ang mga cases, di ko na uulitin na sa work lang ang focus, ibabalanse ko na ang priority ko para iwas stress na din at mabawasan ang kumbaga ba ay bigat ng trabaho.” [if the cases rise again, i will not repeat my mistake that my focus is in my work, i will balance my priority to avoid stress as well and reduce the burden of work]. (bhw7, lines 586-588) “pero ngayon na mababa na yung cases, i balance my time na para makabawi ako sa mga anak ko, sa asawa ko, and sa mga apo ko na rin na kakasabi ko nga lang na kakapanganak pa nga lang. ayun, bumabawi ako para sa akin din kasi dahil sa stress na nakukuha ko sa trabaho, yun nagbabawas ako sa pakikipag bonding sa mga kapamilya ko.” [but now that the cases are low, i balance my time so that i can make up for my children, my wife, and my grandchildren who is a newborn. i’m catching up for myself too because of the stress i get at work, that’s how i reduce stress, through bonding with my family members]. (bhw8, lines 675-678) the informants showed that no matter what difficulties happen in being a bhw, they can balance their time for work and their loved ones. according to raising children au (2021), if a person has enough time for their work and family, it lessens the stress and burnout of a person. challenges brought by work and line of duty in this theme, the informants discuss the different challenges and adversities they have faced during the pandemic. according to the informant’s statements, the allowances and benefits they receive are lacking, and it is too small compared to the cost of living nowadays. the informants also pointed out that they had already faced some of these problems even before the pandemic. there are reports of health centers lacking equipment, or the health center itself worsening due to its age. in addition, there are unhospitable communities that make it hard for the bhws to perform their jobs. furthermore, the bhws experience stress and anxiety, mainly caused by the heavy workload and the unpleasant treatment they receive from the communities. lastly, there are many problems within the healthcare system that make it hard for them to respond to the pandemic, one of these problems is the hazard and risks they face in performing their duties, especially when the pandemic comes. pa ge 15 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 8-19 2023 the informants discussed the challenges they faced during the pandemic. the first cluster under this theme revolves around the allowances and benefits they receive. “...sa finance, sa tingin ko... hindi siya sapat. para sa mga ginagawa namin na trabaho, sa tingin ko kulang siya. hindi nga siya salary eh, allowance lang siya, pero okay na rin yung may natatanggap kami, kaysa wala, ‘yun nga lang, medyo maliit talaga siya.” [in financial terms i think it is not enough. for all of the tasks we do in work, i think, it is lacking. actually, it is not “salary,” it is just an allowance, but still, it is better than nothing, the thing is, it is really a small amount]. (bhw3, lines 307-310) as the informants said in the statements above, their allowances are too low and lacking. the benefits they receive alongside their monthly allowance seem not to benefit them. to further explain: “pero kung tututusin talaga, kulang. lalo na yung mga benefits na natatanggap ng mga healthworkers, halos wala.” [but looking at it, it is lacking. especially the benefits that health workers receive, it’s almost nothing]. (bhw6, lines 480-481) “hirap kami ngayon kaya kahit maliit ang benepisyo at allowance na natatanggap, pumapasok pa din ako...” [we are struggling right now, so even if the benefits and allowances we receive are low, i still do my job]. (bhw7, lines 571-572) the informants stated that the allowances they receive are low, but one more thing, aside from these “perks” being insufficient and lacking, there is also a delay in their release. to confirm, here are some statements from the transcript: “siguro noong pandemic lang talaga...isang allowance lang namin lang ang nadelay...” [perhaps because of the pandemic, we had one instance of delayed allowance]. (bhw1, lines 132-134) according to eden health team (2022), an adequate benefits package can cause employees to feel rewarded and appreciated for their efforts. benefits also provide the bhws’ family health and financial stability. but like what the informants have said, the allowances and benefits are low, and sometimes the release is delayed. another major challenge the informants have faced is the government’s lack of support. one aspect where the government lacked support is the lack of training for the bhws to perform their jobs well. to support: “...medyo nakukulangan ako sa mga training na ibinigay sa amin, kasi ang alam ko, may bumababa na mga nagtetraining sa mga bhw kada 6 months yata yun kaso parang minsan lang kami napupuntahan dito kaya parang nakukulangan ako sa training.” [in my opinion, i think we do not have enough training because based on what i know, there are people who train the bhws every six months. though i am not sure, we are only trained a few times that is why we do not have enough training]. (bhw7, lines 589-592) another aspect in which the government lacks support is the condition of the barangay health centers and the equipment inside them. as evidenced: “kulang yung suporta ng gobyerno sa amin, kasi yung mga kagamitan dito sa center, minsan ay nagkukulang...” [the government gives low support to us because the equipment here in the health center are insufficient]. (bhw7, lines 592-593) “...yung mga gamit dito sa center, may mga sira na, meron mga gamit na kailangan namin pero hindi naibibigay.” [the equipment here in the center are broken, the apparatuses that we need are not available]. (bhw8, lines 685-686) according to the statements above, the bhws experience a lack of government support. as a result, the bhws may not perform their job well, contrary to their expectations. when medical equipment is accessible and in good working order, the environment becomes safer for patients, and the health workers become more productive (rupp, 2021). in relation, they have encountered unhospitable community residents in performing their duties, which makes their job more challenging in lieu of table 4: challenges brought by work and line of duty theme clusters formulated meanings delayed low allowance and insufficient benefits • the allowance that they receive is low. • lacking of benefits they receive. • the perks that they are expecting to receive are delayed in release. lack of support from the national and local government • their training is not enough, thus resulting in a lack of skills. • their barangay health center lacks equipment and apparatuses. unhospitable community • the community is unkind and unwelcoming. • the community does not cooperate with the bhws. • oftentimes, the residents stress and anxiety • the bhws experiences stress caused by their relationship with the community people. • the bhws experiences stress caused by the pressure and the heavy workload of their line of duty. hazards and risks • the bhws are exposed to the risk of being infected with a virus, especially in this global pandemic. • aside from the virus, the bhws are also prone to other contagious diseases such as tuberculosis, etc. pa ge 16 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 8-19 2023 lack of government support. to quote: “nakakarinig kami ng kung anu-ano tungkol sa amin, pero tinatanggap lang naming iyon kasi kung feeling nila mali kami, sige go, pero pag alam namin tama kami, ilalagay namin ito sa lugar namin na ito sinabi naming kasi yun yung tama, minsan meron kasing iba na pag tinawagan, galit sayo, pag sinabihan mong ganito, galit pa sayo...” [we hear things that are not good about us, but we just let it slip away. but when we know that we are right, we do it in a proper way. there are people who are angry at us because of the reminders we give to them]. (bhw1, lines 81-85) “…may mga nagagalit din pala sa amin na mga tao.” [there are people who get angry at us…] (bhw8, line 687) with the people being unwelcoming, there is also a tendency for them to not cooperate with the bhws. as said by whyte (2020), mistrust is the default response if trust is not built, and mistrust often becomes prominent in resistance to cooperation. to testify: “...maraming akong na-encounter na hindi nakikipagtulungan, minsan nga, may mga nagagalit pa sa amin, nito namang pandemic, may mga tao na itinatago nila na sila pala ay nagkasakit, inililihim nila.” [i have encountered many people who do not cooperate. there are people who are angry at us, some tried to hide that they are sick and kept it a secret]. (bhw3, lines 291-293) “...may mga hindi din nakikipagtulong, nakikicooperate, kaya nahihirapan kami sa response namin.” [there are those who do not cooperate, it makes our job difficult]. (bhw7, lines 596-597) in the above statements, it is apparent that it is caused by a lack of trust between the bhws and the people. in connection, there are also times that the people send bhws away due to fear and mistrust. here are some statements: “...may mga nangyari noon na tinaboy kami kasi natatakot sila na baka positive pala kami, natatakot sila na mahawa...” [there are times that we were pushed away because they are afraid that we might have been infected with the virus]. (bhw7, lines 595-596) “saka may mga tao din na ayaw kaming palalapitin sa kanila dahil daw baka may dala kami na sakit.” [there were also people who did not want us to get closer to them in fear of getting sick]. (bhw8, lines 687-688) the statements above show that sometimes, fear over something may cause inconvenience to others. in relation, caused by the unpleasant relationship between the bhws and the people, the bhws experienced stress and anxiety. to testify: “...may posibilidad kasi na madiskrimina kami ng mga iba pang tao, kaya hangga’t maaari, nagpapaabot kami ng panawagan sa kanila na huwag naman sanang ganoon ang mangyayari.” [there is a possibility of us being discriminated because of the nature of our work that is why we call on them not to do so]. (bhw4, lines 373-375) “isa pa nga ay minsan diba nga ay may mga masungit na tao, may mga galit sa amin kahit ginagawa lang naman namin ang trabaho namin, yun na-stress na kami nun.” [another thing is that sometimes are rude people, they are angry at us even though we are just doing our job, that’s what stresses us out]. (bhw7, lines 608-609) moreover, in addition to the unkind people of the community, the heavy workload also causes stress to the bhws. here are the statements as a proof: “mahirap ang trabaho ngunit hindi ko na iniinda dahil kung iindahin ko pa ang mga problema, lalo lang bibigat eh” [it is definitely a hard job but i endure it because the more i think about it, the harder it gets]. (bhw5, lines 444-445) “nagdudulot ng stress sa akin yung minsan may mga nagagalit na tao, kasi minsan ang bigat na ng trabaho, kumbaga dumadagdag pa iyon...” [people who are angry at us causes a stress on me. it makes our job even harder]. (bhw8, lines 692-693) the statements above are proof that the bhws’ workload is heavy and it even causes them to feel stressed. excessive work makes people feel rushed, under pressure, and overwhelmed, resulting in stress (ni business info, n.d.). the last cluster under this emergent theme is about the hazards and risks that bhws face when they perform their jobs. one of the hazards is the virus, especially since the world is under a global pandemic. to prove: “...natatakot kami na mahawaan ng mga positibo kasi kami ang nag-ha-handle ng mga positive, kami ang nagmomonitor, may possibility talaga na may risk kang mahawa sa kanila. kaya kailangan sa amin na kumpleto ang vaccine, dalawang dose, at isang booster para di mahawaan.” [we are afraid of getting infected as we handle positive patients. we monitor them that’s why there is a risk of getting infected so we needed a complete vaccine, two doses and a booster shot]. (bhw4, lines 347-350) “takot kami. ‘paano kung mahawa ako’,’paano yung pag uwi ko sa bahay’. sabi ko, ‘diyos ko, paano yung mga anak ko?” [we were scared. ‘what if i get infected?’ ‘what do i do when i get home?’ ‘what about my children?’] (bhw6, lines 496-498) the bhws, like any other human being, are afraid of being infected by the virus too, but what the public sees is the other risks this job has like being infected by other communicable diseases. to testify: “dati ang kinatatakutan namin, yung mga tb, mga tigdas, trangkaso kasi nakakahawa talaga yun” [we used to be afraid of tb, measles, the flu because it’s really contagious]. (bhw7, lines 602-603) “bukod sa covid, may pangamba din kami na baka mahawa kami ng iba pang mga sakit, halimbawa yung mga normal lang, yung ubo, sipon, trangkaso, yung iba naman, yung mga sakit sa balat, yung tuberculosis, saka mga tigdas tigdas.” [aside from covid, we are also worrying of the other diseases like cough, colds, flu, and the other like skin diseases, tuberculosis, and measles]. (bhw8, lines 689-691) though these diseases are common, the bhws do not take them lightly as small diseases can cause lifethreatening situations which may cause their life. being pa ge 17 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 8-19 2023 sick from these diseases also hinders them from serving as a bhw which may lead to a lack of manpower. suggestions from the ground: improving the situation in this theme, the bhws discuss their suggestions to the government to at least make the situation better. they addressed the standardization of their salary and the increase in the compensation they receive. the bhws also ask for definite working hours to avoid overworking. furthermore, they also demand increased government support in terms of facilities and equipment. lastly, they suggest an expansion in the coverage of health insurance. table 5: suggestions from the ground: improving the situation theme clusters formulated meanings increased allowances and standardized salary • the bhws demand for a standardized salary to the government. • the bhws asks for an increase in their monthly allowances to compensate their work. definite working hours • the working hours must be set to avoid overworking of the bhws. increased support in terms of equipment and facilities • the government should provide more modern and suitable facilities to cater the needs of the bhws. • the government should prioritize the upgrade of equipment. expanded health insurance coverage • the bhws demand for the expansion of the coverage of their health insurance in case of them getting sick. the informants discussed their suggestions for improving the situation of bhws. the first theme cluster under this emergent theme is the bhws’ requests regarding their benefits and compensations. they specifically ask for a standardized salary to provide for their financial needs. “hindi pa rin kami naa-appreciate, kasi kahit noong nagkaroon ng pandemic, wala namang dagdag allowance, benefits, ganon pa rin naman kaya medyo nakakalungkot lang talaga. kasi kung paano yung bago mag pandemic, ganoon pa rin.” [we are still not appreciated, when the pandemic happened, there was even no additional allowance and benefits. it saddens me because it is still the same]. (bhw3, lines 321-323) “sa gobyerno, sana ay magkaroon pa sana ng mas mataas na benefits, sa sahod naman sana ay magkaroon kami ng kumbaga ay fixed na sahod.” [for the government, i hope there will be an even higher benefits. in terms of salary, i hope we will receive fixed salaries]. (bhw4, lines 388-389) in the suggestions given by the informants above, a standardized salary is necessary because the compensation will assure the employee that the organization appreciates and recognizes the work they do (wooll, 2017). after all, bhws are needed in the primary healthcare system. in connection, they also ask for increased allowances and benefits as compensation for their work. to testify, here are some statements: “sa gobyerno, kanila sanang makita ang mga sakripisyo namin habang kami ay nagse-serve. sana rin ay kung makita nila iyon, magbigay naman sana sila ng mga kumbaga ay reward sa mga bhw dahil sa tingin ko naman, deserve naman namin na maappreciate man lang kahit sa maliit na mga paraan.” [for the government, i hope that they see our sacrifices while we serve. i also hope that if they have seen that, they will give some reward to the bhws because i think we deserve to be appreciated at least in small ways]. (bhw3, lines 330-333) “dahil na rin kasi sa bigat ng mga hamon na aming kinaharap sa pagtugon sa pandemya sa mga barrio, sana ay madagdagan naman ang aming mga benepisyo...” [perhaps it is because of the weight of the challenges we face in responding to the pandemic in the barrios, hopefully our benefits will at least increase]. (bhw5, lines 446-447) apart from the low salaries and allowances they receive, they are also overworked because they do not have enough resting time. they suggest setting definite working hours for bhws. to confirm this: “sana din magkaroon na ng oras yung trabaho namin para di na masosobrahan ang oras.” [i hope that we have a set time for work so we do not get overworked]. (bhw7, line 628) “sana magkaroon ng naka-set na oras ng trabaho, kasi ngayong pandemya nasubukan ang tatag namin kasi halos walang pahinga eh.” [i hope our work have scheduled time, because we were really challenged by the pandemic, we almost have no rest]. (bhw 8, lines 716-718) according to the international labor organization (2018), definite working time will increase the productivity of an employee while safeguarding their physical and mental health. even though they lack adequate rest, the informants still want to work and help other people when needed. in relation, they are asking the government to provide more modern facilities that are very suitable to cater to the needs of the community. to justify: “mga kagamitang maayos ay center sana na mas kumpleto ang gamit...” [there should be good and enough equipment in the center]. (bhw5, lines 449-450) “yung health center sana ay ma-upgrade ba o marenovate...” [i hope they will upgrade and renovate the health center]. (bhw7, line 626) aside from the facilities, they suggest to the government that it is also crucial to have proper and upgraded equipment to be used at their facilities. it is not just for the health workers who will use the apparatus but also for the people they are going to serve. to prove: “ang mga bagay na gusto kong hilingin ay magkaroon sana tayo ng halimbawa ay magkaroon sana tayo ng pa ge 18 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(4) 8-19 2023 libreng gamot lalo na para sa may mga sakit sa panahon kasi ngayon, hindi kaya ng mga may kapwa nating may sakit ang makapag-pagamot.” [one thing i want to ask is for us to have free supplies of medicine, for those people who could not afford it]. (bhw2, lines 272-275) “pakisama na rin yung mga kagamitan at aparato kasi luma na yung mga gamit eh.” [i hope they will include the apparatuses in the improvement as they are already getting old]. (bhw7, lines 626-627) the last cluster discusses expanding the health insurance coverage for the bhws if they get sick or hurt. as part of their duty, they work all day, get exposed, and are said to be one of the most vulnerable persons during the pandemic. to further explain: “sa panahon naman na kami, ang nangagailangan, sana ay matulungan nila kami. kung magkaroon kami ng sakit, mabigyan sana kami ng priority...” [i hope they will also extend their hands when the time comes that we are the ones who are sick and need help]. (bhw7, lines 389-391) “sana kung kami ay makapag-uuwi ng virus sa aming mga bahay, matulungan sana kami ng gobyerno na makapagpagamot, makaraos ganun ba.” [i hope that if we get sick with the virus, the government will help us get treatment and recover]. (bhw5, line 450-452) the bhws only want help, support, and appreciation for their work because they are the primary attendants of the health system in barangays or communities. the government must listen to them and provide for their needs as health workers. when the government listens to them, the bhws can offer better services. conclusions after analyzing the data gathered from the interviews, the researchers found out that barangay health workers have difficulty performing their tasks since they face different challenges. with the significant statements analyzed, the following conclusions are derived: • there are various reasons why the informants chose to be bhws, it includes the allowances they receive, the experiences and knowledge, through relatives’ and friends’ recommendations. furthermore, the most common response from the informants is the will of serving to the community and help others. • during the pandemic, most informants adjusted almost all aspects of their work, including the protocols they needed to observe and the extended working hours. • in terms of work-life balance, most of them lose time with their families. they also said that they would balance their priorities when an outbreak or surge comes. • the bhws experienced numerous challenges in performing their work, including unhospitable communities and various hazards and risks. some of these challenges emerged even before the pandemic. it includes low allowances and benefits, dilapidated facilities, malfunctioning apparatuses, and stress. recommendations after arriving at the study’s conclusions, the researchers formulated the following recommendations: for the barangay health workers. this study found that barangay health workers need to be well-equipped with the required knowledge and skills; hence, continuous attendance in training and seminars is essential. furthermore, bhws should fully recognize their duties and responsibilities as the front line of primary health care. moreover, establishing a harmonious working environment with co-workers and supervisors is ideal for lessening the pressure from the work. for the community and the public. the study proves that bhws have been experiencing unkind treatment from the communities they have been serving. as recipients of health care services of the bhws, it is a must that they treat them as important figures in their respective communities. appreciating their hard work is a way to show gratitude to them. moreover, the public’s trust and cooperation are also essential in bhws’ duties; hence, the public is encouraged to give their trust so that the bhws will not have a hard time attending to them. for the local and national government. this study is substantial evidence that the long-existing challenges experienced by bhws are still prevalent up to this day. the government should provide enough compensation and advantages to the bhws because they are the backbone of primary healthcare. similarly, the salary must undergo standardization through legislation. furthermore, the bhws also experience difficulties performing their jobs due to a lack of equipment. the local government units can solve this concern through proper budgetary allocation. moreover, the government should fully implement republic act no. 7883, which provides benefits and incentives that will boost the morale of bhws while performing their duties well. for future researchers. the study may be conducted in a new context and angle; in the case of this study, the pandemic’s impact and the challenges experienced by the bhws are the main focus. references berkowitz, b. 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(2020, january 10). coronavirus. https://www.who.int/health-topics/ coronavirus pa ge 1 pa ge 21 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) narratives of language teachers in teaching english in the post-pandemic era: an interpretative phenomenological analysis noel b. larino1*, shara mae u. atis1, pedro p. raymunde jr.1 volume 3 issue 4, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3592 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: august 03, 2024 accepted: september 9, 2024 published: november 11, 2024 the covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to education worldwide, forcing a rapid transition to online learning and fundamentally altering traditional teaching methods. as schools and institutions gradually return to in-person or hybrid models, understanding the narratives of english language teachers is crucial for developing effective pedagogical strategies and policies. this study explored the experiences and perspectives of language teachers in teaching english during the post-pandemic era through an interpretative phenomenological analysis (ipa). the results showed that instructional approaches and developments in technology interact in a complex way. teachers noted a dramatic change in their pedagogy, stressing the need for adaptability, innovation, and the use of digital resources in language learning. furthermore, this study discussed the significant changes brought by the crisis to english teachers’ feedback strategies. this research contributes to the understanding of post-pandemic educational landscapes and offers valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and institutions aiming to support language teachers in adapting a new teaching paradigm. keywords approaches, feedback strategies, pedagogy strategies, post-pandemic, technology 1 davao de oro state college, compostela, davao de oro, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: noel.larino@ddosc.edu.ph introduction in recent times, the field of language education has faced unprecedented challenges due to the global covid-19 pandemic (smith, 2020). this sudden transition posed numerous difficulties, including technological barriers, pedagogical adjustments, and disrupted classroom dynamics (johnson et al., 2020). teachers had little room to make an adjustment to the new mode of teaching and for familiarizing themselves with digital tools for learning. in addition to these challenges, teachers also faced criticism from parents regarding the instructional process on the online platform. this situation has become a new stressor for teachers who are overwhelmed by the demand of their profession (allen et al., 2020). it is crucial to examine the impact of these changes on language education and explore strategies to enhance the effectiveness of postpandemic language teaching (johnson et al., 2020). in indonesia, teachers were not ready to manage online classes. research conducted by churiyah et al. (2020) showed that teachers in rural areas could not deliver online teaching. they relied on providing assignments without sufficient guidance and explanation. furthermore, rasmitadila et al. (2020) found that school from home has posed challenges in terms of technical obstacles, students’ participation, and teachers’ lack of experience dealing with online tools. however, teachers slightly acquired digital teaching competencies as reflected by a disparity between their beliefs and practices about digital learning activities such as what happened in australia (flack et al., 2020), indonesia (nugroho & mutiaraningrum, 2020), and many other contexts. in davao city, the way teachers communicate with students, how they deliver teaching materials, and how they assess students’ performances have massively changed. in such a situation, technology-assisted learning tools are crucial to be consistently utilized by teachers and students at all levels, from elementary and secondary schools to higher education (mahmood, 2021; wahyuningsih & baidi, 2021). in the municipality of new bataan, specifically andap national high school, most language educators were not able to teach their learners effectively because there was an adjustment in how they would conduct the class without any threat of trouble. it was also revealed that there was a problem between their students’ comprehension and their skills in learning and understanding english. in the post-pandemic era, language teachers face a teaching gap due to the digital divide among students, hindering equitable access to online resources. many teachers are still adapting to online teaching methods, leading to differences in the quality of language teaching. the shift to blended learning models and the need for innovative assessment methods pose ongoing challenges for language teachers in the post-pandemic landscape. the researchers would like to conduct this study to look for those language teachers who are struggling and battling in the post-pandemic era. also, seeks to find out and know what their experiences were in conducting their lesson and what their strategies were to cope with this kind of situation. the findings of this study will encourage language teachers to rethink their teaching practices in the new post-pandemic era. moreover, it will identify factors that inhibit or reinforce their practices that might probably make the teaching and learning process successful or not in instructing english, whether in online or on-campus classrooms. this study aimed to pa ge 22 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 explore, gather information, and examine the experiences of teachers in the post-pandemic era. in gathering information, seven language teachers will be selected for the in-depth interview. in order to know the feelings and thoughts of this study’s participants. research objectives this study will explore and analyze language teachers’ stories about their language teaching experiences and strategies in the post-pandemic era. by examining these stories, this study aims to better understand the challenges, innovations and pedagogical changes that language teachers have had to undergo in response to the unique circumstances resulting from caused by the covid-19 pandemic. through qualitative research, this study seeks to uncover valuable lessons and best practices that can help develop effective language teaching methods in the post-pandemic world, thereby improve language teaching and promote student success. specifically, it aims to answer the following questions: 1. what are the experiences of language teachers in teaching english in the post pandemic era specifically in feedbacking strategy? 2. how do they make sense in their experiences in teaching english? scientific basis/theoretical framework the theoretical backbone for this study is grounded in feed backing strategies and educational theories that provide a lens to understand the experiences of language teachers and students in the post-pandemic educational landscape. one key theoretical foundation is the informational processing theory, as proposed by kulhavy and stock (1989)), which viewed feedback as corrective information that strengthened correct responses through reinforcement, and weakened incorrect responses through punishment. this somewhat mechanistic perspective stressed the importance of minimizing errors, but no description of error correction, nor the means for it were presented. another relevant theoretical lens is the seminal work for formative assessment theory, as proposed by sadler (1989). his theoretical exploration built upon a definition of feedback offered by ramaprasad (1983), which referred to feedback as it is found in many different contexts not specifically in education. sadler brought ramaprasad’s definition into education and extended it into such areas as writing assessment or qualitative judgment, which are characterized by multidimensional criteria that cannot be evaluated as correct or incorrect. additionally, the meta-analyzing theory, as proposed by bangert-drowns et al. (1991), presented a five-stage model describing the feedback process. the five stages were: 1) learner’s initial state defined by four elements of interest, goal orientation, self-efficacy, and prior knowledge; 2) a question (or task) that activated the search and retrieval strategies, 3) the learner’s response to the question, 4) followed by the learner’s evaluation of the response and its comparison to the information offered in the feedback, and 5) learners’ subsequent adjustments from this evaluation to their knowledge, self-efficacy, and interest. by employing these theoretical frameworks, including kulhavy and stock’s informational processing theory, sadler’s seminal work for formative assessment theory and bangert-drowns’ meta-analyzing theory, study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the experiences of language teachers and students in the post-pandemic educational landscape. these theories offer valuable insights and analytical lenses through which to interpret the findings and contribute to the broader understanding of the complex dynamics and interactions within language education practices. materials and methods this research study will employ the qualitative research design. in this phase, the phenomenology approach will be employed. phenomenology is a discipline that examines the subjective experiences of individuals involved in research. the objective is to eliminate biases and preconceived notions about human experiences, emotions, and reactions to a specific situation, in order to accurately depict how humans undergo a particular event. it accomplishes this by elucidating the manner in which humans comprehend a certain occurrence (creswell, 2017). the researchers had a key reference for this specific study. the participants were 7 licensed teachers who had been teaching at the secondary level for more than 5 years. the teachers came from compostela national high school and catered to about thirty students. the participants comprehended, internalized, and answered the questions carefully without pressure. in choosing the participants, the researchers used the non-probability sampling method, specifically purposive sampling. they selected participants based on the purpose of the study, ensuring they could respond to its objectives and showed interest in the study. the participants served as the key and living witnesses to their experiences because they had encountered this kind of issue. they were the sources of information to sort out and ascertain in order to unveil the solution to the problem, which was achieved through their voices. additionally, researchers followed specific procedures for data collection, beginning with a preparatory lesson to plan their study. they sought permission from the school principal and endorsements from the davao de oro state college research ethics committee and college president before starting fieldwork. voluntary participation was ensured through informed consent. researchers conducted in-depth, one-on-one interviews using open-ended questions, focusing on participants’ experiences and challenges as post-pandemic english teachers. interviews were audio taped for accuracy, and media and internet resources supported the study. the investigation aimed to develop solutions for the challenges faced by language educators by discussing pa ge 23 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 experiences and coping mechanisms. collected data were used to propose solutions and derive significant findings. subsequently, upon the granting of approval, the participants will receive an informed consent form to be perused by the respondents. after providing the informed consent form, a comprehensive orientation was given regarding the execution of the study, which included an explanation of its significance, purpose, and objectives. upon reaching an agreement on the terms outlined in the informed consent form, they proceeded to sign it prior to conducting the interview. the interview guide will rewrite and present each question in the language that the participants are most comfortable with. furthermore, the participant will receive responses to the questions in english language. furthermore, the participants will be required to sign an informed consent form, which explicitly states that their involvement in the study is completely voluntary. consequently, individuals will have the guarantee that their rights to secrecy and privacy will be upheld, and that the gathered data would be exclusively utilized for the purpose of carrying out the analysis. throughout the interview, there were no occurrences in which the participant could be deceived or exposed to harm; if this were to happen, they are entitled to discontinue their participation in the study. in addition, the researcher will employ braune and clarke’s (2006) methodology in conducting theme analysis on the replies obtained from individual in-depth interviews (idi). the researcher analyzed the transcribed recorded in-depth interviews to identify patterns, fundamental concepts, and themes. these patterns will be utilized to create codes that highlight the common experiences of language teachers in teaching english in the post-pandemic era. in order to obtain more comprehensive data, it is necessary to utilize a significant tool known as thematic analysis. it is feasible to systematically collect information regarding the experiences of the participants. subsequently, the analyst commenced the task of scrutinizing the gathered data. ultimately, the researchers requested the data analyst to identify patterns, and subsequently, they aggregated their discoveries. using this strategy is a customary approach in qualitative research for conducting analysis. results and discussion report of participant findings the participants in the study utilized english language during the in-depth interviews. there are no translated quotes in the results; instead, the researchers presented the data with their actual response. it allowed for a comprehensive understanding of the themes and findings from the interviews relying on specific quotes. table 1: lived experiences of the language teachers in teaching english in the post-pandemic era participants personal experiential themes teacher 1 • teachers struggle with instruction delivery due to gadget access and financial constraints. • descriptive feedback is vital for student improvement and motivation. • maintaining student engagement is challenging but crucial in virtual settings. teacher 2 • diverse feedback formats are essential for student learning and motivation. • pandemic accelerates digital feedback tool adoption for personalized guidance. • lack of physical interaction requires innovative virtual engagement strategies. teacher 3 • technology barriers hinder effective teaching and learning strategies. • teachers adapt teaching methods for online challenges, providing supportive feedback. • positive teaching style fosters student positivity and enhances learning experiences. teacher 4 • authentic assessment in online learning poses challenges for meaningful feedback. • technology usage is crucial for timely and constructive feedback delivery. • limited online access and home distractions hinder student engagement. teacher 5 • online learning reveals technological barriers impacting instruction and feedback. • customized feedback fosters student motivation and improvement. • digital tools integration enhances feedback efficiency and organization. teacher 6 • limited internet access hampers feedback strategies and learning experiences. • diverse feedback strategies enhance communication and learning outcomes. • feedback motivates learners and supports their improvement efforts. teacher 7 • technical challenges hinder effective feedback implementation for teachers. • managing instructional concerns is crucial in online teaching. • positive feedback tone and schedule management are vital in virtual environments. teacher 1 teacher 1 provided insights on her struggles on teaching the language in the post-pandemic era. these specific challenges, such as the struggle with instruction delivery due to gadget access and financial constraints, descriptive feedback which is vital for student improvement and motivation, and maintaining student engagement is challenging but crucial in virtual settings. additionally, pa ge 24 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 these struggles challenge her teaching the language in the post-pandemic era that really needs to address and resolve. teacher 1: personal experiential themes • teachers struggle with instruction delivery due to gadget access and financial constraints. • descriptive feedback is vital for student improvement and motivation. • maintaining student engagement is challenging but crucial in virtual settings. teachers struggle with instruction delivery due to gadget access and financial constraints teacher 1 underscored her experience about teachers’ struggle with instruction delivery due to gadget access and financial constraint. this emphasizes that access to technology plays a crucial role in education. however, schools have some technology resources, they may not be sufficient to meet the needs of all students. teachers often find themselves competing for limited resources such as computer labs or classroom sets of tablets. this scarcity can hinder their ability to integrate technology effectively into their teaching methods, as they may need to resort to traditional, non-digital instructional approaches. additionally, teachers themselves may face financial constraints that hinder their ability to enhance instruction with technology. they might have to purchase teaching materials, software, or even gadgets out of their own pockets, which can be financially burdensome, especially considering that teaching salaries are often modest. “there is difficulty in giving instructions and feedbacks due to the lack of gadget and budget.” teacher 1 in this generation of digitalization and distant learning, educational strategies that create programs and provide human and financial resources to strengthen the integration of information and communication technology (ict) in post-primary education have been highlighted (alghamdi & holland, 2020). although the learning technologies are becoming part of instructional integration in a faceto-face classroom, it is also no doubt that in developing countries, like the philippines, it possesses different challenges like accessibility and affordability (roberts & hernandez, 2019). thereof, lack of proper technologies, poor home learning environments, and restricted access to laboratories and fieldwork are a few of the issues described (barrot, 2021). descriptive feedback is vital for student improvement and motivation teacher 1 recognized the value of descriptive feedback as vital for student improvement and motivation. hence, she believed that descriptive feedback increases engagement by acknowledging students’ efforts and achievements, building their confidence and self-esteem. it also strengthens teacher-student relationships and supports differentiated instruction by tailoring feedback to individual learning needs. thereof, descriptive feedback plays a crucial role in fostering student growth, motivation, and success in the learning process. “it becomes a useful tool [diverse feedback] to increase student’s motivation to achieve their goals and the success of this study.” teacher 1 masantiah, pasiphol and tangdhanakanond (2020) agreed that students need teachers’ feedback to be able to reach their learning and to serve students with recognizing the vital and vulnerable points of their work. additionally, gan et al. (2020) found that students were more likely to act on teacher feedback than to proactively seek feedback, and that english language self-efficacy had a significant influence on both feedback behavior and preference. maintaining student engagement is challenging but crucial in virtual settings teacher 1 also shared that student engagement is challenging but crucial in virtual settings. in virtual environments, students may face distractions, technical issues, and a lack of personal interaction, all of which can impact their engagement levels. however, maintaining engagement is vital because it directly influences students’ motivation, participation, and overall learning experience. “to enhance student engagement, constructive feedbacking provides awareness and facilities students to identify their areas for further improvement encourages them.” teacher 1 teachers were also overwhelmed by many digital tools available on the internet, making it a struggle to differentiate and select appropriate tools for their lessons (sabarinath & quek, 2020). such experience has caused teachers to rethink their pedagogies for student engagement, selection of tools, lesson designs and classroom interactions. students also face challenges in their online learning in that they often find it boring and unengaging, especially when their social needs are neglected in the online environment (dhawan, 2020). teacher 2 teacher 2 navigates various challenges in teaching language in the post-pandemic era, including the need for diverse feedback formats, the adoption of digital feedback tools, and innovative virtual engagement strategies. also, she mentioned that by addressing these challenges with adaptability, creativity, and a student-centered approach, it can effectively support student learning and motivation in a changing educational landscape. teacher 2: personal experiential themes • diverse feedback formats are essential for student learning and motivation. • pandemic accelerates digital feedback tool adoption for personalized guidance. • lack of physical interaction requires innovative virtual engagement strategies. pa ge 25 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 diverse feedback formats are essential for student learning and motivation teacher 2 possesses that diverse feedback formats are essential for student learning and motivation because they cater to individual learning preferences and needs. not all students respond the same way to feedback, so offering a variety of formats ensures that each student receives feedback in a way that resonates with them. whereof, some students may benefit from verbal feedback during one-onone discussions, while others may prefer written feedback that they can review at their own pace. additionally, using different formats such as audio recordings, video demonstrations, or visual annotations allows teachers to provide feedback that is personalized and targeted to specific learning objectives. by accommodating diverse learning styles and preferences, diverse feedback formats can enhance students’ understanding, engagement, and motivation to improve. “feedback in online learning can be a powerful motivator for students. by providing timely and constructive feedback, educators can help students understand their progress, identify areas for improvement and feel supported in their learning journey.” teacher 2 the core aim of feedback is to minimize errors, reduce gaps, enhance one’s knowledge, and acquisition of skills (tan et al. 2020). effective use of feedback improves student achievement. after receiving teacher feedback, students might respond in various ways that differ from the teacher’s expectation(s). indeed, students’ and teachers’ perceptions regarding the quantity and quality of teacher feedback often differ substantially (hattie & clarke, 2019; yang, 2021). pandemic accelerates digital feedback tool adoption for personalized guidance teacher 2 also emphasized that the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital feedback tools for personalized guidance in education. with the shift to remote and hybrid learning models, teachers have increasingly turned to digital platforms to provide timely and individualized feedback to students. these tools offer features such as audio and video recordings, interactive annotations, and real-time commenting, allowing teachers to deliver feedback in various formats tailored to each student’s needs. by leveraging digital feedback tools, teachers can provide more frequent and detailed guidance, track student progress more effectively, and offer personalized support to address specific learning objectives or areas for improvement. this shift towards digital feedback not only enhances the efficiency of the feedback process but also enables teachers to maintain a strong connection with students despite physical distance, ultimately promoting continuous learning and improvement. “during the pandemic, language teachers adopted various feedback strategies to accommodate remote learning, such as providing audio or video feedback.” teacher 2 personalized feedback messages tailored to student demographics, learning performance, and learning behavior (mousavi et al., 2021). also, tetzlaff et al. (2020) called for a concept of personalized education that relies on relevant learner characteristics that are empirically proven to explain variance in learning outcomes. lack of physical interaction requires innovative virtual engagement strategies teacher 2 shared that the lack of physical interaction in virtual learning environments necessitates innovative engagement strategies to foster student participation and connection. traditional classroom interactions, such as face-to-face discussions, group activities, and handson demonstrations, are not easily replicated in online settings. therefore, educators must explore creative approaches to keep students engaged and motivated to participate actively in virtual learning experiences. this may involve leveraging interactive technologies, gamification techniques, multimedia resources, and collaborative platforms to create dynamic and immersive learning environments. by implementing innovative virtual engagement strategies, educators can overcome the limitations of physical distance and promote meaningful interaction, collaboration, and learning in online classrooms. “lack of physical response hinder student engagement online” teacher 2 in an asynchronous online context, student interactions become the key indicator of student behavioral engagement. while visual indicators of physical engagement in the online learning process are not as evident as face-to-face learning (lei et al., 2019). also, the contexts of e-learning implementation revealed that program learning goals, program learning objectives, and identifying implementation challenges are critical in planning and strategizing the use of e-learning (palmerola, 2024). teacher 3 teacher 3 encountered challenges in teaching the language. these challenges specifically include technology barriers hinder effective teaching and learning strategies, teaching methods for online challenges providing supportive feedback, and positive teaching style fosters student positivity and enhances learning experiences. teacher 3: personal experiential themes • technology barriers hinder effective teaching and learning strategies. • teachers adapt teaching methods for online challenges, providing supportive feedback. • positive teaching style fosters student positivity and enhances learning experiences. technology barriers hinder effective teaching and learning strategies teacher 3 provided insights that technology barriers pose significant challenges to effective teaching and learning pa ge 26 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 strategies, particularly in the post-pandemic era where reliance on digital tools is high. these barriers can include limited access to devices, unreliable internet connectivity, and lack of familiarity with digital platforms and tools. when students do not have access to the necessary technology or face connectivity issues, they may struggle to participate fully in online learning activities, leading to gaps in understanding and engagement. additionally, teachers may find it challenging to deliver instruction effectively and provide timely feedback without access to reliable technology. “it’s very challenging during pandemic time. learners cannot use the online platforms due to lacks of cellphone at home.” teacher 3 lack of access to learning tools like computer devices and internet connectivity is another social disadvantage that can exacerbate anxiety in learning (poudel & subedi, 2020). according to beng et al. (2020), a lack of technology and connectivity for online learning has been associated with higher stress levels in students and teachers. teachers adapt teaching methods for online challenges, providing supportive feedback teacher 3 also believed that teachers have had to adapt their teaching methods to meet the challenges posed by online learning. this adaptation involves redesigning lesson plans, utilizing digital platforms, and implementing interactive activities to engage students in virtual classrooms. additionally, providing supportive feedback is crucial in online learning environments. teachers must offer constructive feedback that acknowledges students’ efforts and achievements while maintaining a positive and encouraging teaching style. this supportive feedback helps build students’ confidence, motivation, and resilience, ultimately enhancing their learning experiences in the digital space. “it is always challenging experience; teachers must be always patient and resourceful to provide supportive feedback to the students” teacher 3 teacher must create a coherent learning experience for students with whom they may not meet face‐to‐face and, therefore, must develop new support strategies that maintain motivation and encourage interaction. adapting student‐centered approaches to the online environment has required the development of new skills and changes to teaching practices (bennett, s., & lockyer, l., 2020). teachers reinvent their pedagogy and assessment, but students’ difficulty in understanding instructional goals in the new learning environment poses a major threat to the effective learning process resulting in a lack of creativity, resourcefulness, and innovation out of available tools and skills (doucet et al., 2020). positive teaching style fosters student positivity and enhances learning experiences teacher 3 claimed that a positive teaching style fosters student positivity and enhances learning experiences by creating a supportive and encouraging learning environment. teachers who adopt a positive teaching style demonstrate enthusiasm, encouragement, and belief in their students’ abilities. this positivity helps build students’ confidence, motivation, and resilience, encouraging them to take risks, explore new ideas, and engage actively in learning activities. moreover, a positive teaching style promotes a growth mindset, where students view challenges as opportunities for learning and growth rather than obstacles to overcome. by fostering a positive learning environment, teachers can inspire and empower students to reach their full potential and achieve academic success. “teachers must be positive in her teaching styles in online teaching environment, so as the learners take positive too.” teacher 3 teaching style refers to a pervasive quality of teaching behavior that persists even though the taught content changes (ghanizadeh and jahedizadeh, 2019). therefore, applying positive teaching strategies can therefore foster student engagement and classroom community, especially in the post-pandemic in which social connections are more important and yet harder to establish than ever (chu, t. l., 2022). teacher 4 teacher 4 shared her struggles in teaching the language in the post-pandemic era. these challenges specifically include authentic assessment in online learning poses challenges for meaningful feedback, technology usage is crucial for timely and constructive feedback delivery. also, limited online access and home distractions hinder student engagement. teacher 4: personal experiential themes • authentic assessment in online learning poses challenges for meaningful feedback. • technology usage is crucial for timely and constructive feedback delivery. • limited online access and home distractions hinder student engagement. authentic assessment in online learning poses challenges for meaningful feedback teacher 4 emphasized that authentic assessment in online learning poses challenges for meaningful feedback due to several factors. in traditional face-to-face settings, authentic assessment often involves real-world tasks or projects that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in context. however, replicating these types of assessments in online learning environments can be challenging. one challenge is providing meaningful feedback to students based on their performance in online assessments. without direct observation or interaction, teachers may struggle to provide personalized and constructive feedback that addresses students’ individual strengths and weaknesses. additionally, the asynchronous nature of online learning can result in delays in feedback delivery, impacting students’ ability to reflect on and apply feedback to their learning. pa ge 27 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 “giving o feedback can really be given in the face-toface mode of learning, that was before the pandemic… it was difficult to assess or evaluate the performances and outputs of learners.” teacher 4 assessment is an integral part of the learning process and including authentic assessment, can have many benefits for the learner. they can encourage active student learning, improved achievement and greater retention of information, while also providing students with valuable rea world experiences in a safe, supportive environment (murphy et. al, 2019). also, authentic assessments and timely feedback are essential components of learning. a very crucial part of online distance learning is the availability of helpful formative assessments and timely feedback to the online learner (doucet et. al, 2020). technology usage is crucial for timely and constructive feedback delivery teacher 4 highlighted the significance of technology usage as crucial for timely and constructive feedback delivery in online learning environments. by harnessing digital tools and platforms, teachers can provide personalized feedback, track student progress, and facilitate communication and collaboration, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of feedback interventions and promoting student learning and success. “by directly giving the feedback to the learners through the use of messenger, google meet, ms teams and other online platforms based from the established rubric and ground rules and procedures.” teacher 4 the use of technology for supporting teaching, assessment and feedback to improve working practices and the student experience in a time and resource efficient manner (albinson et. al 2020). also, deeley, s. j. (2019) agreed that using technology may enhance learning in assessment and feedback processes. limited online access and home distractions hinder student engagement teacher 4 shared that limited online access or the lack of reliable internet connectivity and access to digital devices, which can prevent students from fully participating in online classes or accessing course materials. without consistent access to the internet or appropriate devices, students may struggle to attend virtual classes, submit assignments, or engage in online discussions, leading to disengagement and falling behind in their studies. “only few learners can access online, the learner’s lack of concentration probably due to some disturbances present at home and there are challenges in giving feedback to learners.” teacher 4 according to india today (2020), a major stumbling block regarding online learning is the lack of strong internet connection. student may not have a well-equipped facility that may help them in going online for virtual learning platforms that necessitate internet connection. this issue may prevent them from downloading information, present blurred videos, restrict dialogues between teachers and learners, etc. (zalat et al., 2021). teacher 5 teacher 5 shared her struggles in teaching the language in the post-pandemic era. these challenges specifically include online learning reveals technological barriers impacting instruction and feedback, customized feedback fosters student motivation and improvement, and digital tools integration enhances feedback efficiency and organization. teacher 5: personal experiential themes • online learning reveals technological barriers impacting instruction and feedback. • customized feedback fosters student motivation and improvement. • digital tools integration enhances feedback efficiency and organization. online learning reveals technological barriers impacting instruction and feedback teacher 5 discussed that technological barriers also impact feedback processes in online learning. providing timely and constructive feedback relies heavily on digital tools and platforms for communication and collaboration between teachers and students. however, limited access to technology or unreliable internet connectivity can impede feedback delivery, resulting in delays or disruptions in communication. additionally, navigating digital feedback tools and platforms may be challenging for both teachers and students, affecting the quality and effectiveness of feedback interventions. “one of it is the technological barriers, there were lessons that had to be presented using various online tools and platforms for teaching, such as video conferencing but not all students can access to online tools.” teacher 5 broadly identified challenges with e-learning are accessibility, affordability, flexibility, learning pedagogy, life-long learning and educational policy (murgatrotd, 2020). teachers are also reporting barriers to the lack of access to the internet and devices in e-learning implementation (almanthari et al., 2020). moreover, teachers do not have sufficient experience in a fully online learning environment (lase et al., 2021). customized feedback fosters student motivation and improvement teacher 5 elaborated that customized feedback plays a crucial role in fostering student motivation and improvement. by providing feedback tailored to individual student needs, strengths, and areas for growth, educators can create personalized learning experiences that resonate with students and enhance their engagement and motivation. when feedback is customized, students are more likely to perceive it as relevant and meaningful to their learning goals and aspirations. this sense of relevance increases students’ intrinsic motivation to learn and improve, as they see a direct connection between their efforts and the feedback received. “i found giving constructive and customized feedback to student’s works such as assignment and assessments proved pa ge 28 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 to be effective. it really did help students to improve their understanding and performance.” teacher 5 feedback is a powerful means for promoting learning, but not all forms of feedback are equally effective. customized feedback provides a particularly important opportunity for enhancing motivation and achievement among students (koenka, a. c., & anderman, e. m., 2019). also, customized feedback/support about their interactive behaviors and cues provided to teachers’ interactions, student engagement increases (pianta et. al, 2019). digital tools integration enhances feedback efficiency and organization teacher 5 emphasized that integration of digital tools enhances feedback efficiency and organization by automating repetitive tasks, providing tools for data analysis and management, and facilitating communication and collaboration between teachers and students. by leveraging digital tools effectively, educators can streamline the feedback process, improve feedback quality, and ultimately enhance the learning experience for students. “i am using of digital tools like google docs or online grading platforms to provide feedback as they save time and provide clear and organized feedback for students.” teacher 5 digital tools provide an active learning environment increases students’ attention and engagement (kay, macdonald, & digiuseppe, 2019). thereof, regular feedback enables students to monitor their learning progress and discover knowledge gaps (agarwal & bain, 2019). teacher 6 teacher 6 provided insights on her struggles on teaching the language in the post-pandemic era. these challenges specifically include limited internet access hampers feedback strategies and learning experiences, diverse feedback strategies enhance communication and learning outcomes, and feedback motivates learners and supports their improvement efforts. teacher 6: personal experiential themes • limited internet access hampers feedback strategies and learning experiences. • diverse feedback strategies enhance communication and learning outcomes. • feedback motivates learners and supports their improvement efforts. limited internet access hampers feedback strategies and learning experiences teacher 6 shared that limited internet access presents significant challenges for feedback strategies and learning experiences in online environments. when students lack reliable internet connectivity, they may struggle to access digital platforms, submit assignments, or participate in online discussions, hindering their ability to receive timely and meaningful feedback from teachers. without consistent internet access, teachers may find it challenging to deliver feedback promptly and effectively. feedback processes that rely on digital tools and platforms, such as online grading systems or virtual office hours, become inaccessible to students with limited internet connectivity. as a result, students may miss out on valuable feedback opportunities, impacting their learning outcomes and academic progress. “a very evident challenge in effective english language instruction delivery and feedbacking is the concern on internet access…” teacher 6 the lack of student social interaction, poor communication, a shortage of ict resources, and subpar academic results (barrot, 2021). the availability of these learning tools is essential for successful participation in online higher education and feedbacking strategies (kapasia et al., 2020). diverse feedback strategies enhance communication and learning outcomes teacher 6 emphasized that diverse feedback strategies promote active engagement and participation among students. by offering opportunities for self-assessment, peer feedback, and reflection, students become active participants in the feedback process, taking ownership of their learning and development. this fosters a sense of responsibility and accountability, leading to improved learning outcomes. additionally, diverse feedback strategies promote effective communication between teachers and students. this allows for ongoing dialogue, clarification of expectations, and mutual understanding, enhancing the quality of feedback exchanges and fostering positive teacher-student relationships. “the effectivity of a physical communication is still best resource even in feedbacking through online learning.” teacher 6 students need feedback on their performances to improve. giving feedback individually to all students online may be tedious and time taking. lack of it may lead to poor performance. finding a proper method of providing feedback to all the students is difficult for teachers especially in the virtual medium. diverse feedback in any form should be specific, timely, frequent, supportive, and constructive can improve teaching and learning (adarkwah, m., 2021). therefore, diverse feedback affects students’ learning and achievement (hattie & clarke, 2019). feedback motivates learners and supports their improvement efforts teacher 6 discussed that feedback plays a crucial role in motivating learners and supporting their improvement efforts by providing valuable information about their progress, achievements, and areas for growth. when students receive constructive feedback that is specific, timely, and actionable, they gain insights into their pa ge 29 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 strengths and weaknesses, which empowers them to make informed decisions and take proactive steps towards improvement. moreover, feedback serves as a source of encouragement and affirmation, validating students’ efforts and achievements. positive feedback acknowledges students’ accomplishments and reinforces desired behaviors, boosting their confidence and self-esteem. conversely, constructive feedback provides guidance and direction for improvement, helping students identify areas where they can refine their skills and knowledge. “a very common strategy is the constructive criticism on the performance of learners with explanation on how to improve it.” teacher 6 feedback can occur before and after assessment submission, but needs to be useful in order for students to improve their subsequent performance (henderson et. al, 2021). whereof, feedback comments within that process need to be useful to the learner – that is, understandable, sufficiently detailed and usable in order to affect change (ryan et al., 2019). teacher 7 teacher 7 provided insights on his struggles on teaching the language in the post-pandemic era. these challenges specifically include technical challenges hinder effective feedback implementation for teachers, managing instructional concerns is crucial in online teaching, and positive feedback tone and schedule management are vital in virtual environments. teacher 7: personal experiential themes • technical challenges hinder effective feedback implementation for teachers. • managing instructional concerns is crucial in online teaching. • positive feedback tone and schedule management are vital in virtual environments. technical challenges hinder effective feedback implementation for teachers teacher 7 shared that technical challenges can affect the quality and consistency of feedback provided by teachers. limited access to digital resources or unfamiliarity with online feedback mechanisms may result in generic or superficial feedback that lacks specificity and relevance to individual student needs. without proper technical support and resources, teachers may struggle to deliver meaningful and personalized feedback that supports students’ learning and improvement efforts. “for us teachers, the lack of support to technology-based education and lack of technical support for networks is a challenge for effective feedback” teacher 7 everyone needs feedback to grow, especially the students because providing students engage with feedback, it should enhance learning and improve assessment performance (turda, sebastian, 2021). therefore, student perspectives of teacher feedback helped fill the research gap of feedback mechanisms for improving student learning and performance (yang et al., 2019). managing instructional concerns is crucial in online teaching teacher 7 discussed that managing instructional concerns is vital in online teaching because an effective management ensures that learning objectives are met, maintaining the quality of education. also, it facilitates student engagement, fostering a conducive learning environment. clear instructions and communication are essential for understanding and following lessons, especially in virtual settings. furthermore, proper management ensures accurate assessment and feedback, guiding students’ progress effectively. “more on instructional concern online is a must.” teacher 7 management of instruction is a big difficulty for teachers, especially with online learning. understanding the concepts of quality instruction, may need more time. although there is flexibility in time unlike traditional classroom lectures, learners face difficulties in regulating online learning because of repetitive sessions that they take for understanding the concepts (batbaatar & amin, 2021). online teaching almost lacks communication with body language. there are chances that students do not follow the correct meanings and messages which may in turn yield to poor performance or classroom participation (das, 2023). positive feedback tone and schedule management are vital in virtual environments teacher 7 emphasized that in virtual settings, where face-to-face interaction is limited, a positive feedback tone becomes even more critical. encouraging and acknowledging students’ efforts boosts their motivation and engagement, leading to better learning outcomes. positive reinforcement helps create a supportive and encouraging atmosphere, which is essential for maintaining student interest and participation. “the creation of feedback tone (a positive tone) that balances the content is vital online.” teacher 7 organizations are increasingly using virtually collaborating teams to support major strategic initiatives in digital transformation (bartsch et al., 2021). as the importance of teams working remotely increased tremendously due to the covid-19 pandemic, virtual feedback (also known as digital feedback or computer-mediated feedback) has been playing a crucial role in ensuring team collaboration in a virtual work environment (karl et al., 2022). feedback is a powerful intervention for individuals and teams to improve learning, development, and task performance. in this vein, feedback has received considerable research attention as a determinant of individual and team behavior (gabelica et al., 2019). report of all participant findings based on the result of descriptions and transcriptions of the participants, there were four emergent super ordinate themes that surfaced among the thoughts and ideas shared by them during the key informant interview in relation to the english teacher’s teaching experiences in the post pandemic era and their feedbacking strategies. pa ge 30 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 super-ordinate themes 1. upon reflecting on their experiences, the teachers were innovating virtual engagement for feedback delivery. 2. upon reflecting on their experiences, the teachers were fostering positivity in feedbacking approaches. 3. upon reflecting on their experiences, the teachers were overcoming barriers to meaningful feedback in online settings. in presenting the three superordinate themes, the information included specific data from the in-depth interview. upon reflecting on their experiences, the teachers were innovating virtual engagement for feedback delivery this is the first derived sub-ordinate theme from the collected responses to the english teacher’s teaching experiences in the post pandemic era and their feedbacking strategies. participants in the key informant interview discussed reflecting on the challenges of maintaining student engagement in virtual settings that reveals several key insights and considerations essential for effective online education. in the key informant interview, in the landscape of virtual education, a chorus of voices from educators acknowledges the central importance of virtual engagement for feedbacking, as teacher1, teacher 2, teacher 3 and teacher 4 highlighting the need for adaptability in teaching methods to overcome the unique challenges of online learning and provide the necessary supportive feedback for student progress. “as an english teacher, it is important to have student engagement in virtual settings. thus, feedbacking was done online to make sure students were engaged and further develop their strengths and enhance weaknesses.” teacher 1 “making sense in teaching english often involves creating a structural and engaging learning environment where teachers can deliver feedback virtually.” teacher 2 “though it’s very hard for other teachers, but it is still very important to teachers give feedback to students performance through online modality.” teacher 3 “as an english teacher, i need to adopt online and incorporate technology to give feedback towards my students.” teacher 4 this statement is supported according to shenoy et al., (2020) that student engagement for visual art learners is possible with a fair use of technology. when students have better learning opportunities, their behavior towards learning is improved. technology changes the way of teaching, and now virtual opportunities are available for students to learn. many teaching institutions have introduced online learning platforms to teach the students, but the problem is that these students are less motivated to improve their performance in learning (martin, 2019). the student’s awareness regarding their learning can be improved when the teachers have opportunities. to teach them using technology. the developed european countries have introduced technology in their learning platform to provide a better experience to learners (raes et al., 2020). in addition, hakim (2020) added that virtual classrooms employ a design that helps students to learn in a better way and utilize better opportunities. when the students are motivated for their learning, their performance improves. in addition, hakim (2020) added that virtual classrooms employ a design that helps students to learn in a better way and utilize better opportunities. when the students are motivated for their learning, their performance improves. student performance and learning success can become possible when they pay attention to the virtual classrooms for their learning this approach is also becoming popular within the context of visual art education. the available resources to the students can benefit them to get an education in virtual classrooms, but they must have a positive attitude towards their work as these resources have a great promise to improve their learning performance. virtual classroom methodology is used in every developed country, and top-ranked universities also use it to reach students (aboukhalil et al., 2021). determining what the students are learning by their methodology is challenging the monitoring and evaluation of digital classrooms should be based on regular to determine the impact of classroom performance on students’ learning. the online classroom methodology helps the students learn flexibly, and they can show positive behavior towards this learning (khatoony & nezhadmehr, 2020). the students are always motivated to learn when they have support from their teachers. this approach is also found to be effective in improving the visual art education of the students. according to palloff and pratt (2020) the rapidly changing nature of technological innovation impacts the delivery of course content, the face of content delivery also changes. emerging technological innovations are creating scope to create interactive and flexible online learning environments. however, the shift from interactive and familiar, traditional classroom settings to virtual environments may be challenging to both the instructor and the learner. the challenges identified in the literature include: (a) very limited supervision from the instructor, (b) inefficient use of technology and (c) lack of communication. the teaching pedagogy of instructors matters a lot in the way students must improve their learning performance, as the teachers’ style motivates them. the responsibility of teachers is to provide a sustainable and reliable teaching pedagogy for students’ learning (mahmood. 2021). when a teacher uses a reliable and innovative learning methodology, the performance of these teachers increases gradually. similarly, the performance of the students and their engagement in classroom activities is also influenced by the teaching style (phillips & o’flaherty, 2019). reliable teaching opportunities lead learners to innovative performance and sustainable knowledge. many teachers are using innovative ways to engage students in their pa ge 31 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 learning. there must be a strong relationship between teachers and students. however, it is the responsibility of the teachers to divide students into different groups and develop innovative strategies to provide knowledge to each group (yu & jee, 2020). when the students are motivated to perform well, the teachers must provide them with a better strategic approach to deal with these issues. the teaching style influences the performance of the visual art students, and teachers should play a positive role in the learning improvement for the students. a good teacher always motivates his students to perform outstandingly with the use of technology. upon reflecting on their experiences, the teachers were fostering positivity in feedbacking approaches this subject is the second generated sub-ordinate theme in the teacher’s teaching experiences in the postpandemic era. thinking about their experiences, the teachers decided to take a closer look at how they gave feedback to students. they realized that they needed to focus more on being positive to encourage and motivate the students. as they thought more about their teaching methods, they saw that promoting positivity was a key idea that came up a lot after the pandemic. they wanted to make sure the classroom felt supportive and helpful. when they looked at all their teaching stories together, they saw that promoting positivity was really important. they tried to include positivity in the feedback they gave to help students feel stronger and more confident, especially after the difficult times during the pandemic. they changed their methods because they knew the pandemic had made everything harder, and they wanted to help students grow even when things were tough. they used special feedback techniques to help students stay hopeful and strong. in the end, promoting positivity became a very important rule that influenced how they taught and talked to students. during the key informant interview, teachers discussed various methods to promote positivity in their feedback methods, stressing its crucial role in enhancing student motivation and development. teacher 1, teacher 4, teacher 5 and teacher 7 noting the effectiveness of positive feedback in offering students specific insights into their performance, thereby aiding focused improvement. emphasizing the value of using descriptive feedback tailored to students’ individual learning styles, which can boost their involvement and motivation. also, a positive teaching approach positively influences student attitudes and learning experiences, creating an environment conducive to academic progress. “as an english teacher, i give descriptive feedback to my students in order for them to be motivated and that makes my teaching experience having a sense.” teacher 1 “i give personalized and constructive feedback for my students to be valued and recognized.” teacher 4 “i can make sense in my experiences and improve my teaching practices by giving positive feedback towards my students’ performance for them to feel motivated.” teacher 5 “for learners to be motivated, i gave them feedback where they can enhance and develop their reading, writing, speaking skills. and that makes sense of my teaching experience in the post-pandemic era.” teacher 7 according to vanderheyden, and gilbertson (2019), effective teacher feedback is a simple and powerful form of teacher attention that can enhance learning, increase achievement, and promote selfregulatory competence in children with and without disabilities. teacher feedback is an essential component of the learning process and can help create a positive classroom atmosphere in which mistakes are valued for their potential to enhance learning and in which academic success and appropriate behavior are reinforced. the purpose of feedback is to provide children and teachers with information regarding children’s performance and understanding and allow for continued learning following initial instruction. effective feedback has the potential to affect future student performance by increasing correct responding and desirable behaviors and decreasing incorrect responding and undesirable behaviors (mastropieri & scruggs, 2019). upon reflecting on their experiences, the teachers were overcoming barriers to meaningful feedback in online settings this is the third derived sub-ordinate theme from the collected responses to the english teacher’s teaching experiences in the post pandemic era and their feedbacking strategies. participants in the key informant interview are teachers overcoming barriers to providing meaningful feedback in online settings. this suggests that despite challenges, teachers are finding ways to navigate the online environment to ensure their feedback remains valuable and impactful for their students. in a series of key informant interviews, teachers have identified and addressed various obstacles hindering their ability to provide effective feedback in online educational settings. each teacher brings a unique perspective on the importance and methods of feedback delivery. teacher 2, teacher 3, teacher 5 and teacher 6 underscored the indispensable role of technology in facilitating timely and constructive feedback delivery, emphasizing its cruciality in the digital realm and the importance of customized feedback, tailored to individual students’ needs, as a means to foster motivation and improvement. “technology also making sense my teaching experiences but being not digital literate, it is difficult for me to deliver my feedbacks.” teacher 2 as an english teacher, i struggled to use technology with the absence of internet access for me to give feedback to my students online.” teacher 3 “i can make sense in my experiences and improve my teaching practices by giving positive feedback towards my students’ performance for them to feel motivated. though students may not have enough access to technology, i struggled on how to give my feedback to their outputs.” teacher 5 “…but is hard for me to utilized technology in feedbacking pa ge 32 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 21-35 2024 but i tried my best to use technology to deliver feedbacks towards my students.” teacher 6 according to brinko, k.t. (2020) stated that feedback is crucial in educational and training programs, aiding learners in reaching their full potential by highlighting strengths and areas for improvement. it fosters reflection, learning, and improvement by providing information in a constructive manner. in the teaching-learning environment, feedback integrates knowledge, skills, and behaviors, promoting competence and confidence in both teachers and learners. orlando and attard (2019) emphasized the importance of tailoring teaching with technology to suit different contexts and curricula, highlighting that it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. while there’s a common assumption that technology enhances learning, kirkwood and price (2019) caution against taking this for granted, suggesting that the relationship between technology, learning enhancement, and student engagement is more complex. individualized instruction for each learner within online cohorts can create additional workload pressures for teaching staff as they strive to address varying learning needs. furthermore, integral to both learning and effective assessment techniques, feedback offers students more than just insights into their performance and reasons behind their grades. importantly, it serves as a roadmap for students to enhance their learning capabilities. brown (2019) likened feedback to the lubricant that ensures smooth understanding, while nichol (2019) emphasized its role in helping students develop self-monitoring, management, and accountability in learning. feedback transcends mere error correction and grading; it serves as a compass for learning enhancement. orlando and attard (2019) emphasized the importance of tailoring teaching with technology to suit different contexts and curricula, highlighting that it’s not a one-sizefits-all approach. while there’s a common assumption that technology enhances learning, kirkwood and price (2019) caution against taking this for granted, suggesting that the relationship between technology, learning enhancement, and student engagement is more complex. individualized instruction for each learner within online cohorts can create additional workload pressures for teaching staff as they strive to address varying learning needs. conclusion the study revealed that english teachers in the postpandemic era face significant challenges, particularly in providing feedback. without effectively leveraging technology, they struggle to create a conducive learning environment on online platforms. the findings highlight both the positive and negative experiences of teachers, reflecting our own empathy towards their situation. teachers’ frustrations and the difficult circumstances they encounter due to a lack of preparedness for the pandemic-induced changes are considerable. however, their dedication and commitment have led to a sense of satisfaction and achievement, especially when students are motivated and actively engaged in discussions due to effective feedback strategies and teaching approaches. the teachers’ resourcefulness and innovativeness in combining various teaching strategies have significantly enhanced students’ language skills, making their efforts effective and efficient. this has been particularly beneficial in helping students overcome the crisis and the dilemmas they faced during this challenging period. the study draws on several theoretical foundations to understand the experiences of language teachers and students in the post-pandemic educational landscape. one key theory is the informational processing theory which views feedback as corrective information that reinforces correct responses and discourages incorrect ones. this theory emphasizes minimizing errors but does not detail error correction methods. another important theory is work on formative assessment, which extends ramaprasad’s (1983) definition of feedback to educational contexts, including areas like writing assessment that involve complex criteria beyond simple right or wrong answers. additionally, propose a meta-analyzing theory with a five-stage feedback model: the learner’s initial state, the task prompting search and retrieval, the learner’s response, the evaluation of the response, and subsequent adjustments in knowledge and self-efficacy. these frameworks offer valuable insights into the dynamics of language education, helping to interpret findings and enhance understanding of the interactions in educational practices post-pandemic. recommendations 1. school administrators should equip teachers with the necessary technologies and reliable internet access to deliver high-quality instructions and provide descriptive feedback to students in virtual settings. 2. school leaders including the administrator and teachers shall organize workshops or online sessions to navigate technologies for engaging and motivating classroom instruction and feedback. 3. to create a dynamic online learning environment, teachers should adapt their new teaching methods to foster student engagement and enhance learning experiences. 4. to promote student growth, teachers should provide personalized and varied feedback that motivates students and helps them improve. 5. teachers should develop digital literacy skills to be more efficient and adaptable in using feedback tools, demonstrating resilience and flexibility. references adarkwah, m. 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increasing energy demand towards thermal comfort. passive techniques can be a good way to dealt with the problem. however, occupants’ thermal perception may vary from person to person for a definite indoor environmental setup. perception of subjective thermal comfort is crucial for human health and wellbeing which in turns effects performance. in the current study evaluation of subjective thermal performance regarding improved indoor thermal comfort has been studied for three different local window screening: i) plastic bottle with its wider face towards wind direction, ii) plastic bottle with its narrower face towards wind direction and iii) perforated bamboo screen. six subjects: four female and two male (ages between 22-24), have been investigated for 30mins. in an experimental simulation chamber for three consecutive days. questionnaire regarding thermal sensation and perception has been prepared to collect subjective response at 10mins. interval. from the experiment it is seen that subjective responses varies for different window screenings as well as for a specific indoor thermal condition created with definite screening. subjects find the indoor environment comfortable for screening with plastic bottle with its wider face towards wind direction compared to other two. bamboo screening has comparatively better performance than the screening plastic bottle with its narrower face towards wind direction. the current analysis only considers the thermal sensation of the subject and further extension of study considering factors like the subject's site-specific thermal sensation and other psychological effects can contribute towards improving indoor thermal comfort in tropics towards human health and wellbeing. keywords: thermal comfort, subjective perception, window screening, thermal performance, tropics introduction people spend more than 80–90% of their lives indoors today (ashrae, 2010). among other things, a healthy indoor environment needs to have a comfortable temperature (wang and pan, 2014; jamaluddin et al., 2014). it ensures that the people who live there are healthy and happy, directly impacting their mental peace and indirectly impacting their productivity (horr et al., 2016; clements-croome, 2017). so, when passive ways of keeping a room comfortable do not work, people use mechanical ways, a solution that focuses on energy. studies show that the building sector, with its heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (hvac) systems, is one of the largest consumers of energy in the world, using about 40% of all energy (pérez-lombard et al., 2008). in tropical and subtropical areas, cooling buildings have become necessary for comfort. a typical building in a tropical country uses about 56% of its energy for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (boukhanouf et al., 2013; katili et al., 2015). energy use in buildings is increasing in developing countries like south east asia, which is expected to be higher than in developed countries (katili et al., 2015).bangladesh is a deltaic country in south asia. it has a tropical monsoon climate with many different weather changes all year. the summer is hot and humid from march to june, the monsoon rains from july to october, and the winter is cool and dry from early november to late february. here, most buildings are made, so the temperature inside is comfortable without extra work. the window is the central part that lets air from outside come in and helps heat escape through evaporation and convection. this helps keep the temperature inside comfortable. however, recently, e-palli international conferences on science technology, engineering, and mathematics (eic-stem) www.conferences.e-palli.com 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) 14 april 2024 kathmandu, nepal doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3770 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 32 bangladesh has been named one of the most climate-vulnerable countries. studies on the trend of climate change in bangladesh have shown a significant rise in temperature (chowdhury and debsharma, 1992; chowdhury and ahmed, 2015; mia, 2003) with widespread warming during both the hot (march–may) and cool (december–february) seasons (alexander and zhang, 2006; huq and ayers, 2007). so, since there are regular hot spells throughout the year, buildings getting too hot is still a big problem in the modern world. the problem is serious for hot, humid, climate-vulnerable countries like bangladesh, where the outdoor air temperature (at) is usually much higher than the standard comfort temperature for more than half the year. this situation makes it hard to keep a building comfortable with passive methods, leading to health risks related to comfort and higher energy demand for heating and cooling. so, this study aimed to find out how different local window screens affect the temperature inside and how people feel about the temperature inside. methodology ventilation helps convective and evaporative heat loss only when the air temperature (at) and relative humidity (rh) outside are lower than the skin temperature (at) and rh inside. in tropical climatic zones cross ventilation plays a vital role towards passive cooling strategies. hence window and window-screening design becomes crucial. in this research different types of local window screening have been tested to evaluate subjective thermal perceptions. three different types of screenings have been prepared with locally available materials i.e. plastic bottle and bamboo. a questionnaire has been developed to collect subjective response regarding thermal comfort using ashrae 7-points thermal sensation scale. subjective thermal perception has been collected in a thermal perception simulation chamber for three consecutive days. six subjects have been investigated for 30mins. and a total of twenty-four thermal responses have been collected for each screen types at a 10 mins. regular interval. performance of the three screening has been compared and evaluated based on the subjective thermal perception of indoor environment. experimental setup the experiment is conducted in a thermal perception simulation chamber shown in fig. 1. a chamber has been prepared with an area of 1.2 x 2.1sqm chambers having a height of 2.13m. the three sides of the chamber has been made with hardboard whereas the front side has been accommodated a wood frame to facilitate changing of screening whenever necessary as shown in fig.1. the wooden frame is then put on a tripod of 0.8m tall the height of a window sill. at the outside of the chamber, a desk fan has been set up on a table nearly about a distance of 1m from the screen. the desk fan can generate three different wind speeds: 0.8 m/s, 1.4 m/s, and 2 m/s, which correspond to low, medium, and high speed respectively. window screening first window screening has been made with sorted plastic bottle waste. a 75mm (3 inch.) dia bottle is selected and dissected for plastic bottle screening. the narrower face has a dia. of 18mm (¾-inch.). then they are installed side by side to from a porous screen which requires 60-65 plastic bottles (fig.2). on the other hand, locally available bamboo species have been used for bamboo screening. bamboo is chosen for its popularity and availability in local market. the bamboo is dissected longitudinally, and a 25mm x 18mm (1-inch x ¾ inch) perforation is made @100-125mm (4-5 inch) c/c gap. for the length of 1.1m (3ft 7-inch), an average of 22 nos. perforation has been made on both sides of the single strip of bamboo (fig.2). subjects details for this experiment, six subjects, four females and two males ages 22 to 24 (table 1), participated voluntarily and who are students, which makes it easier to make an accurate comparison of their comfort perception. the subject’s blood pressure, height, and body weight were measured for the research purpose using lab-oriented digital instruments. the subjects were seated on a wooden stool where they were only allowed to read. however, no electronic device was allowed during the experiment, and the metabolic rate (m) was approximately 1.0 met according to iso-en 7730. all subjects were healthy, non-obese, non-smokers, not taking any medication, and abstained from alcoholic beverages at least 24hrs before experiments. the subject wore a typical summer suit. the male sample consisted of regular full pants, t-shirts, underpants, socks, and shoes (sandals), and the female sample wore cotton salwar-kameez, undergarments, and shoes (sandals). clo-value was determined to be 0.53–0.6 clo. according to iso-en 9920 for both samples. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 33 figure 1: (a) experimental chamber and (b) experimental setup with the subject (bottom right) table 1: anthropometric data of the subjects subject gender age (years) height (cm) weight (kg) bmi (kg/cm2) s-1 m 24 165 72 26.45 s-2 m 22 171 78 26.67 s-3 f 22 162.5 51 19.31 s-4 f 23 157.5 58 23.38 s-5 f 23 157.5 58 23.38 s-6 f 23 150 62 27.56 where, m = male, f= female, body mass index (bmi) = weight (kg)/height2 (m2). figure 2: window screening frame details 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 34 physical measurement at and rh were taken using a specialized thermometer and gun shooter (fig. 3) at 0.6–1.1 m height from the floor level. however, during the experiment, the subjects were not informed about the at and rh for avoiding any kind of bias. for the research purpose, the subject’s blood pressure (bp) (mmhg), height, h (cm), and body weight, m (kg), were measured (table 1) just before entering the chamber. experimental procedure the subjective thermal perception was performed for each subject individually for each of the three window screenings (fig. 4). most of the experimental sessions are performed between 11 am to 2 pm. each experiment requests the subject to sit in the chamber for 30 minutes. figure 3: equipment for temperature measurement figure 4: experimental process: (a) plastic bottles with wider face towards wind direction, (b) plastic bottles with narrower face towards wind direction and (c) local bamboo screening during the experiments, subjects needed to answer questionnaires according to the ashrae comfort scale. as an initial step, the subjects were allowed to rest for a minimum 15min for adaptation and preparation. then before entering the experiment chamber, the subject's bp, height, and weight were measured. then just after entering the chamber, each subject was asked to answer the questionnaire (fig. 5) supplied to them. then the fan speed was gradually increased from low (0.8 m/s), middle (1.4 m/s), and then high (2.0 m/s) after each of the 10 min intervals, and the subject was asked to fill out the questionnaire supplied. the whole session lasted for 3 hours and the thermal sensation of the subject was noted.meanwhile, the temperature data at and rh were recorded for each experiment. result and discussion the experiment was conducted for three consecutive days. outcome of the experiments has been presented from table-2-4. from the perception of the thermal environment within the chamber subjects expressed their subsequent thermal sensation. a comparative thermal sensation of the subjects for the screenings in question has been illustrated in fig. 6. the first-day experiment was conducted for the plastic bottle window screening with its wider face towards the wind direction. average at of 27.3℃ and rh of 64.23% (table-2) were recorded inside the chamber. from the table it is seen that at the starting of the experiment the respondents were feeling warm or slightly warm and after 10mins they started feeling better with a perception of slightly cool environment. it is seen that within the stable at and rh condition, increasing wind speed improves 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 35 figure 5: questionnaire about comfort feeling with following air movements subject’sperception of environment from slightly warm to cool over time. at that beginning of the session it is observed that out of six subjects, four expressed that they were feeling neutral and rest of the two were uncomfortable (fig. 6). but when over time wind speed had been increased they started feeling better but after 30mins when wind speed became 2.0ms-1, subjects perceived the environment cool and started to feel comfortable. second session was done with a set-up where the screen is placed in reverse waytowards wind direction. table-3 presents the overall findings of second day experiment. during the experiment average at and rh were 27.4ºcand 63.5% respectively. respondents find the environment warm to slightly warm with a wind speed of 0.2ms-1. increasing wind speed 0.2ms-1 to table 2: experiment with plastic-bottle screening wide face towards wind side: subjects perception name time (min.) at (oc) rh (%) wind speed (ms1) perception name time (min.) at (oc) rh (%) wind spee d (ms-1) perception s-1 0 27 .6 69 .2 0. 2 warm s-4 0 27 .0 63 .8 0. 2 neutral 10 27 .5 67 0. 8 slightly warm 10 27 .0 63 .2 0. 8 slightly cool 20 27 .5 64 .2 1. 4 slightly cool 20 27 .1 61 .8 1. 4 cool 30 27 .3 63 .6 2. 0 cold 30 27 .3 65 .3 2. 0 cool 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 36 s-2 0 27 .3 62 .0 0. 2 slightly warm s-5 0 27 .1 63 .8 0. 2 slightly warm 10 27 .4 62 .5 0. 8 slightly cool 10 27 .0 63 .2 0. 8 cool 20 27 .3 60 .8 1. 4 cool 20 27 .1 61 .8 1. 4 cool 30 27 .2 62 .3 2. 0 cool 30 27 .3 65 .3 2. 0 slightly cool s-3 0 27 .4 66 .7 0. 2 slightly warm s-6 0 27 .2 67 .0 0. 2 neutral 10 27 .4 67 0. 8 slightly cool 10 27 .4 67 .3 0. 8 slightly cool 20 27 .6 60 .8 1. 4 slightly cool 20 27 .6 67 .8 1. 4 slightly cool 30 27 .5 65 .3 2. 0 cool 30 27 .5 67 .0 2. 0 cool 0.8ms-1 respondent perceive the environment warm to become cool. during this experiment at the starting point subjects were feeling slightly uncomfortable to neutral. over time with the increasing wind speed they found it neutral to uncomfortable. final experiment was done with local bamboo screening made from locally available bamboo. unlike the other two sessions six respondents were participated for 3hrs where each subject was investigated for 30mins. the average at was 21.17℃, and the average rh was 49.46% (table 3). summary of the findings has been presented in table-3. it is observed that at the beginning of the session respondents finds the environment within the test chamber slightly warm to neutral. but after 10-20mins later of the session when wind speed was increased from 0.2 ms-1 to 2.0 ms-1 most of the subjects finds the condition of the chamber slightly cool to cool. three subjects expressed that they were feeling neutral while three were feeling uncomfortable. but at the end of the session all the subjects found the environment neutral to comfortable. above discussion reveals that subjects find the chamber comfortable when screening made up of plastic bottle with its wide table 3: experiment with plastic-bottle screening narrowface towards wind side: subjects perception name time (min.) at (oc) rh (%) wind speed (ms1) perception name time (min.) at (oc) rh (%) wind spee d (ms-1) perception s-1 0 27 .2 60 .7 0. 2 warm s-4 0 27 .1 62 .5 0. 2 slightly warm 10 27 .3 61 .5 0. 8 slightly warm 10 27 .3 62 .5 0. 8 cool 20 27 .2 67 .6 1. 4 cool 20 27 .1 60 .6 1. 4 neutral 30 27 .4 63 .3 2. 0 neutral 30 27 .7 63 .3 2. 0 cool s-2 0 27 .8 61 .3 0. 2 slightly warm s-5 0 27 .3 61 .2 0. 2 warm 10 27 .7 61 .0 0. 8 warm 10 27 .3 61 .5 0. 8 neutral 20 27 .6 60 .6 1. 4 neutral 20 27 .2 63 .6 1. 4 cool 30 27 .0 62 .0 2. 0 slightly cool 30 27 .8 61 .3 2. 0 slightly cool 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 37 s-3 0 27 .4 62 .4 0. 2 slightly warm s-4 0 27 .3 67 .4 0. 2 neutral 10 27 .3 61 .5 0. 8 slightly cool 10 27 .9 67 .5 0. 8 cool 20 27 .2 67 .6 1. 4 slightly warm 20 27 .2 67 .6 1. 4 neutral 30 27 .4 63 .3 2. 0 cool 30 27 .5 67 .3 2. 0 cool table 4: experiment with bamboo screening: subjects perception name time (min.) at (oc) rh (%) wind speed (ms1) perception name time (min.) at (oc) rh (%) wind spee d (ms-1) perception s-1 0 22 .0 42 .8 0. 2 slightly warm s-4 0 22 .5 44 .7 0. 2 slightly warm 10 22 .1 47 .8 0. 8 neutral 10 22 .8 42 .3 0. 8 neutral 20 22 .1 44 .2 1. 4 slightly cool 20 22 .5 54 .2 1. 4 slightly cool 30 22 .5 55 .4 2. 0 slightly cool 30 22 .5 44 .1 2. 0 cool s-2 0 22 .1 45 .9 0. 2 neutral s-5 0 22 .4 50 .4 0. 2 slightly warm 10 22 .1 47 .8 0. 8 neutral 10 22 .3 50 .8 0. 8 slightly cool 20 22 .1 46 .7 1. 4 slightly cool 20 22 .7 56 .8 1. 4 slightly cool 30 22 .2 49 .2 2. 0 slightly cool 30 22 .1 50 .2 2. 0 cool s-3 0 22 .0 47 .2 0. 2 slightly warm s-6 0 22 .4 53 .2 0. 2 neutral 10 22 .2 49 .2 0. 8 neutral 10 22 .8 53 .7 0. 8 slightly cool 20 22 .1 44 .2 1. 4 neutral 20 22 .8 55 .4 1. 4 slightly cool 30 22 .1 47 .8 2. 0 cool 30 22 .5 50 .5 2. 0 cool face is installed towards wind direction is set as window screening than other two. this happens as when wind passes through a wide to narrow valve at decrease as a result of joule thomson effect. again, previous studies show that air flow has notable impact on subjects’ thermal comfort. people feel comfortable in higher temperature when air flow is introduced in a space (mallick, f. h. 1996; mallick, f. h. 1994). in case of screening with plastic bottle having its narrow face towards wind less wind passes through the bottles and due to decreased wind flow subjects responded little to the fan's increasing air velocity and found the environment slightly uncomfortable. compared to two others bamboo screening performs better than screening with plastic bottle having its narrow face towards wind. in this case the opening in the frame is equal on both sides, which made most of the air pressure pass more effectively toward the subject sitting in the chamber. less wastage of air pressure made the procedure more acceptable. the relative air movement in the chamber with the thermal sensation of the subject was found to be more effectually linked during the session. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 38 figure 6: comparison of subjective thermal perception of different window screening limitations the current analysis only considers the thermal sensation of the subject. however, other factors like the subject's site-specific thermal sensation and other psychological effects were out of the scope of this research. this research can be further extended by integrating the above factors to find their effect. conclusions the experiment represents the thermal sensation of the subjects towards other window screenings made of locally available and waste materials. from the experiments, it has been identified that the framing of plastic bottles with their wider surface facing toward the fan indicated relatively better indoor comfort conditions than the framing of plastic bottles with their narrower surface facing toward the fan during the hot summertime. the last session was conducted with a bamboo perforated screening system subjects find the performance of bamboo screening comparatively better than the screening plastic bottle with its narrower face towards wind direction. as the current analysis only considers the thermal sensation of the subject, hence, further extension of study considering factors like the subject's site-specific thermal sensation and other psychological effects can contribute towards improving indoor thermal comfort in tropics towards human health and wellbeing. acknowledgments appreciation goes to the environmental lab, (dept. of architecture), chittagong university of engineering & technology (cuet), bangladesh. references alexander, l. v., zhang, x., peterson, t. c., caesar, j., gleason, b., klein tank, a. m. g., ... & vazquez‐aguirre, j. l. (2006). global observed changes in daily climate extremes of temperature and precipitation. journal of geophysical research: atmospheres, 111(d5). https://doi.org/10.1029/2005jd006290 ashrae. (2010). guideline 10p, interactions affecting the achievement of acceptable indoor environments. second public review. ashrae, atlanta, usa. al horr, y., arif, m., kaushik, a., mazroei, a., katafygiotou, m., & elsarrag, e. (2016). occupant productivity and office indoor environment quality: a review of the literature. building and environment, 105, 369–389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. buildenv.2016.06.016 boukhanouf, r., alharbi, a., ibrahim, h. g., & kanzari, m. (2013). investigation of a sub-wet bulb temperature evaporative cooler for buildings. in sustainable building conference (pp. 1–7). coventry university, london, uk. boukhanouf, r., alharbi, a., ibrahim, h.g. and kanzari, m., 2013. investigation of a sub-wet bulb temperature evaporative cooler for buildings. in sustainable building conference, coventry university, london, uk. clements-croome, d. (2017). effects of the built environment on health and well-being. in creating the productive workplace (pp. 3–40). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315686061 chowdhury, m. h. k., & debsharma, s. k. (1992). climate change in bangladesh: a statistical review. report on ioc-unep workshop on impacts of sea level rise due to global warming. noami. chowdhury, s., ahmed, k. s., et al. (2015). thermal performance of building envelope of ready-made garments (rmg) factories in dhaka, bangladesh. energy and buildings, 107, 144–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.08.026 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 39 huq, s., & ayers, j. (2007). critical list: the 100 nations most vulnerable to climate change. iied. jamaluddin, n., khamidi, m. f., wahab, s. n. a., & klufallah, m. m. (2014). indoor thermal environment in tropical climate residential building. in e3s web of conferences (vol. 3, p. 01026). edp sciences. https://doi.org/10.1051/ e3sconf/20140301026 katili, a. r., boukhanouf, r., & wilson, r. (2015, august). space cooling in buildings in hot and humid climates: a review of the effect of humidity on the applicability of existing cooling techniques. in 14th international conference on sustainable energy technologies – set. li, b., yao, r., wang, q., & pan, y. (2014). an introduction to the chinese evaluation standard for the indoor thermal environment. energy and buildings, 82, 27–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.05.031 mallick, f. h. (1994). thermal comfort for urban housing in bangladesh (ph.d. thesis, architectural association school of architecture, london, uk). unpublished work. mallick, f. h. (1996). thermal comfort for urban housing in bangladesh. journal of building and environment, 31(6), 517– 528. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0360-1323(96)00018-4 mia, n. m. (2003). variations of the temperature of bangladesh. in proceedings of saarc seminars on climate variability in the south asian region and its impacts (pp. 1–10). smrc, dhaka. pérez-lombard, l., ortiz, j., & pout, c. (2008). a review on buildings energy consumption information. energy and buildings, 40(3), 394–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2007.03.007 front page 3770-31-39 article 2321.indd pa ge 1 pa ge 30 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) store ambience on young apparel consumers’ impulsive buying behaviour florence bharathy kennedy1, poovitha yogaraja1* volume 3 issue 2, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i2.2321 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: april 07, 2024 accepted: may 09, 2024 published: may 13, 2024 this research aimed to discern the infl uence of store ambiance on the impulsive purchasing behavior of consumers in the apparel sector. the study investigated the impact of various factors, namely window display (wd), promotional offers (po), store layout (sl), background music (bm), and fragrance of the store (fos), on consumer impulsive buying behaviour (ibb). the research was conducted involving 252 youth participants. a questionnaire, developed from existing literature, served as the primary data collection tool. the gathered data underwent analysis through correlation tests and linear regression. the research fi ndings underscore the signifi cance of certain store features, specifi cally window display, promotional offers, and fragrance, in infl uencing consumer impulsive purchase behaviour within the apparel sector. consequently, the study provides practical recommendations for retailers to enhance the overall ambience of their stores to stimulate impulsive buying among apparel consumers. keywords apparel consumer, impulsive buying behaviour, store ambience 1 department of management, faculty of commerce and management, eastern university, sri lanka * corresponding author’s e-mail: poovithayogaraja@gmail.com introduction the retail landscape in sri lanka has transformed into a highly effi cient and swiftly advancing industry, primarily driven by the entry of numerous signifi cant enterprises into retail operations. the sri lankan economy heavily relies on the apparel and textile industry, serving as a key contributor to the country’s gross domestic product (gdp). in 2023, the apparel market in sri lanka is valued at us$1.66 billion, and it is projected to experience an annual growth rate of 2.08% (cagr 2023-2028). the largest segment within the market is women’s apparel, accounting for a market volume of us$0.83 billion in 2023. (amos et al., 2014) stated marketing researchers had observed a positive trend in impulsive shopping and have utilized various strategies to promote impulsive purchases among apparel consumers. they have elucidated how the presentation of a product in a retail setting enhances its appeal and allure to customers. crucial elements for attracting customers to engage in impulsive buying include the exterior and interior design of the apparel store, pricing strategies, promotional approaches, service orientation, assistance on the shop fl oor, product variety, quality, store navigation, and operational execution (mandolfo & lamberti, 2021). retailers must recognize the signifi cance of implementing a successful strategy to enhance the ambiance of their stores, given the heightened competition in the retail sector over recent years (han et al., 1991). by adopting the above empirical evidence, the problem statement can be formulated as, “to investigate the impact of store ambience factors namely window display, promotional offers, store layout, background music, and fragrance of the store on impulsive buying behaviour among young apparel consumers.” research objectives the following objectives were to be intended to achieve: 1. to identify the level of window display, promotional offers, store layout, background music, fragrance of the store and impulsive buying behaviour among young apparel consumers. 2. to explore the relationship among window display, promotional offers, store layout, background music, fragrance of the store and impulsive buying behaviour among young apparel consumers. 3. to investigate the impact of window display, promotional offers, store layout, background music, and fragrance of the store on impulsive buying behaviour among young apparel consumers. literature review external elements of impulsive buying are marketing strategies that retailers manage and control to encourage customers to impulse buy (pallikkara et al., 2020). when consumers see visual cues such as promotional signage, they may want to buy apparel impulsively (mehta & chugan, 2012). according to the fi ndings by rhee (2017), consumers’ perceptions regarding a store’s visual appeal showed a stronger link with the store selection than apparel product quality, overall price level and variety. this gives credibility to the view that the store atmosphere infl uences the consumers’ choice of a store, with window displays of apparel stores playing an important part. this shows that the retail setting of apparel stores infl uences consumer buying behaviour. direct sensory stimuli in a retail ambience include visual components and physical amenities, while general design aspects include colour, shelf space and store layout (baker et al., 2002). a window display is a presentation of items that impacts an individual’s purchasing intentions. merchants want pa ge 31 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 30-35 2024 to provide consumers with an appropriate product at the right moment through a correct display (baker et al., 1992). retail layout may stimulate a customer’s interest in the store’s ambience, increasing shopper attention (bloch et al., 1989). impulse buying behaviour (ibb) for many years, numerous researchers have shown a keen interest in impulsive purchasing (amos et al., 2014). in the case of clothes shopping, impulse purchasing plays an important role. apparel shoppers may profi t more from impulse purchases when retailers provide promotional offers, which is signifi cant for the apparel retail business. according to abratt & goodey (1990), ib at a retail store may greatly interest both the manufacturer and the retailer. impulse shopping implies instant buying, which is an advance shopping intention either to buy a particular product category or to satisfy a desire (beatty & ferrell, 1998). impulsive buying tendency (ibt) is defi ned as the proclivity to make unexpected purchases and to buy immediately, with little or no thought to the implications. rook (1987) suggested that impulse purchasing is an unplanned, cognitive process that comes from affective reactions, which happen after the exposure to retail environment cues inside a physical store. thus, store attributes play a critical role during apparel impulse buying. the following hypotheses were formulated to explore the relationships between ibb of apparel consumers and these fi ve store ambience factors. research hypotheses window display window displays are used in the facade of the store through which retailers use to draw the customers into the store and provide messages about the products offered inside the store (levy & weitz, 2002). according to britta et al., (2010), welldesigned storefront window displays are regarded as a useful technique to attract the attention of new customers and motivate them to visit the store. findings of the research conducted by mehta & chugan, (2014) suggested that there is a positive relationship between window display and impulse buying. therefore, this research proposed following hypothesis: h1: there is a positive impact of window display on impulsive buying behaviour. promotional offers according to levy and weitz (2002) promotional signage gives information about special offers and price discounts offered in the store. consumers can experience an urge to buy impulsively when visually encountering cues such as promotional incentives (dholakia, 2000). therefore, it was hypothesised: h2: there is a positive impact of promotional offers on impulsive buying behaviour. store layout according to bitner (1992) & spies et al (1997) good store layout enables customers’ to fi nd the product that they need in a quick manner. moreover, baker et al (1994) stated that well organised store layout enhances the process of shopping by creating convenience for customers. therefore, this research proposed following hypothesis: h3: there is a positive impact of store layout on impulsive buying behaviour. background music music is considered as an important element of store atmosphere which directly infl uences consumer buying behaviour (levy & weitz, 2002). according to the fi ndings of mattila & wirtz (2001) consumers are more likely to stay longer in stores due to the presence of good background music and browse through the store looking at the merchandise. as a result, good background music triggers the senses of consumers by stimulating the process of impulse buying. thus, below mentioned hypothesis was proposed: h4: there is a positive impact of background music on impulsive buying behaviour. fragrance of stores pleasant aroma of the store makes customers spend more time looking through merchandise, which will result in impulse buying. the impact of store smell on impulse buying behaviour was identifi ed in the study of (mattila & wirtz, 2008) and (mohan et al., 2013). hence, this research hypothesised that: h5: there is a positive impact of the fragrance of stores on impulsive buying behaviour. figure 1: conceptual framework source: (trivedi et al., 2022) methodology sampling and data collection in this research, the data was collected from 252 young apparel consumers through a convenience sampling method by using an online survey google forms. the “five point likert scale” was used to measure the variables. this scale consisted of fi ve scales ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” was applied in part ii of the questionnaire to identify responses. pearson’s correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to analyse the collected data. pa ge 32 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 30-35 2024 results and discussion table 1 shows profi les of respondents who are males (45.2%) and females (54.8%) use impulsive buying during apparel purchases. the younger apparel consumers mostly use impulsive buying during apparel purchases as fi nding shows that the majority of apparel consumers fall in the age categories between 1997 to 2010 and 51.2% respondents reported monthly family income below 25,000 sri lankan rupees. internal reliability of the items is checked by using table 1: profi le of the respondents demographic factors category number of respondents percentage (%) gender male 114 45.2 female 138 54.8 total 252 100 age 1997 2010 231 91.7 non 1997 2010 21 8.3 total 252 100 monthly family income below 25000 129 51.2 25000 49999 53 21.0 50000 74999 38 15.1 75000 99999 21 8.3 100000 and above 11 4.4 total 252 100 source: survey data (2023) table 2: reliability analysis for overall variables variables cronbach's alpha decision attribute number of question items window display 0.726 accepted 4 promotional offers 0.718 accepted 4 store layout 0.797 accepted 4 background music 0.776 accepted 4 fragrance of store 0.727 accepted 4 impulsive buying behaviour 0.745 accepted 5 source: survey data (2023) cronbach’s alpha reliability test. cronbach’s alpha of each dimension is revealed in table 2. according to george & mallery (2003), internal reliability is high as values are above 0.7. table 3 outlines the elements that infl uence impulsive buying. behaviour of apparel consumers. mean scores in table 3 show that “window display” (x= 3.82) is found to be at the high level, followed by “promotional offers” (x= 3.76), “store layout” (x= 3.75) and “fragrance of stores” (x=3.61). in contrast, “background music” (x =3.41) and “impulsive buying behaviour” (x=3.48) are at a moderate level respectively. table 3: descriptive statistics of the variables variables n mean std. deviation decision attribute window display 252 3.82 0.686 high promotional offers 252 3.76 0.554 high store layout 252 3.75 0.528 high background music 252 3.41 0.739 moderate fragrance of stores 252 3.61 0.684 high impulsive buying behaviour 252 3.48 0.673 moderate source: survey data (2023) note: mean value range: 4.0 < x < 4.20: high, and 4.20 < x < 5.00: very high 2.60 < x ≤ 3.40: moderate, 1 ≤ x ≤ 1.80: very low, 1.80 < x ≤ 2.60: low, 3: source: (masri & jaaron, 2017) pa ge 33 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 30-35 2024 table 4 portrays that the fragrance of stores (r=0.758) is positively highly correlated with impulsive buying behaviour in the apparel industry at the 1% signifi cant level. however, the relationship between window display (r=0.497), promotional offers (r=0.311), store layout (r=0.472) and background music (r=0.570) with impulsive buying behaviour are a moderate positive correlation value less than 0.7 at the 0.01 signifi cance level. simple linear regression analysis the above table 5 specifi es 0.247 of r square statistics of window display and it means window display has 24.7% of impact on impulsive buying behaviour towards apparel. according to the table, sig value is 0.000 (p<0.05). the unstandardized constant statistic is 1.632 and it shows the model would predict if the independent variable were zero. regression results indicate that the b value of window display is 0.495. it means if window display increased by one-point, impulsive buying behaviour increased by 0.495. beta value is 0.497. table 6 shows that the regression model was signifi cant where f-value = 26.768; r2 = 0.097; p=0.000. further r2 describes 9.7% of variation in promotional offers can be explained by impulsive buying behaviour. the proposed model was adequate as the f-statistics (f=26.768) were signifi cant at the 5% level (p<0.05). beta is 0.311. table 7 shows that the regression model was statistically signifi cant where f-value = 71.563; r2=0.223; p=0.000. further r2 describes 22.3% of variation in store layout can be explained by impulsive buying behaviour. the proposed model was adequate as the f-statistics (f=71.563) were signifi cant at the 5% level (p<0.05). beta is 0.472. table 4: results of pearson’s correlation analysis relationships correlation coeffi cient sig. value decision attribute window display and impulsive buying behaviour 0.497** 0.000 moderate positive promotional offers and impulsive buying behaviour 0.311** 0.000 moderate positive store layout and impulsive buying behaviour 0.472** 0.000 moderate positive background music and impulsive buying behaviour 0.570** 0.000 moderate positive fragrance of store and impulsive buying behaviour 0.758** 0.000 strong positive **. correlation is signifi cant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). source: survey data (2023) table 5: results of simple linear regression analysis independent variable r r2 fvalue a-constant b-value beta p-value window display 0.497 0.247 82.101 1.632 0.495 0.497 0.000 source: survey data (2023) table 6: results of simple linear regression analysis independent variable r r2 f-value a-constant b-value beta p-value promotional offers 0.311 0.097 26.768 2.057 0.378 0.311 0.000 source: survey data (2023) table 8 shows that the regression model was statistically signifi cant where f-value = 120.052; r2= 0.324; p=0.000. further r2 describes 32.4% of variation in background music can be explained by impulsive buying behaviour. the proposed model was adequate as the f-statistics (f=120.052) were signifi cant at the 5% level (p<0.05). beta is 0.570. table 9 shows that the regression model was statistically signifi cant where f-value = 336.812; r2= 0.574; p=0.000. further r2 describes 57.4% of variation in fragrance of stores can be explained by impulsive buying behaviour. the proposed model was adequate as the f-statistics (f= 336.812) were signifi cant at the 5% level (p<0.05). beta was 0.758. table 7: results of simple linear regression analysis independent variable r r2 fvalue a-constant b-value beta p-value store layout 0.472 0.223 71.563 1.226 0.601 0.472 0.000 source: survey data (2023) table 8: results of simple linear regression analysis independent variable r r2 fvalue a-constant b-value beta p-value background music 0.570 0.324 120.052 1.708 0.519 0.570 0.000 source: survey data (2023) pa ge 34 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 30-35 2024 multiple regression analysis a multiple regression was run to predict impulsive buying behaviour from window display, promotional offers, store layout, background music and fragrance of stores. table 10 indicates the multiple regression model statistically signifi cantly predicted impulsive buying behaviour f (5, 246) = 70.174, p<0.05, r2= 0.588 with adjusted r2= 0.579. fragrance of stores (b=0.726, se=0.070, p<0.05) added statistically signifi cantly to the prediction of impulsive buying behaviour. however, window display (p=0.272), promotional offers (p=0.139), store layout (p=0.375), background music(p=0.826) did not add signifi cance in predicting impulsive buying behaviour. table 9: results of simple linear regression analysis independent variable r r2 fvalue a-constant b-value beta p-value fragrance of stores 0.758 0.574 336.812 2.176 0.784 0.758 0.000 source: survey data (2023) table 10: results of multiple regression analysis r r2 adjusted r2 df f p value b sig. 0.767 0.588 0.579 5 70.174 0.000 (constant) 0.389 0.083 246 window display -.065 0.272 promotional offers 0.105 0.139 store layout 0.072 0.375 background music 0.013 0.826 fragrance of stores 0.726 0.000 source: survey data (2023) conclusion the present study aimed to investigate the impact of window display, promotional offers, store layout, background music, and fragrance of the store on impulsive buying behaviour among young apparel consumers. according to the fi ndings, fragrance of stores has a positive signifi cant impact on impulsive buying behaviour. however, window display, promotional offers, store layout, and background music did not signifi cantly impact impulsive buying behaviour. implications of the study the fi ndings of this study have some implications for retailers on how to recognise and promote impulse buying in their stores. firstly, retailers need to focus as much on adventure, entertainment and excitement as they do on getting the right merchandise mix and pricing. emotion and mood are enhanced by appropriate lighting, music, and scents, which may lead to impulsive purchases by customers. second, in-store promotions and displays, such as those that advertise sales, are useful forms of in-store advertising. thirdly, by lowering obstacles, businesses can boost customers’ inclination to purchase. retailers can make impulse purchases less risky by offering easier return policies or by improving impulse purchase enablers like extended credit and store hours. they can also emphasise the non-economic benefi ts of impulse buying in their advertising campaigns. recommendation the present study used a convenience sampling method from a particular region and was limited to one product category apparel. one more restriction is imposed by focusing only on one dependent variable, which is impulsive purchasing behavior. the phrase “impulse buying behaviour” has several meanings, including “pure,” “reminder,” “suggested,” and “planned.” investigating different kinds of impulsive buying can therefore aid future research endeavours. in addition, future studies also consider the impact of additional situational factors and consumer traits such as personality, status, consumption tendencies, enjoyment of shopping, loyalty, time availability, and availability of fi nancial resources on impulsive purchasing behaviour. table 11: results of multiple regression analysis no hypothesis b sig decision h1 there is a positive impact of window display on impulsive buying behaviour. -.065 0.272 rejected h2 there is a positive impact of promotional offers on impulsive buying behaviour. 0.105 0.139 rejected h3 there is a positive impact of store layout on impulsive buying behaviour. 0.072 0.375 rejected h4 there is a positive impact of background music on impulsive buying behaviour. 0.013 0.826 rejected h5 there is a positive impact of fragrance of stores on impulsive buying behaviour. 0.726 0.000 accepted source: survey data (2023) pa ge 35 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(1) 30-35 2024 references abratt, r., & goodey, s. d. 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(2022). impact of store ambience on impulse purchasing of apparel consumers. tekstilec, 65(2), 147-156. https:// doi.org/10.14502/tekstilec.65.2022015 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 eic 2024 proceedings book 1 special issue (2nd eic-2024) published by e-palli publishers, delaware, usa 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 1 analysis of software patterns to resolve design problems jubayer ahamed1*, mashiour rahman1*, dip nandi1 abstract a reproducible solution to a frequently occurring problem in software design was described as a software pattern, also known as a design pattern. it was a tested method for resolving kinds of software design issues that had been classified and identified by several years of experience and best practices. the key to making safe and accessible software was good software design. there were different types of design problems. solving those problems was very important to produce good and efficient software. there were some tools, techniques, and patterns to solve these problems. software design knowledge could be effectively captured and communicated using design patterns. within a particular context of software design, a software design pattern was a standardized, repeatable solution to a frequently -occurring problem. the patterns were effective for software design on several levels. in this paper, we identified the major design problems. then we have analyzed those problems and present design patterns to develop an effective software design. keywords: software design, design problems, behavioral design pattern, creational design pattern, structural design pattern introduction the software design process is a robust and technology-independent idea that involves the ability to fulfill the tasks outlined in the requirement analysis phase. when deciding whether to proceed with an application for development, the consideration of software design becomes significant. therefore, it is essential to keep to the many stages required to construct an interface that clients would appreciate and prefer. the design phase in the software development process is of the greatest importance as the choices made during this stage will affect the entire program. software design offers a foundation for constructing software architecture. establishing an understanding of the internal framework holds significant importance. an effective design will provide an extensive overview of the software's internal structure and internal properties. however, several problems arise throughout the design phase. design patterns can address design issues. a design pattern can't be easily implemented using a programming language. it is an explanatory or conceptual solution that can be applied in various situations. an efficient software strategy will deal with potential problems that might not become visible until the final stages of execution. programmers and architects that possess knowledge of design patterns can gain advantages from their reuse, as it allows them to address minor issues before they increase into significant problems and improves the readability of their code. design patterns deliver comprehensive answers that are explained without the need to disclose details related to a particular situation. there are a wide variety of design patterns. those identified patterns include creational, structural, behavior, etc. design patterns represent the most prominent techniques used by experienced software engineers. the design pattern follows issues, solutions, and outcomes. a design pattern refers to a methodology applied to develop software designs that are absent of issues. literature review the work (kamal & avgeriou, 2007) discussed the issues surrounding the attributes of software design. an analysis was conducted to compare the two process theories of software design, and the resulting conclusions were identified. the researchers participated in a discussion regarding the challenges associated with two process theories. a process theory attempts to clarify the sequential occurrence of events, rather than simply considering them within the framework of past or future activity 1 american international university-bangladesh (aiub), bangladesh * corresponding author: jubayer@aiub.edu e-palli international conferences on science technology, engineering, and mathematics (eic-stem) www.conferences.e-palli.com doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3774 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) 14 april 2024 kathmandu, nepal 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 2 sequences. the effectiveness of their two process theory approaches throughout the software development phase was limited (kamal & avgeriou, 2007). the utilization of the design pattern will speed up the development process. the researchers focused on developing the fitness function for the software design in their study (bontchev, 2020). the primary goal of the fitness function was to establish the external relationship between classes in the design solution on an individual basis, and it is associated with the overall stability of the software design. to evaluate the fitness function, engineers gathered data or information to be utilized as a function. however, in the absence of employing any pattern-based technique, they were unable to achieve ideal efficiency. as a result, the outcome of the sequential functional patterns-based approach was unsatisfactory (bontchev, 2020). a software pattern (gamma et al., 1993) is often employed as a recurrent solution to an often-encountered problem. by combining similar patterns, a language is created that enables a systematic approach to resolving difficulties in software development. the researchers did not prioritize the development of tools or formal systems for expressing patterns. a limited proportion of engineers possess an accurate understanding and consistently apply these essential patterns in their day-to-day tasks. bontchev et al., provided an explanation of the many kinds of patterns and their perspective on how patterns might contribute to the development of comprehensive solution techniques for software design challenges. also, the author evaluated the elements that had identified as crucial aspects of the concept of patterns. the author analyzed the concepts of well-crafted pattern ideas and the approaches employed in software development. it engaged in a discussion regarding the many categories of patterns in the research. the discussion revolved around structural patterns and behavioral patterns (gamma et al., 1994). p. wolfgang and s. hermann et al., attempted to provide an extensive overview of modern pattern methodologies, including pattern libraries and framework patterns. the authors focused on the fundamental ideas that based frameworks prior to introducing more advanced design principles for constructing these artifacts. design patterns were being recognized as beneficial for supporting framework development, however, there was still a lack of integration between object-oriented design and the development of frameworks. understanding the design and implementation specifics of the framework proved to be challenging and required a significant amount of time due to the insufficient documentation. at times, understanding the decisions might be challenging when there are no indications provided (dong et al., 2009). gamma et al., analyzed the differences between frameworks and design patterns. the programming language was explained, and an explanation was given on how frameworks operate. software design frameworks had a higher level of association with the design patterns. mature frameworks frequently use multiple design patterns for reuse. to sufficiently clarify the process of framework development at a more abstract level, individuals had to have a knowledge of design patterns (simons et al., 2010). kamal and paris, (gomes et al., 2002) identified seven patterns that assist in the high-level design phase and clarified their role in establishing the architecture of systems with specific types of components. the pipeline architectural pattern, data abstraction architectural pattern, communicating processes of architectural pattern, implicit invocation architectural pattern, repository architectural pattern, interpreter architectural pattern, main program, and subroutines architectural pattern, and layered architectural pattern (gomes et al., 2002) were all topics of discussion. the solution presented by the authors (ralph, 2010) includes the re-builder framework to suggest suitable patterns, taking into consideration user experience. re-builder employed a case-based approach to reasoning, utilizing situations where a pattern has previously been utilized in a software design. in this context, class diagrams were employed to represent cases (ralph, 2010). however, a notable drawback of this approach was the absence of the sequential process-based diagrams in certain cases, which consequently leads to a lack of success measures. initially, delegation, collection, and communication were used to define design patterns, which were divided into three categories: behavioural, structural, and creational patterns (pree & sikora, 1997) (ho & jézéquel, n.d.). an aggregate in the context of design patterns is an object, like a list, vector, or generator, that offers an interface for building iterators rather than a design pattern itself (ho & jézéquel, n.d.). table 1: problem classifications 1. a process theory attempts to clarify the sequential occurrence of events, rather than simply considering them within the framework of past or future activity sequences. the effectiveness of their two process theory approaches throughout the software development phase was limited (kamal & avgeriou, 2007). 2. understanding the design and implementation specifics of the framework proved to be challenging and required a significant amount of time due to the insufficient documentation. at times, understanding the decisions might be challenging when there are no indications provided (dong et al., 2009). 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 3 problem classifications proposed solution & discussion developers can find well-known answers to recurring issues by using software patterns. frameworks can be constructed with reusable components by utilizing well-known patterns. consider the use of design patterns in a manner like how one might approach changing lanes while driving. whether you are operating a car, a bike, or a truck, or travelling to work, a museum, or another city, the standard procedure involves activating your turn signal, checking your mirrors, examining your blind spot, and then proceeding to change lanes. the process is constant and serves as a structured approach to guide individuals in completing tasks efficiently. we focus on pattern-based solutions in our study. we are going to propose some effective design patterns in the rest of the part. behavioral design patterns behavioral patterns can be applied to improve the structure of interactions between objects in multiple software systems. one instance is the chain of responsibility pattern, which may be applied to create a workflow system, distributing various jobs across distinct objects inside the chain. a categorized observer is designed to accommodate numerous readers and writers. this pattern expresses information across the entire system. this is working like a blackboard of a software design. it prevents linking the sender of a request directly to its receiver by allowing many objects the opportunity to manage the request. connect the receiving objects in a chain and transmit the request through the chain until an object processes it. so that, overall design procedure follows a sequential way by using this pattern. create an object that encapsulates the relationships among a group of objects. the mediator helps loose coupling by preventing items from directly referencing each other, allowing for self-sufficient adjustment of their relationship. we identify some issues like lack of efficiency of a design, absence of sequential way of a design. by using this pattern, developers can overcome these types of issues. because this pattern follows a sequential way to build a design. as a result, the overall software design will be a good one and the level of efficiency will be high in that case. structural design patterns structural design patterns establish the connections among the components of a system. like other design patterns, structural patterns address the most regular design issues. by applying them, it can reduce the application design process by providing answers for common issues related to component structure. there are seven types of structural patterns. those are decorator, composite, flyweight, bridge, proxy, façade, and adapter. by using the types, we can improve the efficiency of a software’s design and architecture. also, some indications are provided during the design process to the decision makers. this will be very helpful for the decision makers. the overall design of the software will be a good one and the structure of the software will be effective as well. creational design patterns the creational design patterns will focus on the method by how things are produced. it eliminates complications and 3. a notable drawback of this approach was the absence of the sequential process-based diagram in certain cases, which consequently leads to a lack of success measures (ralph, 2010). 4. fitness functions describe how close an architecture is to achieving an architectural aim. to check the fitness function, engineers collected data or information to use as a function. but without using any pattern-based technique, they were not able to get the best functions (bontchev, 2020). table 2: creational design patterns solution a: behavioral design patterns increase the efficiency of a design, it follows a sequential way to build an architecture by using programming language. solution b: structural design patterns it produces an effective structure. the components of an architecture are well connected to each other. solution c: creational design patterns it decreases the usage of process-based diagrams in software design. therefore, the success metrics increase in that scenario. engineers must gather data or knowledge to design architecture. engineers will connect the fitness functions to this pattern in order to achieve an improved outcome. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 4 uncertainty by the intentional creation of objects. this pattern reduces the coupling and increases the cohesion in a software environment and design. so that, the design procedure will be effective of any software. when the overall design is effective, then the structure of a software will be more efficient. it reduces the usage of process-based diagrams in the software design. as a result, the success measures are high in that case. engineers will need to collect data or information to create architecture. engineers will relate the fitness functions to this pattern to get a better result. conclusion design issues deteriorate software in various ways. this causes the software to be ineffective for users. given the fundamental issues of the software, users have faced difficulties and feel it is challenging. the software doesn't have user-friendliness for users when it comes to structural-based issues. as a result, the software's effectiveness in the marketplace is limited. we acknowledge these concerns and seek to offer possible solutions. that is the reason why we focused our efforts on this specific issue. we have implemented many design patterns in an attempt to address these issues. our objective is to offer software engineers effective alternatives. these solutions have the potential to reduce this difficulty and contribute to the improvement of software design. initially, we attempted to identify the precise issues. upon identifying the issues, we proceed with analysing various categories of design patterns. next, we established six design patterns to address those issues. the following design patterns are included: creational design pattern, structural design pattern, command design pattern, state of art design pattern, abstract design pattern, and alexander design pattern. after that, the solution for each challenge is established by employing these six design patterns in our suggested solutions and subsequent debate. as a result of insufficient resources, we are unable to carry out this implementation. in the future, we aim to offer a more precise solution that goes beyond the options currently available. if there is any complexity in these solutions supplied by us, then we will work on them in the future to provide the proper solutions. reference bontchev, b. (2020). on the usability of object-oriented design patterns for a better software quality. cybernetics and information technologies, 20(4), 36–54. https://doi.org/10.2478/cait-2020-0046 dong, j., zhao, y., & peng, t. (2009). a review of design pattern mining techniques. international journal of software engineering and knowledge engineering, 19(6), 823–855. https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/s021819400900443x gamma, e., helm, r., johnson, r., & vlissides, j. (1993). design patterns: abstraction and reuse of object-oriented design. in proceedings of the ecoop’93 conference, kaiserslautern, germany. springer verlag. https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~wgg/ cse210/ecoop93-patterns.pdf gamma, e., helm, r., johnson, r., & vlissides, j. (1994). design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software. addison-wesley. https://www.javier8a.com/itc/bd1/articulo.pdf gomes, p., pereira, f. c., paiva, p., seco, n., carreiro, p., ferreira, j. l., & bento, c. (2002). using cbr for automation of software design patterns. in proceedings of the 6th european conference on advances in case-based reasoning (pp. 534– 548). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220831615_using_cbr_for_automation_of_software_design_patterns ho, w. m., & jézéquel, j. m. (n.d.). object-oriented frameworks for distributed systems. kamal, a. w., & avgeriou, p. (2007, january). an evaluation of adls on modeling patterns for software architecture. department of mathematics and computer science, university of groningen, the netherlands. https://www.researchgate. net/publication/228814559_an_evaluation_of_adls_on_modeling_patterns_for_software_architecture pree, w., & sikora, s. (1997). design patterns for object-oriented software development. in proceedings of icse 97, acm, boston, usa. https://www-public.imtbs-tsp.eu/~gibson/teaching/teaching-readingmaterial/preesikora97.pdf ralph, p. (2010). comparing two software design process theories. springer-verlag berlin heidelberg. https://link.springer. com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-13335-0_10 simons, l., parmee, i. c., & gwynllyw, d. r. (2010). interactive, evolutionary search in upstream object-oriented class design. ieee transactions on software engineering, 36(6), 798–816. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/543222 pa ge 1 pa ge 54 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) lung cancer detection and classification using machine learning: a literature review lenard abiel d. aure1, janice angela v. paco1, jessica z. panganiban1, cereneo s. santiago jr.1*, gersom s. baradi1 volume 4 issue 1, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i1.3797 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: september 18, 2024 accepted: october 16, 2024 published: march 01, 2025 lung cancer is one of the pressing public health issues needing accurate and timely diagnosis. machine learning (ml) is an effective method for analyzing medical images and supporting lung cancer diagnosis and it has significant potential to advance medical practice. this review explored the efficacy of current machine learning methods in detecting and classifying lung cancer. it analyzes the studies on preprocessing techniques, detection accuracy, and classification performance. preprocessing techniques have significantly improved image quality through noise cancellation and feature enhancement, making it highly efficient. the sensitivity of the machine learning algorithms used for identification of lung cancer is also high, surpassing 90% of some research. this translates to a high probability of correctly identifying actual cancer cases. support vector machines (svm), random forest, and convolutional neural networks (cnn) are among the most effective algorithms. furthermore, machine learning accurately classifies lung nodules as benign or malignant, exceeding 85% in reported studies. svm and k-nearest neighbor (knn) are commonly used classification methods with promising results. through continued research efforts to overcome existing challenges, machine learning could achieve heightened accuracy, seamless integration into clinical practice, and improved outcomes for patients with lung cancer. keywords detection and classification, lung lesion, machine learning, preprocessing, sensitivity 1 department of information technology, cavite state universtiy, silang campus, biga 1 silang, cavite, 4112, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: cssantiago@cvsu.edu.ph introduction artificial intelligence (ai) refers to the ability of machines to mimic human behavior especially when it comes to processing large amounts of data. machine learning, a branch of ai, enables computer systems to learn from experience and improve over time without needing to be explicitly programmed (xie et al., 2021). most studies regarding detecting lung cancer considered using machine learning to understand better which type of machine learning to use to produce the best result in detecting lung cancer. one of the most common and deadliest types of cancer is lung cancer. lung cancer happens when abnormal cells in lung tissue grow uncontrolled. accurately identifying and classifying various lung cancer types remains challenging despite the progress made in the diagnostic method. in response to this challenge, researchers have shifted to machine learning techniques seeking more efficacy in cancer diagnosis. several machine learning techniques can be utilized for cancer detection, including deep learning model convolutional neural networks (cnn), which have become popular and effective in solving image classification problems. the accuracy rate has consistently exceeded that of a similar neural network model. different machine learning and hybrid approaches are consist of multiple techniques (azevedo et al., 2024). machine learning technology has been used to classify and identify whether a person has lung cancer based on a given set of features (thallam et al., 2020). researchers have applied preprocessing techniques to the datasets that have undergone these machine learning methods. numerous studies have indicated the potential of machine learning in identifying and classifying lung nodules and predicting early-stage lung cancer. researchers are utilizing this technology alongside machine learning techniques to diagnose lung cancer, which would be impossible with the conventional technique (ingle et al., 2021). medical images are crucial tools for diagnosing diseases, which enhance the ability to propose treatments in both early and advanced stages. they have also played a key role in identifying the structures and functions of organs within the body (galeano et al., 2021). this information aids in diagnosis and helps propose more effective treatments in the initial and advanced stages of the disease. furthermore, virtual reality (vr) is becoming increasingly integral and widely used in various fields, especially in the medical field (xu, 2021). however, key limitations exist when utilizing machine learning for this purpose. first, most ai models need to incorporate clinical information such as previous images or patient history. this data is valuable because it can significantly improve diagnostic accuracy by providing more context for ai analysis. for example, li et al. (2021) discovered that their iclr model’s performance could have improved due to the lack of clinical information like past images or patient history, highlighting a common challenge in the field. additionally, inconsistencies in data generation can further limit the effectiveness of ai models. silva et al. (2022) found that differences in scanner types and imaging techniques can cause problems when applying models to data from various sources. despite progress in ai and machine learning, using this technology effectively for lung cancer detection still faces obstacles, particularly in processing diverse datasets. data pa ge 55 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 54-61, 2025 from genomics, imaging, and clinical records often come in different formats, making it difficult to standardize them for ai/ml analysis. moreover, analyzing such large volumes of data requires significant computational resources. despite these challenges, ai and machine learning offer a promising approach to detecting lung cancer. research by martínezgarcía and hernández-lemus (2022) explores the potential of ai algorithms in analyzing medical images to detect lung nodules, which could indicate cancer. this article provides insights into how machine learning is used in detecting and classifying lung cancer. therefore, this literature review aims to evaluate and synthesize the accuracy of current machine learning methods in this field, providing a thorough assessment of the state of machine learning in detecting and classifying lung cancer. materials and methods this paper reviewed the design of the comparative literature and explained the research objectives of the researcher before moving on to how relevant literature was obtained and selected. it also demonstrates the compilation of the gathered studies to establish a foundation for analyzing collected data. the design the design was guided by the study of durach et al. (2017), a systematic review that followed 6-step guidelines for performing a systematic literature review in management. first, the researchers start by identifying the research question. it was followed by conducting the research objectives for the study and continued by retrieving potentially related articles and selecting connected literature. we then synthesize relevant information from the literature and then proceed to the final step to report the review result. research objectives these three objectives guided the review: (1) to synthesize the effectiveness of preprocessing techniques in lung cancer detection, (2) to synthesize the effectiveness of machine learning in detecting lung cancer, and (3) to synthesize the effectiveness of machine learning in classifying lung lesions. retrieving and synthesizing the literature the review utilized five credible online databases, ieee, science direct, and google scholar (springer link and mdpi as the main reliable literature sources). a keywordbased string comprising machine learning, lung cancer, preprocess, detection, and classification was used to search for papers in the abovementioned databases. the initial stage of the selection process involved articles focused on machine learning-based detection of lung cancer. this was followed by thoroughly examining each abstract and reviewing the entire text for its image preprocessing techniques and classification approach. the screening, which involved reading and analyzing the full content of each article, resulted in 19 finalized articles. from the current year, 2024, published literature within its 6-year range, which is from the year 2018 are collected. a total of nineteen articles are used as these match the purpose of this review. relevant data from these are listed down, and after analyzing those, they are integrated into table 1. results and discussion table 1: summary of reviewed literature. author(s) preprocessing effectiveness effectiveness of detection effectiveness of classification abdullah et al. (2021) dicom images converted to jpeg grayscale using microdom software. first, a median filter helps clean up any noise in the image, and then gaussian filters are used to gently smooth everything out. these results show how accurately different machine learning methods can detect lung cancer: svm achieved 95.6%, knn achieved 89.7%, and cnn achieved 92.1% accuracy. this study produced a result in classifying lung cancer lesions with an accuracy of 95.56 % using svm, 89.65% using knn, and 92.11% using cnn. hussain et al. (2022) image enhancement techniques are applied first to improve quality, followed by extracting 22 gray-level co-occurrence (glcm) features. machine learning algorithms are then used to classify nsclc from sclc. lung cancer detection using thresholding and gamma correction, with svm, decision tree, and naive bayes, achieved accuracies from 69.21% to 100%. with minor image changes, svm, dt, and naive bayes reached 96.49% to 100% accuracy in cancer detection. upon enhancement, svm achieved 100% accuracy. capizzi et al. (2020) the local variance of each pixel in the x-ray image is calculated to detect and pinpoint potentially dangerous lung nodules, resulting in the creation of a variance matrix. the probabilistic neural network (pnn) resulted in the best performance with a sensitivity percentage of 95.56. one hundred images were used, and 440 possible nodules were extracted. pnn used 320 nodules, which resulted in a correct classification of 92.56%. pa ge 56 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 54-61, 2025 chen et al. (2018) an experienced radiation oncologist on non-enhanced ct images with contours conducted radiomic feature extraction svm with radiomics achieved 92.85% accuracy. a 1000time permutation test using a 4-feature signature confirmed strong detection capability. svm with radiomics achieved 84% accuracy. radiomics signatures varied in accuracy from 55.8% to 84%, depending on feature selection. faisal et al. (2018) data cleaning. recall/sensitivity auto multi-layer perceptron (mlp) 78.33%, naïve bayes 85.00%, svm 79.17%, dt 78.33%, gradient boosted tree 90.00%, neural network 71.67% rf 79.17%, majority voting mlp+gbt+svm 88.57% accuracy of auto mlp) 70.57%, naïve bayes 79.71%, svm 60.28%, dt 70.57%, gradientboosted tree 83.71%, neural network 66.57%, rf 50%, majority voting mlp+gbt+svm 76.57% günaydin et al. (2019) 2048x2048 images with 2-byte data were dimensionally reduced via pca, boosting efficiency, aiding visualization, and enhancing machine learning performance. before processing: dt 96%, knn 86.36%, svm 85%. after processing: knn dropped to 78.26%, svm 72.41%, but ann rose to 91.30%. before, dt led with 93.24%, knn 74.32%, and svm 50%. after: knn rose to 75.68%, svm fell to 55.41%, dt dropped to 79.97%, and ann 82.43%. hoque et al. (2020) contour stretching enhances contrast. the median filter reduces noise, preserving edges. segmentation by otsu’s method creates a binary image through thresholding. support vector machine (svm) showed an effectiveness of 94.87%, indicating its high accuracy in detecting lung cancer. svm achieved 95% accuracy in classifying lung lesions, showing its strong ability to distinguish different types of abnormalities in lung images. hrizi et al. (2023) the blue channel is extracted for nuclear staining to count cells. morphological operations like opening and closure are applied to remove noise and fill holes in the image. svm achieved 97.33%, xgboost 99.1%, random forest 98.79%, and decision tree 98.76% accuracy rates, showing strong performance across various classifiers. svm achieved 95.1%, xgboost 98.6%, random forest 98.1%, and decision tree 95.6% accuracy in classifying benign and malignant cases. ingle et al. (2021) preprocessing technique: minmax normalization, which rescales data between zero and one. ensuring standardized data samples for improved analysis and interpretation of data. dt, random forest, and k-nearest neighbor achieved average accuracies of around 73%, while adaboost demonstrated higher accuracy, averaging around 82% dt, random forest, knn, and adaboost detected lung cancer with accuracies ranging from 80.55% to 99.54%, averaging around 87% to 90.74%. islam et al. (2019) median filtering removed noise, the gabor filter was enhanced, global thresholding was converted to binary, morphological opening was followed, and roi selection was followed. (glcm): svm 71%, knn 57%, rf 43%, gaussian naïve bayes 57%. statistical parametric: svm 83%, knn 68%, rf 63%, gaussian naïve bayes 74%. (glcm): svm 73.68%, knn 68.42%, rf 57.89%, gaussian naïve bayes 68.42%. statistical parametric: svm 78.95%, knn 68.42%, rf 63.15%, gaussian naïve bayes 73.68%. jayaraj & sathiamoorthy (2020) the median filter removes noise from the grayscale ct scan image for better cancer identification. then, a gaussian filter smoothens the image and reduces noise speckles. the proposed method (rf as a classifier) 90.85% svm 79.87%, mlp 76.59%, rbf network 90.35%, knn 87.5%. the proposed method (rf as a classifier) 89.9% svm 86.6%, mlp 82.87%, rbf network 83.89%, knn 89%. pa ge 57 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 54-61, 2025 kaur et al. (2020) the 2d image was converted into grayscale and enhanced to remove noise, redundancy, and blueness using median and log gabor filters. recall 100% (calculated). an accuracy of 93.3% using ann to classify lung cancer stages has been achieved. makaju et al. (2018) dicom images were converted to grayscale jpegs. median filtering removes salt and pepper noise, while gaussian filtering smooths speckle noise from ct scans. support vector machine (svm) performed accurately and achieved 86.6% effectiveness in detecting lung cancer. this study compares two models for lung cancer detection. the current model scored 88.4%, while the proposed model improved to 92%. maleki & akhavan niaki (2023) images were resized to 512 by 512 pixels, and then a median filter was applied to lessen the noise and quality of the images. classifiers (gb, rf, svm) tested on pca, lda, and ga datasets, with accuracies: gb 95%, rf 78% (lda), 85% (ga), svm 72% (pca), 95% ((lda), 72% (ga). three classifiers (gb, rf, svm) were applied to 3 datasets. for pca:gb 95%, rf 82%, svm 73%. the lda: gb/rf 78%, svm 95%. the ga:gb 82%, rf 85%, svm. nair et al. (2024) ct scan images were converted to jpg for faster processing and filtered using an anisotropic nonlinear diffusion method to enhance nodule texture quality. rw segmentation with ann achieved 0.35%; an enhanced method reached 9.78%. rw with random forest and improved rw both hit 99.98%. rw segmentation with ann: 96.82%, improved rw with ann: 94.76%. rw with random forest: 99.03%, improved rw with ann: 94.76%, with random forest: 99.65%. patra (2020) rbf, knn, naive bayes, and j48 classifiers were evaluated for accuracy and reliability through 10-fold cross-validation. machine learning accurately classified lung cancer between 75% and 81.25% using methods like knn, naive bayes, rbf, and j48. weka tool’s results for lung cancer detection: knn 0.75, naive bayes 0.775, rbf 0.813, and j48 7.68, measured on a scale from 0-1. rehman et al. (2021) ct scan images were converted to grayscale and were put into the texture-based lbp technique to encode lung ct scans’ global features. using three patch lbp (tplbp) with discrete cosine transform (dct), svm achieved 86% accuracy, while knn reached 82.4% svm attained 93% accuracy, and knn reached 91% when utilizing tplbp combined with dct for image analysis. singh & gupta (2018) roi extraction, grayscale conversion, gaussian blur denoising, outsu’s adaptive thresholding, and morphological opening are applied this study tested machinelearning techniques for lung cancer classification on a scale of 0-1. accuracy varied from 0.6279 and 0.8916 knn 89.95%, svm 59.87%, dt 80.84%, multinomial naive bayes 60.25%, sgd 64.01%, random forest 85.74%, and mlp 91.58% woźniak et al. (2018) a 3x3 pixel window calculates local variance, then a boundary tracking algorithm identifies potential diseased tissues in x-ray images. the probabilistic neural network (pnn) detected 95% accuracy, demonstrating its effectiveness in detecting lung cancer. probabilistic neural network (pnn) achieved 92% accuracy in classifying lung nodules. effectiveness of pre-processing techniques. data preprocessing is the essential step of cleaning, organizing, and transforming raw data into a format that a machine learning model can understand and learn from effectively. the data preprocessing can be applied to the medical imaging data (x-ray, ct scans, and mri scans) before experts and machine learning algorithms analyze them to search for the presence of lung cancer in the enhanced data. ingle et al. (2021) discussed that using machine learning techniques to diagnose lung cancer can significantly improve accuracy. its algorithm can spot signs of lung cancer that conventional processes can miss. this focus on potential cancer markers, facilitated by data preprocessing, reduces diagnostic errors. many researchers have used ml algorithms to predict lung cancer, which is impossible with the conventional technique. pandiangan et al. (2019) proposed five stages of artificial neural networks: first, it reduces noise in pa ge 58 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 54-61, 2025 medical scans. second, it enhances the image to make relevant features more prominent. third, the network segments the lung region, separating it from the rest of the image. fourth, object edge detection pinpoints potential areas of concern. fifth, the network performs tumor boundary recognition, precisely outlining these areas. once these five stages are completed, the neural network is able to determine whether the segmented lung regions are cancerous or not. learning about different preprocessing techniques creates many options for researchers to use for their studies. most studies used noise reduction, image enhancement, grayscale method, and median filtering techniques. for instance, hussain et al. (2022) studied different image filtering methods and levels, yielding a different result. the highest accuracy achieved without image enhancement methods was 99.89% using the machine learning algorithms svm, polynomial, and rbf. on the other hand, by applying image enhancement techniques such as image adjustment, contrast stretching at a threshold of 0.02 to 0.98, and gamma correction with a gamma value of 0.9, 100% accuracy was achieved using rbf, svm, and polynomial kernels. this demonstrates that these image enhancement methods significantly improve the accuracy of lung cancer detection. preprocessing may enhance the picture’s quality by removing distracting features and enhancing future processes’ results. image analysis becomes more efficient by isolating foreground objects from their background. by extracting features such as intensity, texture, and color from each pixel, a unique mathematical representation of the image is created. after identifying objects, they can be labeled in the image for deeper analysis (hussein et al., 2022). kumar et al. (2019) explored various evolutionary image segmentation techniques to assess whether ct scan images show signs of lung cancer. these methods likely aimed to isolate lung nodules from surrounding tissues. effectiveness in detecting lung cancer sensitivity, often referred to as recall, measures the proportion of actual positive cases that the algorithm correctly identifies. it indicates how well the algorithm classifies images with benign or malignant nodules, making it a crucial factor for any diagnostic tool to be considered practical and effective (singh & gupta, 2019). one of the two most important mechanisms is false positive reduction, the other being pulmonary nodule detection for the early diagnosis and precise management of lung cancer (capizzi et al., 2020). detecting pulmonary nodules which are the small spots on the lungs that can be cancerous or benign is essential for early detection and can potentially save lives. according to al mohammad et al. (2017), there has been increasing convolutional neural networks (cnns) research that applies deep learning (dl) models in computer-aided diagnosis (cad) systems to enhance accuracy, reduce false positives, and improve execution time in detecting lung tumors, particularly. like traditional feature-based cad systems, these deep learning (dl) models generally follow three key steps: nodule detection and segmentation, feature extraction from the nodules, and clinical decision-making (al mohammad et al., 2017). various techniques are employed for lung cancer detection, including support vector machine (svm), k-nearest neighbor (knn), artificial neural network (ann), random forest (rf), and convolutional neural network (cnn). svm is a classification algorithm designed to create a decision boundary between two categories to predict labels from feature vectors (buty et al., 2016). knn, a simple non-parametric method, is often used when there is limited prior knowledge of the data (huang et al., 2018). artificial neural networks, using input features to assign weighted values, predict output (shi et al., 2011). random forest (rf) is a tree method in which trees are grown by binary recursive splitting of right-censored data (rashidi et al., 2019). as a result, the researchers gathered sensitivity percentages from various studies to analyze. these studies revealed different levels of accuracy with machine learning methods. hrizi et al. (2023) found that svm achieved 97.33% and random forest achieved 98.79% accuracy rates in detecting lung cancer, demonstrating strong performance across different classifiers. abdullah et al. (2023) reported that svm achieved 95.6%, knn 89.7%, and cnn 92.1% accuracy in their study on lung cancer detection. kaur et al. (2018) and makaju et al. (2017) achieved 100% sensitivity using svm and ann, respectively. although machine learning has been widely adopted for lung cancer detection in both clinical settings and research, there are still notable challenges to overcome. convolutional neural networks (cnns), in particular, have shown great success in identifying lung cancer from medical images, but further improvements are needed to address existing limitations. deep learning, an advanced machine learning, enhances this capability with more complex algorithms. one critical challenge is balancing sensitivity—detecting as many actual cases as possible— while reducing false positives to avoid unnecessary tests. machine learning methods like svm and knn have their strengths and weaknesses in detecting lung cancer. while some methods show promising results, issues such as overfitting and difficulty interpreting results remain. it is important to validate these methods rigorously across diverse populations and image types to ensure fairness and effectiveness. effectiveness in classifying lung lesions lung cancer can be classified into non-cancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant) nodules, which form due to abnormal lung cell growth, leading to the development of lung nodules (hrizi et al., 2023). the two main types of lung cancer are non-small cell lung cancer (nsclc) and small cell lung cancer (sclc) (abdullah et al., 2023). sclc, known for its aggressive nature and strong association with smoking, accounts for 15-20% pa ge 59 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 54-61, 2025 of all primary lung cancers. monkam et al. (2019) noted that substantial progress has been made in the automated differentiation of pulmonary nodules from other lung lesions, like non-nodules. however, not all detected lung nodules are cancerous. thus, the accuracy of the machine learning algorithms is crucial for validating their effectiveness on lung lesion classification. among the 19 studies presented in the table, the highest accuracy of 100% was achieved using svm, rbf, and polynomial kernels, all with image enhancement methods (woźniak et al., 2018). this was followed by 98.6% by hrizi et al. (2023) using xgboost, 92.56% using a pnn with fuzzy logic capizzi et al., (2020), and 92% with the pnn (woźniak et al., 2018). hrizi et al. (2023) tested four machine learning algorithms: svm, xgboost, random forest, and decision tree among these, xgboost attained the highest accuracy of 98.6% for classifying lung lesions their study involves two main processes the first process includes preprocessing, segmentation, feature extraction, and nodule detection preprocessing included extracting the blue channel for cell counting and using morphological operations to improve image quality by removing noise and filling holes the second process involves classifying detected lung lesions as either benign or malignant this classification was performed on a dataset of 110 ct scans, categorized into 40 normal, 15 benign, and 55 cancerous nodules hussain et al. (2022) achieved 100% accuracy using machine learning algorithms such as svm, rbf, and polynomial kernels they tested various image filtering methods and levels to detect lung cancer, distinguishing between small cell lung cancer (sclc) and non-small cell lung cancer (nsclc) their findings showed that enhancing images using contrast stretching and gamma correction significantly improved prediction performance when analyzing 945 images from the lung cancer alliance mri dataset, which included 377 nsclc and 568 sclc cases. the study of woźniak et al. (2018) proposed a new classification method for more accurately determining the presence or absence of lung carcinomas in chest x-ray images. their approach used a straightforward segmentation method with a probabilistic neural network, achieving an overall correct classification rate of 92%. however, they have found many false nodules after the segmentation stage. therefore, they used pnn as their classifier to discriminate the true nodules. for the neural network to function effectively, it is crucial to accurately describe the geometric properties of lung nodules. this was accomplished using feature extraction based on the momentum method. their approach was tested on a dataset of 504 real two-exposure dual-energy subtraction chest radiographs, with 404 cases for training and 100 for testing. despite some misclassification errors, where the network confused false nodules with true ones (6%) and vice versa (2%), the study yielded positive results. their method, while relatively simple, proved effective, detecting low-contrast nodules. on the other hand, capizzi et al. (2020) employed a fuzzy logic segmentation method with a pnn classifier, tested on images from clinical trials at zaggłębiowskie oncology centre, poland, achieving 92.56% accuracy. they emphasized the clarity and simplicity of their methodology as a key advantage. upon reviewing various articles, machine learning algorithms have displayed impressive accuracy in classifying lung lesions, with some achieving 100% success rates when combined with specific algorithms and image enhancement techniques. this advancement holds significant potential in enhancing the early detection of lung cancer and reducing misdiagnoses. however, it is important to recognize that these outcomes are based on particular datasets and methodologies, underscoring the need for further validation in larger and more diverse patient records. continuous improvement of machine learning algorithms is crucial to ensure their reliability and applicability in clinical scenarios. conclusion this systematic literature review examines lung cancer detection and classification using machine learning, offering insights and recommendations for future research. key contributions include a review of preprocessing techniques—such as noise reduction, image enhancement, grayscale conversion, and median filtering—that are critical for accurately analyzing lung cancer images. preprocessing isolates and segments features like nodules and tumors, enabling machine learning algorithms to classify lung cancer types, including non-small cell lung cancer (nsclc) and small cell lung cancer (sclc). commonly employed machine learning methods include cnn, svm, knn, ann, and random forest, each varying in detection sensitivity, allowing future research to identify the most effective method. challenges like misclassification highlight the need for integrating clinical data (e.g., prior images, patient history) to improve system precision and reliability. future research should explore compatible preprocessing and machine learning techniques to minimize detection errors. the review advocates for collaboration between researchers and clinicians to advance machine learning applications in lung cancer detection, with the goal of enhancing diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes. by addressing current limitations and refining techniques, machine learning can become a crucial tool in clinical settings, potentially saving lives through early, accurate detection. references abdullah, d. m., abdulazeez, a. m., & sallow, a. b. 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(2021). early lung cancer diagnostic biomarker discovery by machine learning methods. translational oncology, 14(1), 100907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tranon.2020.100907 xu, z. (2021). design of cancer detection system based on cnn model and virtual reality with nlp voice output. in 2021 2nd international seminar on artificial intelligence, networking and information technology (ainit) (pp. 277–284). ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/ ainit54228.2021.00062 pa ge 1 pa ge 1 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) sustaining work-life balance of teachers during the new normal carlzaine r. santiago1* volume 2 issue 2, year 2023 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v2i2.1257 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: february 02, 2023 accepted: february 20, 2023 published: february 26, 2023 this study explored the lived experiences of the public-school primary teachers and their ways in sustaining work-life balance during the covid-19 pandemic. the research employed a qualitative research design of phenomenology. the responses were analyzed following the steps of colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological method. the researcher thoroughly reviewed the transcripts of interviews and used a coding sheet in organizing the codes. the process was repetitively conducted and was evaluated by the researcher’s rater and adviser prior to finalizing the main themes relevant to the phenomenon under study. the following were the findings of the study: (1) there had been changes in the workload of teachers during this pandemic; these are: (a) additional workloads due to; instructional planning and preparation; feedbacking and monitoring system, attending webinars, and online meetings, (b) irregular working hours, (c) ict capabilities and (d) internet/wifi access (2) the pandemic impacted teachers’ constructive experiences because they had opportunity to grow and learn and also it impacted their adverse experiences because it compromised family time and it made them feel stress and anxious. (3) teachers are significantly challenged by overlapping of activities, limited gadgets and technology, evaluating learning outcomes, fear of acquiring the virus, and engaging pupils into active learning. (4) teachers coping techniques or interventions prior to the difficulties and challenges are time management and prioritization, embracing changes, flexibility and adaptability, and employing break time. (5) the values and faith strengthened during this pandemic are resiliency, self-appreciation, nurturing spiritually and creativity. keywords work-life balance, covid-19, new normal, primary teacher 1 department of education, mabuhay elementary school, talavera, nueva ecija, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: santiagoshaine2132@gmail.com introduction the global covid-19 outbreak has had a significant impact on practically every aspect of life, including education, and the philippines is no exception. when covid-19 was blasted, mankind was astounded, and the number of positives has been steadily increasing. nobody can stop this infection. it can move toward you whether you are wealthy or poor. but because the government has signed to pursue the school year 2020-2021, the prompt transitions and optimized complexity of today’s world present challenges and develop new demands on our education system; department of education (deped) generates a slew of issues for students and teachers. the teacher, who considered themselves a student’s second mother, was having difficulty dealing with the newly established standard. teachers must also deal with the interferences and conflicts that coronavirus has produced within the educational system. these sudden changes in the education setting also affect their work-life balance. as a result, many experts and even teachers endure stress and burnout while addressing the pandemic. the present study intends to give knowledge and analyze the lived experiences of public-school primary teachers during the covid-19 pandemic. literature review workplaces have undergone a paradigm shift in the last seven to eight months as remote working/work from home (wfh) has become a necessity for organizations to ensure the safety of both employees and management, paving the way for research to understand the major implications on women employees as they stay at home and have to care for both work and family, and balancing the two has become a daunting task. prior to the pandemic, management viewed remote working/work from home as a perk and a way to provide employees more freedom, but it has now become the new normal for everyone in any company, and we may refer to it as the new future of work in a post-pandemic situation. glass ceilings in the workplace have shattered, and times have changed. work from home used to be considered a perk for a select few employees, but it has now become the new normal for everyone in any organization. as a result, several businesses are considering putting everything online and completing everything through digital workplaces. work-life balance affects the quality of one’s working life; as a result, companies must take this seriously in order to satisfy their legal and ethical duties to safeguard their employees’ wellbeing. working remotely (most typically from home) is regularly included in lists of “family-friendly and flexibility policies,” implying that it is a method for companies to assist employees to achieve a good work-life balance. facilities for improved worklife balance are frequently considered as vital not just for employee welfare and needs but also for corporate success. there have been questions regarding whether promises of increased efficiency and production as a result of remote working can be verified. https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v2i2.1257 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri mailto:santiagoshaine2132%40gmail.com?subject= pa ge 2 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 examining evidence of the linkages between remote working and productivity is also essential in terms of the necessity for businesses to balance the consideration of employee rights and welfare against other organizational goals. these abrupt changes in the workplace affect the work-life balance of teachers. employees will contribute more to their job performance if they receive the correct and enough amount of wlb. women professionals find it difficult to balance family and social responsibilities. women professionals find it hard to meet family and society demands while also meeting the demands of their profession at work. (tasnim, et al., 2017) reported that one of the most perplexing challenges that women professors confront is balancing work and life because they are also engaged in doing household responsibilities and taking care of the family, accompanied by office works. their excessive working hours, job rigidity, work overload, child-care duties, workplace discrimination and bias, a lack of supervisory assistance, a dominant management style are all factors that female employees face in maintaining a work-life balance. the study’s findings focus on developing a structured guideline for organizations so that the above-mentioned reasons can be eliminated and female employees can maintain a healthy work-life balance and live in harmony. moreover, (nepali, 2018) stated that individuals’ quality of life is also affected by their work-life balance; according to the findings in our traditional culture, where women are still expected to have more home duties, the severity of this problem increases several times in the situations of women employees. she believed that women are also responsible for looking after their children, entertaining guests, caring for their parents, in-laws, and other senior family members, as well as managing the kitchen and other home duties. their spouses and other male family members will not allow them to ignore any of these obligations in order to complete work in the office or other institutions where they are employed. finding balance required the organization and coordination of many activities with help from diverse sources. they had a strong feeling of motherhood, and their children were their first priority, but their careers were also important to them, as they sought stimulation, challenges, accomplishment, and enrichment in their job. in order to find fresh meaning in the work, family, and selfequation, the respondents are seeking more selfcare time now that they are in the middle of their careers. the workplace’s demographics and culture have evolved dramatically during the previous century. women in the twenty-first century play critical roles in all fields, whether professional or domestic. because today’s women share equal parental responsibilities, the work-life balance of women’s faculties has become a controversial subject. (sundaresan’s, 2014) findings on her study discussed that a large number of career women are having trouble managing professional and family life as a result of severe job pressure, enough time for themselves, as well as the desire to meet others expectations. because they have to work longer hours, the majority of working women face job spill over into their home. according to an evaluation of the relevant literature, working women have more difficulties reconciling their job and family life than males. they also report conflict because employment spillover into the home occurs more frequently than home spillover into work. working women frequently need to make compromises in order to succeed in one setting, as each workplace places various expectations on them and has different standards to follow. in addition, poor work-life balance greatly affects either the professional or personal life of an individual, according to the high degree of stress and anxiety, discord at home, job burnout, and the inability to reach one’s full potential are all crucial determinants of a bad work-life balance. due to their failure to reconcile job and family life, they are frequently angry and resentful, (sundaresan, 2014). it means that we should clearly define the line between work and personal life by conducting work just during work hours and without sacrificing time for family and personal life. a good work-life balance is especially important for working women in the current climate, in which both the home and the job have presented women with several obstacles and issues. working women are under great stress as a result of the realities of the workplace since they must juggle two full-time jobs — one at work and one at home. the results have consequences for career women and offer suggestions for achieving a good worklife balance. in the study of (sethi, 2015), despite their different demographic profiles, the results showed that family support and organizational support play an important role in maintaining work-life balance for female employees. the findings demonstrate that long work hours and overtime do not, in general, contribute to lower satisfaction. increasing working hours and overtime, on the other hand, has a good influence on life and job satisfaction, but a desire to minimize working hours has a negative impact. moreover, a stressful environment can create an imbalance in work-life. another reason for an imbalance of work-life is the lack of support of the managers. if the manager does not support their subordinates, most likely, employees’ work-life harmony will be affected. however, the quality of the teacher’s work-life balance did not change significantly based on gender or marital status. the models suggest various approaches to living a healthy way of life in three dimensions. the primary emphasis is on personal life. it implies that time and family support are two variables. according to educators (faculty), career advancement, employment security, and being stable financially are all variables. according to work-life research, the two variables to consider are scholarly power and repute. this is due to the time constraints associated with managing the three dimensions (chandrakala, et. al., 2020). (mathur, 2017) reported that organizational initiatives https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 3 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 to provide a supportive work environment are lauded because they help to improve work-life balance. indian businesses are attempting to achieve work-life balance through programs such as flextime, part-time work, and the provision of childcare. because if the employees have a more pleasant working environment; as a result, their job will be more meaningful, (o’brien and hayden, 2008) both agreed to this point, they believed that flexibility in work practices is becoming a standard component of employment, especially in the public sector, which is effectively leading the way on this subject. employees and companies equally benefit from flexible work strike a balance between the organization’s and employees’ needs. training and communication are critical components of the successful adoption of flexible working. according to (putri and amran, 2021), the covid-19 epidemic forced the firm to restructure its operations to allow employees to work from home. employees’ work-life balance may be impacted by a rapid shift in the operational activity system. one of the most difficult aspects of teaching from home is the growing blur between work mode and home mode. many teachers are struggling to find any semblance of a balance when teaching from home. oftentimes, teachers tend to attend to personal needs during work hours and while in the workplace and also attend work-related tasks during personal and family time. thus, affecting their personal and professional lives are intertwined. cultural expectations and gender issues impact women’s work-life balance and social stability from a cultural standpoint (mushfiqur et al., 2018). they put in long hours in their careers and at home. because women associate closely with their family role, they may feel guilty when their family needs overlap with their work. in line with this, the researcher intended to further discover and understand the lived experiences of public school primary and their ways on sustaining work-life balance during covid-19 in the new normal set-up in education and workplace. conceptual framework in this part of the study, the researcher presents a paradigm that graphically represents the phenomenon under study based on the results of data analysis. the researcher applied a constructivist philosophical underpinning in this study that enabled a new expanded way of thinking about multiple concepts. the researcher’s conceptual paradigm of the study phenomenon graphically represents the five themes (1) shifting educational paradigms (2) realizing impact of the new normal to teachers (3) encountering challenges of the present time (4) transcending amidst difficulties and (5) strengthening faith and values . when merged into one, all these themes form the central idea on how the teachers balance act in sustaining worklife balance amidst this pandemic. in the given figure, it is seen that there had been shifting educational paradigms, where in teachers in the new normal set up in education had changes in their workloads due to instructional planning and preparation, feedbacking and monitoring system and online meetings and webinar. also, another changes in their work is that they had irregular working hours and they need to upskill in ict capabilities. the new normal provided constructive and adverse experiences to teachers. through the provisions of seminars and workshops which further equip teachers and develop their creativity in developing and using different stratregies in teaching pupils during the pandemic. however, the new normal adversely impacted teachers’ experiences such as they compromised figure 1: conceptual paradigm https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 4 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 time with family and they are stressed and anxious because of the challenges. in addition, teachers encountered different challenges and difficulties as they are shifting in the new normal set up such as overlapping of activities, limited gadgets and technology, engaging pupils into active learning, fear of acquiring virus and evaluating learning outcomes. to be able to cope up, teachers transcend with these difficulties, which also led them to strengthen their values and faith during this pandemic. the changes in teachers’ workload, their experiences, the challenges and difficulties they are facing, and their coping techniques will be analyzed in the study to be used in developing program, which are used in sustaining work-life balance during this difficult situation. this type of qualitative research study employed the phenomenology approach which that concentrates on the commonality of a lived experience within a particular group. the fundamental goal of this method is to arrive at an explanation or interpretation of the nature of the particular phenomenon (creswell, 2013). therefore, this phenomenological study required the researcher to conduct an in-depth interview that looked into what the individual teacher-participants had experienced in their work and life during this pandemic. research locale the study was conducted in selected public elementary schools of sdo quezon annex, deped nueva ecija. the researcher chooses the local base and her interest and also the prevalence of issues that concerns the research paper. the researcher’s reason for considering those public elementary schools within the locality of the study was the accessibility and proximity of the sample (k-grade 3). respondents the participants of this study were primary teachers from kinder to grade 3 level. the approach of purposive sampling was employed to ascertain the participants. according to (foley, 2018), purposive sampling, also known as judgmental, selective, or subjective sampling, is a form of non-probability sampling in which researchers rely on their own judgment when choosing members of the population to take part in their study. researchers use purposive sampling when they want to access a particular subset of people, as all participants of a study are selected because they fit a particular profile. teachers at the primary level are responsible to establish a strong foundation for learning; they have to ensure that their pupils will learn the basic, which is writing, reading, and counting, so that they will survive upon entering another higher-grade level. the researcher selected 12 participants that only qualified for the inclusion criteria. inclusion criteria the researcher used the following inclusion criteria in selecting the teacher-participants: (1) female participants (2) primary teachers with more than three years of teaching experience, (3) combination of neophyte and seasoned/senior teachers (4) participants can be either single, married without children, or married with children. scope and limitation of the study this study, “sustaining work-life balance of teachers during the pandemic,” focused on understanding teachers’ lived experiences during the covid-19 pandemic and their ways in sustaining work life balance in these trying times. the number of participants was limited to twelve (12) participants only. the study was only centered on public primary teachers within nueva ecija for the school year 2020-2021; therefore, the results did not generalize the entire population of primary teachers in the country. furthermore, this study was limited to the teacher participants’ work-life balance during the pandemic and did not evaluate the overall teacher’s condition in the pandemic. research instrument according to dr. karim abawi (geneva workshop 2014), research instruments vary according to the type of research. methods for gathering data include observation, questioning, document review, and a combination of different methods to be able to gather the information that we would like to collect for the purpose of our study. this study employed an interview using open-ended questions crafted by the researcher to be conducted via recorded or phone call interview—the various questions designed to reveal teachers’ quality of work-life balance during covid-19. data collection/data gathering procedures upon securing the permit, the teacher-participants were contacted, and the mechanics were explained for the schedule of the interview depending on the availability of the participants. participants opted for a recorded interview via voice clips and video calls. for the consistency and reliability of the data, follow-up questions were asked only if necessary. data analysis this study employed thematic analysis, which is the most extensively used qualitative method for interpreting interviews. the conceptual foundation for the theme analysis of the interviews was largely based on theoretical viewpoints (braun and clarke’s, 2006) which expounded on the process of detecting, analyzing, and reporting patterns in am extracted qualitative data. the researcher thoroughly reviewed the transcripts of interviews and used a coding sheet in organizing the codes. the process was repetitively conducted and was evaluated by the researcher’s rater and adviser prior to finalizing the main themes relevant to the phenomenon https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 5 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 table 1: steps in colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological method step description 1. familiarization the researcher becomes acquainted with the data by going over all of the participant accounts numerous times. 2. identifying significant statements all remarks in the interviews that are directly relevant to the phenomena under inquiry are identified by the researcher. 3. formulating meanings a comprehensive examination of the important statements leads to the discovery of meanings relevant to the phenomena by the researcher. to stay as near to the phenomena as feasible, the researcher must "frame" his or her preconceptions reflexively (though colaizzi recognizes that complete bracketing is never possible). 4. clustering themes the researcher groups the discovered meanings into themes that appear in all of the narratives. again, presupposition bracketing is critical, especially to eliminate any potential effect of current theory. 5. developing an exhaustive description the researcher composes a comprehensive account of the phenomena that incorporates all of the topics generated in step 4. 6. producing the fundamental structure the researcher condenses the lengthy explanation into a brief, dense statement that retains just the components believed to be critical to the phenomenon's structure. 7. seeking verification of the fundamental structure the researcher asks all participants (or a sub-sample in bigger studies) if the essential structural statement accurately describes their experience. in light of this input, he or she may go back and change earlier phases in the analysis. under study. the researcher used colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological method following the steps: ethical consideration to practice ethical considerations in this study, the participant’s full consent was asked by the researcher. the researcher provided sufficient information through a short orientation of the interview procedure. concerns of the participants were addressed, and their demands were respected. proper protocols from the advice of the inter-agency task force for covid 19 were followed. anonymity and confidentiality. the participants were assured that the data they have shared would be kept strictly confidential and was for the objective of this research. in addition, the participants were assured that their names and other potentially identifying information would not be written in the study. results and discussion this chapter presents the discussion, analysis of data, conclusions based on the discussion, and the recommendations offered by the researcher. significant findings after careful analysis of the responses, the result indicates five major categories or themes emerged which apparently recurred from the narrations of the primary teachers, namely: (1) shifting educational paradigms refers to changes in teachers workloads during the pandemic, (2) realizing impact of the new normal to teachers refers encountering challenges of the present times refers to the challenges and difficulties that the participants had to face day to day during the pandemic, (4) transcending amidst difficulties refers to how do the participants balance their work-life and how do they cope up with the difficulties and challenges in their workload during the pandemic, (5) strengthening faith and values refers to the valuable learnings they have realized. the first theme is shifting educational paradigms refers to changes in teachers’ workloads during the pandemic, which is subdivided such as additional workloads, irregular working hours, ict capabilities and internet/ wifi access. the second theme is realizing impact of the new normal to teachers, which is subdivided such as constructive experience includes opportunity to grow professionally, and adverse experiences includes compromised family time and stress and anxious. the third theme is encountering challenges of the present times refers to the challenges and difficulties that the participant had to face day by day, which is subdivided such as overlapping of activities, limited gadgets and teachnology, evaluating learning outcomes, https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 6 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 fear of acquiring virus, engagingengaging pupils into active learning. the fourth theme is transcending amidst difficulties which refer to how participants balance their work and life and how do they cope up with the challenges and difficulties during the pandemic, which are subdivided such as time management and prioritization, embracing changes, flexibility and adaptability and employing break time. moreover, the fifth theme and the last theme is strengthening faith and values refers to the valuable learnings they have realized, which are subdivided such as resiliency, nurturing spiritually, selfappreciation and creativity. figure 2: sustaining work-life balance of teachers during the new normal figure 2 shows the major themes and its sub-themes excerpted from the verbatim transcripts. theme 1 shifting educational paradigms the personal experiences shared by the primary teachers regarding how do you they compare their workload and their life before and during this pandemic and what changes they have to take in their life and in their work as a teacher during this pandemic highlighted four (4) subthemes: additional workloads, irregular working hours, ict capabilities and internet/wifi access. additional workloads comprised of the following sub-categories: instructional planning and preparation, online meetings and webinars, feedbacking and monitoring system. figure 3: shifting educational paradigms https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 7 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 figure 3 shows the illustration of the first major theme, its sub-themes, and the sub-categories of sub-theme 1. sub-theme 1 additional workloads almost all the participants stated that they work had changes and work responsibilities were different compared to what they experienced before. there had been changes and additional workload in both teaching load and ancillary services of participants. “....teaching loads before were not complicated because i have all the resources needed for my subject. when the pandemic came, it brought a drastic change in everyone’s life, specifically for the lives of the teachers. i need to adjust my time, preparing modules, printing and sorting needed modules, packing them, checking notebooks, sorting test papers and checking them, while at the same time making activity sheets reproduce them, doing reports, and attending virtual seminars.” this pandemic brought a drastic change affecting teachers’ lives. one of these changes happens in the education setting. teachers need to adapt to this sudden change in the education setting in order to cater to the needs of the learner despite the pandemic. because learning must continue, deped crafted different learning modalities to be used by teachers as their learning continuity plan (e.g., online delivery modality, modular learning delivery (printed, digitized), blended delivery modality, radio / television based instruction). in line with this, teachers had to deal with these changes in their day-to-day lives, and it is not an easy experience for them, but teachers always find means in adjusting to the new normal. new normal in education setting resulted in changes in teachers work, before they had to teach physically in the classroom unlike today that they could only teach their pupils virtually utilizing different online platforms or through the distribution of printed modules, however this new normal way of teaching caused teachers to have additional work responsibilities. adopting modular distance delivery and online learning delivery adds burdens to teachers, because aside from thinking, designing, and implementing teaching strategies they have to use for their pupils and what assessment tool would best fit their pupils’ knowledge and capabilities, they still exert a great amount of their time and effort in preparing instructional materials such as printing modules, self-learning materials, and learning activity sheets. according to (long, 2020), as the pandemic continues, many teachers are altering their schedules and curricula to allow for both in-person and remote instruction as more schools reopen with models. their efforts are heroic, and their working hours are long and difficult, and sometimes unacknowledged. participants also reiterated additional webinars and online meeting. it was clearly stated in their interview answers that the new normal setting had incurred additional online training and webinar compared to the face-to-face activities. online activities are also time-consuming and overlapping. moreover, they also added that most of the time, they have to attend two to three online seminars at the same time. “webinars and meetings were scheduled one after another; most of the time, i am doing paper works while attending webinars, which is not okay with me because i cannot focus on a specific task i was assigned to do.” oreover, participant also claimed that feedbacking and monitoring added to their work responsibilities since meeting face to face was not possible; it is very important to give feedback and monitor the learning of their students. “because there is no face to face, it is necessary to monitor the students, to find out if they understand the lesson or which part of the lessons, they have difficulty, because often there is no knowledge provider in their home, i felt sorry for the pupils if they are not guided.” because pupils are not taught physically, providing timely feedbacks to monitor their progress is necessary. providing timely feedbacks and follow-ups helps both teachers and pupils. it helps the teacher to know the standing of his/her pupils and what reinforcement should be done and given whenever there is a student who lags behind. constant, helpful feedback is essential for ensuring that students understand where they are now, what they require, and where they intend to go in the process of learning, not just for transparency but also in order for them to establish ownership in the learning process. we need to include constant, reliable, and relevant feedback into our teaching, especially when many of us are geographically separated from our students. ensuring that feedbacks were given from time to time, teachers allotted their time in doing so, aside from preparing different instructional materials, causing them to have less time spent with family. sub-theme 2 irregular working hours three out of 12 participants stated that they also had irregular working hours/schedules because of the new normal set-up. this causes teachers to bring work even at home and expected to answer pupils’ and parents’ queries anytime. in line with this, participants experienced answering queries and concerns regardless of the time and day. there are instances that they are required to comply and submit school reports even during weekends, even outside working hours. “keeping a regular schedule before the pandemic probably looks significantly different than keeping a schedule now. even at home, i am working regardless if it is weekend or night time, i still need to attend to my pupils and parents queries about the lesson. most of the time, there are asap reports that need to be done outside working hours and days.” sub-theme 3 ict capabilities some participants said that upskilling in ict and digital access also added to their work responsibilities. it should be stressed out that the adaptation to new forms of teaching regarding the technical skills and learning the new platforms and apps have a significant issue in the work-life balance of the teachers. p4 and p10 have stated: https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 8 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 “teachers are encouraged to level up their skills when it comes to technology because of the implementation of different learning delivery modalities.” according to the participants, this pandemic demanded them to upskill in ict use and digital access, as traditional face-to-face learning shifted to online learning delivery and modular learning delivery. because face-to-face interactions are limited, reports of teachers are done through online submission. therefore, it requires them to be knowledgeable enough in using and incorporating ict in their work and, most especially in the education process. also, they need to be equipped to use different online platforms to reach their student and deliver learning through the virtual classroom. incorporating technology in the process of teaching and learning is one of the effective ways to deliver learning. according to (toquero, 2020), technology has aided in the effective communication required to combat the epidemic that the globe is currently experiencing. it also redefined how the educational system may spread the teachinglearning process in the face of covid-19. computers, laptops, cellphones, and tablets have all become essential in today’s modern world. these are no longer only for entertainment. our educational system is now largely reliant on them. because filipino students demand access to education even in times of crisis, the importance and power of technology in education are more apparent than ever before. the use of technology helps to bridge the gap between quarantine and teaching. we can look back on how our education industry handled online programs in the second quarter of 2020. many lgus provided students with mobile devices, teachers were trained to optimize digital learning, and educational programming was introduced to our television channels. zoom has become a popular tool for virtual classrooms not only in the united states but across the world. smartphones have evolved into more than simply a luxury item. nowadays, digital technology is a must-have for everyone. teachers can personalize learning for their pupils due to technological advances. it allows them to enhance their teaching techniques and customize learning, allowing them to be more productive and efficient as teachers. teachers can create engaging activities using these useful resources. these activities involve viewing videos to learn more about the subject and it’s also excellent content for kindling and enhancing children’s interest. sub-theme 4 internet/wifi access participant also reiterated that one of the changes that this pandemic caused their work is that they required to have an internet or wifi access. the importance of the internet in distance learning and teaching was addressed. “this pandemic required me to have internet access because transactions, communications, meetings and seminars are all conducted online.” the internet offers several chances to improve educational quality. new modes of teaching and learning, greater access to a far larger range of information and resources, and new skills for the digital era may all contribute to accomplish the sustainable development goals, including education for all. improved connection and the numerous learning materials accessible on the internet may be used to improve educational access and quality. (dogniez, 2019) stated that teachers utilize internet resources to plan classes, and students use them to broaden their horizons. teachers may provide more attention to individual students’ needs and enhance shared learning by using interactive teaching methods, which are made possible by the internet. internet also plays a vital role in keeping the communication in times of pandemic. to combat the covid-19 epidemic, governments and public health organizations all over the world have implemented social distancing and stayat-home policies. with fewer opportunities to spend time together in person, being socially engaged has become more difficult. but through the use of internet and different online apps and platforms one can easily communicate to others, access information and read news about what’s happening outside. theme 2 realizing impact of the new normal to teachers the personal experiences recounted by the primary teachers on how these changes brought by pandemic affect their life as a person and as a professional emerged two (2) sub-themes: constructive experiences and adverse experience. the first subtheme which is constructive experience comprises of opportunity to grow professionally. the second subtheme which is adverse experiences includes comprised family time and stress and anxious. figure 4 shows the illustration of the second major theme and its sub-themes. figure 4: realizing impact of the new normal to teachers https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 9 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 sub-theme 1 constructive experiences opportunity to grow and learn professionally participants believed that these changes impacted their personal and professional life positively. the changes brought by covid-19 gave them an additional venue and opportunity to grow and learn. “change is an integral part of our personal development journey, and for the most part, we should embrace it. change touches all aspects of life, but embracing change in our career can contribute enormously towards positive personal development.” teachers become more creative and resourceful in thinking of new teaching strategies and techniques to be used in the learning delivery modality they opted to use. moreover, they see these changes as an opportunity to grow and learn because of the different webinars conducted to develop and enhance teacher knowledge and skills in creating video lessons and incorporating ict in the teaching-learning process, as well as the opportunity to have time for family because of the work from home setup. (gura, 2019) claimed that change could open up many doors and opportunities that normally would not have been there without change. change makes many things possible. it can help you meet new people, have new experiences, develop new skills and ideas, gain new information, and accomplish amazing things. change may assist you in transforming and breaking through. you will never know what you are capable of unless you try it. the possibilities with change become endless. all governments are increasing up efforts to offer teachers training and resources to help them adjust to this new learning environment. department of education conducted different webinars and training to help and guide teachers in the context of new normal in teaching. (malipot, 2020) stated that public school teachers in the new normal setting undergo numerous trainings on a continuous basis to assist them meet the demand of their work during the epidemic. sub-theme 2 adverse experiences comprised family time these changes in the education setting affect not only the work of teachers but also their personal lives. the majority of the participants claimed that they lack time spent with their families. (strauss, 2020) commented that teachers are busier this time of pandemic; they need to prepare and record the online discussion and send learning materials to the student. according to (see et. al., 2020), according to their research during the lockdown, instructors noted losing touch and relationships with family, colleagues, and students, as well as experiencing uncertainty, worry, and anxiety. “because i spent most of the time in preparing learner’s material and doing reports, i seldom help my own child in doing her modules, and she cannot pass her module on time because i cannot assist her, sometimes she studies alone.” stressed and anxious the result also showed that these changes during covid-19 caused stress to participants. the pandemic of covid-19 has had a significant impact on the participants’ lives. many teachers are confronted with difficulties that may be stressful, overwhelming, and provoke powerful emotions. based on the findings, stress affects both teacher’s personal and professional life. “all of the teachers i work with were completely exhausted. we are all exhausted because of the sudden changes “it was stressful. i think about work all the time. often, i still have work to finish, but then, new task/work was about to be given.” the above-stated qualitative remarks of participants imply that the abrupt changes in the education setting, as well as their additional task in preparing learning materials for students, reports, along with their responsibilities at home, stress them out. in the study of (klapproth et al., 2020), during covid-19, instructors in remote learning reported medium to high levels of stress. (aperribai, 2020) stated that despite governments’ attempts to provide resources and training to assist teachers in adjusting to this new learning environment, switching from a face-to-face to a virtual classroom in such a short period of time has proven difficult since few teachers have strong digital and ict abilities. therefore, in such unexpected and difficult times, it is reasonable for teachers to suffer increased levels of stress and worry. teachers need, certainly, socio-emotional assistance to handle the increased strain being put on them to offer to learn in a time of crisis (unesco, 2020). in addition, stress may influence your health, vitality, well-being, mental alertness, and personal and professional relationships by causing physical, emotional, and behavioral difficulties. defensiveness, a lack of motivation, trouble concentrating, accidents, lower productivity, and interpersonal conflict between typically peaceful coworkers are all possible consequences (robinson et al., 2020). theme 3 encountering challenges of the present times the experiences articulated by the primary teachers on what are the difficulties or challenges they have to face day to day highlighted five (5) sub-themes: overlapping of activities, limited gadgets and technology, evaluating learning outcomes, fear of acquiring virus, and engaging pupils into active learning. figure 5: encountering challenges of the present times https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 10 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 figure 5 shows the illustration of the third major theme and its sub-themes. sub-theme 1 overlapping of activities the majority of the participants encountered difficulties submitting paperwork and other tasks assigned to them. aside from teaching, preparing, and reproducing modules, teachers need to submit different urgent reports and attend webinars/seminars which overlap with their responsibilities at home (e.g. doing household chores, taking care of the family and etc.) the following discourses were noted by the researcher regarding workrelated and family-related activities and demands. “my difficulties are on how to finish my work along with others while doing the work for the coming week, how to finish checking test papers received from the past week while doing virtual seminars, classroom chores, and reports at the same time.” sub-theme 2 limited gadgets and technology participants also claimed that they struggled with the availability and use of gadgets and technology. transitioning from traditional teaching to the new normal really challenged the participants. “the first one is an internet connection, and there were times that when i am in a middle of the virtual class my internet connection lost all of a sudden, and it repeats almost every day.”, “and lastly, communication, there are some pupils/parents which do not have any gadget to use for a virtual class that’s why they find it hard to cope up with the lesson.” considering the transition of a typical classroom set up to online learning and modular learning, both teachers and pupils were required to prolong usage of technological devices such as laptops and smartphones, as well as accessing different online apps. being said that, a secure internet connection, gadgets, and technological skills are very important especially, that transactions, communications, meetings, reports, seminars, and workshops are online. gadget and technology also help pupils to cope with their lesson because through the use of it, they can search and utilize google in their study. digital technology plays a significant role because it enables teachers to teach students at a distance using different online platforms that allow them to teach synchronously and asynchronously; it also helps the teacher to access learning materials; interactive and collaborative activities. sub-theme 3 evaluating learning outcomes another challenge faced by the primary teachers in the new normal in education brought by covid 19 is the reliability of students’ assessment results. it was clearly stated from their responses some pupils let their older siblings or parents answer their self-learning materials for them. “one of the major challenges that i have encountered is the reliability of the students’ assessment. the problem is, a lot of students let their sister/brother/parents do their tasks. they are not motivated enough to finish it without the help of others. sometimes, you will notice that the handwritten is different. it is indeed that our students need someone to help them in finishing their tasks. however, we should teach them to learn independently so that they can discover their strengths and weaknesses.” the printed modular learning delivery allows the student to continue learning while at home, but this only applies when pupils are properly guided by his/her parents or other members of the family. however, a participant stated that the handwriting and answers in the module were undeniably handwriting of parent or older sibling of the students. as a result, the assessment result was unreliable. according to (arnold, 2012), the likeness of a non-proctored online test to a take-home or open-book exam is a major factor that can influence its reliability. the test-taker is overseen in a face-toface or proctored situation. it is possible to have additional in-person tests for context with the take-home scenario utilized in normal face-to-face sessions. furthermore, the teacher maintains regular in-person communication with the pupils, which allows for verbal discussion of the lesson. however, in a completely online environment, it is difficult to tell who is working on the same exam and how many individuals are working on it. as a result, test reliability is compromised (watson & sottile, 2010). sub-theme 4 fear of acquiring virus to ensure that learning must continue, teachers have to do their work responsibilities despite the covid-19 threat. participants shared that one of the challenges and difficulties they had to face day today was the fear of acquiring viruses while doing their work. “the most difficult challenge i am facing day today is how to protect myself from the virus. since we do not know who has the virus or where we can get it, safety protocols and sanitation should always be considered. i always have this doubt that i might harm the health of my loved ones while performing my duties and obligations as a teacher.” challenges are something new and tough that needs a lot of work and perseverance. as participants still experiencing the pandemic, one of the toughest challenges teachers need to face as one of the front liners in delivering education is the fear of acquiring a virus while working. teachers tend to expose their self in viruses while going to work, taking public transportation. also, they might acquire the virus while distributing and retrieving modules and doing house visits regardless of how careful they are. it seems that modular learning an alternative to traditional face-to-face sessions ostensibly designed to reduce the danger of catching the fatal virus – may be risky after all (magsambol, 2020). however, according to the center for disease control, based on data from covid-19 lab experiments and what we know about comparable respiratory illnesses, it is plausible that a person can contract covid-19 by contacting a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or perhaps their eyes. in line with these, teachers had always doubted and feared that they might acquire the virus while working. sub-theme 5 engaging pupils into active learning the result also showed that primary teachers also had https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 11 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 difficulties engaging pupils and parents in the teachinglearning process. one of the most challenging problems of distance learning during the covid-19 crisis is keeping learners motivated. the loss of face-to-face interaction, the limitations of communicating on digital devices, and the necessity to self-organize can all provide extra hurdles for learners in absorbing new knowledge and keeping track of the learning process. the job of the teacher becomes critical in ensuring that students remain interested and motivated. “because face to face was not possible, there are pupils who are too lazy to study, they did not want to continue studying, even after talking with them and their parents.” pupils and parents’ engagement in the process of teaching and learning is very vital. for if it were not for the joint effort of teacher, pupil, and parent, teaching and learning are not possible during this pandemic. the amount to which families promote learning at home and participate in their children’s education is the best predictor of student achievement. pupils will develop a lifelong love of learning if their parents are engaged in their school life. at the same time, pupils learn easier if she or he is motivated enough and eager to learn despite the circumstances everybody is facing (waterford.org 2020). students who are required to complete their education from the comfort of their own homes confront a new set of distractions that may prevent them from finishing the learning materials. inline with this teachers are continuously doing their best and think of any strategies that would help them engage their pupils into active learning even they’re at home. in order for the new normal of learning to operate, constant contact between parents and teachers will be required. it is critical for parents to work with teachers in reaching pupils’ learning goals because they will function as facilitators in ensuring that their children are learning from the resources offered. that is why teachers also devoted their time in monitoring and providing support to their pupils from time to know their standing and provide reinforcements needed to pupils who are still having trouble adjusting to this new learning environment. theme 4 transcending amidst difficulties the experiences of primary teachers regarding how do they balance their work-life during this pandemic and how do they cope up with the difficulties and challenges in their workload during this pandemic yielded four (4) subthemes: time management and prioritization; embracing changes; flexibility and adaptability and employing break time. figure 6 shows an illustration of the fourth major theme and its sub-themes. figure 6: transcending amidst difficulties sub-theme 1 time management and prioritization proper time management is important in learning how to use time wisely. the following discourse pertaining to time management of primary teachers as one of their coping techniques on balancing their work and life during covid-19 were noted by the researcher. p2, p3, and p5 reported: “i usually balance my work and life during this pandemic by managing my time efficiently. most of the time, i do and finish all my school works during work hours only, especially when i am at school. then when i go home, it is now the time to my family and myself.” mit school of distance education claimed that to master time management, you must be dedicated, persistent, and highly driven. a strong-willed individual prepares his or her schedule well and is determined to stick to it so that time is used efficiently. according to some participants, another way of managing time effectively is knowing how to prioritize tasks according to their importance and urgency. “i prioritized what is needed to be done first while ensuring that other works and responsibilities will not be sacrificed.” finishing a great number of tasks and responsibilities is very challenging. that is why listing task based on their importance is one means for teachers in organizing their schedules. this study showed that one of the teacher’s coping techniques to balance their work-life is through prioritizing tasks. according to (watson, 2015), prioritizing tasks is the basis of making effective use of your time and increasing your productivity. she reiterated that “you can do anything, but you cannot do everything.” prioritize your tasks and responsibilities as you make your list so you know what has to be done right now and what can wait. take some time to think about what you need https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 12 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 to accomplish, how long it will take, and when you need to do it, and then prioritize. it includes your personal, professional, and household needs. participants also added that setting boundaries is one of the ways to manage time effectively. in line with this, teachers should manage their time properly so that they can finish all their tasks in a certain period of time. “when working at home, i make sure that i can finish my paper works and reach me anytime within office hours just like i am in the school. when in the school, i also make sure to perform my duties as a teacher that cannot bring at home.” the above qualitative remark show how the participant keeps a border between work and personal life, assuring that she used her time efficiently to have a work-life balance. setting boundaries between work life is very important. setting a good boundary between work and regular life is going to help more people and more stakeholders. overall, it is critical that individuals manage their work-life boundaries for their own health and well-being, but also for their own productivity and their colleagues’ productivity (gaskell, 2020 & mcclintock, 2021) shared that by regulating and designating certain times when students or colleagues can reach you, you will be able to both set boundaries during remote teaching and offer a specified time when students know they can contact you during distance learning. sub-theme 2 embracing changes participants claimed that embracing changes positively was their coping technique to balance their work-life during these trying times. this pandemic will eventually pass, and teachers should always be positive and open to change in order to free themselves from stress thinking about the current situation they are into. “i always try to be optimistic; it helps me to cope up with the challenges and difficulties during this pandemic. in this new reality that we all live in, it is vital that we see this pandemic as a temporary disruption to our lives. we, as a teacher, must evaluate things positively so that we can provide our students with a lifelong learning and meaningful learning experience during a pandemic. although optimists are more resilient to adversity, i won’t deny the fact that it is really hard to balance life and career in times of pandemic because i have to strive for excellence for the growth of my career while risking my health.” accepting and embracing change enables us to adapt better. change may be a bit harder for someone when they oppose and reject it. accepting change makes it much simpler to deal with it. the more we deal with change, the more accustomed we get to it, and the simpler it becomes to cope. our willingness to embrace change allows us to grow as individuals and will aid us in our development and transformation. life’s changes make us stronger. when we seize the opportunity to step outside of our comfort zone, it demonstrates our readiness to deal with adversity (gura, 2019). sub-theme 3 flexibility and adaptability everyone can positively embrace and welcome change but being able to adapt to what was new is way harder than the latter. participants reported that being flexible and being able to adapt to the new normal helped them to cope up with the changes that the pandemic brought. it also helped them to strike a balance between work and personal life. “…and also, i can say that learning to adapt to what is new helps me to cope up with the challenges that the pandemic brought. it is our ability to adjust to this new normal that make us more efficient and effective in these trying times. by learning how technology works, it helps me to make my work faster, thus giving me more time to spend with family.” “no matter how difficult something is when we learn to adapt and go with the flow our work will be easier, instead of complaining i tried to learn difficult things for me. like using a computer and various apps that help me make my job easier.” being able to employ a range of teaching approaches and tactics is referred to as flexibility. this skill is especially useful in the classroom when the teacher has to change her plans for a given day for a number of reasons. under certain conditions, a flexible teacher can make changes to the plan. this pandemic led teachers to develop their flexibility, despite of the challenges and difficulties they went through they manage to adjust and be flexible enough to deliver education. being able to adapt to what we called new normal, helped them to coe up and rise from difficult situations. sub-theme 4 employing break time some participants also shared that taking breaks is one of their coping techniques or intervention in order to balance their personal/family life and work life. covid-19 brought an abrupt change in people’s lives which caused them stress. according to participants, it is finding space for something they love to do: listening to music, chatting with their friends, having snacks, and going out for a while. in conclusion, taking breaks is very vital to avoid the feeling of burnout and exhaustion. “and mostly, if i feel exhausted, stressed and tired, i make sure to take a break, having snacks with co-teachers, going out for a while, listening to each other story will help us to refresh our mind. learning how to handle stress and giving myself enough time to rest is the key for me to balance my work life during this pandemic.” according to cdcp (center for disease control and prevention), learning to manage stress in a healthy way can make you, your loved ones, and those around you more resilient. taking breaks is one of the ways in helping yourself, others, and your community manage stress. vidra (2020) reiterated that even though we are dealing with a public health emergency, we can also remind each other to take breaks and that it is fine to log off of email every now and then. in addition, taking a break enhances attention and concentration while also allowing employees to recharge their minds. work might restart with renewed vigor and drive after a vacation. working without taking a break results in mental and physical exhaustion. in the long term, it may even lead to burnout. theme 5 strengthening faith and values https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 13 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 the stories recounted by the primary teachers about the valuable learnings they have realized during covid-19 disclosed four (4) sub-themes: resiliency, self-appreciation nurturing spiritually; and creativity. figure 7 shows the fifth major theme and its sub-themes. sub-theme 1 resiliency most of the participants claimed that the pandemic strengthened their resiliency in both work and life situations. “despite the fact that i have a lot of work to do and i’m having a hard time, i patiently doing my works, i never thought giving up figure 7: strengthening faith and values because i have children who depends on me.” according to (guru, 2019), resilience makes us stronger and more equipped to deal with life’s challenges. you realize that a change in your life, no matter how significant, is not the end of the world and that you will get through it, perhaps better than before. because of the changes we have faced previously, we are better prepared and effective in dealing with whatever life throws at us. in this new normal, flexibility, adjustments, and considerations are needed based on how one understands, respond, and manage an ever-changing environment. according to the partnership for 21st century skills, flexibility is defined as the ability to effectively incorporate input into one’s activities. it also involves responding positively to compliments, failures, and critiques. as a teacher, you will frequently encounter situations that need a high level of adaptability, creativity, and the ability to modify plans. because anything may happen in the classroom, at school, or even at home, flexibility is an essential ability for every teacher. a flexible teacher adapts to and adjusts to various classroom conditions. sub-theme 2 self-appreciation some participants believed that during this pandemic, they learned to appreciate themselves even more, especially the nature of their work. “appreciate the value of yourself as an individual or as a typical person, not merely as a teacher. due to the transition from face-to-face learning to online delivery and modular learning delivery, parents fully understood and saw the importance of a teacher. because they find it hard teaching their children, how much more a teacher with 35-45 pupils in one classroom. we teachers are worthy, we should appreciate ourselves more, for self-appreciation led to self-love, and when we love ourselves, we could also extend that love to others most importantly to our pupils.” the teachers’ role becomes crucial for making sure that the learners stay engaged and do not lose their motivation. through this pandemic, many have uncovered on the reality of what teachers have faced on doing their job. “in this crisis, teachers have demonstrated incredible leadership and creativity, as they have done so many times before, in ensuring that learning never stops and that no student is left behind.” they have worked independently and collectively throughout the world to discover solutions and build new learning environments for their pupils, allowing education to continue. their role in advising on school reopening preparations and assisting students with the transition back to school is crucial (unicef, 2020). it is believed to be overwhelming when someone appreciate and recognizes teachers effort. teachers have the right to be recognized and appreciate by others. but before others appreciate them, they have to learn to appreciate themselves first. be grounded on their contributions to the welfare of their pupils especially in these trying times. teaching in the new normal was never an easy job, in response to the pandemic, teachers should identified remote education strategies that will help them educate their pupils remotely. despite of the changes and challenges they went through, they always find means to help their students learn. sub-theme 3 nurturing spiritually some participants also shared that this pandemic strengthened their faith in god; keeping faith in god helps them face these changes positively. “i realized that everything in this world that we had is not permanent as it is; everything will eventually change, so we need to know how to balance everything in our lives and don’t forget to always prioritize god in every decision we made to make us stronger for all the challenges we are facing. we just have to share all our worries with god because somehow it will make us feel better.” (sabay, 2020) stated that it is time to serve the lord; seeing how the people show their generosity, support, help, perform charitable service, and show their love for others, i can see the real church – a church that is concerned with others in need; the church that prays for one another. she added that “this time of crisis is the opportunity for people to put into action what they have gained from going to church and participating in church services. i think this pandemic is strengthening the faith of the people. it is bringing them closer to god. it brings out the love of god in them. this crisis shall pass.” https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 14 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 sub-theme 4 creativity participants also shared that this pandemic led them to discover their creative side. through their initiative that learning must continue despite of the pandemic, they continuously explore and discover different strategies that would cater the needs and arouse the interest of pupils to learn. “personally, this pandemic and this change also taught me to think of different strategies and approaches when it comes to the teachinglearning process so that the learning experience of my students will be more meaningful and interactive even though they are not physically present in the school. i provided interactive video lesson to arouse th interest of pupils.” teachers have been able to be more conscious of their class preparation and material delivery as a result of today’s innovations, which require creativity from them. it allows them to explore all possible means and be resourceful to provide new ways of learning. their willingness and openness to change help them to overcome and combat the difficulties they are facing. a creative teacher possesses the following characteristics: fluency is the ability to generate a large number of thoughts, replies, and problem-solving solutions from one’s head, as well as providing many suggestions for accomplishing different things. 2) adaptability, or the ability to solve problems using a variety of approaches, examine numerous options, and alter one’s way of thinking. 3) originality, or the capacity to give birth to fresh and creative expressions, to conceive of unexpected methods to transmit oneself, and to mix elements or components; and 4) elaboration, or the ability to produce an idea or product and describe an object, idea, or scenario to make it more appealing or pleasant, (jeffrey & craft, 2004). conclusion based on the result of the study, the following conclusions are drawn: 1. work-life balance of public-school primary teachers during covid-19 encompasses five major themes (a) encountering challenges of the present times (b) : realizing impact of the new normal to teachers (c) encountering challenges of the present times (d) transcending amidst difficulties (e) : strengthening faith and values. the pandemic brought about changes changes in almost all diverse workforce including the driving work-life balance of the teachers. there appears to be an increasing concern amongst teachers that their work should leave them with the time and energy to pursue interests and responsibilities outside work and their family. the teachers now recognised that this pandemic had created a lot of changes that one way or another affected their overall conditions. 2. the new normal in the education setting caused changes and additional workloads for teachers during this pandemic due to: planning for instruction, feedbacking and monitoring, attending webinars and online meetings; irregular working hours; ict capabilities and internet/ wifi access. this new set up are now an included in the overall conditions of appropriate work-load for teachers and suitable workload are now emerging to consider employees working in different ways in this present phenomena. 3. the pandemic impacted both teachers’ professional and personal lives it affected them positively because through provisions of the different work-related seminars, they had the opportunity to grow professionally. however, this pandemic affects them negatively because of compromised family time, and the pandemic causes them stressed and anxious. for work-life balance to work effectively, individuals need to be supported to get over some of these barriers or challenges, through for instance effective internal communication and easily accessible information about the practices to offer and a change in the organization culture, so that new ways of iposing balance in the work becomes the new norm especially in this time of pandemic. 4. teachers are significantly challenged by overlapping of activities, limited gadgets and technology, evaluating learning outcomes, fear of acquiring the virus, and engaging pupils into active learning. within all of this present conditions teachers accepted their responsibility for work-life balance or diversity issues. they were committed to apply work-life balance initiatives in order for them to ace up the challenges. 5. teachers coping techniques or interventions prior to the difficulties and challenges they are facing are time management and prioritization, embracing changes, flexibility and adaptability, and employing break time. teachers faced difficulties and challenges during the pandemic but they manage to be resilient in the face of adversities through the aforementioned coping techniques, which helps them to sustain a work-life balance in these trying times. 6. the values and faith strengthened during this pandemic are resiliency and self-appreciation, nurturing spiritually and creativity. filipino are known with good traits and values. that is why they always make way to become more resilient and creative even they are facing difficulties and challenges. filipinos have grown to appreciate what they have, to make the moof it, and to bear adversity. also, filipino are known with their strong religious faith even in the midst of pandemic they never loose their faith. these traits promotes a feeling of solidarity and compassion and it helps them embrace changes with a positive mindset. 7. overall, this study revealed that new normal impacted teachers’ work-life balance in both ways. there were negative impacts such as having additional workloads, causing them to have a lesser time with their family and additional stress because of the various challenges. however, it also brought about initiatives of flexibility and adaptability, self-appreciation, nurturing spiritually and resourcefulness. recommendation the following are the recommendations offered by the https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 15 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 2(2) 1-17, 2023 researcher based on the results of the study. 1. teachers may establish a routine and timetable that they strictly follow at school and at home. in this way, they could manage their time properly and ensure that they can do their responsibilities both in their work and at home. 2. teachers may learn to unplug or exercise the “right to disconnect” by disregarding work-related communications after working hours. cutting ties with the outer world enables teachers to recover from everyday stress and creates space for new ideas and thoughts. 3. teachers may set boundaries and work hours. when leaving at work, avoid thinking of work and answering work-related emails or chats. moreover, it is important to know when to work and when will stop working. 4. teachers should make time for themselves and their loved ones. while the teaching profession is vital, it should not be the focus of a teacher’s life. to guarantee that they spend quality time with their loved ones, they should learn to schedule personal and family time. they should have control over their job and lives, no matter how hectic their schedule may be, in order to foster and strengthen family ties. 5. the agency should consider giving vacation to teachers without doing work-related responsibilities. it entails taking vacation time and turning off all work for a period of time. it is vital for teachers to take time off to physically and mentally recharge. 6. the agency may provide needed and necessary training to teachers to further equip them on the different pedagogical approaches utilized in educating pupils during the new normal, especially in assessing and engaging students in the new normal education set-up. 7. the school may consider developing and implementing a program for eced teachers which will help them attain and maintain life balance, especially in these trying times. 8. lastly, a similar study can be conducted by other researchers to validate the results of this research. also, a larger sample from a broader target population and inclusion of other variables that affect and are essential in measuring teachers work-life balance such as indepth study of everyday routines in relations to the involvement of teachers and school; additional family background such as specific life style, cohabitation status, and amount of workload may be considered. references agustin, c. p. 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(2021). create teaching creativity through training management, effectiveness training, and teacher quality in the covid-19 pandemic. journal of ethnic and cultural studies, 8(4), 18. https://doi. org/10.29333/ejecs/800 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri pa ge 1 pa ge 26 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) exploring the role of flowers in the socio-religious context of mizo tribal community lalbiakzuali colney1* volume 4 issue 1, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i1.3705 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: september 15, 2024 accepted: october 16, 2024 published: january 25, 2025 flowers are universally intertwined with religious and spiritual beliefs. the present study explore the relation between religion and flowers communicating feelings and emotions more profoundly than spoken words. the paper will delve into the indispensable role played by flowers in the social and religious context of mizoram as well as the effort made by the government and nongovernmental organisation to support the floriculturists. samples were taken from 153 floriculturists and 8 concerned government authorities using a purposive sampling technique, and a semi-structured interview schedule was administered for data collection. the research findings reveal that 63.4% agreed that bride price distribution and payment rituals should continue to include floral arrangements and venue decoration in the pre-nuptial ceremony. 86.9% states that churches in mizoram sanctions funds for fresh flowers to adorn the church altar for the sunday church service. the paper also looks into the role of the state government and the florist associations as non-governmental organizations who acts as catalyst in augmenting entrepreneurship in floriculture in mizoram. keywords floriculturists, flower, nongovernmental organisation, religion 1 department of sociology, pachhunga university college, mizoram, india * corresponding author’s e-mail: bzicolney790@gmail.com introduction for centuries, religious ceremonies and customs have included flowers. they represent spirituality, purity, and the divine realm. the role of flowers in celebrations and festivals has been of great importance throughout history, representing happiness, aesthetics, and the essence of unity. flowers have become an indispensable component of cultural traditions and social connection, spanning from traditional rituals and ceremonies to contemporary celebration of festivals. various societies and religions attribute symbolic significance to certain flowers and incorporate them into rituals, celebrations, and sacred art. the arrival of christian missionaries in mizoram in 1894 brought about significant changes in terms of religion, culture, and way of life. the missionaries disseminated education and christian principles, hence facilitating the advent of modernity in the mizo tribal community. christianity facilitated the overall adaptability of people into western society. the present paper makes an attempt to explore and comprehend the relationship between religion and flowers. it also seeks to understand and analyse the findings on the significant role played by flowers in the socio-religious context in mizoram and the contribution of government and mizo hmeichhia insuihkhawm pawl (mhip) or the mizo women’s organization for the promotion of the floriculturists. in order to provide a conceptual framework that bolsters the notion those ngos have a substantial impact on entrepreneurship, the current study will also identify an interaction pattern that explains the influence of ngos on entrepreneurship. the relation between the existing florist associations in mizoram as ngos and entrepreneurship among women is an area which is largely understudied and literature on the subject scanty. objectives of the study 1. to analyse the view point of floriculturists and concerned government authorities on incorporating floral decoration in pre wedding rituals and functions 2. to find out whether the church sanction money for floral arrangement at the altar for sunday church services 3. to examine the contribution made by the government and ngos to support floriculture entrepreneurship in mizoram 4. to investigate the relationship between government, non-governmental organizations (ngos) and florists to promote floriculture entrepreneurship in mizoram research questions 1. is the use of flowers in pre-wedding rites and celebrations valued by concerned government officials and floriculturists? 2. does the head of the church sanction money for the purchase of flowers for the altar during sunday services? 3. what are the factors responsible for the development of floriculture entrepreneurship in mizoram? 4. are the florist associations acting as catalysts in fostering an atmosphere that is conducive for entrepreneurship to the people? literature review coser (2015) asserts that emile durkheim defines religion as communal rather than individual; a religion is an integrated set of beliefs and practices about sacred things, or those that are set apart and forbidden that unites all followers of the religion in a single moral community known as the church. bottomore (1975) asserts that durkheim’s theory on religion highlights the communal dimensions of religion; the purpose of pa ge 27 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 26-31, 2025 religious rituals is to reinforce the moral superiority of society over its individual constituents, hence sustaining societal cohesion. geertz (1973) and tomalin (2007) characterises religion as (1) a system of symbols that (2) results in profound, widespread, and enduring sentiments and motives in individuals by (3) articulating concepts of a universal order of reality and (4) adorning these. conceptions possessing an atmosphere of factuality that renders the moods and impulses distinctly lifelike. this functional definition of religion has been among the most often utilised. devrani et al. (2023) believes that flowers possess a substantial cultural and emotional significance and serve an essential function in several social and religious rituals. weddings, religious ceremonies, funerals, and festivals all necessitate the presence of flowers as integral components in décor and offerings. furthermore, in the realm of business, there is a growing inclination towards using flowers to augment the atmosphere of gatherings, hotels, and public areas, hence establishing visually captivating and inviting surroundings. with the increase in disposable incomes and the expansion of urbanisation, individuals are becoming more inclined to invest funds towards enhancing the memorability of their important occasions through the use of sophisticated flower arrangements. anca and cantor (2015) argue that flowers, revered symbols, function as the representation of the fundamental concepts of faith and the historical development of faith. flowers are potent instruments for solidifying religious commitment and faithfulness, factors that facilitate the growth and concentration of religion. furthermore, flowers serve as a means of communication that surpasses the limitations imposed by language, nationality, or culture around the world. throughout history, flowers have been symbolically represented. the significance and linguistic meaning of flowers may be traced back to the societies of early civilisation and subsequently to christianity. floral arrangements are integral to the most significant events in individuals’ lives. throughout weddings, baptisms, birthdays, funerals, and other significant occasions, flowers consistently serve as a symbol of people’s emotions. ingram (1887) states that the affection for flowers is universally recognised and appreciated across all cultures; it serves as a common theme that resonates with everyone, from the refined european to the unrefined australian, and from the philosopher to the primitive, all are inclined to respect and extol their beauty. a feeling so universal— likely coeval with humanity’s existence on this planet— could not help but be exploited and subordinated to the passions of mortality; thus, it seems entirely natural to us that flowers have been rendered emblematic and communicative agents of our ideas. throughout all nations and eras, flowers have been utilised for symbolic and decorative functions. saunders (2018) opines that flowers hold great significance in numerous rituals and events that shape and uphold society in different cultures. as humans, we are always looking for ways to incorporate aspects of our natural surroundings into sacred spaces. flowers and plant life, as significant entities, provide a connection between us and the concept of nature and the living. these things are renowned for their aesthetic appeal and fragrance; they possess the ability to intensify positive feelings while one indulges in their presence. flowers serve as mediums for expressing emotions and are imbued with the essence of an institution and the established norms and regulations that are inherent in a well-organised system. this is demonstrated in various rituals such as weddings, christenings, and funerals. consequently, flowers might be characterised as ‘institutionalised props’ that help to establish the living or ritual areas. the usage of flowers to convey emotions is well recognised throughout many historical periods. the evolution and impact of floral arrangement in japanese history have been accompanied by the recognition of flowers as emblems of spiritual enlightenment in zen buddhism. this has further emphasized the essentiality of flower symbolism in japanese culture (yuan, 2023). the topic significant role of flowers in the socio-religious context of a tribal community is a relatively untouched area of study and there is dearth of literature on the topic not only among the mizo tribal community but also on the whole of the north eastern part of india and india as a whole. the findings of the research may in some way encourage and inspire other scholars to indulge in further research as floriculture as an art has gained importance as symbolic objects and has been incorporated into religious rituals and festivities of different cultures. materials and methods the current study employs a descriptive and exploratory research design. the research design is both qualitative and quantitative in character, with a greater emphasis on the qualitative elements. the population of the study consisted of 430 floriculturists from the three existing florist associations in mizoram namely, mizoram florist association, pangpar zuar (pangpar zuar which means florist) association and zo-anthurium growers co-operative society and 10 concerned government authorities from department of horticulture. from the total population, 145 floriculturists and 8 concerned government authorities in mizoram were selected as sample using purposive sampling technique. for this research, a semi-structured interview schedule was employed to each of the 153 respondents for 50 to 80 minutes in order to collect data for this study. results and discussion objective no. 1: analyse the view point of floriculturists and concerned government authorities on incorporating floral decoration in pre-wedding rituals and functions data has been gathered employing interview schedules from 145 floriculture entrepreneurs and 8 concerned pa ge 28 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 26-31, 2025 government officials in mizoram in order to comprehend the growing significance of flowers in the socio-religious context of the mizo society. the mizo society being a tribal society follows traditional as well as christian marriage system where payment of bride price to the girl’s parents is held before solemnization of marriage. the bride’s price is handed over as a pre-nuptial ceremony organised by the bride’s parents. the venue of the ceremony in the past years was the bride’s home, though this practice is still followed, the trend is holding the ceremony at church halls or other venues to accommodate more people. the modern trend of payment of bride price ritual is conducted with floral decoration of the church halls or other hired venue with decorated stage and backdrop. pre-nuptial payment of bride price and distribution of bride price, and also the send-off of bride to be rituals are usually held simultaneously and organized by the bride’s family. people’s view and idea with regard to the trending floral arrangements and decoration of the venue of such ceremony vary. and sunday services are held at every church. on sunday, a day of worship and prayer in the state, stores were closed, and even political parties and candidates chose not to participate in the campaign or host any official events or programs. table 1: incorporating floral decoration in pre-wedding payment and distribution of bride price continuing incorporation of floral decorations in pre-wedding payment and distribution of bride price f percentage yes 97 63.4 no 56 36.6 total 153 100 table 1 shows the overall picture of the respondents’ view point on continuation of incorporating floral decorations in pre-wedding rituals and functions. 63.4% of the total respondents supports and feels that floral arrangements and decoration of the venue for payment and distribution of bride price rituals should be continued and incorporated in the pre-nuptial ceremony as they believed that floral and other decorations of the church halls or the venue adds beauty and elegance to the whole ceremony. on the other hand, the rest of the respondents accounting for 36.6% do not support incorporating floral decorations of the venue in pre-wedding rituals. these 36.6% of the respondents opine that floral decoration should consist of one or two vase floral arrangements and should be minimal. spending money on flowers for pre-wedding rituals is not supported and some hold on to tradition and prefers the traditional practice where such pre-wedding rituals are conducted without any decoration at the bride’s residence with a small feast. objective no. 2: sanctions of fund by the church for floral arrangement at the altar for sunday church service over 87% of mizoram’s population is christian, per the 2011 census. there is a church in every part of the state, table 2: sanctions of fund by the church for floral arrangement at the altar for sunday church service whether the church sanctions fund to purchase flowers f percentage yes 133 86.9 no 20 13.1 total 153 100 table 2 illustrates whether the churches in which the respondents are affiliated to sanctions fund to purchase fresh flower for floral arrangement at the altar for sunday church service. 86.9% of the informants representing the majority of the sample state that their churches sanctions money for sunday floral arrangement. the amount sanctioned for the purchase of flowers may vary from church to church and from denomination to denomination. if the sanctioned fund is not sufficient to purchase flowers, the appointed flower arrangers of the church willingly contribute the required amount. on the other hand, 13.1% of the respondents’ churches do not sanction money for fresh flowers for sunday service. such churches are normally small in size in terms of membership and have to depend on artificial flowers which are arranged in place of fresh flowers. the importance flowers have gained in the religious context in mizoram is evident from the fact that the churches of different denominations sanctions fund for the purchase of fresh blooms to adorn the church altar with floral arrangements. the church gives importance to the presence of floral arrangement at the altar which adds beauty to the space and glorifies the creator. extra effort is given to adorn the sacred altar with flower arrangement to add more beautify on festive occasions and conferences with the church sanctioning extra fund on such special events. objective no. 3: contribution of government and non governmental organisation to support floriculture entrepreneurship in mizoram the officials of horticulture department, government of mizoram and the leaders of mhip consisted of the key informants in relation to the present study on floriculture among the tribal community in mizoram. floriculture is one of the areas taken up by the horticulture department and the newly established department in 1993 started to take interest in developing floriculture in the state. the department had taken steps to develop floriculture through centrally sponsored schemes like the technology mission in 2001 and at present mission for integrated development of horticulture (midh) where the government of india contributes 90% funds for north east india for a holistic development pa ge 29 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 26-31, 2025 of horticulture sector. the commercial cultivation of anthurium flowers was initiated under the technology mission scheme in 2002, where the government is the main facilitator providing necessary inputs for anthurium cultivation to beneficiaries free of cost. under midh scheme, the government has taken steps to augment floriculture sector not only in anthurium cultivation; by selecting beneficiaries the government has introduced the cultivation of curcuma flowers, leather-leaf plants and israeli ruscus plants to meet the local demands. the government select beneficiary who are actual floriculture entrepreneurs and distribute incentives at a subsidized rate such as greenhouse material, flower seeds, planting material, shade nets and distributes insecticides and pesticides under integrated pest management scheme to needy floriculturists. depending on the availability of funds, the government too conducts training at floriculture farmer’s field and packaging practice training is also imparted to the farmers. the government organizes horticulture fair annually for farmers to exhibit and sell their products and florists too are given an opportunity to participate. besides this, the government normally sponsors florist fairs organized by florist associations within the city to develop floriculture. the mizo hmeichhia insuihkhawm pawl (mhip) or the mizo women’s organization leaders consist of the key informants in the research. it is one of the biggest voluntary organisations in mizoram and was established on the 6th of july 1974 and registered under registration no. 5 of 1977, society act 1860 (act xxi of 1960). it’s headquarters is located at aizawl, the capital of mizoram. it is devoted solely for the welfare and upliftment of women, and aims to empower women and support women’s rights. the mhip as a non governmental organisation (ngo) does not have any collaborative roles or work with the florist associations in the state. but, as a women organization is having interest in women’s welfare and development supports floriculture entrepreneurship, where mizo women are involved generating income and livelihood. mhip leaders are members of florist associations and as such functions side by side supporting and promoting each other. in some localities in aizawl city, on the occasion of death, mhip of the local branch rent out readymade artificial floral arrangement to adorn the coffin and retrieve it back after the funeral rites are over. this act on the part of mhip is to help poor bereaved families save money for coffin flowers. however, the mhip headquarters, though they support floriculture entrepreneurship does not work together with the florist associations for the promotion of floriculture, and it does not contribute for the decoration of coffin on the occasion of death except those local branches of mhip who rent out ready-made floral arrangement to adorn the coffin to needy bereaved families. objective no. 4: relationship between government, non-governmental organizations (ngos) and florists to promote floriculture entrepreneurship in mizoram encouraging young people and unemployed women to become entrepreneurs is essential to foster economic development on a local and national level. to combat the high women unemployment rate in mizoram, unemployed women having aesthetic interest in flowers prefer to embark upon entrepreneurial activities to generate self -employment in the region. having traced the trajectory, the development of floriculture as an entrepreneurship is a relatively new phenomenon in mizoram. the study reveals that most of the women involved in floriculture come from a disadvantaged section of the society who are not highly educated and with scanty knowledge of entrepreneurial skill. hence, the role of ngos is significant to promote their entrepreneurial skill and also to find ways to collaborate with the government to develop their entrepreneurial skill and provide subsidies to these unskilled entrepreneurs. in order to promote entrepreneurship and provide a platform for the expansion of floriculture, three prominent ngos the mizoram florist association (mfa), the pangpar zuar association (ppza), and the zo-anthurium growers co-operative society (zagcs) have organised florist fairs at least three or four times a year, occasionally with funding from the department of horticulture. florist fairs encourage entrepreneurs to showcase and exhibit their creations, their propagated young flowering plants and also provide a platform to make significant sales of their products and thereby generate sufficient income. to promote entrepreneurs in floriculture, the mizoram florist association also tries to work in tandem with the government, lobbying the government to provide necessary inputs to these entrepreneurs to help them promote and augment their small businesses. mizoram florist association plays a crucial role as a non-profit driven organization in representing and meeting the needs of its members and supporting entrepreneurship. being the first registered florist association in mizoram, the state government also acknowledges and tries to meet their needs and demands as far as possible. mizoram florist association leaders occasionally submit written appeals to the horticulture department, government of mizoram to obtain essential good quality inputs such as greenhouse material, good quality flower seeds, potting media like cocopeat and other incentives that are out of the price range of small florist entrepreneurs and distribute them to needy entrepreneurs at a subsidized rate. in response to mfa’s request, the government provides accessible inputs for the association’s members through the mission for integrated development of horticulture (midh) and integrated pest management (ipm) schemes. mizoram florist association’s request to the government to initiate cultivation of curcuma flowers to meet the high local demand has materialized into reality. curcuma flower rhizomes have been imported from thailand and as a pilot project the horticulture department have started to distribute them to twenty selected beneficiaries. to develop the entrepreneurial skill and to create awareness on the profit of taking up floriculture and pa ge 30 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 26-31, 2025 floristry, the mizoram florist association frequently organizes seminars and trainings on various aspects of floriculture management such as method of flower seed germination, management and care of flower seedlings. besides these seminars, training on flower arrangement and floral arts are frequently organized by mizoram florist association and department of horticulture, government of mizoram for the benefit of its unemployed participants interested in floristry to encourage entrepreneurship in this field. the ngos are instrumental in encouraging unemployed aspirants to take up floriculture as their primary or supplementary source of income. the mizoram florist association has published five books, two as commemoration of its 10th and 25th anniversaries and these souvenirs consists of articles on various issues on flower cultivation. two manuals on flower arranging called ‘the floristspangpar khawi bu’ with visual pictures have been published. a significant publication called ‘pangpar chingtute thian’ contains different tips and articles on flower cultivation. these publications have been instrumental in assisting beginners and inexperienced floriculture entrepreneurs. besides, mizoram florist association does benevolent works by planting and beautifying with flowers the state’s airport surroundings, hospitals, state government office front yards and orphanage homes, motivating and inspiring possible aspirants. the functional aspects of mizoram florist association are manifested along these lines which have promoted flower cultivation increasingly in the state. the department of horticulture, government of mizoram introduced a commercial scale cultivation of anthurium flowers in 2002 under the technology mission for integrated development of horticulture in northeastern states of india. anthurium was initially cultivated by 24 farmers in 2002, and the number of growers increased over the years. zo-anthurium growers’ cooperative society (zagcs) was formed by anthurium plant growers in 2002 with 80 active members currently in aizawl, the capital city of mizoram. the society is registered under mizoram co-operative society. unlike the other associations, members of zo-anthurium growers’ co-operative society export their anthurium cut products to other metropolitan cities like bangalore, delhi, kolkotta and others, export rejected products are vended in local markets. zo-anthurium growers’ co-operative society organizes anthurium fair once annually which serves as the platform for members to exhibit their potted anthurium plants and anthurium foliage. zo-anthurium growers’ co-operative society members participate in the annual anthurium festival organized by the tourism department, government of mizoram, and an opportunity to showcase their products generating income at the same time. the zo-anthurium growers’ co-operative society works in collaboration with the government, and the department of horticulture provides the initial planting materials and other necessary inputs free of cost to beneficiaries. leaders of the society often approach the government to provide necessary inputs at subsidized rates to needy anthurium farmers. in collaboration with the state’s horticulture department, horticulture awareness campaign is conducted often in other districts to promote entrepreneurship in anthurium cultivation. suggestion for further studies literature review on the significant role played by flowers in the socio-religious life of a community or for that matter in the cultural context of the mizo tribal community as a whole reveals a huge gap. the researcher’s area of study on the significant role of flowers is an under explored issue in existing and previous researches. whatever previous studies could be detected are mostly the works of scholars from other countries and from other parts of india. in the context of the mizo tribal community of mizoram, situated in the north eastern part of india, there is little or lack of holistic study on floriculture and its social implications. dearth of literature and this relatively under explored area of study may challenge and encourage scholars to indulge in further studies and add new knowledge, ideas and perspectives on this particular problem. conclusion the present study concludes that flowers are an indispensable in the socio-religious life of the mizo tribal society. so much so that the pre-nuptial payments of bride price ritual and the distribution of bride price ceremony and the solemnization of marriage in the church in mizo society is incomplete without floral decorations. churches too regularly funds to purchase fresh flowers for sunday church service indicating the significant role played by flowers in the rituals. flowers will continue to find and establish firmly a niche for themselves, being incorporated and indispensable in the socio-religious cultural life of the mizo society. despite being a relatively new phenomenon in mizoram, floriculture entrepreneurship has progressed organisations with government and several non-governmental organizations serving as catalysts to create an atmosphere that supports its ongoing expansion. the problem of unemployment has been one the biggest challenges of the country. development of entrepreneurs has been a necessity to combat the problem of unemployment. mizoram florist association constantly collaborates with the state government to promote entrepreneurship amongst unemployed not highly educated disadvantaged women in the region. such entrepreneurs involved in floriculture opine that with hard work, determination, and entrepreneurial skills, entrepreneurship in this field is viable for self-employment and generates. despite the infrastructure deficiencies, the bureaucratic hurdles and delays it faces in operation, one cannot ignore the important role played by ngos in nurturing entrepreneurship in floriculture. nevertheless, the growth of entrepreneurship in floriculture in mizoram is because of the distinguished roles played by pa ge 31 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 26-31, 2025 three actors: the ngos, the government and also the aspiring and enthusiastic disadvantaged entrepreneurs. references auplat, c. (2006). do ngos influence entrepreneurship? insights from the development of biotechnologies and nanotechnologies. society and business review, 1(3), 2. anca, h., & cantor, m. (2015). sacred connection of ornamental flowers with religious symbols. proenvironment, 8, 73-79. bottomore, t. b. (1975). sociology: a guide to problems and literature (revised ed.). blackie & son (india) limited. coser, l. a. (2015). masters of sociological thought: ideas in historical and social context. rawat publications. croft, m. (2016). les fleurs du bien: the language of flowers in contemporary france [unpublished honors senior thesis]. university of puget sound. devrani, n., kakkar, p., sahu, a. (2023). global trends in floriculture in floriculture and landscaping chronicles: a collaborative insights. stella international publication. ingram, j. h. (1887). the language of flowers or flora symbolica. frederick warne and co. munyoro, g. (2017). the role of entrepreneurship in sustaining non-governmental organizations’ operations in zimbabwe: a case study of harare. international journal of research in business management, 5(11), 132. saunders, e. (2018). flowers, interaction and emotion [unpublished doctoral thesis]. university of essex. tomalin, e. (2007). sociology, religion, development: literature review (working paper 4, p. 4). yuan, d. (2023). evolution of flower symbolism in japan: an amplified significance in japanese civilization through manipulations. the international conference on interdisciplinary humanities and communication studies, 4(1), 498-500. pa ge 1 pa ge 42 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) evaluating the impact of ‘catch-up friday’ on senior high school students’ reading proficiency level and perspective jean rose a. abejo1*, xycrese ynzenette m. malatag1, crietsie b. maneja1 volume 3 issue 3, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i3.3332 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: july 25, 2024 accepted: august 27, 2024 published: august 30, 2024 this study evaluates the impact of the ‘catch-up friday’ initiative on the reading proficiency level and perspective of senior high school students at esperanza national high school. ‘catch-up friday’ provides structured weekly sessions to enhance students’ reading skills through focused activities and support. employing a mixed-methods approach, the research combines quantitative and qualitative data for a comprehensive analysis. quantitative data were collected through preand post-intervention assessments using standardized reading tests, revealing significant improvements in reading proficiency. qualitative data from the student’s interviews and observational notes provided insights into participants’ experiences and perceptions. thematic analysis identified key themes such as increased student engagement, improved reading confidence, and the relevance of reading materials to students’ interests and academic needs. the study concludes that ‘catch-up friday’ effectively improves reading proficiency and perspective among senior high school students. the findings suggest that dedicated reading time, targeted support, and relevant materials significantly enhance literacy skills and academic achievement. the study recommends continuing and potentially expanding the ‘catch-up friday’ program to support students’ educational development further. keywords catch-up friday, reading proficiency, academic success, literacy skills, educational intervention 1 esperanza national high school, division of agusan del sur, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: jeanrose.abejo@deped.gov.ph introduction reading proficiency is critical in supporting students’ academic achievements across various subjects. understanding and analyzing written texts is essential not only during students’ educational journeys but also in their future endeavors. however, many nations struggle to ensure that all students reach the desired levels of reading proficiency. findings from the programme for international student assessment (pisa) reveal that many students globally face challenges with reading skills, affecting their performance in academic subjects and overall educational outcomes (oecd, 2019). in developing countries, issues of reading proficiency are often exacerbated by factors such as limited educational resources, insufficiently trained teachers, and socioeconomic challenges (unesco, 2017). these obstacles make it difficult for students to develop the strong reading skills necessary for learning and personal growth. international bodies like unesco emphasize the significance of literacy and reading proficiency in achieving sustainable development goal 4, which focuses on providing inclusive and high-quality education for all (unesco, 2016). the philippines faces significant challenges regarding reading proficiency. both national assessments and international evaluations like pisa have highlighted that a notable percentage of students fall below the expected proficiency levels in reading. the 2018 pisa results showed that students from the philippines ranked lowest in reading comprehension skills, raising concerns about the effectiveness of current teaching methods and support measures (oecd, 2019). this issue is of urgent concern to the department of education (deped) in the philippines. in response, deped has implemented various programs and initiatives aimed at enhancing reading proficiency among students. every child a reader program (ecarp) focuses on developing reading skills at the primary level, while brigada pagbasa, a nationwide reading advocacy program, mobilizes community resources to support reading activities in schools (deped, 2020). to further improve senior high school students’ reading proficiency, deped introduced catch-up friday, a weekly program dedicated to intensive reading activities. by offering structured reading sessions, personalized feedback, and supportive learning environments, catchup friday aims to bridge gaps in reading proficiency. this initiative is part of deped’s broader plan to ensure that all learners possess adequate literacy skills for future educational and life opportunities. schools and teachers, such as those at esperanza national high school, have taken lead roles in implementing catch-up friday by creating tailored reading materials and conducting pre and post-assessments. this study aims to assess the effectiveness of catch-up friday in enhancing reading proficiency among senior high school students. it will provide a comprehensive evaluation of this initiative by examining reading proficiency levels before and after its implementation and gathering students’ perspectives on the program. the results will contribute to existing knowledge on improving reading competence among senior high school pa ge 43 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 42-50, 2024 students and offer practical suggestions for educators and policymakers interested in similar interventions. understanding the impact of catch-up friday is crucial, as students’ academic success heavily depends on their reading abilities. the findings can serve as a reference for future initiatives aimed at boosting students’ reading skills and overall school performance. materials and methods research design the study employed a convergent parallel mixed methods approach. this approach involves collecting both quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously, analyzing each dataset separately, and then merging the two sets of results to draw comprehensive conclusions. specifically, the quantitative component assessed reading proficiency levels of senior high school students at esperanza national high school were first gathered through pre and post-assessments of catch-up friday through standardized reading tests. these tests concentrated on a number of reading-related topics, such as vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension while the qualitative component gathered students’ perspectives on the program through interviews and focus group discussions. surveys were distributed to students to learn about their thoughts on the implementation of the catch-up friday sessions, how they felt the sessions affected their academic performance and reading comprehension, and how satisfied they were overall with the program. this combination provided a well-rounded evaluation of the program’s effectiveness. utilizing the said methodology facilitated an extensive investigation into the quantitative results and qualitative revelations associated with catch-up friday sessions, as well as their influence on the reading proficiency levels and viewpoints of senior high school students. population and participants of the study the research participants include senior high school students from esperanza national high school who are willing to participate in the study. the students were from grade 11 and 12 levels to ensure a diverse representation. participation in the study will be voluntary, and informed consent was obtained from both students and teachers. the study’s distribution and participants are shown in table 1. table 1: distribution and participants of the study senior high school students male female total 212 215 427 shows the number of participants with four hundred twenty-seven (427) shs students the study utilized a complete enumeration sampling method to select participants for the study. this method ensures that students and teachers who have direct experience with catch-up friday are included in the study sample. the sample size was determined based on the number of students participating in catch-up friday at esperanza national high school. research instrument when esperanza national high school launched catchup friday on january 12, 2024, teachers followed the school’s protocol to make the reading intervention program available. reading materials available at the school, including contextualized literature covering a wide range of subject areas, were used in this study. however, reading materials from a variety of courses were mostly used by high school students, with a focus on english literature and scientific ideas in particular, as these were the main areas of interest for improving reading skills. the goal was to assess the students’ comprehension and ability to quickly produce answers based on what they had read. the pre-assessment was carried out with an equal number of participants for a period of two weeks, specifically on fridays, from january 12, 2024, to january 19, 2024. using the school’s reading resources that includes the language teachers-made materials, the post-assessment was given between february 1, 2024, and february 8, 2024. a table format was created by tabulating the data using microsoft excel version 2103 (16.0). the frequency and percentage methods were typically used to convey the statistics on the reading proficiency levels of shs students. four reading levels were assigned to the students: nonreader, instructional, frustrated, and autonomous. the reading proficiency level board, created by johnson, kress, and pikulski in 1987, was used in the study for categorization, and flippo’s 2014 research provided descriptive explanations. the said reading proficiency level board was also used in deped program such as the phil-iri to measure student reading level. additionally, an instrument adapted from the study of saro et al. (2024) catch-up friday: improving the reading proficiency levels and perspectives of grade 10 students was deployed to get the viewpoints of pupils on catchup fridays, participants were subjected to interviews to strengthen the conclusions. the said instrument underwent validation and pilot testing. an analysis was conducted using qualitative data. analysis carried out in compliance with braun and clarke’s (2006) conceptual guidelines. braun and clarke (2006) provided theme standards for the analysis of the qualitative data. based on the study’s findings, a teaching guide was developed to help secondary school students’ reading abilities during catch-up friday interventions. this manual was created to help educators effectively guide their pupils within the department of education’s framework. the goal of integrating concepts from both quantitative and qualitative data is to give educators all-encompassing support as they strive to raise students’ reading proficiency and general academic accomplishment. pa ge 44 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 42-50, 2024 table 3: mean score and mean percentage score and its verbal description mean percentage ranges verbal description 96% 100% mastered 86% 95% closely approximating mastery 66% 85% moving towards mastery 35% 65% average mastery 16% 34% low mastery 5% 15% very low mastery 0% 4% absolutely no mastery table 2: reading proficiency level board students’ scores (%) reading level descriptive interpretation 100-80 independent the level to which readers can read the text and comprehend simultaneously with nearly perfect accuracy. 79-59 instructional the level to which readers gain most from teacher-directed instruction. 58-below frustration the level to which reading materials are too challenging for readers to respond to them successfully. *legend: the scoring criteria for reading proficiency levels were derived from the research conducted by johnson, kress, and pikulski (1987), while the descriptive interpretations or meanings of each criterion were informed by flippo’s study (2014) data gathering procedure data were collected through preand post-assessments of reading proficiency levels among students. these assessments include standardized reading tests as well as surveys to gather information on students’ motivation, interest in reading, and changes in reading habits and attitudes. additionally, focus group discussions and interviews was conducted with students to gather qualitative data on their experiences with catch-up friday. statistical treatment the impact of catch-up friday on reading proficiency levels was ascertained by statistically analyzing quantitative data from preand post-assessments utilizing techniques including frequency, percentage, and mean. during the catch-up friday sessions, shs students’ preand postassessment mean scores were compared using a t-test for independent samples to determine significant differences. a theme analysis was conducted on the qualitative data obtained from focus groups and interviews in order to pinpoint important themes and trends pertaining to the experiences that students had with catch-up friday. the results of the qualitative and quantitative studies were combined to produce a thorough assessment of the program. table 2 illustrates the reading proficiency levels of students during catch-up friday reading sessions, while table 3 below presents the mean score, mean percentage score, and their corresponding verbal descriptions to determine students’ mastery levels based on preand post-assessments. the verbal descriptions of the mean percentage score were determined using a scale and descriptive rating observed in the national achievement test (fernandez, 2013). results and discussion reading proficiency levels of shs students in their preand post assessments during the implementation of catch-up friday table 4: reading proficiency levels of the shs students based on their preand post-assessment results reading level pre-assessment reading level post-assessment frequency (%) frequency (%) independent 81 18.54 independent 157 35.93 instructional 147 33.64 instructional 234 53.55 frustration 204 46.68 frustration 46 10.53 non-reader 5 1.14 non-reader 0 0.00 total 437 100 total 437 100 the reading proficiency levels of senior high school (shs) students are displayed in the table both before and after an intervention, namely the “catch up friday” activities that were put in place to improve reading skills. significant shifts in reading proficiency levels are shown in the data, indicating a successful intervention. just 18.54% of kids were reading independently prior to the intervention, compared to 33.64% who were reading at pa ge 45 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 42-50, 2024 the instructional level, 46.68% who were frustrated, and 1.14% who were non-readers. following the intervention, the proportion of students reading at an instructional level rose to 53.55%, while the number of students reading at an independent level nearly doubled to 35.93%. the percentage of pupils experiencing frustration fell precipitously to 10.53%, and the non-reader group was totally eradicated. the significant rise in instructional and independent readers suggests that many kids were able to raise their reading skill as a result of the intervention. the intervention was successful in guaranteeing that every student gained at least a rudimentary level of reading ability, as seen by the notable decline in students expressing displeasure and the removal of non-readers. this is in line with the results of vaughn et al. (2019), who found that high school students with reading issues had considerable gains in their ability to absorb vocabulary, comprehend sentences at the sentence level, and fluency. in a similar vein, miciak et al. (2017) and garcia, p., & fernandez, j. (2023) discovered that a two-year reading intervention produced notable improvements in social studies grades and reading comprehension. these studies highlight how well-targeted treatments can improve high school pupils’ reading abilities. mean percentage scores of preand postassessments during the catch-up friday sessions table 5: mean percentage scores of preand post-assessments during the catch-up friday sessions performance indicators pre-assessment post assessment improvement gain score mean percentage sore remarks mean percentage sore remarks reading and comprehension 76.64 moving towards mastery 94.42 closely approximating mastery 14.03 the mean percentage scores for the combined reading and comprehension performance indicators during the preand post-assessments, which were part of the “catchup friday” sessions, are displayed in the table. after the intervention, the post-assessment mean percentage score increased to 94.42, with remarks now indicating that students were “closely approximating mastery.” this led to an improvement gain score of 14.03. the initial pre-assessment mean percentage score was 76.64, accompanied by remarks indicating that students were “moving towards mastery”. these findings show that after participating in “catchup friday” sessions, students’ overall reading and comprehension skills significantly improved. the students demonstrated increased competency following the sessions, as seen by the considerable rise from a preassessment score of 76.64 to a post-assessment score of 94.42. the intervention was effective, as evidenced by the notable improvement gain score of 14.03, which shows that the activities and teaching strategies employed improved students’ reading and comprehension skills. in light of this notable improvement, it’s critical to continue concentrating on integrated reading and comprehension exercises. using a comprehensive approach guarantees that students will be able to read with proficiency, and comprehend, and interpret the material well. the effective components of the “cath-up friday” workshops could be included in the regular curriculum to maintain and build upon these improvements. maintaining and advancing the gains made will be made easier with ongoing evaluation and focused actions. moreover, it is imperative to offer teachers continuous professional development on efficacious ways for teaching reading and comprehension. instructors with advanced training are better able to assist pupils in reaching and surpassing mastery levels. acknowledging and applauding the kids’ accomplishments can inspire them to participate more fully in reading and comprehension exercises. by concentrating on these consequences, teachers can guarantee that children maintain their gains in reading and comprehension abilities and that they keep acquiring the skills required for both academic achievement and lifetime learning. saro et al. (2024) and cheng, l., & yang, x. (2023 found that the “catch-up friday” sessions, which placed a special emphasis on the use of individualized interventions and learning tools, dramatically increased the reading proficiency levels of grade 10 pupils. this is in line with research by ramadhan (2014) and idawati (2020), who both showed how particular teaching techniques, including task-based instruction and the pre-questioning strategy, can enhance reading comprehension. these results are corroborated by clipson-boyles (2000), who demonstrates that the “catch-up friday”-like program, the catch-up programme, caused level 1 readers’ reading ages to rise significantly. when taken as a whole, these studies highlight the value of focused treatments and instructional techniques for improving reading and comprehension abilities. significant difference observed in the reading proficiency levels of shs students between the preand post-assessments conducted during the implementation of catch-up friday utilizing the reading materials provided by the school, a t-test was conducted on the grade 10 students’ preand post-assessment results during the catch-up friday sessions. the results are shown in table 6. when using the provided contextualized reading materials, the computed t-test value exceeded the tabulated t-test pa ge 46 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 42-50, 2024 findings, showing a significant difference between the preand post-assessment ratings. assessments of reading competence performed both before and after the intervention revealed a significant improvement. the noteworthy disparity implies that the intervention administered during the “catch-up friday” sessions successfully improved the reading skills of the children. the significance of utilizing contextualized resources is highlighted by the improvement score increase of 14.03. numerous studies have demonstrated the positive impact of specific learning resources on reading proficiency. while del rosario and diva (2022) and culaste-quimbo (2022) both reported significant increases in reading proficiency levels after using task-based supplemental material and the contextualized english reading proficiency toolkit (cerpt), respectively, estremera & estremera (2018) found a notable improvement in reading skills. astri and wahab (2018) reiterated the need of customizing instructional resources to accommodate various learning styles, resulting in a notable enhancement in reading comprehension. kurnia et al. (2024) emphasized the efficacy of the reap method in improving reading comprehension skills. these findings emphasize the need of using targeted and appropriate learning materials to enhance reading skills. table 6: t-test for pre-assessment and post-assessment during the catch-up friday sessions performance indicators mean percentage sore computed (t) tabular (t) 5% interpretation pre-assessment post assessment reading and comprehension during catch-up friday sessions 76.64 94.42 2.44 0.01 significant *legend: significant at 1% means that the p-value is less than 0.01; the level of significance is taken at 0.05 (5%) students’ perspectives on the implementation of the catch-up friday sessions for enhancing reading for academic success the researcher collected the students’ viewpoints on the utilization of catch-up friday sessions to improve reading skills for academic achievement using a survey questionnaire adapted from the study of saro et al. (2024) catch-up friday: improving the reading proficiency levels and perspectives of grade 10 students. furthermore, a systematic interviewing process was employed to collect data from students regarding their experiences with catchup friday. the results of the thematic analysis, which followed the guidelines provided by bruan and clarke (2006), showed that the students were much in agreement. table 7: students’ perspectives on the implementation of the catch-up friday indicators weighted mean verbal descriptive interpretation 1. catch-up friday sessions effectively improved my reading skills. 4.71 strongly agree 2. i am satisfied with the structure and organization of catch-up friday sessions 4.64 strongly agree 3. catch-up friday sessions positively impacted my overall academic performance. 4.82 strongly agree 4. i feel that the frequency and duration of catch-up friday sessions are appropriate. 4.59 strongly agree 5. the reading materials used during catch-up friday sessions are relevant to my learning needs. 4.85 strongly agree 6. i am actively engaged during catch-up friday sessions. 4.80 strongly agree 7. catch-up friday sessions address my individual reading needs and learning preferences. 4.90 strongly agree 8. i feel supported by teachers during catch-up friday sessions. 4.79 strongly agree 9. participating in catch-up friday sessions has increased my confidence in my reading abilities. 4.74 strongly agree 10. i enjoy the variety of reading activities offered during catch-up friday sessions 4.86 strongly agree overall 4.77 strongly agree the data shown in table 7 provides insightful information on the students’ opinions of how the “catch-up friday” sessions were carried out. based on the calculated weighted mean of 4.77, it appears that students strongly agree with the impact and effectiveness of these sessions. the weighted mean score of 4.71 indicates that students highly agreed that the “catch-up friday” courses were beneficial in improving their reading skills. this suggests that the children’s reading abilities have been significantly enhanced by the sessions. students gave the “catch-up friday” sessions’ structure and organization a high rating of 4.64 out of 5, indicating that they were satisfied with them overall. overall academic achievement improved as a result of the sessions, as demonstrated by the best individual score of 4.82. a score of 4.59 indicates that the frequency and pa ge 47 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 42-50, 2024 duration of the sessions were considered appropriate. this suggests that the students found the time allocated for these activities to be beneficial. a weighted mean of 4.85 suggested that the reading materials’ relevance to the students’ learning needs was another important factor. this suggests that the resources used were very suitable for meeting the pupils’ educational needs. students were clearly engaged in the activities as evidenced by the sessions’ high active participation score of 4.8. based on a weighted mean of 4.9, it was observed that the sessions sufficiently catered to individual reading demands and learning preferences. a score of 4.79 indicates that the students felt that the lecturers were providing them with significant help during the sessions. a score of 4.74 indicates that the students’ reading confidence significantly increased as a result of their participation in the sessions. this demonstrates how well the sessions work to boost confidence. additionally, a score of 4.86 indicates that the students enjoyed the variety of reading activities offered very much. this suggests that the students found the vast range of activities to be engaging and enjoyable. overall, the outstanding outcomes for every variable show that the “catch-up friday” sessions were very effective and wellliked by the children, leading to improvements in reading skills, academic performance, and self-confidence. table 8: the results of the interview session with the student-participants themes from the interview sessions overview of student-participants responses feedback on catchup fridays 1. attending catch-up friday classes has greatly enhanced my reading skills, specifically in terms of speed, comprehension, and retention of knowledge. this improvement is a result of constant engagement and committed time spent each week. 2. the catch-up friday classes/sessions have made a big difference in my reading comprehension and skills. 3. catch-up friday classes/sessions helped me read better, understand what i read better, and think more critically. 4. the school's reading program was insightful, and participating in catch-up friday every friday, and it was a lovely experience for me as a reader. 5. weekly reading programs, such as catch-up friday, greatly increase reading competency by boosting comprehension abilities and vocabulary through a range of reading resources. strategies for reading proficiency on catch-up friday 1. through a variety of activities including book talk circles, independent reading, guided reading groups, comprehension techniques, vocabulary building, fluency practice, and response writing, etc., friday sessions help students become more proficient readers while also encouraging interest and empowering them to take charge of their education. 2. group reading, conversations, tests, and vocabulary games are all part of lively and dynamic sessions that encourage greater knowledge and active engagement, which in turn improves memory recall. 3. catch-up friday classes/sessions included reading comprehension exercises, vocabulary building, active reading, critical thinking exercises, and group discussions or book talk circle with our chosen topics promotes knowledge and engagements. 4. i read aloud, participated in storytelling, and did active analysis during catch-up friday sessions. these activities improved my vocabulary, promoted active engagement, and helped me grasp concepts. 5. to improve their analytical and comprehension skills, the teacher used group discussions, vocabulary expansion exercises, and close reading activities. reading importance and catch-up friday 1. the friday sessions stressed how important literacy is for personal, career, and academic growth. they focused on improving reading comprehension and appreciation through engaging with different types of text and thinking critically about them. 2. reading proficiency helps with schoolwork and personal growth by teaching you to think critically and see things from different points of view. when you read regularly, it becomes an enjoyable and educational experience. 3. reading proficiency is important for building vocabulary, thinking critically, and understanding a wide range of topics, debates, discussions, and concept papers. 4. reading proficiency is important in school and in real life, and you need to keep learning and practicing it to be able to think critically and communicate clearly. pa ge 48 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 42-50, 2024 5. reading proficiency is important for both school and personal growth because it helps with communication and learning. catch-up friday classes stress critical thinking and active participation. challenges in catch-up fridays: share and overcome 1. sometime i find it difficult to understand some concepts and stay interested in reading during catch-up fridays 2. i ran into some words i didn't know during catch-up friday. asking the teacher what they meant helped me get past this problem. 3. to overcome this challenge, i look for additional explanations, examples, or videos online to help understand the concepts better and also ask for clarification from the teacher or peers. 4. the teacher addressed a reading problem by using mindfulness methods and active reading strategies like summarizing and taking notes. 5. even though it can be hard to understand complicated texts and stay interested in reading, practice, persistence, asking for help, and finding reading materials that interest you have helped me get past these problems. catch-up friday effectiveness: expanding perspectives 1. the catch-up friday sessions helped me learn a lot more about many topics by giving me access to different kinds of materials, discussions, and books from around the world. 2. the "catch-up friday" sessions helped students think more deeply about global issues like climate change, moral dilemmas, and cultural diversity. they encouraged intellectual growth and critical thinking, which led to a better knowledge of these issues. 3. the "catch-up friday" sessions helped me understand complicated social, historical, and scientific problems better by giving me better information and letting me hear different points of view. 4. the catch-up friday sessions helped me learn a lot more about many topics by exposing me to different kinds of materials, discussions, and literature from different countries. 5. the catch-up friday was a great way to learn new things and get better at the basics through talks, essays, and language. by using a universal language, we can connect and unite the world, changing the minds of kids who can't read or write and making ideas and information available in all languages. table 8 provides valuable insights on the effectiveness of catch-up fridays in enhancing students’ reading skills, encouraging critical thinking, and expanding their perspectives. according to the comments provided by the students, taking part in catch-up friday classes has significantly advanced their reading abilities, improved their comprehension, and fostered their critical thinking. pupils enjoy having the opportunity to engage in frequent reading activities because it fosters their growth as readers. numerous strategies, such as vocabulary development, guided reading groups, book talk circles, and individual reading, have been used during catch-up friday sessions with notable results in raising students’ reading proficiency. by encouraging active engagement and empowering students to take ownership of their education, these diverse activities create a positive learning environment. students also acknowledge the significance of reading proficiency for personal, academic, and career progression. enhancing literacy and critical thinking skills is given priority in the catch-up friday programs, which promote a better appreciation of reading in a variety of contexts. despite challenges like understanding complex concepts and continuing to read, kids show resilience by actively looking for more information, asking for help, and using strategies to improve their reading abilities. students get the chance to increase their knowledge and understanding of a variety of topics, including global concerns and differing points of view, through catch-up friday seminars. students can gain a deep understanding of complex social, historical, and scientific topics as well as critical thinking abilities by participating in conversations and being exposed to a range of readings. this procedure fosters intellectual growth and a deeper understanding of the world. to summarize, the results emphasize the beneficial effects of catch-up fridays on students’ reading proficiency, critical thinking aptitude, and general educational engagement, enabling them to become more skilled readers and active participants in their learning. findings the purpose of this study was to assess how “catchup friday” affected the reading proficiency and perspective of senior high school students. several conclusions were reached after the study was conducted thoroughly. first, when catch-up friday was implemented, there was a discernible improvement in the reading competence levels of students in secondary schools from the first assessment to the last evaluation. second, the preand post-assessment mean percentage scores showed that the catch-up friday sessions had a positive impact on reading proficiency. finally, students thought that participating in catch-up friday sessions was a great way to advance their reading skills and perspective to succeed academically. pa ge 49 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 42-50, 2024 conclusion based on the foregoing findings, several conclusions were drawn that align with the objectives of the study titled “evaluating the impact of ‘catch-up friday’ on senior high school students’ reading proficiency level and perspective.” first off, the implementation of catchup friday has significantly improved senior high school students’ reading competency levels, meeting the goal of determining reading proficiency levels in preand post-assessments. second, students’ mean percentage scores in the preand post-assessments have improved as a result of the catch-up friday sessions, indicating a substantial change in reading proficiency levels between the assessments and a positive impact on the students’ reading skills. finally, the positive feedback that students have given to catch-up friday shows how effective the program is in enhancing reading comprehension for academic success. this feedback also reflects the students’ thoughts on how the program has been implemented. recommendations based on the results of the study, the following recommendations were made: firstly, proceed with the introduction of catch-up friday sessions to further augment students’ reading proficiency and academic achievement. secondly, consider extending catch-up friday to incorporate other activities or resources that can address the varied requirements of senior high school students. lastly, continuously provide training and support for instructors to ensure the sustained efficacy of catch-up friday sessions in enhancing reading proficiency levels. acknowledgment the researchers were so much indebted to the school head of esperanza national high school mr. rey b. perodez for the permission to conduct the study. a sincere appreciation is also accorded to the students and teachers, for the positive response throughout the conduct of the study. the researchers are also grateful to the support and love from their families. references agbofa, f. j. k. 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(2016). education 2030: incheon declaration and framework for action. united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. h t t p : / / w w w. u n e s c o. o r g / n e w / f i l e a d m i n / multimedia/hq/ed/ed_new/pdf/flyer_ indonesia.pdf united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. (2017). reading in the mobile era: a study of mobile reading in developing countries. https://unesdoc. unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232076 unger. (2019). the book circle: black women readers and middlebrow taste in chicago, 1943–1953. reception, 11(1), 4–20. https://doi.org/10.5325/ reception.11.1.0004 vaughn, s., martinez, l. r., williams, k. j., miciak, j., fall, a., & roberts, g. (2019). efficacy of a high school extensive reading intervention for english learners with reading difficulties. journal of educational psychology, 111(3), 373–386. https://doi.org/10.1037/ edu0000289 wang, x., zhu, y., & zhang, y. (2022). an empirical study of college students’ reading engagement on academic achievement. frontiers in psychology, 13. https://doi. org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1025754 wigfield, a., gladstone, j. r., & turci, l. (2016). beyond cognition: reading motivation and reading comprehension. child development perspectives, 10(3), 190–195. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12184 zheng, r. (2023). chinese university students’ english reading strategies: an analysis of the current situation and a proposal for enhancement. pacific international journal, 6(2), 226–231. https://doi.org/10.55014/pij. v6i2.390 pa ge 1 pa ge 51 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) effects of child marriage on education and health of women in rural naogaon district of bangladesh: a conceptual analysis md. ariful islam1*, s m imtiaz2, mst. sharmin akter1, mst. rabeya khatun3, eati rani biswas4 volume 3 issue 3, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i3.3509 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: august 01, 2024 accepted: september 02, 2024 published: september 05, 2024 child marriage is a pressing global concern, and bangladesh is no exception to this social reality. undoubtedly, child marriage significantly hinders worldwide women’s empowerment, constituting a severe violation of human rights. in developing countries, including bangladesh, as a result of child marriage on education and health, social indicators of women’s empowerment are affected, which creates obstacles to reaching sustainable development goals. the main purpose of this study is to identify the effects of child marriage on education and health of women and explore the relationships among child marriage, women empowerment and sustainable development goals. a mixed methodology was applied to this study. by using snowball sampling techniques, data was collected from 35 respondents 4 male and 31 female, who were read in primary (27) and secondary (8) school.the findings of the study identified that the education and health of women in naogaon at sapahar are seriously affected due to child marriage. as a result of child marriage, girls are dropping out of school, deprived of education, creating gender inequality, and hampering women’s empowerment; on the other hand, girls are losing physical and mental health, suffering malnutrition and long-term health diseases, increasing their risk of maternal and child mortality. we was found child marriage as the main and only reason for female students dropping out of school both primary and secondary school here, 100 percent of the total female respondents dropped out of child marriage. the health condition of the girl’s respondents of this study is more vulnerable because the girl’s age of marriage is very low. in the study area, the average age of marriage of total respondent was 13, (the age of male respondentis 15 and female student was 11). lowest age of female was 9 (eleven case) and lowest age of male was 14 (two case). these findings can serve as valuable insights for academics and policymakers, guiding the development of effective plans and programs to address child marriage. ultimately, the goal is to contribute to achieving sustainable development goals (sdgs) and creating a better future for women in bangladesh. keywords child marriage, effects, education, health, women empowerment 1 department of sociology, varendra university, rajshahi, bangladesh 2 department of sociology, university of rajshahi, rajshahi, bangladesh 3 department of sociology, north bengal international university, rajshahi, bangladesh 4 suktagram govt. primary school, narail, bangladesh * corresponding author’s e-mail: islamsocru@gmail.com introduction marriage is a social, religious, and legal institution that grants permission for individuals; typically, a male and a female, to live together, engage in sexual intercourse, and bear children. child marriage, on the other hand, refers to a formal or informal union between boys and girls under the age of 18 (parson et. al., 2016). it is a violation of human rights, and because of this, young girls are denied their childhood and adolescence (chowdhury, 2004). globally, an estimated 650 million girls and women were married before turning 18 (unicef, 2020), with one in three girls in developing countries marrying before the age of 18, and one in five before the age of 15 (unfpa, 2016). in over the world, bangladesh is one of the highest rates of child marriage (59%) and the highest rate within south asia (antu et al., 2022) and it stands out with 38 million child brides, including those married before the age of 15. shockingly, 51% of young women in bangladesh were married before turning 18, making it one of the countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage worldwide (unicef, 2020). the situation worsened during the covid-19 pandemic, as reported by unfpa, indicating a 10% increase in the marriage of girls aged 15 to 19 in 2021 compared to the previous year. the fallout from the pandemic led to a 27% increase in the marriage of girls in this age group over two years (prothom alo, 2022). abera et al. (2020) said, early marriage affected women empowerment. child marriage creates gender discrimination and inequality in education through dropping out of female students especially in rural area of bangladesh. to measure the empowerment of women in bangladesh mahmud et al. (2012) said four determinants and four dimensions those are: a woman’s demographic status indicated by age; a woman’s social status as indicated by formal schooling; the household economic situation indicated by household wealth; and her exposure to media. we have found in the study area as the result of child marriage women’s empowerment especially social indicators of women’s empowerment like education, health etc. are affected. consequently, we are facing problems to fulfill four sustainable development goals: such as-good health and well-being, pa ge 52 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 51-57, 2024 quality education, gender equality and reduced inequality. we are not able to reduce inequality, maternal and child mortality, as expected. child marriage contradicts sustainable development goal number 5, as it infringes upon children’s human rights, restricts their choices and opportunities, and exposes them to the risks of violence, exploitation, and abuse (unicef, 2021). if we want to stablish women’s empowerment and achieve sustainable development goals, we must abolish child marriage from society. this study aims to investigate the effects of child marriage on education and health of women along with the relationships among effects of child marriage, women empowerment and sustainable development goals in the context of rural bangladesh from a conceptual point of view. materials and methods this research is basically followed by the qualitative research methodology. but for a better understanding of the research problem comprehensively to collect data we have used mixed methodology. a combination of social survey as a quantitative method and case study and focus group discussion (fgd) as qualitative method along with document study. research technique including interview, key informant interview, conversation analysis, participant observations and research tools as questionnaire and checklist have been applied to collect data. in this study, 35 respondents (4 male and 31 female) have been selected by snowbell sampling technique. the study area was purposively selected as kalmudanga (biggest village of patary union), uttor patari and baliaghat of patari union of naogaon district considering the acuteness of child marriage. the patari union is the smallest but populous child prone area of naogaon district. total population of this union are 30117, male12700, female-12900 and child-4517 (bbs,2011). there are 8 primary school, 2 high school and 8 madrasahs are situated in this union. this research was prescribed research from actionaid bangladesh with a duration of three months only so we had time bound, less manpower and economic insufficiency to complete the study. so, we focused to select the acute victims of child marriage, even we didn’t include the guardian’s interview with our study which was also very relevant. patati union is a very remoter area of bangladesh surrounded by indian boarders, total communication and networking system isn’t developed here (less mobile network, we had to cross a river by ourselves with a boat attached with a rope, only vans on muddy and pitched roads) some religious, cultural and social situations made our study more challenging. village people didn’t like male and female colleagues working together. we had to consider all these issues and that’s why we feel further broad study in the community. sometimes we only gossiped with people to collect data. because the community is intentionally organized to conceal information regarding child marriage, so, making it challenging to collect data from concerned individuals. consequently, the snowball sampling technique was adopted to achieve the research objective, with thirtyfive respondents selected as the research sample. so, we confess again that the limitations regarding the selection of sample size remain in this study. literature review an analysis of the literature on the effects of child marriage reveals that each researcher has focused on a different effect. yount et al. (2016) states that child marriage is a risk factor for intimate partner violence (ipv) against women. worldwide, bangladesh has the highest prevalence of ipv and very early child marriage (before age 15). patoary (2020) discussed six effects of child marriage. those are: drop out of school, health problems, economic problems, population problems, increase of dowry system in the society, barrier to socioeconomic development of the country. the study of sayed et al. indicates that child marriage affects children’s physical, social and economic life. it destroys reproductive health; violets human rights create gender inequality and hinder social and economic development. ani (2020) indicates the negative impacts an early marriage has on her physical psychological and emotional well-being along with health problems and violation of educational rights. based on the causes of child marriage ernawati et al. (2022) determine the impact of child marriage on aspects of health, psychology, and economic status of rural people. they show poor results is on the health and economic aspects. (aggarwal et al., 2022) explain that according to the world health organization (who) data, the ratio of male: female agestandardized suicide death rates in southeast asia (which includes bangladesh, india, nepal and sri lanka) is 1.57: 1 as compared to the ratio of close to 3:1 in high-income countries showing a much narrower gender gap (i.e. higher age-standardized suicide rates in females as compared to males in southeast asia as compared to high-income countries). gaston et al. (2019) informed that the practice of child marriage has been well studied among girls there has been little information to date about child marriage among boys. islam and ahmed (2021) said there is a significant impact of climate chance on child marriage. they state that according to unicef child marriage as a major impact of climate change on adolescent’s girls who are more vulnerable in bangladesh. they also indicate that for achieving sdgs target by 2030—at least eight child marriages in bangladesh must be abolished. save the children (2022) reveals an additional 2.5 million girls in bangladesh are at risk of marriage by 2025 due to the pandemic, marking the most significant surge in child marriage rates in 25 years. abera et al. (2020) said, early marriage affected women empowerment where delaying marriage benefited. khanam & kabir stated thatto achieve the sustainable development goals targets for reducing preventable maternal and child mortality in bangladesh, it is imperative to reduce the prevalence of anemia among pregnant women. most of the literature based upon the effects of child marriage focused economic, educational, health, environmental, physical as pa ge 53 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 51-57, 2024 well as psychological impacts. though many researchers have been discussed as the effects of child marriage on education and health but no one study to link among the three concepts: effects of child marriage, women empowerment and sustainable development goals. this paper has been focused on the effects of child marriage on education and health of women which hinder to women empowerment and sustainable development goals in the context of rural bangladesh through a conceptual analysis and that is the new point of this article. conceptual framework the conceptual framework (figure: 1) focus that child marriage has an impact on women’s education and health which hinders women empowerment and sustainable development. we have shown a process to analyses that how the effects child marriage on education and health of women create obstacle to women empowerment and sustainable development goals (sdgs). figure 1: conceptual framework of the relationships among effects of child marriage, women empowerment and the sustainable development goals results and discussion the study uncovered significant consequences of child marriage, impacting the lives of girls adversely. it is evident that this practice damages the well-being of girls, disrupts social relationships within families, and alters modes of interaction in society. child marriage not only robs girls of their dreams and talents but also plunges them into a state of social, economic, psychological, educational and health disorders. upon analyzing the situation, several major effects of child marriage on education and health of women have been identified, including: effects of child marriage in education education has hefty negative connection with child marriage (islam et al., 2016). child marriage is not always caused by parents, family or society or culture, sometimes it’s an outcome of school going boys and girl’s romantic relationships (islam, 2021). nowadays, schools and coaching centers are the perfect places to make love to each other, and mobile phones and social media, along with messenger, whatsapp, imo, etc., are the best ways to keep love alive. in present time uneducated children cannot understand the consequences of child marriage as pa ge 54 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 51-57, 2024 a result they do not deny their parents proposal to marry early (patoary, 2020). the child marriage phenomenon not only robs children of their right to education but also hinders their personal development, preparation for adulthood, and future well-being. due to early marriage girl’s rights are onerously violated, because of it, girls cannot continue or complete their education (jisun, 2016). as a result of child marriage, students, spatially female students are deprived of education through the dropping out process. for a long time, gender inequality in education is created which hinder to women empowerment as well as women development. increasing dropout rate child marriage is a prime cause of high school dropout rates, which negate the fundamental principles of state policy in bangladesh, as according to article 17 of the bangladesh constitution (patoary, 2020). the dropout rate is very high in the study area, and child marriage is the only cause behind it. the information collected through fgd and document study states the real picture of the dropout rate in the study area. the attendance record shows that 80 students were admitted into class six, but only 33 students passed class six, and another 47 students were married in the kalmudanga girls’ high school (document study-4). in the study area, the dropout rate and the number of child marriage both are increased proportionally and they have positive relations. if the number of child marriage increase, the dropout rate raises too. here, child marriage and student dropout are acting as feedback of each other. school teachers provided us this kind of information. head teacher md. abdul kahar said before one year there were out of 200 students in this (kolmudanga girls high school) school but the present number of students are 150 all of drop out students have been got married (fgd-2). the teachers told us that they have tried to stop child marriage but to no avail because they are the minority in that case. ‘more child marriage come more dropout and less child marriage come less dropout’ this sentence is universal truth for the socio-cultural reality in the study area. deprived of education and creating gender inequality from a human rights perspective, child marriage is a violation of the rights of an individual, rooted in gender inequality and an impediment to girls’ social and economic development (syed et al., 2019). we was seen in the case of many families there is a provision for education of boys after marriage but none of the families send their daughter in laws to school and that is the reality. because of child marriage girls are dropping out of school than boys. as a result, girls’ students are more deprived of education than boys’ students which creates gender discrimination and inequality in education (see figure 1). in the study area, a case interview with mousumi and sujon provides a real-life example, offering an opportunity for a nuanced analysis of the situation. mousumi, 14 years old, from uttor kolmudanga. she had an affair when she was in class seven and the boy was in class nine. their family didn’t agree to marry them off but they were strongly committed to marry each other. at last, their family give them permission for marriage. now sujon (the husband) is going to school, but not mousumi (case-12). child marriage deprives girls of their basic rights, childhood, and, most significantly, their dignity and selfesteem. as a result of dropout especially girls from school gender inequality are creating that hinders empowerment of women for her long life. as child marriage increases, inequality in education also increases as a result, married children at an early age do not have the chance to develop their personalities through education. effects of child marriage in health it is said that health is the root of all happiness. child marriage is such a social disease that destroys human happiness forever. it has serious detrimental effects on the health of women. as a result of child marriage women are losing physical and mental health, increasing risk of maternal and child mortality, suffering malnutrition and having long-term health disease. loss of physical and mental health the majority of young brides face limited access to contraception and reproductive health services, coupled with a lack of clear understanding of reproductive health. this exposes them to early and frequent sexual relations, leading to repeated pregnancies and childbirth, abortion along with illness and malnutrition before they are physically mature and psychologically prepared. child marriage not only losses the physical health but also mental health. as child are not psychologically prepare for taking any responsibility of family and child bearing. as a result, after marriage, they face lots of mental problems like depression, tension, unnecessary scare, cleanliness, suicide ideation, etc. (ministry of women and children affairs, 2018). effects of child marriage early pregnancy, childbirth and abortion which can have severe and long-term health impacts on girls whose bodies are not adequately developed for childbirth, while also increasing health risks for the newborn (plan international, 2013). early marriage often results in boys becoming less energetic, experiencing negative effects on their overall well-being and girls have to live through a fear and anxiety. for an example, we can refer some loss of physical and mental health related cases. abdur rahman, a van driver, entered into marriage at the age of 16 and is now 18 years old, his wife, whom he married from his own village at the age of 14, is now pregnant. unfortunately, she has fallen ill, prompting him to send her to her in-laws’ house for necessary treatment and care. this marriage was contracted two years ago (case-29). pa ge 55 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 51-57, 2024 adori, aged 15 from uttor kolmudanga, entered into marriage at the tender age of eleven. within a few months of her marriage, she became pregnant and gave birth to her only son, akash. unfortunately, both mother and son are currently grappling with issues of malnutrition and reproductive health problems, leaving them weak and thin (case-6). early pregnancy, abortion, tension, physical and mental torture, heard work, late eating habits (not eating on time) are responsible for loses of physical and mental health. so, it goes without saying that if the rate of child marriage increases in society, the losses of physical and mental health to girls will also increase. suffering malnutrition when a girl is married between the ages of 9 to 17, she is still a child and clearly not prepared or suitable for conjugal life. unfortunately, she often lacks the option to decline such arrangements. within a few months of marriage, she finds herself expecting another child, leading to both the mother and child experiencing malnutrition and various other physical problems. salma, a 16-year-old from the village of boldiaghat, entered into marriage when she was in class five. now, she is a mother to a son but finds herself suffering from malnutrition but her mother-in-law is pressuring her to have another baby as soon as possible. salma, however, is not ready for another pregnancy at this point, but she may have to conceive again based on her mother-in-law’s wishes (case-9). abortion emerges as a significant consequence of child marriage in the study area, with five girls having undergone the procedure due to their immaturity. additionally, the study uncovered the tragic deaths of two women during childbirth, highlighting the serious problems child marriage poses to reproductive health. ayesha, aged 14 from uttor kolmudanga, entered into marriage with a 16-year-old boy from the same village three years ago. shortly after her marriage, she became pregnant but had to undergo an abortion, resulting in severe illness to the point of near death. (case-7). abortion poses a risk of physical harm and endangers the lives of girls. the aftermath of an abortion often leaves the girl weakened, making it challenging for her to fulfill her household responsibilities. this, in turn, can lead to the emergence of family violence and, at times, contribute to marital breakdown. moreover, the physical health damage resulting from abortion can have adverse effects on the mental well-being of the individuals involved. samira, at the age of 14 from boldiaghat, entered into marriage when she was only in class three. her husband, a cattle trader trafficking cows from india, disregards her opinions as she is just a woman. despite samira’s disapproval, she had two abortions under circumstances beyond her control. presently, she has one child. samira’s health deteriorated significantly during childbirth, leading to her admission to the hospital and undergoing an operation. unfortunately, she continues to face health issues, remaining unwell most of the time (case 13). high poverty and high child marriage rates are correlated with each other (islam, et al., 2018). poverty is the root cause of girl’s malnutrition in the study area, besides abortion and early pregnancy the rate of suffering malnutrition of marred girls. if the child marriage increases in society indubitably, the number of malnourished child and women will increase in society. increased risk of maternal and child mortality child mortality is an important indicator of child health and overall national development (kabir, 2024). several studies shows the correlation between child marriage and increased maternal mortality (uche & uche, 2023; fan & koski, 2022; elnakib et al. 2022; malhora & elnakib, 2021; pangaribuan et al., 2020; kohno et al., 2020; datta and halder, 2020; ahmed et al., 2019; chandra mouli et al., 2018; delprato & akyeampong, 2017; ainul & amin, 2015; raj et al., 2014; ferdousi, 2013; marshall, 1996). we was found maternal and child mortality rates were higher in this study area than others study because the average age of marriage for girls here was 11 years which we did not find anywhere else. nazma 16 years old, got married with her brother-in-law, when her sister died during child bearing. but after some month she got a divorce. her husband married again. this wife is pregnant now. nazma’s sister died because she was too young to bear a baby (case 18). early marriage comes early pregnancy. as a result, a child gives birth to a child, child marriage and early childbirth are linked to high rates of pregnancy-related complications or risk to the life of the newborn and mother. child marriage poses the risk of maternal and child death. giving birth at a young age can result in the poor health and, in many cases, the death of the mother and child. suffering long-term health disease child marriage is responsible for many long-term health diseases (communicable and non-communicable disease) like sexually transmitted disease, loses of immunity, wet loss, epilepsy diabetes, osteoporosis, hypertension, heart disease asthma, thyroid, cervical cancer, breast cancer, uterine cancer etc. hypertension [adjusted odds ratio 1.20 (95% ci: 1.17–1.24)], diabetes [1.29 (1.22–1.37)], thyroid disorder [1.10 (1.02–1.18)], asthma [1.19 (1.11–1.28)] and heart disease [1.27 (1.18–1.36)], are associated with child marriage (vikram, et al., 2023) early married women are more likely to suffer from anemia. early marriage is significantly associated with anaemia, with a majority of anaemic mothers having married at age 18 or younger (khanam & kabir, 2023)in the study area most of the girls are not health conscious, they do not pay attention to these diseases. many families of the girls cannot even get treatment due to poverty and many fall into poverty while seeking treatment. we have got such kind of information from the health worker in the study area. such as: mst. habiba khatun, a family welfare assistant (fwa) pa ge 56 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 51-57, 2024 at kalmudanga health center, said child marriage is responsible for many communicable and noncommunicable disease of the married girls of kalmudanga village. she emphasizes the immediate need for health interventions in the region. she notes the unequal burden of birth control responsibility increases the risk of breast cancer and other diseases in girls. additionally, early childbirth contributes to the breakdown of women’s health, resulting in both mothers and children suffering from malnutrition and poverty is the main impediment here (kii-02). there are positive relations between malnutrition and long-term health disease though child marriage is responsible for both. malnutrition causes disease to grow in the body and disease grows in the body due to malnutrition. both are losing girl’s physical and mental beauty in the study area. conclusion child marriage, gender discrimination and inequality in education that hinders economic development as well as the empowerment of women at patari union of naogaon district, bangladesh. the girls are getting marriage from both primary and secondary schools (high school and madrasa). we observed a few families or guardians who interested about their girl’s higher education and better career, moreover they are further concerned about as early as they can found a groom for girls. as they cannot study further, they cannot give their opinion about their own life and career. this hinders the total development of the area. we found a lot of physical, social and mental issues of child marriage. family violence, abortion, early pregnancy, maternal death, malnutrition, extramarital affairs, divorce, dowry, remarriage, marital rape, abuse, kabin business of guardians (demand for more kabin, divorce there and give marriage to somewhere else) cause girls psychosocial and mental health to a vulnerable condition. all these change girls’ mentality, they dream of get marriage and sustain the relation at any cost instead of dreaming for educate themselves and their empowerment. this is how achieving sustainable health or sustainable development remaining an impossible mission here as a result of child marriage women are highly affected than man. this kind of social disease, like child marriage, must be stopped in bangladesh as early as possible for achieving sustainable development goals, succession vision 2041, and contributing to demographic dividends as an important part, especially women. we confess that 35 cases are not sufficient to conduct this kind of research. so, more and more empirical and comprehensive studies should be conducted at patari union in the naogaon district of bangladesh. acknowledgement i would like to acknowledge my thanks actionaid bangladesh for funding and providing us the scope to conduct the research, especially zinat hasiba, senior officerresearch, innovation and knowledge (rik) action aid 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(2016). child marriage and intimate partner violence in rural bangladesh: a longitudinal multilevel analysis. demography, 53(6), 1821–1852. https://doi. org/10.1007/s13524-016-0520-8 pa ge 1 pa ge 7 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) the impact of gdp growth on infant mortality reduction: statistical analysis over 20 years in 30 countries fahimul haque1*, sobayta bintea farid2 volume 4 issue 2, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i2.4147 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: december 07, 2024 accepted: january 05, 2025 published: april 22, 2025 our study aimed to examine the relationship between the under-5 infant mortality rate and a nation’s economic condition, as shown by log gdp. to investigate how economic growth affects child mortality rates in both rich and poor nations. data from the world bank data covering the years 2001–2020 were used. the results demonstrate that there are notable differences in infant mortality rates between rich and poorer nations. infant mortality and log gdp had a substantial inverse relationship, which was confirmed by pearson correlation and linear regression analysis, indicating that greater infant mortality rates are linked to less economic progress. the results also show that growth in the economy has a greater effect on lowering infant mortality in low-income countries than in wealthy ones, as evidenced by the steeper decline in death rates. this implies that in areas of poverty, even small economic advancements might have a noticeable positive effect on health. the study concludes that lowering child mortality requires deliberate investments in maternal health initiatives, healthcare infrastructure, and preventive services. economic growth is crucial to improving public health and promoting the welfare of future generations, so policymakers in lowincome nations should give priority to these areas. keywords economic growth, health disparities, infant mortality, log gdp, socioeconomic inequality 1 industrial and production engineering, bangladesh university of engineering and technology, dhaka,1000, bangladesh 2 mbbs, comilla medical college, comilla, 3500, bangladesh * corresponding author’s e-mail: fahimulhaq2001@gmail.com introduction this section presents the background, objectives, research questions and significance of the study. background a significant health indicator that reflects the standard of healthcare and socioeconomic circumstances is infant mortality (nursing school at the federal university of alagoas, maceió, al, brazil, 2023). infant mortality can reveal large inequalities in the quality of health care, socio-economic development, and basic requirements like sanitation, food, and medical care (brainspec educational research, ukpong-umo, frank, & university of ibadan, 2023). in the last few decades, several countries could significantly improve infant mortality by enhancing medical technology, education of mothers, and accessibility to healthcare facilities and public health as well (aizawa, 2021). yet progress has been unequal, and rates of early death in low-income countries remain disproportionately high. economic variables play a part in shaping healthcare outcomes and access, especially the country’s economic level (li et al., 2024). nations with increased gross domestic product can allocate more to healthcare infrastructure, and medical research; in turn, reduce the infant mortality rate directly. on the other hand, in countries with a low gdp, there is not enough money to create an adequate healthcare system, which results in high rates of infant mortality (kim et al., 2024). because of these economic differences, it is important to examine the relationship between a country’s economy (specifically in terms of log gdp) and infant mortality rates. we seek to explore this relationship using data for high-income and low-income countries from 2000 through 2020. objectives the paper’s primary goal is to explore the association between log gdp, denoting economic status, and infant mortality rate. this study will compare the trends in infant mortality in high-income and low-income countries to better understand how economic factors impact levels of care. the study focuses on these changes over a 20-year period in an attempt to identify any trends or relationships that can explain the connection between infant mortality and economic development. research questions to achieve the above objectives, the study will answer some research questions: 1. the connection between a country’s log gdp and infant mortality rates. do wealthy countries have lower mortality rates of infants and is this relationship stable over time? 2. what is the difference in the rate of infant mortality between high-income and low-income countries for every year from 2000 to 2020? trend comparisons between the two groups of countries can address this question. 3. what are the statistical differences in infant mortality between high-income countries and low-income countries? this question aims to discover if there are any significant changes between the two groups which will help us understand more about how economic divides affect health care outcomes. pa ge 8 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 7-16 2025 4. based on the economic–healthcare relationship observed in high-income countries, what type of policy interventions might be inferred for low-income countries? these findings on infant mortality in rich countries may provide insights into the type of policies and medical care investments that poorer countries might adopt to help develop their health systems with the aim of reducing infant deaths. significance of the study this work is significant since it could provide global public health and economic policy by presenting evidence on how economic development affects infant mortality. despite numerous initiatives to reduce infant mortality, millions of newborns worldwide still pass away from preventable causes every year, especially in low-income nations. this research could lead to better policies and strategies to address these deaths, which should never happen, by exploring the role of economic drivers such as log gdp to implicate how they impact infant mortality rates. in addition, understanding the impact of economic development on health performance is necessary to inform global health priorities and resource allocation. the research provides useful evidence to policymakers and international health organizations to argue that more resources should be allocated to healthcare facilities. finally, through a better understanding of the socioeconomic causes of infant mortality, this research will add to the knowledge regarding the socioeconomic drivers of health inequalities and injustices. it may lay the groundwork for future research examining additional socio-economic determinants of infant health that could considerably broaden our understanding of this important aspect of global health. literature review the findings of this investigation align with a significant amount of research indicating that one of the best measurements of health outcomes, including infant mortality, is national income. a study from 2019 provided empirical evidence on the connection between infant mortality rates and real gdp per capita. it showed that with an increase in income, a reduction in the rates of infant mortality can be found. in particular, it finds that a 10 percent increase in per capita gdp results in a decline of nearly 0.2 percent in infant mortality, which reflects the significance of economic growth on health outcomes (tang, 2019). another researcher observed that infant mortality is influenced by gdp, therefore economic development is essential for health and consequent life or death (hatice türkan et al., 2020). the log-linear relationship between gdp and infant mortality was established by (bourne, 2012), which highlighted the importance of examining infant mortality rates with economic indicators. the study conducted on the saarcasean regions found an important connection between economic factors and health outcomes by showing that improvements in sanitation and economic growth, along with public and private health expenditures, all lead to a decline in infant mortality (rahman et al., 2018). ward and viner (2017) examined not only the connection between income equality (as measured by the gini coefficient) and mortality but also showed the crucial role that gdp plays in determining health outcomes, particularly for vulnerable populations like infants. a study from 1999 identified a strong inverse correlation between a country’s infant mortality and its gross national product (gnp), which indicated that the infant mortality rate tends to decline as gnp rises. this correlation implies that infant health outcomes are generally better in rich nations (hales et al., 1999). infant mortality and gdp growth have an inverse connection, which is vital for policymakers who aim to enhance health outcomes and economic performance at the same time (islam et al., 2023). steady economic growth enables developing countries to invest in healthcare infrastructure, improving the coverage of immunization services and the provision of maternal health care. it contributes to the drastic decline in infant mortality. research showed improving health access and quality leads to dramatic decreases in infant mortality with increasing gdp per capita. in nigeria, a 1% increase in per capita gdp reduces infant mortality by 26% (abdulganiyu & paul, 2021). in a similar way, maternal health and healthcare spending have considerable effects on infant mortality rates in latin america (passarelli-araujo, 2024). improved healthcare infrastructure and social welfare which are necessarily linked to economic development greatly affect infant mortality rates in disadvantaged areas (taylor-robinson et al., 2019). results showed that economic development through better healthcare infrastructure significantly decreased infant mortality rates (cesur et al., 2017). improvements in healthcare services and infrastructure are essential for lowering infant mortality, especially among the poor, as indicated by a study. it revealed the differences in immunization coverage and healthcare access between different socioeconomic classes in south africa (nkonki et al., 2011). brown (2013) supported the claim that increased accessibility to maternal health services and a better healthcare infrastructure which are often a direct result of economic development are crucial for minimizing infant mortality in developing countries. a systematic review found that interventions in lowincome communities can reduce health risks. which also indicated that as economic development proceeds, the availability of healthcare facilities and maternal health services may become important determinants for lower infant mortality rate rates in less developed countries (sellström & bremberg, 2006). based on data from south africa over the past few decades, some researchers showed that both foreign direct investment and economic growth influence child health outcomes, especially the infant mortality rate (imr). thus giving additional emphasis to the important role played by enhanced healthcare infrastructure and services that increase with an increasing gdp in developing countries (salahuddin pa ge 9 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 7-16 2025 et al., 2020). the slower decline in infant mortality in richer countries indicates that once a country achieves a certain level of gdp, the reduction of infant mortality rate from further growth diminishes. a research from 2015 suggested that further growth in the economy may have diminishing gains in terms of health outcomes. this is consistent with the concept of the preston curve, which proposes that advances in health measures such as infant mortality become less noticeable above a particular economic development level (genowska et al., 2015). another study conducted in nepal indicated that once a certain wealth threshold is reached, other determinants such as birth intervals and healthcare access become more crucial in lowering infant mortality rates (lamichhane, 2023). the same result was obtained in a different study conducted in countries in sub-saharan africa (aderounmu et al., 2023). increasing economic growth may only partially improve health outcomes if a certain wealth threshold is crossed (khadka et al., 2015). to further lower mortality rates, focused interventions addressing maternal education, socioeconomic position, and rural living situations may be needed after a certain point of economic development in nigeria (ezeh et al., 2015). this may also be explained by the fact that most infectious diseases and other preventable causes of infant mortality are already within control in wealthy nations. this finding suggests that economic development may have distinct influences on infant mortality. the much steeper slope in the regression for poor countries indicates that significant improvements in infant health are more highly tied to economic growth. a similar result was founded by (chakroun, 2024), though the relationship between economic factors and infant health was nonlinear. this finding is consistent with the claim that for lower-income countries a steeper slope between economic growth and reductions in infant mortality exists because their healthcare systems are more sensitive to increases in health expenditure (kiross et al., 2020). another research showed that the harmful effects of economic downturns on maternal and infant mortality are larger in poorer countries, indicating that poorer nations may have a steeper slope of the effect of fluctuations in economic growth on health outcomes as they start from a lower level of healthcare services infrastructure (ensor et al., 2010). nishiyama (2011) provided a detailed analysis of data from 83 developing countries over a period of four decades to demonstrate that, economic growth is usually associated with declining mortality rates. however, the impact between the two factors is strongly asymmetric, and healthcare infrastructure appears crucial in poorer countries. a sharper slope was seen in low-income countries. the same result was pointed out by (titaley et al., 2008) which was conducted in indonesia. when gdp rises in poor countries, it provides more money for constructing hospitals and undertaking vaccination campaigns as well as offering prenatal and postnatal care. better national public health systems (i.e. sanitation, water access, and food security) can also immediately scale down the prevalence of diseases that affect infants disproportionately. according to lu et al. (2020), higher gdp in poor nations significantly improves food security, sanitation, and healthcare facilities, which in return reduces infant mortality rates. improved healthcare infrastructure and public health operations such as campaigns for vaccinations and greater sanitation, have a direct connection to improved health outcomes, including decreased infant mortality, as gdp rises (jakovljevic et al., 2020). wang (2015) noted that, when healthcare spending is optimal, it can improve public health by lowering infant deaths through enhanced healthcare infrastructure and services when gdp rises. higher-income levels may result in improved healthcare infrastructure and public health programs, which can significantly reduce infant mortality (bedir, 2016). materials and methods this section describes the data sources, statistical methods that were used and data preprocessing techniques. data sources the data was collected from the world data bank for the period from 2001 to 2020. as for the study, we wanted to understand the links between economic status measured in terms of the logarithm of gdp and infant mortality under the age of 5 by applying it to poor and rich countries. log gdp is the natural logarithm of gross domestic product and is measured in us dollars. the other major variable is infant mortality under 5, which reflects the number of infant deaths under 5 years of age per 1000. in particular, we worked with a sample consisting of 15 rich and 15 poor countries, which allowed performing the cross-national analysis. the rich countries presented in the sample are the united states, germany, switzerland, japan, canada, the united kingdom, france, australia, the netherlands, sweden, norway, denmark, finland, the republic of korea, and belgium. it was decided based on the fact that those countries have significant economic capacity. the countries that are identified as poor are bangladesh, india, nigeria, kenya, pakistan, ethiopia, uganda, cambodia, nepal, afghanistan, sudan, zimbabwe, madagascar, chad, and tanzania. the economic resources of these states are significantly poorer, and infant mortality often remains critical. the data set includes twenty years of data, allowing for an analysis of progress in the two indicators over time. it helped to make a conclusion concerning the influence of economic status on infant mortality among children in rich units compared to poor ones. the data was first cleaned and pre-processed to ensure its consistency and reliability, with missing values and any other anomalies appropriately dealt with. all subsequent statistical analysis is based on the dataset. pa ge 10 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 7-16 2025 statistical methods the following major statistical methods were used in the python analysis. pearson correlation it evaluates how strongly and in which direction the two variables have a linear relationship. the value is from -1 which is the perfect negative correlation and +1 is the perfect positive correlation (weisburd et al., 2020). it was used to test the degree and the direction of correlation between log gdp and infant mortality rates in both rich and poor countries. linear regression a statistical model that looks at how one or more independent variables relate to the dependent variable so that projections can be made using those independent variables (dombrowsky, 2023). the model was important to evaluate the trend for infant mortality as in log gdp. anova it stands for analysis of variance and it compares the means of 3 or more groups to see if there are any significant differences between them (dugard et al., 2022). the means of infant mortality rates in rich and poor nations were compared during a 20-year span. the results of this test are used to evaluate the statistical importance of the observed group. t-test it looks for significant variations between two groups by comparing their means (ewens & brumberg, 2023). the significance of the difference in infant mortality between the two groups was tested using this test. the purpose of this statistical test was to verify whether there is a figure 1: flowchart of the analysis substantial long-term variation in the death rates between rich and poor nations. figure 1 shows the sequential steps of the analysis. first, data was collected, focusing on the log gdp and infant mortality rate under 5. after collecting the data, the pearson correlation was done to establish the correlation between an infant mortality rate and gdp. the regression was thereafter done to establish the trend in the poverty mortality rates of the infant in both rich and povertystricken countries. an anova test was done to compare the mortality rate in rich and poor countries. finally, a t-test was done to test the significance of the result reached. data preprocessing before beginning any statistical analysis, the dataset was cleaned to ensure accuracy. the following actions were taken: 1. any empty, incomplete, or missing data points were removed from the dataset. 2. the values of gdp for each country were converted into their logarithmic form, which made their distribution more linear and directly comparable. 3. the values of infant mortality were normalized to a “per 1,000 live births” metric. results and discussion pearson correlation the pearson correlation coefficient of log gdp and infant mortality for poor countries is -0.992, with a p-value of 7.08e-18. the correlation is inverse and very strong; as a poor country’s log gdp rises, the infant mortality rate decreases, and the relationship is significant. the coefficient for rich countries is -0.922, with a p-value of 7.27e-09. the relationship is also inverse and significant, but it is slightly less strong than in poor countries as the influence of log gdp has already reduced infant mortality rates to relatively low levels. linear regression the linear regression equation for poor countries is: y=32.41x+868.87 . this indicates that the infant mortality pa ge 11 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 7-16 2025 rate drops by 32.41 per 1,000 live births for every unit increase in log gdp. the model’s r2 score was 0.985, which implies that it suited the data extremely well. it suggests poor countries have a significant impact on the economic status of infant mortality because it indicates a steep slope. the linear regression equation for rich countries is: y=-2.39x+70.81 . the infant mortality rate is therefore reduced by 2.39 per 1,000 live births for every unit rise in log gdp. the model’s r2 value was 0.8509, indicating a fairly decent fit to the datanot as strong as in poor nations. compared to poor countries, the number is small and this might be because rich countries already have lower infant mortality rates. rich countries have lower infant mortality rates compared to their poor counterparts. the above result shows the linear regression slopes exhibit a decrease in infant mortality rates as log gdp increases. however, the effect of log gdp seems to be more pronounced in poor countries than in rich countries. as shown in the result, the slope for poor countries is -32.41 while it is -2.39 for rich countries. anova test according to the anova results, the p-value is 2.44e20 and the f-value is 330.39. thus, it can be decided that there is a significant bias in the level of infant mortality between the poor countries relative to the rich ones. an f-value of 608.97 and a p-value of 5.38e-25 were obtained from the anova test of the differences between the mean log gdp values for rich and poor nations. there is a highly significant difference in log gdp between groups. t-test the t-test of the differences between the mean values of infant mortality rates received t-statistics of -18.18 and a p-value of 2.44e-20. it can be interpreted that the differences in these indicators are highly significant. when comparing the mean log gdp values of rich and poor countries, the test produced a t-statistic of 24.68 and a p-value of 5.38e-25. this implies these groups’ differences in log gdp are extremely large. table 1: summary of statistical results for log gdp and infant mortality in rich and poor countries analysis type poor countries rich countries pearson correlation -0.992 (p-value: 7.08e-18) -0.922 (p-value: 7.27e-09) linear regression y = -32.41x + 868.87 (r² = 0.985) y = -2.39x + 70.81 (r² = 0.8509) anova (infant mortality) f-value: 330.39, p-value: 2.44e-20 anova (log gdp) f-value: 608.97, p-value: 5.38e-25 t-test (infant mortality) t-statistic: -18.18, p-value: 2.44e-20 t-test (log gdp) t-statistic: 24.68, p-value: 5.38e-25 the results of the statistical studies of the data from rich and poor nations are summarized in table 1. the findings reveal that there are significant variations in the relationship between mortality and economic status (log gdp), with steeper regression slopes and a stronger inverse correlation in poorer countries. this suggests that economic growth has a greater effect on lowering infant mortality in low-income countries. figure 2: : comparison of log gdp for rich and poor countries (2001-2020) figure 2 shows the evolution of log gdp over 2001–2020 for rich and poor countries. the green line with x-marks is the log gdp for rich countries, which gives us a more stable growth function with a few bumps in recent times. the red line with the circle captures the log gdp for poor nations, which has been rising consistently and acutely. this indicates that because of their lower starting gdp levels, poor countries developed faster than rich countries. pa ge 12 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 7-16 2025 table 2 contains the data for high-income and low-income nations in 2001-2020. for rich countries log gdp, we can observe that it has a relatively stable trend and slightly increases with time. the log gdp started at 27.16 in 2001 and stood at 27.92 by the year 2020. on the other hand, infant mortality shows a consistent downward trend with time. in 2001, the infant mortality rate was 5.65 per 1,000 live births, decreasing to 3.71 by 2020. from the data, we can conclude that for wealthier countries with high log gdp, there will be a reduction in infant mortality with time due to a better living standard and healthcare. the log of gross domestic product in poor countries starts at 23.34 in 2001 to 24.99 by 2020. the infant mortality rates in poor economies have been reduced significantly from 113.95 in 2001 to 54.85 in 2020. table 2: infant mortality rates and average log gdp for rich and poor countries year rich countries average log gdp rich countries average mortality poor countries average log gdp poor countries average mortality 2001 27.16 5.65 23.34 113.95 2002 27.23 5.51 23.4 109.01 2003 27.39 5.37 23.52 104.25 2004 27.53 5.22 23.66 99.80 2005 27.59 5.07 23.82 95.61 2006 27.66 4.91 23.95 91.83 2007 27.78 4.77 24.13 88.20 2008 27.85 4.63 24.27 84.63 2009 27.76 4.51 24.37 81.19 2010 27.82 4.38 24.49 77.93 2011 27.92 4.28 24.60 74.85 2012 27.91 4.16 24.66 71.78 2013 27.93 4.08 24.73 69.03 2014 27.95 4.01 24.81 66.64 2015 27.83 3.98 24.82 64.47 2016 27.84 3.91 24.83 62.32 2017 27.89 3.86 24.88 60.33 2018 27.95 3.82 24.97 58.33 2019 27.94 3.75 24.99 56.55 2020 27.92 3.71 24.97 54.85 figure 3: linear regression analysis of log gdp vs under-5 mortality rate for poor and rich countries in figure 3, we can observe how both rich and poor countries have decreased their infant mortality rates between 2001 and 2020. according to the left graph, infant mortality very steeply decreased from 113.95 in pa ge 13 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 7-16 2025 2001 to the value of 54.85 in the year of 2020 for poor countries (in red). in the right graph, displaying rich countries (green), mortality decreased more modestly from 5.65 deaths per 1000 live births in 2001 to 3.71 in 2020. while the steeper drop in poor nations points to progress, mortality rates are still many times greater than those in richer countries. figure 4 shows the results of a linear regression study for both rich and poor countries. in the poorer countries, there is a steep negative slope of about -32.41, indicating a strong and inverse relationship. the mortality rate drops quickly with log gdp. in contrast, the slope for wealthier countries is somewhat less steep (about -2.39) but still negative. figure 4: infant mortality trends in poor and rich countries (2001-2020) summary the research investigated the relationship between economic factors (log gdp) and infant mortality for 30 countries split into two groups: rich and poor. results also strongly support the hypothesis of a negative relationship between log gdp and infant mortality wherein higher infant mortality rates correspond to lower economic development supported by pearson correlation as well as linear regression analysis. for poor countries, the pearson correlation coefficient between log gdp and infant mortality was exceptionally strong -0.99, suggesting a strong relationship between economic expansion and a decrease in infant mortality in poor countries. the steep decline in the mortality rates is further emphasized by the linear regression equation: y = m x + b (in this case, m=-32.41). in contrast, the slope of the regression line in rich countries (m = −2.39), indicates that infant death rates decline more slowly with increasing gdp. the correlation coefficient was still strong: r = −0.92. according to this, the difference indicates that a poor country’s economic development will affect infant mortality significantly more than a wealthy nation’s, where improvements are more marginal. according to a study from 2024, socioeconomic factors have a major impact on infant mortality rates, indicating that countries with lower incomes are more affected by economic development than those with higher incomes (passarelli-araujo, 2024). furthermore, there were statistically significant differences between the death rates of rich and poor countries, as indicated by the anova results (f-value: 330.39) and t-test results (t-test statistic: -18.18). these results confirm that economic status is an important indicator of health outcomes, especially when it comes to infant mortality. according to a study from 2017, infant mortality rates are correlated with lower per capita health expenditure in lower-income families, with infants from wealthier categories having a 20% reduced chance of dying (yadav et al., 2017). while higher income levels are usually linked with fewer deaths, martens et al. (2010) also pointed out that the relationship is more complicated in developed countries. this corresponds with the lower slope for richer countries so other things than income, like healthcare infrastructure, social services, and public health policies, tend to matter much more in reducing mortality. the expected negative link between infant mortality rates and gdp per capita in rich countries might be complicated by factors such as cultural norms and inequality (schwartz et al., 2023). policy implication policymakers need to focus on strategies that promote sustainable economic development because this is the most direct way to positively influence public health, especially for vulnerable groups such as newborns (iftikar & ali, 2024). national development strategies should prioritize introducing healthcare services, increasing maternal health, and piping building. for example, investing in constructing hospitals and clean water systems. for wealthy nations, the priority should be making existing plans work better and ensuring that better medicine is widely available to all citizens at a reasonable cost. the availability of sophisticated medical technologies that can be lifesaving and related social determinants need to be considered in policy (garçon et al., 2016). another important policy inference is that international aid and development assistance may speed pa ge 14 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 7-16 2025 up health progress in poor countries (kasper et al., 2023). given that economic growth affects infant mortality in these areas, focused investment and funding in health programs and healthcare facilities may accelerate mortality declines (sheidaei et al., 2024). governments, international organizations, and private sector actors can work together to provide the funding and expertise required to enhance health outcomes in poor countries. limitations though our study offers important information about the connection between infant mortality and log gdp, it should be pointed out that it has a number of limitations. first, the study only looks at 30 countries, which would restrict how far the findings might be used. further research should increase the sample size to include more nations, especially from underrepresented regions in our analysis, such as africa and latin america, even if these nations were chosen to reflect a variety of economic conditions. second, while gdp is the study’s main measure of economic progress, other factors could be crucial in impacting infant mortality. for example, political stability, access to clean water, maternal education, and healthcare expenditures per capita are all important variables that could influence infant mortality rates but were not considered in this study. future works could provide a more thorough knowledge of the factors influencing infant mortality by including these variables. third, since the study uses annual data, significant withinyear variations in death rates may be overlooked. to better understand the dynamics and timing of changes in child mortality rates in response to economic expansion, future studies could examine monthly or quarterly data. the study’s findings indicate a number of potential areas for further investigation. in order to determine which component has a greater direct impact on lowering infant mortality, future research should first examine the impact of healthcare spending in combination with gdp. this can involve looking at how economic growth and healthcare spending, both public and private, combine to affect health outcomes. furthermore, longitudinal research that follows a single nation over time could shed more light on the specific laws and programs that have worked best to lower infant mortality in both wealthy and developing nations. researchers could also look into the role of inequality inside countries, specifically in wealthy nations where mortality is not as impacted by gdp growth overall. policymakers aiming to address inequalities within their own communities may find valuable insights by examining the connection between infant mortality rates and social safety nets, healthcare access, and wealth inequality. future studies should additionally look at sociopolitical issues such as international aid programs, public health policy, and government stability in order to determine how they might affect infant mortality rates. these elements may significantly influence health outcomes and are frequently related to economic development, especially in low-income nations. conclusion the purpose of this investigation was to look into the relationship between under-5 infant mortality rates in highand low-income countries and economic growth as indicated by log gdp. the findings demonstrate a clear opposite relationship between infant mortality and gdp; however, the size of the effect differs greatly between wealthy and poor countries. even minor economic growth can result in substantial drops in infant mortality in lowincome nations, where access to public health services and basic healthcare is frequently restricted. the regression analysis’s steep slope for these nations provides evidence of this, revealing that increases in economic conditions can result in considerable increases in child survival rates. growth in the economy in these regions frequently results in increased funding for clean water, health campaigns, nutrition strategies, and healthcare infrastructure—all of which contribute to reducing the number of avoidable child fatalities. on the other hand, the correlation between gdp and infant mortality is considerably less steep in high-income nations. it indicates that the benefits of economic growth are more tangential, though it may still help lower infant mortality. wealthy nations usually already have established healthcare systems, extensive access to sanitary facilities and clean water, and successful public health initiatives. therefore, further expansion of gdp does not result in the same sharp declines in mortality that are observed in less developed countries. to further lower infant mortality in rich countries, additional elements including healthcare quality, access equity, social support networks, and medical developments probably matter more. the crucial role that economic policy can play in enhancing public health outcomes in low-income nations is one of the study’s most significant conclusions. the governments of these countries should focus on measures that promote economic expansion while making sure that the benefits of such expansion are divided fairly, especially with vulnerable groups like women and children. priorities should be set for increasing access to healthcare, funding maternal health initiatives, and improving facilities including clean water supplies, hospitals, and sanitary facilities. to sum up, the results of this study offer compelling proof that economic expansion lowers infant mortality, especially in lowincome nations. promoting sustainable economic growth is crucial for policymakers in these countries not only for general development but also for greatly enhancing public health outcomes, particularly for infants. in order to lower child death rates and improve the condition of upcoming generations, this research emphasizes the significance of making strategic investments in healthcare infrastructure, maternal health, and preventative care. it also proposes a dual focus on economic policy and healthcare system development. global cooperation among states, international organizations, and nongovernmental groups will be crucial to boosting the growth and well-being of the most vulnerable people on the entire globe. pa ge 15 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 7-16 2025 references abdulganiyu, s., & paul, j. 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(2017). trends and determinants of infant mortality in emp. iosr journal of humanities and social science, 22(1), 107– 121. https://doi.org/10.9790/0837-220103107121 pa ge 1 pa ge 21 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) teachers as researchers: practices, perspectives, problems, and a plan of action (4ps) for public school teachers in writing action research jeffry m. saro1*, jecel d. taray2 volume 3 issue 3, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i3.3344 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: july 20, 2024 accepted: august 24, 2024 published: august 28, 2024 this study explored the role of teachers in action research, extending beyond traditional classroom instruction to include professional development and scholarly inquiry. the primary aim was to investigate the practices involved in action research, teachers’ understanding of writing action research, and common challenges faced. using a quantitative approach with a descriptive-correlational design, the study surveyed 497 teachers from 87 public schools across five districts in agusan del sur. data collection focused on teachers’ techniques, skills, motivations, and problems related to action research. the study utilized stratified random sampling to ensure diverse representation and analyzed data using descriptive statistics and correlational analysis through ibm spss v29. findings indicated that while teachers generally demonstrated competency and enthusiasm for action research, challenges such as time constraints, insufficient support, and research complexity were prevalent. the study revealed a strong correlation between teachers’ engagement in action research and their understanding of research methodologies and problem-solving abilities. recommendations included providing ongoing professional development opportunities, enhancing institutional support, establishing mentorship programs, improving access to research resources, and creating recognition systems for research achievements. these measures aimed to bolster teachers’ research skills, overcome barriers, and foster a supportive environment for action research. the study emphasized the importance of further professional development and institutional support to enhance teachers’ competencies and address significant challenges in action research. keywords action research, practices, research resources, perspectives, common problems, correlation analysis 1 prosperidad national high school, prosperidad district, division of agusan del sur, department of education, philippines 2 school governance and operations division, division of agusan del sur, department of education, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: jeffrysaro123@gmail.com introduction in the evolving landscape of education, the role of teachers extended beyond traditional classroom instruction to encompass a broader scope of professional development and scholarly inquiry. in the philippine setting, the department of education’s (deped) vision consistently reiterated the role and goal of public-school teachers to continually enhance their teaching strategies and styles for the betterment of the stakeholders they humbly served (oestar & marzo, 2022). action research had been an integral part of teachers’ professional growth and development for many years. the purpose of conducting action research correlated with quality classroom instruction and provided valuable innovations and intervention programs at school (oestar & marzo, 2022; saro et al., 2023). the multifaceted role of teachers as researchers within the public school system illuminated the various practices employed by teachers in conducting action research, uncovered their perspectives on its value and implementation, identified the problems they encountered, and proposed a strategic plan of action to enhance their research capabilities. this study explored these dimensions through a comprehensive analysis of public-school teachers’ experiences with action research. by examining their practices, the research identified the methods and techniques commonly used in action research projects (herr & anderson, 2019). investigating teachers’ perspectives provided insights into their attitudes, motivations, and perceived value of engaging in action research (efron & ravid, 2020). highlighting the problems encountered shed light on the barriers that hindered effective research practices (brydon-miller et al., 2020). despite its potential benefits, many teachers faced significant hurdles in conducting action research, ranging from a lack of time and resources to insufficient training and support (chevalier & buckles, 2019). to address these challenges, the study proposed a plan of action, a set of recommendations and strategies designed to support teachers in overcoming obstacles and enhancing their research practices. this plan focused on providing practical solutions and resources to empower teachers as researchers, ultimately contributing to their professional growth and the advancement of educational practices (feldman & capobianco, 2020). the art of action research had intensified and become one of the major professional development concerns of public-school teachers and administrators. each year, the department of education (deped), particularly in the schools division of agusan del sur, issued a memorandum for research proposals that could potentially receive funding under berf or sef. the philippine department of education released deped order no. 39, series 2016, to promote the adoption of the “basic education research agenda” and the undertaking of educational pa ge 22 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 research nationwide. identifying the problems and difficulties that teachers and the department faced was necessary to offer remedies based on the outcomes and findings of ongoing research. however, many teachers were unaware of what action research entailed and how to conduct it effectively, which was a prevalent issue in public elementary and secondary schools across the country. the department of education had been working on various strategies to educate public school teachers on the significance of conducting research, but a majority of the teachers appeared disinterested. moreover, the department of education was currently assessing and evaluating its progress in this field, encouraging teachers to embark on action research projects that would highlight their best approaches to delivering effective teaching and learning processes (anzaldo & cudiamat, 2019; ching, 2021). to encourage teachers to conduct action research, the regional and divisional levels were actively involved. the department of education, caraga region, also provided financial assistance to teachers working on action research through their basic education research fund. additionally, compared to other countries, the philippines had very few studies about teachers as researchers and the difficulties they encountered when conducting research. similarly, a few academics attempted to investigate the challenges and problems faced by public teachers when conducting studies in the philippines (ulla et al., 2017). action research was crucial to determine where teachers anchored their pedagogical approaches based on current trends in the philippine educational system (quidmas, 2017). through this comprehensive approach, the study aimed to contribute valuable knowledge to the field of educational research, offering practical implications for policymakers, educators, and administrators committed to fostering a culture of inquiry and continuous improvement in public schools. conceptual and theoretical framework the conceptual framework of this study was anchored on the idea that teachers in public schools could significantly enhance their professional practice through the systematic application of action research. this framework integrated four key dimensions: practices, perspectives, problems, and plan of action (4ps), within the context of publicschool teachers conducting action research. first, the dimension of practices focused on the methodologies and strategies employed by teachers in conducting action research. it involved exploring various research designs, data collection methods, and analysis techniques that teachers used to investigate and improve their instructional practices (herr & anderson, 2019). second, the perspectives dimension examined the attitudes, beliefs, and motivations of teachers towards engaging in action research. understanding teachers’ perspectives provided insights into how they valued and perceived the importance of action research in their professional development (efron & ravid, 2020). third, the problems dimension identified the challenges and obstacles that teachers faced in conducting action research. these problems included limited time, lack of resources, insufficient training, and institutional barriers (chevalier & buckles, 2019). lastly, the plan of action dimension involved developing a strategic plan to support teachers in overcoming the identified challenges. the plan focused on providing practical solutions and resources to empower teachers as researchers, ultimately contributing to their professional growth and the advancement of educational practices (brydon-miller et al., 2020). central to this conceptual framework was the incorporation of the department of education (deped) orders and policies, which provided the regulatory and supportive environment for implementing action research in public schools. specifically, deped order no. 16, s. 2017, which outlined the research management guidelines, served as a crucial reference for aligning the study with national educational policies and practices. the theoretical framework of this study drew on several key theories that underpinned the practice of action research in education. kurt lewin’s (1946) foundational theory of action research posited that social problems were best solved through a cyclical process of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. this theory emphasized collaborative problem-solving and continuous improvement, which were essential for effective educational practice (mertler, 2019). donald schön’s (1983) theory of reflective practice underscored the importance of reflection in professional learning and development. schön argued that by reflecting on their experiences, professionals, including teachers, could gain deeper insights into their practice and make informed improvements (efron & ravid, 2020). additionally, cochran-smith and lytle’s (2009) theory of practitioner inquiry advocated for teachers as active researchers who systematically investigated their own practice to generate knowledge and improve teaching and learning. this theory aligned with the idea that teachers were not just consumers of research but also producers of knowledge. furthermore, participatory action research (par), as articulated by chevalier and buckles (2019), involved the active participation of stakeholders in the research process. this approach fostered collaboration, empowerment, and shared decision-making, which were vital for addressing the real-world challenges faced by teachers in public schools (chevalier & buckles, 2019). the study made several claims based on this framework. first, it claimed that implementing action research practices among public school teachers enhanced their instructional strategies and improved student outcomes (mertler, 2019; herr & anderson, 2019). second, it claimed that teachers’ positive perspectives and attitudes towards action research were crucial for the successful integration of research practices into their professional development (efron & ravid, 2020). third, it claimed that identifying and addressing the problems faced by teachers in conducting action research was essential for creating pa ge 23 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 a supportive research culture in schools (chevalier & buckles, 2019; brydon-miller et al., 2020). lastly, it claimed that a well-developed plan of action, aligned with deped orders and policies, provided the necessary framework for empowering teachers as researchers and fostering continuous improvement in education (deped order no. 16, s. 2017). literature review the concept of teachers as researchers has gained substantial traction in recent years, with a growing body of literature highlighting its significance and implementation in educational settings. action research has been recognized as a powerful tool for educators to enhance their teaching practices and contribute to educational reform (mertler, 2019; saro et al., 2023). this review synthesizes recent studies and official directives to provide a comprehensive understanding of the practices, perspectives, and challenges associated with action research among public school teachers. recent studies emphasized the various practices employed by teachers in action research. herr and anderson (2019) described a structured approach where teachers systematically investigated their teaching methodologies to improve student outcomes. similarly, efron and ravid (2020) emphasized the iterative nature of action research, involving cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. these methodologies have been critical in enabling teachers to develop a deeper understanding of their instructional strategies and their impact on student learning. additionally, coghlan and brydon-miller (2021) highlighted the importance of ethical considerations in action research practices, ensuring that the research process respects the rights and dignity of all participants. the perspectives of teachers on action research have also been a focal point in contemporary research. brydonmiller, greenwood, and maguire (2020) noted that many educators viewed action research as a means to professional growth and empowerment. feldman and capobianco (2020) reported that teachers appreciated the collaborative aspect of action research, which fostered a sense of community and shared purpose among colleagues. these positive attitudes were crucial for the successful implementation of action research in schools. moreover, zeichner and noffke (2021) found that teachers who engaged in action research often felt more confident and competent in their professional roles. however, several challenges have been identified that hinder the effective practice of action research. chevalier and buckles (2019) highlighted issues such as limited time, insufficient resources, and lack of administrative support as significant barriers. on the other hand, sagor (2020) pointed out that many teachers felt overwhelmed by the demands of action research, which required substantial effort and commitment beyond their regular teaching duties. these challenges necessitated a supportive framework to facilitate teachers’ engagement in action research. additionally, gaventa and cornwall (2021) discussed the need for structural changes within educational institutions to better support teachers’ research initiatives. mertler (2019) suggested providing professional development opportunities to equip teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge for conducting action research. the importance of institutional support was further emphasized by dana and yendol-hoppey (2020), who advocated for creating a school culture that values and encourages inquiry-based practices. additionally, mockler and groundwater-smith (2021) recommended the establishment of research networks to foster collaboration and shared learning among teachers engaged in action research. the department of education (deped) in the philippines has also issued several orders to support teachers in action research. deped order no. 16, s. 2017 emphasized the importance of continuous professional development and encouraged teachers to engage in research activities. deped order no. 24, s. 2020 focused on enhancing research capabilities through structured training programs. furthermore, deped order no. 44, s. 2021 provided guidelines for research management and utilization in schools. deped order no. 13, s. 2022 aimed to streamline research processes and promote collaborative research projects. lastly, deped order no. 34, s. 2023 reinforced the role of research in educational innovation and improvement. these directives reflected a commitment to fostering a research-oriented culture within the educational system. they provided a framework for addressing the challenges faced by teachers in conducting action research and highlighted the need for continuous support and resources. in addition to the deped orders, international perspectives have contributed to understanding the global context of teachers as researchers. cochran-smith et al. (2019) explored the implications of action research in diverse educational settings, emphasizing the role of contextual factors in shaping research practices. furthermore, leitch and day (2020) examined the impact of action research on teacher identity, finding that engagement in research activities often led to a stronger sense of professional identity and purpose. koshy, koshy, and waterman (2020) highlighted the transformative potential of action research, particularly in addressing educational inequalities and promoting social justice. their study demonstrated how action research could empower teachers to become agents of change within their communities. additionally, kemmis, mctaggart, and nixon (2020) discussed the theoretical underpinnings of action research, emphasizing its roots in critical theory and its potential to challenge and transform existing power structures in education. in the philippine context, studies such as those by ortega (2019) have emphasized the role of action research in addressing local educational challenges. ortega highlighted how filipino teachers used action research pa ge 24 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 to develop context-specific teaching strategies that cater to diverse student needs. also, santos (2020) found that action research enabled teachers in the philippines to adopt more reflective practices, leading to improved classroom management and student engagement. moreover, these challenges have been echoed in studies by delos santos (2021), who noted that filipino teachers often struggled with balancing their research activities and teaching responsibilities due to heavy workloads. furthermore, cruz (2020) emphasized the need for more robust institutional support and resources to encourage sustained engagement in action research. overall, teachers as researchers have emphasized the significant impact of action research on educational practices. while numerous benefits have been identified, including professional growth and improved teaching strategies, the challenges associated with conducting action research cannot be overlooked. the supportive framework provided by deped orders and the strategic recommendations from recent studies are critical in empowering teachers to effectively engage in action research, thereby contributing to the overall improvement of the educational system. research questions 1. what are the practices involved in conducting action research, in terms of: 1.1 techniques in action research making; 1.2 skills in action research making; and 1.3 motivations in action research making? 2. what are the levels of teachers’ perspectives regarding their understanding of writing an action research? 3. what is the level of common problems encountered by teachers in writing action research? 4. is there a significant relationship between the practices involved in conducting action research and the levels of teachers’ perspectives regarding their understanding of writing an action research, as well as the level of common problems encountered by teachers in writing action research? 5. based on the findings of this study, what plan of action can be proposed? methodology research design this study employed a quantitative approach with a descriptive-correlational design to investigate the practices, perspectives, and problems associated with action research among public school teachers. the quantitative approach allowed for the collection of numerical data, which facilitated the analysis of the relationships between various variables (creswell & creswell, 2018). the descriptive aspect of the design was utilized to systematically describe the practices involved in conducting action research, specifically focusing on techniques, skills, and motivations (mertler, 2019). this involved surveying teachers to gather data on their methods for undertaking action research, their proficiency in relevant skills, and their motivations for engaging in research activities (ortega, 2019). the correlational aspect of the design was essential for examining the relationships between the different variables. specifically, the study aimed to determine the levels of teachers’ perspectives regarding their understanding of writing action research and to assess the common problems encountered by teachers in this process (santos, 2020). furthermore, the study explored whether there was a significant relationship between the practices involved in conducting action research and the levels of teachers’ perspectives and the problems they encountered. by using statistical techniques to analyze the data, the study aimed to provide insights into how these elements are interrelated and to identify potential areas for intervention and support (delos santos, 2021). this design facilitated a comprehensive understanding of the quantitative dimensions of teachers’ experiences with action research, thereby contributing valuable knowledge to the field of educational research. research respondents the study was conducted in the schools division of agusan del sur, specifically focusing on the randomly selected districts of esperanza, prosperidad, san francisco, san luis, and talacogon. these districts were chosen using a random sampling technique to ensure diverse representation (crossman, 2020). the research locale encompassed 87 public elementary and secondary schools across these five municipal districts. the researchers employed a stratified sampling technique in selecting respondents from the target population. respondents were chosen based on specific criteria, such as their capacity to answer the survey instrument in alignment with the study’s goals and objectives (sevilla, 2021). the sample size of teacher respondents was determined through stratified random sampling, utilizing slovin’s formula to identify a representative sample from the total population of 2,305 teachers, resulting in a sample size of 497. this method ensured that the sample accurately represented the population by dividing it into strata, or subgroups, and then randomly selecting respondents from each subgroup (almeda, 2019). the margin of error for this sampling technique was set at a 95% confidence level, meaning the study’s results are expected to be within the specified margin of error 95 times out of 100 if the same sampling procedure were repeated (smith, 2022). research instrument the questionnaire was adapted from the study by saro et al. (2023), titled “a descriptive-correlational study of teachers’ motivation, competences, and perceptions in writing action research” (saro et al., 2023). however, it was modified to align with the goals and research questions of the current study. these modifications were informed by extensive reading of various studies, literature, and other questionnaire samples. pa ge 25 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 after the revisions, the document was reviewed by three experts with experience in education and research validation to ensure its validity and reliability. minor adjustments were made following their feedback on content, format, and structure. to test the questionnaire’s reliability, the researcher calculated its internal consistency using cronbach’s alpha. the survey questionnaire achieved an alpha coefficient of 0.95, indicating that the items were reliable and consistent. data gathering procedure the researchers secured permission and approval from the school’s division superintendent. following this, they obtained approval from the municipal district supervisors and then the school heads of various schools in the agusan del sur division, including those in the municipalities of esperanza, prosperidad, san francisco, san luis, and talacogon. once approved, the researchers distributed questionnaires to the study respondents, who were teachers from 87 public elementary and secondary schools across these five municipal districts. respondents were assured that their responses would be treated with strict confidentiality and that the results would be used solely for research and professional development purposes. the researchers requested the participants’ free time to answer the questionnaire. this data collection occurred over five months, from april to august 2023. after retrieving the questionnaires, the researchers tabulated and processed the data for statistical analysis. throughout the research project, ethical standards were strictly followed. to avoid plagiarism, the researchers carefully examined and correctly cited the authors’ ideas and concepts, respecting their intellectual property rights. upon completion of the study and analysis of the results, the researchers deleted the collected data to ensure the participants’ privacy and data protection. statistical treatment the data were tabulated, prompting the researchers to develop a plan of action aimed at increasing the number of committed teachers participating in action research in the agusan del sur division’s schools. the study was analyzed using ibm spss v29 (statistical package for the social sciences) a statistical software program that allowed for confident data analysis. descriptive statistics, such as weighted mean analysis, were employed to interpret the teachers’ responses. for the correlational analysis between the practices involved in conducting action research and the levels of teachers’ understanding of writing action research, as well as the common problems encountered, the researchers used a correlational treatment with an alpha of 0.05 and a confidence level of 95%. ethical considerations throughout the research process, the researchers adhered to strict ethical considerations to ensure the integrity and ethical conduct of the study. informed consent was obtained from all respondents, who were assured that their participation was voluntary and that they could withdraw at any time without any consequences. the confidentiality of the respondents was maintained by anonymizing their responses and securely storing the data. additionally, the researchers ensured that all data collected were used solely for the purposes of this study and would be deleted after the research was completed. proper citation and acknowledgment of all sources and previous works were diligently practiced to avoid plagiarism. the study was conducted with transparency and respect for all respondents, adhering to the ethical guidelines set forth by relevant academic and professional bodies. results and discussions problem 1: what are the practices involved in conducting action research in terms of techniques, skills, and motivations in action research making? based on the data presented in table 1, the overall mean score of 2.93 indicates that the practices involved in conducting action research, specifically in terms of techniques for action research making, are rated as “competent” and “good.” this suggests that the majority of respondents feel adequately skilled and confident in employing various techniques required for action research. the “competent” rating reflects a solid understanding and application of these techniques, though there may still be room for improvement to reach higher levels of proficiency. the findings imply that while teachers are generally performing well in this area, further professional development and training could enhance their expertise and effectiveness in conducting action research. table 1: practices involved in conducting action research in terms of techniques for action research making indicators weighted mean adjectival rating interpretation (remarks) 1. i intellectually engage in research-focused discussion with colleagues in the department or in a school setting. 3.05 competent good 2. i engage in research-related reading at school, such as journal articles, professional-development materials, and advertisement manuals on current issues. 2.79 competent good 3. i have attended research-focused activities such as trainings, workshops, and seminars at a college or state university both last year and now. 3.07 competent good pa ge 26 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 the indicator with the highest mean score of 3.45, “to conduct action research, i received funding from both internal and external organizations (deped),” indicates that teachers feel well-supported financially in their research endeavors. this high level of financial support reflects positively on the ability of teachers to undertake meaningful research projects. access to funding is crucial as it enables the acquisition of necessary resources and participation in professional development opportunities. according to smith and nguyen (2019), adequate funding significantly enhances the quality and impact of educational research, leading to more effective teaching practices and improved student outcomes. the lowest mean score of 2.67 for the indicators “i engage in research-related networking (informal and formal) and any educationally diverse events related to research” and “i need to read, think, and comprehend things in order to be intellectually diverse in the field of research that i can share with my colleagues” suggests that there are areas for improvement in networking and intellectual diversity. research-related networking is essential for collaboration, sharing ideas, and staying updated on current trends. intellectual diversity ensures a broad understanding and integration of various perspectives in research. johnson and martinez (2020) emphasize the importance of networking and continuous intellectual engagement in fostering a vibrant research community and enhancing professional growth. the indicator “when conducting action research, i always follow ethical considerations and guidelines to avoid making unfounded or unnecessary claims in the future” has a mean score of 3.10, indicating strong adherence to ethical standards. this practice is fundamental to maintaining the integrity and credibility of research. ethical guidelines help prevent misconduct and ensure the validity of research findings. according to thompson and lee (2021), adherence to ethical standards in research is crucial for maintaining trust and reliability in educational studies. with a mean score of 3.07, the indicator “i have attended research-focused activities such as trainings, workshops, and seminars at a college or state university both last year and now” highlights the importance of continuous professional development. participation in such activities enhances teachers’ research skills and keeps them updated on the latest methodologies and trends. as per recent studies by brown and clark (2018), ongoing professional development is key to effective teaching and successful research implementation. the indicator “i intellectually engage in research-focused discussion with colleagues in the department or in a school setting” has a mean score of 3.05. this practice fosters a collaborative environment where teachers can share insights and feedback, thereby enhancing the quality of their research. collaborative discussions are known to stimulate critical thinking and innovation, as noted by davis and miller (2019). moreover, scoring a mean of 2.98, the indicator “i always make certain that my proposed study or action research will be beneficial to students and teachers and unique” underscores the teachers’ commitment to conducting impactful and original research. ensuring that research is beneficial and unique is vital for addressing specific educational needs and advancing knowledge in the field. according to garcia and patel (2022), focusing on the relevance and originality of research contributes to its practical application and effectiveness in education. the indicator “i engage in research-related reading at school, such as journal articles, professional-development materials, and advertisement manuals on current issues” with a mean score of 2.79, shows that teachers are actively seeking knowledge to inform their research. reading current literature helps teachers stay informed about recent developments and best practices in education. jones and williams (2020) highlight that continuous reading and staying updated with current research are crucial for effective teaching and informed decisionmaking. 4. i confidently engage in research in my postgraduate studies. 2.73 competent good 5. to conduct action research, i received funding from both internal and external organizations (deped). 3.45 competent good 6. i rely heavily on research experts to complete my research and have it validated with its technicalities. 2.77 competent good 7. i engage in research-related networking (informal and formal) and any educationally diverse events related to research. 2.67 competent good 8. when conducting action research, i always follow ethical considerations and guidelines to avoid making unfounded or unnecessary claims in the future. 3.10 competent good 9. i always make certain that my proposed study or action research will be beneficial to students and teachers and unique. 2.98 competent good 10. i need to read, think, and comprehend things in order to be intellectually diverse in the field of research that i can share with my colleagues. 2.67 competent good overall mean 2.93 competent good legend: 1:00-1:49 (not competent); 1:50-2:49 (less competent); 2:50-3:49 (competent); 3:50-4:00 (more competent) pa ge 27 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 more so, with a mean score of 2.77, the indicator “i rely heavily on research experts to complete my research and have it validated with its technicalities” reflects the reliance on expert guidance to ensure research quality. consulting with experts can provide valuable insights and enhance the technical rigor of research projects. according to anderson and taylor (2018), collaboration with experts is beneficial for improving research design and methodology. lastly, the indicator “i confidently engage in research in my postgraduate studies” has a mean score of 2.73. this suggests that while teachers are somewhat confident in conducting research during their postgraduate studies, there is still room for improvement in building their confidence. according to thompson and kim (2023), confidence in research skills is developed through practice and exposure to research activities during postgraduate education. table 2 presents, the overall mean score of 2.72, which falls under the “competent” category with a “good” interpretation, indicates that teachers possess a satisfactory level of skills necessary for conducting action research. this suggests that while teachers are generally capable of engaging in action research, there is room for improvement to elevate their skill level from competent to proficient or even expert. developing stronger research skills is crucial for the successful implementation of action research projects, which can significantly impact educational practices and outcomes. enhanced skills in research methods, data analysis, and interpretation are essential for teachers to generate valuable insights and apply findings effectively to improve teaching strategies and student learning experiences. recent studies, such as those by johnson and martinez (2020), highlight the importance of continuous professional development and training in research skills to ensure teachers are wellequipped to conduct high-quality action research and contribute to the academic community. table 2: practices involved in conducting action research in terms of skills for action research making indicators weighted mean adjectival rating interpretation (remarks) 1. identifying the problems or issues to be addressed. 3.14 competent good 2. have the knowledge to write an introduction and formulate research questions and great hypotheses. 2.13 less competent fair 3. i organized my citations of related literature and studies based on their relevance to the study. 2.23 less competent fair 4. creating a theoretical framework and only using it for the study's appropriate theory. 1.87 less competent fair 5. i am drafting a conceptual framework that highlights the independent and dependent variables of the study. 2.00 less competent fair 6. making an intervention out of the action research i did. 3.47 competent good 7. having knowledge of selecting a research design, describing the research location, the research population, and using an appropriate sampling technique for the study. 3.26 competent good 8. having the expertise to reduce the population to a manageable sample size by following formulas and techniques. 2.01 less competent fair 9. selecting an appropriate data gathering instrument, having it prepared, and having it validated by experts. 3.64 more competent outstanding 10. making ethical considerations in the conduct of action research and keeping in mind the best statistical tool or treatment that suits and is most appropriate. 3.52 more competent outstanding overall mean 2.72 competent good legend: 1:00-1:49 (not competent); 1:50-2:49 (less competent); 2:50-3:49 (competent); 3:50-4:00 (more competent) the highest weighted mean of 3.64 for the indicator “selecting an appropriate data gathering instrument, having it prepared, and having it validated by experts” signifies that teachers are highly proficient in choosing and validating research tools. this level of competence is crucial for ensuring the reliability and validity of the data collected during action research. the meticulous selection and validation of instruments directly impact the quality of research outcomes. according to alonzo et al. (2022), effective data collection tools are fundamental for gathering accurate and useful information in educational research. similarly, de guzman and dela cruz (2023) highlight that expert validation of research instruments ensures that the tools used are appropriate and effective for achieving research objectives in the philippine educational context. furthermore, research by roberts and robinson (2021) emphasizes that well-prepared and validated instruments are crucial for producing credible pa ge 28 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 and actionable research results. following closely, the indicator “making ethical considerations in the conduct of action research and keeping in mind the best statistical tool or treatment that suits and is most appropriate” achieved a weighted mean of 3.52. this high score reflects a strong commitment to ethical research practices and the effective application of statistical methods. ensuring that research adheres to ethical standards and employs suitable statistical techniques is essential for the integrity and validity of research findings. according to salazar et al. (2021), adherence to ethical practices and the use of appropriate statistical tools are critical for the success of research endeavors. additionally, cruz and lazo (2022) argue that ethical considerations and proper statistical analysis contribute to the reliability of research outcomes and the protection of participants’ rights in the philippines. moreover, anderson and taylor (2023) emphasize that balancing ethical practices with methodological rigor ensures high-quality research results. next, the indicator “having the knowledge to select a research design, describe the research location, the research population, and use an appropriate sampling technique for the study” scored a mean of 3.26. this reflects that teachers are competent in understanding and applying fundamental research design principles. mastery of research design is essential for structuring studies that effectively address research questions. smith and williams (2020) assert that a well-chosen research design and appropriate sampling techniques are foundational for producing meaningful and valid research outcomes. similarly, reyes and santos (2022) discuss that selecting suitable research methods and describing research settings are crucial skills for conducting successful studies in the philippine educational context. additionally, jones and brown (2021) emphasize that clear research design and effective sampling are critical for the reliability and validity of research findings. following this, the indicator “identifying the problems or issues to be addressed” received a mean score of 3.14, indicating that teachers are competent in recognizing key research problems. properly identifying research problems is the first step in addressing educational challenges through action research. according to macdonald and jackson (2021), accurately identifying research problems is crucial for developing effective solutions and advancing educational practices. additionally, ortega and castro (2023) highlight that a clear identification of research issues is essential for the success of action research projects in the philippine context. furthermore, lee and park (2022) argue that a well-defined research problem serves as the foundation for effective research design and intervention strategies. conversely, the indicator “drafting a conceptual framework that highlights the independent and dependent variables of the study” achieved a lower mean score of 2.00, indicating that teachers are less competent in developing effective theoretical frameworks. a strong theoretical framework is crucial for organizing and guiding research efforts. a well-constructed framework outlines the relationships between variables and supports the research process. clark and adams (2022) argue that creating a well-defined theoretical framework is essential for guiding research and ensuring that theoretical concepts are appropriately applied. in the philippine educational setting, mendoza, and tan (2023) highlight that creating effective theoretical frameworks remains a significant challenge for researchers. additionally, garcia and lopez (2022) emphasize that theoretical frameworks are crucial for aligning research with relevant theories and achieving valid research outcomes. the indicator “having the knowledge to write an introduction and formulate research questions and great hypotheses” scored 2.13, reflecting a fair level of competence. crafting a well-structured introduction and formulating research questions and hypotheses are fundamental steps in initiating research. these skills are critical for setting the stage for effective research projects. chen and zhao (2020) assert that a strong introduction and clear research questions are essential for defining the scope and direction of a study. santos and gomez (2021) emphasize that formulating precise research questions and hypotheses is crucial for guiding the research process and achieving valid results. furthermore, ramirez and torres (2022) highlight that effective introductions and well-crafted hypotheses are foundational for successful research design. next, the indicator “organizing my citations of related literature and studies based on their relevance to the study” has a mean score of 2.23, indicating a fair level of competence. effective organization of literature and studies is important for establishing a solid foundation for research. proper citation and organization help contextualize the study and support the research framework. evans and brown (2021) argue that organizing literature based on relevance is essential for building a strong research base. additionally, javier and hernandez (2022) note that organizing citations effectively is critical for producing coherent and well-structured research. moreover, taylor and smith (2023) emphasize that a well-organized literature review is fundamental for the credibility and depth of research studies. finally, the indicator “creating a theoretical framework and only using it for the study’s appropriate theory” achieved the lowest mean score of 1.87, indicating that teachers are less competent in developing effective theoretical frameworks. a strong theoretical framework guides the research process and ensures that theories used are relevant and applicable. lee and smith (2021) argue that creating a well-defined theoretical framework is essential for guiding research and ensuring that theoretical concepts are appropriately applied. in the philippine educational setting, mendoza, and tan (2023) highlight that creating effective theoretical frameworks remains a significant challenge for researchers. additionally, garcia and lopez (2022) emphasize that theoretical frameworks pa ge 29 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 are crucial for aligning research with relevant theories and achieving valid research outcomes. table 3 displays the overall mean of 2.80, indicating that the respondents are generally competent and have good practices in terms of motivations for action research making. this suggests that teachers are motivated to engage in action research, driven by factors such as professional growth, improving teaching strategies, and contributing to educational improvement. the competent rating reflects a positive attitude towards continuous learning and self-improvement, which aligns with recent findings that highlight the importance of intrinsic motivation in fostering effective research practices among educators (gore et al., 2021; salazar et al., 2022). additionally, this motivation is crucial for the successful implementation of action research, as it encourages teachers to explore innovative solutions to classroom challenges and enhances their professional development (mendoza & tan, 2023). these findings underscore the significance of supporting and nurturing teacher motivation to sustain a culture of research and inquiry within the educational system. table 3: practices involved in conducting action research in terms of motivations for action research making indicators weighted mean adjectival rating interpretation (remarks) 1. have an interest in conducting action research. 2.09 less competent fair 2. personal ideas about action research can be expressive and meaningful when written down. 2.15 less competent fair 3. participate in or attend online and offline written discussions that relate to academic research. 2.24 less competent fair 4. have the excitement of completing the research to determine the relevance of the findings in real-world situations. 2.89 competent good 5. well-aware of technical matters in writing action research and for future directions. 3.01 competent good 6. engaging in academic research and studies is often extremely interesting, and i feel motivated to do so. 3.12 competent good 7. i have time to read published research in order to gain technical knowledge and to learn about the findings that i may use later. 2.16 less competent fair 8. willingness to conduct action research for effective intervention. 3.72 more competent outstanding 9. willingness to write an action research for my promotion and increased salary. 3.45 competent good 10. willingness and motivated to write an action research paper in order to be recognized and appreciated at the school, district, and division levels, as well as to gain awards. 3.17 competent good overall mean 2.80 competent good legend: 1:00-1:49 (not competent); 1:50-2:49 (less competent); 2:50-3:49 (competent); 3:50-4:00 (more competent) the highest mean score of 3.72, indicating a “more competent” level, was found in the indicator “willingness to conduct action research for effective intervention.” this suggests a strong motivation among teachers to engage in action research as a means to address and solve educational challenges. action research empowers teachers to implement interventions that can lead to immediate improvements in teaching and learning processes. according to garcia and villanueva (2022), such research initiatives are crucial for fostering a culture of continuous improvement in schools. globally, borko and putnam (2021) have highlighted the impact of teacher-led research in enhancing classroom practices and student outcomes. more so, the indicator “willingness to write an action research for my promotion and increased salary,” with a mean score of 3.45, reveals that personal and professional growth incentives also play a significant role in motivating teachers to engage in research activities. this aligns with the findings of cruz and reyes (2021), who noted that recognition and career advancement opportunities are strong motivators for teachers in the philippines to participate in research. similarly, turner and meyer (2020) discuss how professional development and potential career benefits drive research participation among teachers worldwide. the indicator “willingness and motivated to write an action research paper in order to be recognized and appreciated at the school, district, and division levels, as well as to gain awards,” scored a mean of 3.17. this reflects teachers’ desire for acknowledgment and prestige, which can enhance their professional standing and job pa ge 30 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 satisfaction. in the philippines, bacani, and santos (2023) found that recognition and awards significantly influence teachers’ engagement in research activities. globally, evans and jones (2022) also emphasize the importance of institutional recognition in promoting a research culture among educators. engagement in academic research and studies, which scored a mean of 3.12, indicates that teachers find intellectual stimulation in research activities, which fuels their motivation. this aligns with the research of mendoza and cruz (2022) in the philippines, who observed that intellectual curiosity drives teachers to pursue research for personal and professional growth. globally, hattie and marsh (2021) also highlighted that academic research engagement enhances teachers’ pedagogical practices and contributes to their professional development. the indicator “well-aware of technical matters in writing action research and for future directions,” with a mean score of 3.01, indicates that teachers possess a competent level of technical knowledge required for conducting research. this technical competence is essential for ensuring the validity and reliability of research findings. according to ramos and fernandez (2020), technical proficiency in research methods is critical for the success of action research projects in the philippines. globally, mckinney and thomson (2021) found that teachers with strong research skills are better equipped to conduct high-quality studies that can inform educational practice. scoring a mean of 2.89, the indicator “have the excitement of completing the research to determine the relevance of the findings in real-world situations” reflects teachers’ enthusiasm for applying their research findings to practical contexts. this excitement underscores the importance of action research in bridging the gap between theory and practice. according to bautista and salazar (2023), teachers in the philippines are increasingly interested in research that has practical applications and can lead to tangible improvements in their teaching practices. globally, clarke and hollingsworth (2020) emphasized that teachers’ enthusiasm for real-world applications of their research enhances the impact and relevance of their studies. the indicator “participate in or attend online and offline written discussions that relate to academic research,” with a mean score of 2.24, suggests that while teachers engage in research-related discussions, there is room for improvement. participation in such discussions is crucial for knowledge sharing and professional development. according to delos santos and bernardo (2021), fostering a collaborative environment for academic discussions can enhance teachers’ research capabilities in the philippines. globally, darling-hammond and oakes (2020) highlighted the benefits of professional learning communities in promoting research engagement among educators. the indicator “personal ideas about action research can be expressive and meaningful when written down,” with a mean score of 2.15, indicates that teachers find value in articulating their ideas through writing, although there is potential for growth in this area. expressive writing in research allows teachers to convey their insights and contribute to the academic community. cabrera, and torres (2022) found that training in academic writing can significantly improve teachers’ ability to express their research ideas effectively. globally, flower and hayes (2021) discussed the importance of developing writing skills for effective communication of research findings. the indicator “i have time to read published research in order to gain technical knowledge and to learn about the findings that i may use later,” with a mean score of 2.16, suggests that while teachers recognize the importance of staying informed, they may struggle to find sufficient time for reading due to their busy schedules. according to david and herrera (2023), time constraints are a common barrier for teachers in the philippines, limiting their engagement with current research. globally, cochransmith and lytle (2022) also identified time management as a critical factor influencing teachers’ ability to stay updated with educational research. lastly, the indicator with the lowest mean score of 2.09, “have an interest in conducting action research,” indicates that while teachers may see the value in action research, their interest levels could be enhanced. this suggests a need for initiatives that can spark greater interest and engagement in research activities. rivera and navarro (2024) found that providing targeted support and showcasing the benefits of action research can increase teachers’ interest and participation. globally, fullan and langworthy (2023) emphasized the importance of creating a supportive environment that fosters teachers’ interest in research and encourages ongoing professional development. problem 2: what are the levels of teachers’ perspectives regarding their understanding of writing an action research? the overall mean score of 3.66 in table 4 indicates that teachers generally agree with the statements regarding their understanding of writing an action research, suggesting that they find this process influential. this level of agreement reflects a solid comprehension and positive attitude towards action research among teachers, which is essential for the successful implementation of such projects. teachers’ understanding of action research can significantly influence their willingness to engage in it, as well as the quality and impact of the research they conduct. according to garcia and villanueva (2022), a thorough understanding of research methodologies and processes is crucial for teachers to conduct meaningful and effective action research in the philippine context. similarly, borko and putnam (2021) emphasize that teachers who are well-versed in research techniques are better equipped to identify and address classroom challenges through systematic inquiry. therefore, fostering a deep understanding of action research among teachers is a critical component of professional development programs aimed at enhancing educational practices and outcomes. pa ge 31 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 the highest indicator, with a mean score of 4.19, reveals that teachers understand the critical importance of properly addressing the content and flow of their research questionnaires to ensure the effectiveness of their action plans. this is supported by global research emphasizing the need for high-quality data collection tools (creswell & poth, 2020; deped, 2021). with a mean score of 4.11, teachers also recognize that conducting action research offers valuable professional development opportunities, enhancing their instructional skills and reflective practices (burns, 2021; caranto & david, 2022). closely related is the understanding that research questionnaires must be valid and reliable, reflected in a mean score of 4.10, highlighting the importance of methodological rigor (fraenkel & wallen, 2020; ramos, 2021). the mean score of 4.01 shows that teachers believe writing action research benefits their students, directly impacting educational outcomes (hattie, 2021; torres & magno, 2020). this is followed by a score of 3.98, table 4: levels of teachers’ perspectives regarding their understanding of writing an action research indicators weighted mean adjectival rating interpretation (remarks) 1. i understand that the title of my action research is based on the research problems that need a solution. 3.75 agree influential 2. i understand that the respondents to my study were chosen based on the characteristics required to respond to the desire measure. 3.48 neither agree nor disagree neutral or do not know 3. i understand that the type of research design that will be employed will be determined based on the framework of the study and not the other way around. 3.36 neither agree nor disagree neutral or do not know 4. i understand that the research questionnaire i created for my action research must be valid and reliable and adhere to the most relevant methods of data gathering. 4.10 agree influential 5. i understand that the content and flow of my research questionnaire should be properly addressed so that the solution to the issue at hand will benefit from the action plan i develop. 4.19 agree influential 6. i understand that classroom teachers often do individual action research, and this type of research is done to evaluate issues in the classroom setting. 3.98 agree influential 7. i understand that individual action research is typically carried out by the teacher alone for a predetermined period. 3.47 neither agree nor disagree neutral or do not know 8. i understand that the teacher also examines or evaluates the findings or results, implements changes, or discards the program if it is not found to be useful in the context. 3.29 neither agree nor disagree neutral or do not know 9. i understand that conducting action research can provide me with specific professional development, beneficial opportunities, and other development that will help me grow as a teacher. 4.11 agree influential 10. i understand that it helps me address critical issues in the classroom and school-related activities and concerns. 3.77 agree influential 11. i understand that it helps me refresh my information and apprehension about how to improve educational practices. 3.13 neither agree nor disagree neutral or do not know 12. i understand that it can improve my professional demeanor as a teacher, and it pushes me to continue learning in the classroom setting and at school. 3.96 agree influential 13. i understand that writing about action research would benefit my students. 4.01 agree influential 14. i understand that problems in the classroom will be resolved through action research. 3.22 neither agree nor disagree neutral or do not know 15. i understand the flow and process of doing action research. 3.00 neither agree nor disagree neutral or do not know overall mean 3.66 agree influential legend:1.00-1.49, strongly disagree; 1.50-2.49, disagree; 2.50-3.49, neither agree nor disagree; 3.50-4.49, agree; 4.50-5.00, strongly agree pa ge 32 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 indicating that individual action research is commonly practiced to address classroom issues (mcniff, 2020; valdez & castillo, 2021). additionally, a mean score of 3.96 highlights that action research improves teachers’ professional demeanor and encourages continuous learning (zeichner, 2020; diaz & lorenzo, 2022). with a mean score of 3.77, teachers recognize that action research helps address critical classroom and school-related issues, enhancing teaching effectiveness (sagor, 2020; dela cruz & reyes, 2021). teachers also understand that the title of their research should be based on specific problems, reflected in a mean score of 3.75, emphasizing the need for clearly defined research issues (kemmis & mctaggart, 2020; santos & ramos, 2022). lower scores, such as 3.48 for selecting respondents based on relevant characteristics, highlight the necessity for careful participant selection to enhance research validity (babbie, 2020; cruz & bautista, 2021). finally, a mean score of 3.36 indicates that teachers understand the importance of aligning research design with the study’s framework (yin, 2020; hernandez & garcia, 2022). problem 3: what is the level of common problems encountered by teachers in writing action research? table 5 presents the level of common problems encountered by teachers in writing action research, with an overall mean score of 4.13, indicating that these issues are both prevalent and influential. this high mean emphasizes significant challenges such as time constraints due to extensive teaching and administrative duties (zeichner, 2020; caranto & david, 2022), insufficient support and resources for conducting research (diaz & lorenzo, 2022; valdez & castillo, 2021), and the complexity of the research process itself (mcniff, 2020; ramos, 2021). addressing these barriers through enhanced professional development, institutional support, and streamlined research processes is crucial to empower teachers and improve their engagement in action research. table 5: level of common problems encountered by teachers in writing action research indicators weighted mean adjectival rating interpretation (remarks) 1. i do not have time to conduct and write action research. 4.25 agree influential 2. i do not have enough resources, such as a laptop, an internet connection, and academic materials, to use in writing action research. 4.50 strongly agree very influential 3. i cannot conduct action research due to a lack of research skills. 4.63 strongly agree very influential 4. i do not get any support from the principal, administrators, district, or even the division education office. 3.96 agree influential 5. i do not have enough knowledge to do action research due to a lack of intellectual resources such as trainings, workshops, and research-related activities. 4.00 agree influential 6. i receive no assistance from my colleagues, such as my co-teachers, in the sense that they can impart knowledge on me. 4.47 agree influential 7. i do not get feedback from trainers and colleagues on my action research report. 4.12 agree influential 8. i have doubts about starting to conduct action research since i do not have knowledge of interpreting or running statistical analysis reports. 4.72 strongly agree very influential 9. nobody wants to help me discuss the findings of my action research. 3.70 agree influential 10. my job is teaching, and i believe it is necessary to conduct action research. 3.42 neither agree nor disagree neutral or do not know 11. i cannot see the relevance of conducting action research to my classroom management context and practices. 3.23 neither agree nor disagree neutral or do not know 12. i do not have adequate exposure to research, even in my academic preparations. 4.79 strongly agree very influential 13. making action research does not provide solutions to several cultural language difficulties of students in teaching contexts. 3.08 neither agree nor disagree neutral or do not know 14. too many teaching loads and academic-related tasks prevent me from having the motivation and interest to conduct action research. 4.69 strongly agree very influential 15. because of my age, i have doubts about my ability to conduct action research and may not be able to complete the research project. 4.36 agree influential pa ge 33 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 overall mean 4.13 agree influential legend:1.00-1.49, strongly disagree; 1.50-2.49, disagree; 2.50-3.49, neither agree nor disagree; 3.50-4.49, agree; 4.50-5.00, strongly agree the highest weighted mean score of 4.79 for the statement “i do not have adequate exposure to research, even in my academic preparations” highlights a significant barrier faced by teachers in conducting action research. this issue points to the need for more comprehensive research training during teacher education programs. according to a study by abulon (2021), many filipino teachers report insufficient exposure to research methodologies during their pre-service training, which hinders their confidence and competence in conducting research. more so, a global perspective by smith et al. (2023) indicates that inadequate research training is a common issue among educators, impacting their ability to engage in evidencebased practices. in addition, the indicator “i have doubts about starting to conduct action research since i do not have knowledge of interpreting or running statistical analysis reports” has a weighted mean of 4.72. this suggests that statistical analysis remains a daunting aspect for many teachers. a study by dizon and dizon (2022) emphasizes that filipino teachers often lack the necessary statistical skills, which creates a significant hurdle in the research process. more so, global research by johnson et al. (2020) supports this, noting that educators frequently cite a lack of training in statistical methods as a barrier to conducting effective action research. the next highest score, 4.69, for the statement “too many teaching loads and academic-related tasks prevent me from having the motivation and interest to conduct action research” underscores the issue of workload. teachers often find it challenging to balance their teaching responsibilities with research activities. in the philippines, a study by david and mercado (2020) reveals that heavy teaching loads significantly reduce the time and energy teachers can dedicate to research. on the other hand, this finding is echoed internationally by brown and jones (2021), who argue that excessive workloads are a major factor in teachers’ reluctance to engage in research. the indicator “i cannot conduct action research due to a lack of research skills” with a weighted mean of 4.63 further illustrates the skills gap. research by cruz and tan (2021) indicates that filipino teachers often feel inadequately prepared to conduct research due to a lack of skill development opportunities. moreover, a global study by thomas and adams (2020) found that insufficient research skills are a widespread issue, preventing teachers from effectively conducting and utilizing research in their practice. with a weighted mean of 4.50, the statement “i do not have enough resources, such as a laptop, an internet connection, and academic materials, to use in writing action research” highlights the resource constraints faced by teachers. this is particularly pertinent in developing countries like the philippines, where access to technology and academic resources can be limited. santos and ramos (2020) discuss how the lack of resources significantly impedes filipino teachers’ ability to conduct research. moreover, this is consistent with findings by martin et al. (2021), who note that resource constraints are a common challenge globally, affecting teachers’ research productivity. the score of 4.47 for “i receive no assistance from my colleagues, such as my co-teachers, in the sense that they can impart knowledge on me” points to the need for collaborative support in research. peer support is essential for sharing knowledge and fostering a collaborative research culture. according to research by castillo and hernandez (2021), filipino teachers often lack a supportive professional community that encourages collaborative research efforts. moreover, jones and smith (2022) highlight the importance of collegial support in overcoming research challenges and enhancing teachers’ research capacities. following closely, the statement “i do not get feedback from trainers and colleagues on my action research report” with a weighted mean of 4.12 indicates a significant need for constructive feedback. feedback is crucial for improving the quality and effectiveness of research. a study by reyes and cruz (2022) found that teachers often lack access to critical feedback, which impedes their ability to refine and improve their research. on the other hand, international research by miller and parker (2021) emphasizes the role of feedback in fostering a reflective practice and enhancing research skills. the indicator “i do not have enough knowledge to do action research due to a lack of intellectual resources such as trainings, workshops, and research-related activities” scored 4.00. this highlights the importance of professional development opportunities. according to a study by villanueva and garcia (2021), filipino teachers often lack access to high-quality professional development that focuses on research skills. moreover, global research by anderson and taylor (2020) indicates that continuous professional development is essential for building teachers’ research capacities. with a mean score of 3.96, the statement “i do not get any support from the principal, administrators, district, or even the division education office” reflects the lack of institutional support. administrative support is crucial for enabling teachers to undertake research activities. research by mendoza and perez (2020) in the philippines reveals that administrative support is often insufficient, hindering teachers’ research efforts. moreover, this is supported by findings from johnson and lee (2021), who highlight the critical role of administrative support in facilitating educational research globally. pa ge 34 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 the score of 3.70 for “nobody wants to help me discuss the findings of my action research” indicates a need for more collaborative discussion of research outcomes. discussing research findings is essential for peer review and validation. according to diaz and santos (2021), filipino teachers often lack opportunities to discuss their research findings with colleagues, which limits the potential for collaborative learning and improvement. moreover, global research by brown and clark (2020) stresses the importance of collaborative discussions in refining and validating research findings. with a mean score of 3.42, the statement “my job is teaching, and i believe it is necessary to conduct action research” reflects a neutral stance among teachers regarding the necessity of action research in their roles. this suggests that while some teachers see the value of research, others may not fully recognize its importance. research by bautista and lising (2022) in the philippines highlights that many teachers view action research as an additional burden rather than an integral part of their professional responsibilities. moreover, international research by smith and wilson (2021) found that integrating research into teaching roles is often seen as challenging due to competing demands. the score of 3.23 for “i cannot see the relevance of conducting action research to my classroom management context and practices” indicates that some teachers struggle to connect research with their day-to-day teaching practices. according to cruz and reyes (2020), many filipino teachers do not perceive action research as directly applicable to their classroom management strategies. on the other hand, this is echoed by global findings from taylor and anderson (2021), who argue that demonstrating the practical relevance of research is crucial for teacher engagement. more so, the lowest mean score of 3.08 for “making action research does not provide solutions to several cultural language difficulties of students in teaching contexts” suggests a lack of belief in the efficacy of action research for addressing specific classroom challenges. this indicates a need for research to be more closely aligned with practical classroom issues. research by perez and villanueva (2021) in the philippines points out that teachers often find action research too theoretical and not sufficiently focused on practical classroom problems. moreover, jones and brown (2022) highlight the need for research to be directly relevant to classroom challenges to gain teacher buy-in. problem 4: is there a significant relationship between the practices involved in conducting action research and the levels of teachers’ perspectives regarding their understanding of writing an action research, as well as the level of common problems encountered by teachers in writing action research? table 6 highlights a significant relationship between the practices involved in conducting action research and the levels of teachers’ perspectives regarding their understanding of writing action research, as well as the common problems they encounter in this process. the data suggest that teachers who actively engage in research practices, such as attending seminars and workshops, tend to have a better understanding of how to write action research and are more adept at navigating common challenges. teachers who participate in professional development activities that focus on research methodologies are better equipped to handle issues like interpreting statistical data and obtaining feedback on their work. conversely, teachers who lack these opportunities often struggle with research-related tasks, reflecting a clear link between practical engagement in research activities and both the comprehension and challenges of writing action research. this emphasizes the importance of providing teachers with adequate training and resources to enhance their research capabilities and reduce obstacles. table 6: significant relationship between the practices involved in conducting action research and the levels of teachers’ perspectives regarding their understanding of writing an action research, as well as the level of common problems encountered by teachers in writing action research parameter correlation coefficient p-value remark practices involved in conducting action research 0.65 0.001 there is a significant relationship levels of teachers' perspectives regarding their understanding of writing an action research 0.58 0.007 there is a significant relationship level of common problems encountered by teachers in writing action research 0.78 0.001 there is a significant relationship note: * indicates a significant correlation at the 0.05 significance level table 6 reveals a significant relationship between the practices involved in conducting action research and the levels of teachers’ perspectives regarding their understanding of writing action research, as well as the common problems they encounter. the correlation coefficient of 0.65 with a p-value of 0.001 indicates a strong and significant relationship between teachers’ engagement in action research practices and their overall understanding of writing action research. this finding aligns with recent studies, such as those by johnson and pa ge 35 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 christensen (2021), who highlighted that continuous involvement in research activities significantly improves teachers’ research skills and comprehension. more so, the correlation coefficient of 0.58 and a p-value of 0.007 suggest a notable positive relationship between teachers’ perspectives on writing action research and their engagement in research practices. this relationship emphasizes the importance of professional development in enhancing teachers’ confidence and ability to conduct research, as supported by the findings of smith et al. (2022), who demonstrated that targeted training programs significantly boost teachers’ research capabilities and perspectives. furthermore, the correlation coefficient of 0.78 with a p-value of 0.001 underscores a very strong relationship between the practices involved in action research and the common problems encountered by teachers. this suggests that teachers who are more actively involved in research practices are better equipped to handle common challenges, a conclusion that echoes the findings of brown and green (2023), who found that active participation in research activities helps mitigate common researchrelated obstacles, such as data analysis and methodological issues. overall, these significant relationships highlight the critical role of practical engagement in research in fostering teachers’ understanding and ability to overcome challenges in action research. problem 5: based on the findings of this study, what plan of action can be proposed? table 7: parameter remark professional development and training • to conduct workshops and seminars focused on research methodologies, data analysis, and report writing regularly. • to offer training sessions on the use of statistical software like ibm spss to enhance technical skills. resource allocation • to equip teachers with necessary resources, including laptops, internet access, and academic materials. • to provide grants and funding opportunities for teachers to conduct action research. administrative and peer support • to encourage principals and administrators to support teachers' research efforts and provide time for research activities. • to foster a collaborative environment and create research committees or groups within schools. feedback and evaluation • to develop a system for teachers to receive constructive feedback on their research from peers and experts. • to implement regular evaluations of ongoing research projects to provide timely support and guidance. addressing common challenges • to provide targeted training to address specific skill gaps, including workshops on research design and statistical analysis. • to conduct sessions on ethical considerations in research to ensure integrity and avoid plagiarism. incentives and recognition • to recognize and reward active research participants through awards and career advancement opportunities. • to share successful research projects within the school community to motivate other teachers. conclusion the study concluded that teachers generally demonstrated competency and good practices in conducting action research. teachers felt skilled and confident in employing the necessary techniques, though there was recognition of room for improvement. this competence extended to their motivation for engaging in action research, driven by desires for professional growth, better teaching strategies, and educational improvement. teachers’ understanding and positive attitudes towards writing action research were crucial for its successful implementation. however, significant challenges such as time constraints, insufficient support and resources, and the complexity of the research process were prevalent and influential barriers. the study found a strong link between teachers’ engagement in action research practices and their understanding of writing action research, as well as their ability to navigate common problems. teachers who actively participated in professional development activities related to research methodologies showed better comprehension and were more adept at overcoming challenges. this emphasized the need for adequate training and resources to enhance teachers’ research capabilities and reduce obstacles. in conclusion, while teachers generally performed well in conducting action research, there was a clear need for further professional development and institutional support to improve their expertise and address significant challenges. recommendations based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made to enhance teachers’ competencies and practices in conducting action research: 1. provide ongoing professional development pa ge 36 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(3) 21-41, 2024 opportunities focused on advanced research methodologies, data analysis, and interpretation to help teachers move from competent to proficient levels. workshops, seminars, and training sessions should be regularly organized to deepen teachers’ research skills. 2. schools and educational institutions should offer more robust support systems for teachers conducting action research. this can include reducing teaching loads to allow more time for research, providing access to necessary resources and tools, and creating a supportive environment that encourages research activities. 3. establish mentorship programs where experienced researchers can guide and support teachers in their action research projects. promoting collaboration among teachers can also help them share best practices, provide peer support, and collectively solve common research challenges. 4. ensure that teachers have easy access to research materials, databases, and other educational resources. schools should invest in libraries, online journals, and subscriptions to research publications to facilitate teachers’ research efforts. 5. implement a system of recognition and incentives for teachers who engage in action research. acknowledging their efforts through awards, career advancement opportunities, or financial incentives can motivate more teachers to participate in research activities and strive for excellence. acknowledgment the authors extended their gratitude to madam josita b. carmen, the schools division superintendent of sdoagusan del sur, as well as to the district supervisors and school heads for granting permission to conduct the study. additionally, heartfelt thanks were given to all the teachers who participated in 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(2020). analyzing the benefits of collaborative research among educators. research in higher education, 61(5), 748-762. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11162-019-09579-1 pa ge 1 pa ge 45 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) a phenomenological inquiry on the research engagement of tertiary instructors in a philippine state college pedro p. raymunde jr.1*, joecel jan m. gomez1, janet r. uyangoren1, michael c. morre jr.1, johnmark b. lapuz1 volume 3 issue 2, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i2.2833 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: april 28, 2024 accepted: may 31, 2024 published: june 04, 2024 research engagement among tertiary instructors is crucial in advancing knowledge, enhancing teaching practices, and driving innovation within higher education institutions. this study explored on the engagement of tertiary instructors in research. a qualitative study, particularly phenomenological inquiry, was used. through purposive sampling, 22 tertiary instructors served as participants for this phenomenological study. five themes unfolded as the lived experiences of tertiary instructors with regards to their research engagement: advancing knowledge along the institutional research journey, navigating multiple responsibilities under time pressure, and ensuring research feasibility despite budget challenges. regarding the coping mechanisms employed by tertiary instructors in their research engagement, four themes emerged: keeping abreast through research enrichment sessions, conducting research through interdisciplinary collaboration, framing research topics with practical relevance, and refining research engagement through active feedback. further, three themes emerged as the insights of tertiary instructors regarding their research engagement: enhanced scholarly drive empowers faculty research, research illuminate pathways for educational advancement, and time and commitment fuel faculty research engagements. the study concludes with recommendations for higher education institutions to promote and sustain robust research engagement among tertiary instructors, ultimately contributing to the advancement of knowledge and the mission of higher education. keywords research engagement, tertiary instructors, state college, qualitative, phenomenology, philippines 1 davao de oro state college, compostela, davao de oro, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: pedro.raymunde@ddosc.edu.ph introduction teachers’ roles have evolved to encompass more than only being proficient in communication with students, coordinators of classroom activities, and supervisors and enablers of the learning process. teachers are seen as dynamic agents of change within their educational setting, in addition to their conventional responsibilities and duties (tarrayo et al., 2021). teachers who actively participate in research have the opportunity to rediscover and enhance their own unique perspectives while also critically examining and providing feedback on their teaching methods. anwarruddin (2019) suggests that teachers who have access to up-to-date research findings might experiment with novel approaches in the classroom, leading to fresh perspectives on teaching and learning. this may involve modifying or replacing established teaching tactics with new ones. there is a growing concern regarding academic research in this country, but it does not imply that efforts to enhance research and research activities at higher education institutions are nonexistent. considerable literature exists regarding the significance of teachers’ engagement in research and their perspectives towards it. brennan et al. (2019) revealed that instructors highly appreciate the incorporation of research methodologies in both their individual courses and their educational institutions. a study also has examined the significance of performing research, such as action or practitioner research, in terms of enhancing teachers’ ongoing professional development (ulla, 2018). prior studies have demonstrated that engaging in research is an effective method for acquiring the skills necessary to devise practical and systematic solutions to challenges encountered in the classroom (bughio, 2015; burns, 2010; hine, 2013). currently, within the realm of academia, there remains a significant and urgent requirement for faculty members to actively participate in research endeavors. however, as most faculty members do not participate in research and teaching has traditionally been seen as their main academic role, this conversation has just recently started in slowly-evolving higher education settings in general (li et al., 2020). for many universities, the act of conducting academic research has often been more of a symbolic or idealistic concept rather than a tangible reality. despite ched’s encouragement for instructors in heis to engage in research, there seems to be a lack of implementation in the philippines, as these teachers may be limited to the sole role of teaching. the ched’s (2019) report disclosed data regarding the top academic degrees attained by faculty members of heis from 2018 to 2019. the number of individuals holding a bachelor’s degree was 21,488, while the number of individuals holding a master’s degree was 18,139. additionally, 11,801 individuals held a doctorate degree. according to these statistics, it seems that the majority of professors at philippine higher education institutions (heis) are primarily employed for teaching purposes, with less emphasis on research. pa ge 46 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 45-54 2024 in the philippines, educational institutions at all levels, ranging from primary to tertiary education, are actively encouraged to demonstrate a firm dedication to the advancement of knowledge by means of research (wambaleka, 2015). in order to enhance the role of schools in research productivity and use, various strategies for research and development have been devised. the commission on higher education (ched) requires universities and colleges to generate exceptional research that promotes higher education and national progress, while also ensuring that the philippine education system remains on pace with international standards, particularly in the asian region. various rewards and incentives, such as financial grants and cash incentives, have been designed to achieve these objectives. these rewards are given to teachers who publish their research in reputable journals, specifically those indexed in scopus. the aim is to establish a strong research base among teachers and encourage the production of a substantial amount of high-quality research. with this, the researchers’ objective is to investigate the research involvement among teaching staff employed by tertiary state institution located in the province of davao de oro. this study aims to investigate the experiences and motivations of tertiary teaching personnel in their involvement in research activities. the findings of this study will assist the administration in tackling concerns related to the limited involvement of the teaching staff in research activities. research objectives this study will explore the research engagement among tertiary instructors in a philippine state college. the purpose of this phenomenological inquiry is to identify the factors that affect the research engagement of the faculty, which will be thoroughly examined through data collection via in-depth interviews and focus-group discussion. specifically, it aims to answer the following questions: 1. what are the experiences of the tertiary instructors with regards to conducting research engagement in the college? 2. what are the practices of tertiary instructors in engaging in research activities? 3. what are the factors that tertiary instructors believe that affect research engagement of the faculty? scientific basis/theoretical framework this study is based on both social cognitive theory and cognitive-behavioral theory. holt and brown (1931) were the originators of the original concepts of cognitive theory. they proposed that individuals might learn to copy others if they themselves are imitated. furthermore, albert bandura made significant contributions to the social learning cognition theory. he elucidated the factors that drive and alter individual behaviors. in 1977, bandura discovered a connection between a person’s perceived self-efficacy and their ability to modify their behavior. he found that a person’s perceived self-efficacy is influenced by their past achievements, observing others, being persuaded by others, and their physiological state. bandura officially founded the social cognitive theory in 1986, demonstrating that human conduct is influenced by personal, behavioral, and environmental factors. methodology this research study will employ the qualitative research design. in this phase, the phenomenology approach will be employed. phenomenology is a discipline that examines the subjective experiences of individuals involved in research. the objective is to eliminate biases and preconceived notions about human experiences, emotions, and reactions to a specific situation, in order to accurately depict how humans undergo a particular event. it accomplishes this by elucidating the manner in which humans comprehend a certain occurrence (creswell, 2017). the selection of subjects in qualitative research was deliberate and intentional. during this phase, the selection of tertiary instructors in one of the higher education institutions in the philippines will be done using purposive sampling techniques, which is a type of non-probability sampling. the selection of participants was determined on their capacity to make the most contribution to addressing the study inquiries and enhancing our comprehension of the examined phenomena (levinson, et al., 2018). during the qualitative phase, the researcher invited 22 persons to take part in the aforementioned research study. a total of eleven participants were included in the focus group discussion (fgd), while another eleven people were involved in the in-depth interview (idi). furthermore, the qualitative data were supplemented with secondary data to enhance the validity of the participants’ responses. additionally, the researcher will utilize an interview guide comprising of questions that facilitated the generation of themes that corroborated the findings in the quantitative phase. the questions from the interview guide will undergo confirmation. the questions will encompass the experiences and perspectives of tertiary educators in their research participation. for each primary inquiry, subsidiary inquiries are established to address the primary inquiry. furthermore, the probing questions will be included within the main question and its sub-questions. these questions will be used to gather more specific information about the participants’ accounts, particularly where their statements were unclear and require additional clarification. additionally, the researcher will utilize the zoom platform for conducting the interview. the objective of this recording is to document the entire duration of the interview in order to facilitate the study of significant issues discussed throughout the interview. this will document the idi (in-depth interview) and fgd (focus group discussion) dialogues. transcription and theming analysis will be conducted based on the recorded data. each interviewee will be provided with a duplicate of the interview transcripts for the purpose of verification. pa ge 47 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 45-54 2024 subsequently, upon the granting of approval, the participants will receive an informed consent form to be perused by the respondents. after providing the informed consent form, a comprehensive orientation was given regarding the execution of the study, which included an explanation of its significance, purpose, and objectives. upon reaching an agreement on the terms outlined in the informed consent form, they proceeded to sign it prior to conducting the interview. the interview guide will rewrite and present each question in the language that the participants are most comfortable with. furthermore, the participant will receive responses to the questions in their native language or any alternative language of their preference. furthermore, the participants will be required to sign an informed consent form, which explicitly states that their involvement in the study is completely voluntary. consequently, individuals will have the guarantee that their rights to secrecy and privacy will be upheld, and that the gathered data would be exclusively utilized for the purpose of carrying out the analysis. throughout the interview, there were no occurrences in which the participant could be deceived or exposed to harm; if this were to happen, they are entitled to discontinue their participation in the study. in addition, the researcher will employ braune and clarke’s (2006) methodology in conducting theme analysis on the replies obtained from individual in-depth interviews (idi) and focus group discussions (fgd). the researcher analyzed the transcribed recorded in-depth interviews and fgds to identify patterns, fundamental concepts, and themes. these patterns will be utilized to create codes that highlight the common experiences of college instructors in their research involvement. in order to obtain more comprehensive data, it is necessary to utilize a significant tool known as thematic analysis. it is feasible to systematically collect information regarding the experiences of the participants. subsequently, the analyst commenced the task of scrutinizing the gathered data. ultimately, the researchers requested the data analyst to identify patterns, and subsequently, they aggregated their discoveries. using this strategy is a customary approach in qualitative research for conducting analysis. in order to promote beneficence, the participants will not be obligated to respond to the questionnaire in person, but rather they will have the option to complete it online. in order to uphold the principle of respecting individuals, the answers provided by each participant will be treated as confidential. the discussion of the outcomes will not include any names of the participants. furthermore, the participant possesses the prerogative to discontinue their involvement in the study for any rationale. participants who express a willingness to take part in the study are encouraged to do so, irrespective of their age, gender, race, and similar factors. to ensure justice, fairness, and accountability, we shall accept full responsibility for the outcome, feedback, and impact of this study on the respondents and stakeholders. therefore, the researcher will ensure that the people selected for the investigation are suitable and that they are genuinely completing the survey instrument. results and discussion lived experiences of the tertiary instructors with regards to conducting research according to dikilitas and saglam (2023), research is the fundamental basis for academic progress, impacting not only the field of knowledge but also the instructional methods and intellectual concepts in higher education institutions. tertiary instructors, who have the dual responsibility of teaching and promoting knowledge, encounter a demanding endeavor as they endeavor to achieve research excellence inside the college setting. presented in table 1 explores the complex experiences of college professors as they engage in the scholarly pursuit of conducting research, providing insight into the difficulties, successes, and ambitions that define their path. the results yielded three themes: advancing knowledge along the institutional research journey, navigating multiple responsibilities under time pressure, and ensuring research feasibility despite budget challenges. table 1: lived experiences of the tertiary instructors with regards to conducting research themes code/categories advancing knowledge along the institutional research journey conducting original research continuous learning and professional development collaboration and interdisciplinary exchange navigating multiple responsibilities under time pressure balancing teaching and research meeting institutional expectations engaging in service and administrative duties maintaining work-life balance ensuring research feasibility despite budget challenges strategic resource allocation seeking external funding opportunities collaborative research initiatives emphasizing efficiency and innovation pa ge 48 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 45-54 2024 advancing knowledge along the institutional research journey to the participants, research is an ongoing cycle of acquiring knowledge, uncovering new information, and introducing novel ideas in the field of institutional research, specifically in relation to higher education. tertiary teachers, being important participants in this process, have a vital role in promoting knowledge through their involvement in research. the participants asserted that they enhance the progression of knowledge through the execution of innovative research in their respective fields of expertise. they engage in the exploration of novel concepts, the formulation of hypotheses, and the execution of experiments or investigations in order to augment the current body of knowledge. in addition, they consistently strive to enhance their knowledge and skills by actively participating in research endeavors. they actively seek advanced degrees, participate in conferences, and participate in academic conversations to be informed about the most recent advancements in their specific areas of expertise. further, they engage in collaborative efforts with colleagues both within and beyond their institutions, as well as across different fields of study, in order to address intricate research inquiries that go beyond conventional limitations. by integrating varied viewpoints and specialized knowledge, they cultivate creativity and challenge the limits of understanding. consequently, according to dille and rokenes (2021), tertiary instructors promote the ongoing process of learning, discovery, and innovation that occurs within tertiary education, with tertiary instructors having a major role in pushing this advancement through their engagement in research. navigating multiple responsibilities under time pressure tertiary instructors frequently encounter a multitude of obligations, such as instructing, providing guidance to students, doing administrative tasks, and managing personal commitments, all while endeavoring to progress their research objectives. to the participants, they effectively manage their teaching responsibilities alongside their research pursuits. effective execution of this task necessitates meticulous time allocation and prioritizing to guarantee sufficient attention is given to both components of their professional obligations. further, they are frequently required to fulfill institutional requirements for research productivity, which include publishing in peer-reviewed journals, obtaining research funds, and delivering presentations at conferences. the demands placed on instructors to provide high-quality research outputs while meeting tight deadlines might create severe time pressure. moreover, they are frequently engaged in committee work, contribute to departmental meetings, and assume administrative responsibilities within their institutions. additionally, they prioritized their personal well-being and maintained a healthy work-life balance while managing various tasks within strict time constraints. instructors prioritized self-care, relaxation, and leisure activities to avoid burnout and maintain long-term productivity. according to feldman (2020), strong time management skills, the ability to prioritize, and a proactive approach to maintaining a healthy work-life balance are required in order to effectively handle teaching, research, administrative responsibilities, grant applications, student supervision, and personal commitments. instructors continue to make significant contributions to research and scholarship despite the difficulties they face, despite the fact that their schedules are quite full. ensuring research feasibility despite budget challenges research endeavors, particularly in academic environments, frequently necessitate financial resources for a multitude of goals, including procurement of equipment, remuneration of participants, covering travel costs for data collecting, payment of publishing fees, and recruitment of research assistants. nevertheless, financial constraints can impede the efficient execution of research. as per the participants’ perspective, they strategically deploy their constrained research budgets to optimize their influence. this entails the process of giving priority to expenses by considering the specific requirements of the research project and evaluating the prospective advantages in comparison to the costs. furthermore, they proactively pursue external funding sources, such as research grants from government agencies, private foundations, or corporate sponsors, to bolster their research pursuits. acquiring external financing might offer more resources to complement current expenditures and broaden the range of research topics. to them, engaging in collaboration with fellow scholars both within and beyond their school might enable them to utilize resources and knowledge effectively in order to overcome financial constraints. through the consolidation of resources and the division of expenses, they are able to engage in more extensive and ambitious projects than they would be capable of pursuing singly. besides, they endeavor to carry out research in a manner that is both cost-effective and innovative, by optimizing methods and methodologies to maximize the value of the resources at their disposal. kelly et al. (2020) believed that the ability of tertiary teachers to overcome financial restraints and follow their research aims is often evident, demonstrating their resourcefulness and adaptability. by strategically allocating resources, seeking external funding, fostering collaborations, exploring cost-saving strategies, and placing an emphasis on efficiency and innovation, instructors are able to conduct high-quality research that contributes to the advancement of knowledge and contributes to their academic and professional development. pa ge 49 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 45-54 2024 coping mechanisms of the tertiary instructors with regards to conducting research tarrayo et al. (2021) believed that research is an essential component of academic life at higher education institutions, as teachers must balance their teaching duties with their scholarly pursuits. however, the demands of conducting research in the college setting can be daunting, requiring educators to navigate numerous challenges in their pursuit of academic excellence. table 2 analyzes the strategies employed by university professors to overcome obstacles and achieve success in their research endeavors within the higher education environment. four themes emerged as the result of this study: keeping abreast through research enrichment sessions, conducting research through interdisciplinary collaboration, framing research topics with practical relevance, and refining research engagement through active feedback. table 2: coping mechanisms of the tertiary instructors with regards to conducting research themes code/categories keeping abreast through research enrichment sessions professional development and skill enhancement knowledge sharing and collaboration staying updated with emerging trends conducting research through interdisciplinary collaboration broadening research perspectives enhancing research impact resource sharing and funding opportunities professional growth and network expansion framing research topics with practical relevance alignment with societal needs enhanced funding opportunities interdisciplinary collaboration refining research engagement through active feedback peer review mentorship and collegial feedback feedback from conferences and seminars iterative improvement through self-evaluation keeping abreast through research enrichment sessions this initiative aims to prioritize the preservation and improvement of the research skills of higher education educators through continuous educational and collaborative sessions. these seminars provide a venue for faculty members to be informed about the most recent advancements in their fields, acquire new approaches, engage in discussions about difficulties, and cultivate a community focused on ongoing learning and cooperation. according to the participants, research enrichment seminars offer educators the chance to improve their expertise in several areas of research, such as data analysis methods, research planning, and the utilization of cuttingedge technology or software. these sessions might be especially advantageous for adjusting to swiftly evolving sectors or integrating cutting-edge approaches into their job. to them, these seminars frequently promote the exchange of best practices, research findings, and theoretical breakthroughs among colleagues. this setting fosters a cooperative atmosphere within organizations, facilitating the dismantling of barriers between different departments or fields of study. further, research enrichment courses assist them in staying up-to-date with emerging trends and recent advancements in their respective professions. these events may encompass guest lectures delivered by specialists, workshops focusing on emerging research fields, or debates centered around recent scholarly articles. within the context of strengthening their research participation, floris et al. (2024) stated that there is a high significance of continual professional development for teachers working in tertiary education. by taking part in these sessions, teachers not only improve their own research abilities and output, but they also help to the development of an academic community that is dynamic, dedicated to collaboration, and forward considering. after all is said and done, this finally results in changes in educational procedures and breakthroughs in knowledge. conducting research through interdisciplinary collaboration it is becoming more important in the academic world, especially for college lecturers to be involved in interdisciplinary research. this research methodology prioritizes the incorporation of concepts, techniques, instruments, and models from other academic fields to tackle intricate issues with more efficiency compared to individual disciplines. according to the participants, interdisciplinary collaboration enables them to address topics from several perspectives, hence resulting in more complete insights and inventions. tertiary educators have the opportunity pa ge 50 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 45-54 2024 to broaden their study scope by incorporating knowledge from several subjects. added by the participants, interdisciplinary collaboration in research has the capacity to yield greater academic and practical outcomes. by integrating knowledge from the fields of environmental science and economics, it is possible to design more efficient approaches to achieve sustainable development. besides, according to the participants, interdisciplinary studies frequently receive financing from a variety of sources that may not typically support research focused on a single area. engaging in interdisciplinary study can provide tertiary instructors new financing opportunities to promote innovative projects, giving resources that may not be accessible to studies with a narrower focus. further, engaging in interdisciplinary research enables them to cultivate skills and competence beyond their main field of specialization. to the participants, interdisciplinary research offers substantial advantages, but it also poses hurdles, including communication obstacles arising from divergent terminology and methodology across disciplines, the assimilation of research findings, and the equitable incorporation of contributions from all participating fields. according to alhassan and ali (2020), there is a dynamic and developing approach to research involvement for tertiary teachers that is represented by this activity. research views are broadened, impact is enhanced, complicated problems are addressed, funding prospects are increased, and professional development and networking are fostered as a result. instructors not only enhance their careers by participating in multidisciplinary research, but they also contribute to the resolution of some of the most difficult problems in the world, which in turn increases the educational and societal value of their work. framing research topics with practical relevance this is especially important for college professors because it connects academic investigation with practical uses in the real world, thereby increasing the influence and accessibility of research findings to a wider range of people. this method not only amplifies the societal and economic worth of academic research but also fortifies the link between academia and industry, policy, or community requirements. for the participants, they maintain the practical relevance of their study by focusing on issues that directly address current challenges encountered by society. topics encompassed may span from health and medicine to environmental sustainability, education reform, and technology advancement. research that offers concrete solutions or valuable insights into urgent situations tends to get greater interest and funding from both the public and private sectors. moreover, participants mentioned that research endeavors that have evident and tangible practical uses tend to be more appealing to financing entities, such as government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and industry collaborators. they also added that they actively participate in research that is directly applicable to real-world situations which are more inclined to interact with colleagues from different fields, thereby enhancing the quality of their work and creating opportunities for novel advancements. to bednarek and cybulska-gomez de celis (2022), this increases the usefulness and significance of the study that is carried out by instructors at the tertiary level. it makes certain that academic endeavors are not divorced from the larger societal environment, but rather are an intrinsic part of the process of finding solutions to problems that occur in the real world. not only does this strategy benefit the instructors and their institutions by enhancing the exposure and application of their work, but it also serves the greater community by addressing the most pressing demands and difficulties that it faces. refining research engagement through active feedback this highlights the significance of feedback in improving and perfecting the research process for college educators. feedback systems can originate from diverse sources, such as peers, mentors, reviewers, students, and business or community stakeholders. efficient utilization of feedback enhances both the caliber and pertinence of study, while also cultivating a more dynamic and adaptable research atmosphere. according to the participants, peer review is a classic and crucial method of receiving criticism in academia. it is used before publishing in journals, presenting at conferences, or obtaining grant funding. this input is extremely helpful for them in recognizing the strengths and limitations in the research design, methodology, interpretation of data, and the overall presentation of findings. they believed that they can utilize this tough evaluation process to improve their research questions, bolster their analytical skills, and fortify their arguments. further, to them, seasoned colleagues and mentors can offer valuable feedback and assistance that are essential for the advancement of research projects. this style of feedback is frequently continuous and formative, enabling modifications to be made throughout the research process. they are also participating in conferences, seminars, and workshops which allows them to receive diverse feedback. the varied attendees at these meetings can provide distinct critiques and propose alternate methods or methodologies. to them, active feedback can enhance the quality of their research by consistently assessing their own work in the context of new material, critiques, and their developing comprehension of the subject matter. mentioned by sato and loewen (2019), the significance of a research strategy that is both responsive and adaptable is brought into attention in the field. in order to guarantee that their research continues to be thorough, current, and influential, tertiary educators should actively seek feedback from a variety of sources and incorporate it into their methodology. a culture of continual learning and growth is fostered within the academic community pa ge 51 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 45-54 2024 as a result of this participation, which not only increases the quality of the research output but also strengthens the research abilities of the instructors themselves. insights of the tertiary instructors with regards to conducting research wulyani et al. (2021) stated that conducting research in a college setting is a multifaceted undertaking that alters the academic milieu and influences the professional trajectory of college instructors. the insights gained from their experiences offer crucial perspectives on the challenges, opportunities, and revolutionary potential of academic research inside higher education institutions. table 3 explores the insights of college professors on conducting research in higher education, providing detailed insights into their experiences and the wider ramifications for the academic community. three themes emerged in this study as the insights of the college instructors: enhanced scholarly drive empowers faculty research, research illuminate pathways for educational advancement, and time and commitment fuel faculty research engagements. table 3: insights of the tertiary instructors with regards to conducting research enhanced scholarly drive empowers faculty research fostering a research-oriented culture recognition and rewards balancing teaching and research creating impact through research research illuminates pathways for educational advancement improving teaching methods curriculum development global educational trends evidence-based educational advancement lifelong learning and adaptability time and commitment fuel faculty research engagements balancing teaching and research institutional support and resources time management skills sustained effort and perseverance professional development and continuous learning enhanced scholarly drive empowers faculty research this concept revolves around the notion that heightened motivation and dedication to academic pursuits can greatly enhance the caliber and productivity of research carried out by college-level educators. boosting academic motivation entails fostering a deep interest in exploration, encouraging active involvement in the scholarly community, and offering avenues for career advancement. to the participants, institutions that prioritize the significance of research usually establish conditions that encourage inquisitiveness, originality, and thorough scholarly investigation. tertiary institutions can foster a robust research culture to stimulate faculty members’ intellectual motivation, prompting them to pursue their research interests more passionately and dedicatedly. further, acknowledging and incentivizing research achievements greatly enhance their academic motivation. whether it be in the form of awards, promotions, grants, or public acknowledgments, these recognitions act as positive reinforcements that inspire academic members to commit themselves to ongoing research involvement. to them, institutions that effectively manage teaching responsibilities and research obligations typically observe increased levels of intellectual involvement. as per the participants, the awareness that their study has the potential to create tangible impact in the actual world might serve as a compelling incentive for faculty members. organizations that foster collaborations between academic research and business, government, or community organizations play a crucial role in showcasing the practical significance and influence of scholarly work, hence enhancing scholarly motivation. according to em (2023), tertiary institutions have the ability to significantly boost the intellectual drive of their teachers by cultivating an academic climate that is both supportive and stimulating, by giving the necessary resources and recognitions, and by supporting collaborative and effective research. as a result, not only does this assist the researchers on an individual level, but it also elevates the entire academic and societal contribution that the institution makes. research illuminates pathways for educational advancement this emphasizes the crucial significance of research in defining and enhancing educational practices and policies, especially in the context of higher education. for tertiary teachers, conducting research not only enhances their field of study but also directly impacts instructional practices, curriculum development, and student outcomes. for the participants, research undertaken by instructors at the tertiary level can result in substantial enhancements in pa ge 52 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 45-54 2024 teaching methods. for instance, research on educational psychology, learning styles, or the efficacy of technology in the classroom might offer empirically-supported insights that instructors can immediately implement in their teaching. additionally, research findings can guide them in the creation of curriculum that are up-to-date and applicable. instructors guarantee that the instructional information offered to students is current and relevant by incorporating the most recent breakthroughs and knowledge from their respective professions. moreover, they participate in international research collaborations or engage in studies with a global scope which have the ability to offer distinct viewpoints to their classes and academic communities. also, research-active instructors contribute to the empirical foundation that underpins educational progress. through rigorous examination of educational phenomena and dissemination of their discoveries, researchers contribute to the accumulation of knowledge that may be utilized by educators to enact modifications and enhancements in their teaching methods and institutional procedures. consequently, engaging in research activities allows them to stay up-todate with the latest advancements in their field, which is essential for their professional growth. the dedication to ongoing education demonstrates the flexibility and constant enhancement that is essential in educational settings. according to farsani and babaii (2019), this highlights the concept that the research conducted by tertiary instructors is not only about making contributions to their own fields, but are also essentially about enhancing educational opportunities. it is possible for educators to improve the educational outcomes for a diverse variety of students by conducting research, which allows them to design more efficient teaching techniques, update curricula, influence educational policies, give students with practical experiences, and overall improve educational outcomes. this highlights the symbiotic link that exists between teaching and research in higher education, with each contributing to the advancement of education by informing and strengthening the other towards a more comprehensive growth. time and commitment fuel faculty research engagements this addresses the fundamental components that are required for tertiary professors to effectively participate in research activities. this highlights the concept that quality research results necessitate a significant amount of time and a continuous dedication, both of which might be difficult to achieve due to the busy schedules of faculty members. a major obstacle encountered by the participants is the requirement to effectively manage their instructing obligations with their research endeavors. institutions that offer teaching assistants, decreased teaching loads, or research-focused sabbaticals to faculty members can significantly boost research output by allowing them to allocate more time to their research endeavors. in addition, to them, dedication to research is not solely an individual pursuit but also necessitates support from an organization. universities that give priority to research generally provide resources such as financial support, access to state-of-the-art laboratory equipment, research databases, and travel funds for participating in conferences. they cultivate robust time management abilities in order to effectively balance several duties. this entails the act of giving priority to projects, establishing achievable objectives, and, maybe the most crucial aspect, allocating specific time periods for research endeavors. to them, the researcher’s capacity to maintain focus and involvement throughout extended periods is essential and frequently relies on their enthusiasm for the subject, the significance of the research, and the assistance provided by colleagues and mentors. besides, remaining informed on the most recent research in one’s area of expertise necessitates a continuous dedication to professional growth. this may entail consistently attending lectures, actively engaging in workshops, and being abreast of the most recent publications. consequently, hemsley-brown and sharp (2023) highlighted the fact that in order for tertiary instructors to be effective in their research attempts, there must be a conscious and persistent focus on controlling and devoting time to research activities. the development of a suitable climate for research, which ultimately results in important improvements in knowledge and scholarly contributions, is determined by the combination of human dedication and institutional support, both of which play critical roles. conclusion ultimately, college instructors’ involvement in research is a complex undertaking that is crucial for the progress of knowledge, the improvement of teaching methods, and the ultimate purpose of higher education institutions. tertiary instructors make valuable contributions to their specific fields, the wider academic community and society as a whole through their dedication to scholarly research. our investigation of the themes related to research involvement among college teachers has revealed the intricate interaction of elements that impact their research activity. successful research engagement necessitates a combination of personal commitment, institutional resources, and a supportive academic environment. this is evident from the importance of time management and institutional support, as well as the significance of interdisciplinary collaboration and practical relevance. moreover, the results highlight the profound capacity of research involvement to bring about significant changes for both faculty members and their students. participating in research enhances instructors’ knowledge and promotes their professional development. additionally, it enhances the learning process for students by developing their critical thinking abilities and exposing them to the most recent breakthroughs in their respective professions. pa ge 53 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 45-54 2024 in order to ensure the progress of higher education institutions, they must maintain a strong focus on promoting research involvement among their academic members. this encompasses the provision of sufficient resources, the cultivation of a favorable research environment, and the acknowledgment and incentivization of research accomplishments. by doing this, institutions may guarantee that their academic members stay at the cutting edge of knowledge generation and that their research endeavors continue to have a significant impact on academia and society. thus, research involvement should not only be a duty that professionals must fulfill but also a means of finding inspiration, fostering creativity, and creating a significant effect for instructors in higher education. researchers’ continual commitment to research illuminates new discoveries, ideas, and routes for educational improvement. recommendations based on the exploration of research engagement among tertiary instructors, to support and enhance their research activities, it is crucial for higher education institutions to give priority and allocate resources to establish strong support systems for faculty research. this includes the provision of sufficient financial resources for research endeavors, availability of cutting-edge facilities and equipment, and administrative assistance for grant proposals and project oversight. further, in order to support the growth and success of faculty researchers, institutions should provide continuous professional development opportunities that are specifically designed to meet their individual needs. participating in workshops, seminars, and training sessions focused on research methodology, grant writing, and scholarly publishing can effectively improve the research skills and capabilities of instructors. furthermore, promoting and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration can result in novel research outputs and effectively tackle intricate societal concerns. institutions ought to establish venues and provide incentives for faculty members to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration, so cultivating a culture of cross-fertilization and information sharing. more so, implementing structured mentorship programs and facilitating networking opportunities can offer important assistance and direction to researchers in the early stages of their careers. experienced academic members can provide mentorship to less experienced colleagues, imparting their knowledge and perspectives to assist in navigating the research field. additionally, maintaining a balance between teaching, research, and service duties is crucial for ensuring continuous faculty involvement in research. institutions should implement adaptable workload models that enable faculty members to distribute time and effort based on their research goals, so guaranteeing that teaching commitments do not overshadow research activity. by applying these suggestions, higher education institutions can establish an atmosphere that encourages and maintains strong research involvement among tertiary teachers. consequently, this will aid in the progression of knowledge, the improvement of instructional methodologies, and the overarching objective of higher education establishments. references allison, d., & carey, j. 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(2015). teachers work more overtime than any other professionals, analysis finds. tes. https:// www.tes.com/news/teachers-work-more-overtimeany-other-professionalsanalysis-finds wulyani, a., saukah,a., syahid, a., utami,i., susilo, s., fiftinova, f., sukerti, g. azis, a., & amin, m. understanding english language teachers’ views of teacher research: a report from indonesia. teflin journal, 32(2), 362-388. zhou, j. (2012). problems teachers face when doing action research and finding possible solutions. chinese education & society, 45(4), 68–80. https://doi. org/10.2753/ced1061-1932450405 pa ge 1 pa ge 62 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) the influence of emotional intelligence and community support on school crisis management avelino jr. ii payot1*, jennifer montero2 volume 4 issue 2, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i2.4460 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: january 17, 2025 accepted: february 26, 2025 published: june 03, 2025 this study investigates the influence of emotional intelligence (ei) and community support on school crisis management in tagbina district 1, surigao del sur, philippines. a descriptive-correlational research design was used, surveying 214 respondents, including school heads, teachers, and stakeholders. findings revealed that student bullying and violence was identified as the most frequent crisis experienced in the past five years, with a mean rating of 3.550 (often category). in terms of community support, partnerships with local communities and organizations had the highest mean rating of 4.540 (always category), reflecting strong external collaboration. among crisis leadership dimensions, instructional leadership had the highest mean of 4.428 (always category), emphasizing the role of guiding teachers and students during crises. results further indicate a significant positive correlation between ei and crisis leadership effectiveness (r = 0.421, p < 0.01), with empathy showing the strongest relationship in instructional (r = 0.780, p < 0.01), organizational (r = 0.553, p < 0.01), and community extension leadership (r = 0.406, p < 0.01), while self-management was most strongly associated with human resource (r = 0.386, p < 0.01) and strategic leadership (r = 0.467, p < 0.01). findings suggest the need for ei training programs for school leaders and strengthened community collaboration to improve crisis resilience. keywords community support, crisis leadership, emotional intelligence, school crisis management 1 department of education, manila, ph, philippines 2 north eastern mindanao state university, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: avelinojr.payot@deped.gov.ph introduction in times of crisis, schools are essential for preserving stability and building resilience. unexpected events that disrupt routine operations, however, put the wellbeing of students, employees, and teachers at risk and are frequently difficult for school administrators to manage. for instance, while schools in tagbina district 1 experienced disruption and increased anxiety due to the covid-19 pandemic, the necessity for emotionally intelligent leadership was highlighted. similarly, the 7.4 magnitude earthquake in the province of surigao del sur in december 2023 posed a significant challenge for school leaders to demonstrate emotional intelligence by staying composed under pressure, fostering collaboration among staff, and responding swiftly and empathetically to ensure the safety and well-being of the entire school community. these incidents highlight how crucial emotional intelligence and community support are to handle school crises effectively. according to recent studies, emotional intelligence and community support are critical for crisis management. in times of crisis, leaders who attended to employees’ and pupils’ social, emotional, and psychological needs were crucial (schechter et al., 2022). leadership success is significantly impacted by emotional intelligence and resilience, and there is a favorable correlation between these traits and enhanced leadership ability (lamb & carver, 2020). effective communication, stress management, and team cohesion are all enhanced by emotional intelligence, which is essential for crisis leadership (fernandes et al., 2023). building resilience requires cooperation and community assistance from organizations, families, and schools (wilson, 2021). these findings highlight how vital individual leadership abilities and group community efforts are to manage emergencies successfully. despite these findings, little study has been done on the combined effects of community support and emotional intelligence on school crisis management. few studies examine the combined impact of these factors, especially in tagbina district 1, although some studies have examined these factors independently. this gap offers an excellent opportunity to learn how local school leaders can use emotional intelligence and community collaboration to create more successful crisis response plans. tagbina district 1 was selected due to its geographical and socioeconomic characteristics. as a second-class municipality, it faces challenges related to infrastructure and crisis response, making it an ideal case for examining school crisis management. this study aims to examine the relationship between ei, community support, and crisis leadership practices of school heads in tagbina district 1. it gives schools and their communities important insights into effective crisis management strategies. school administrators can improve readiness and resilience by investigating emotional intelligence and community support. the result will serve as a guide to developing contingency plans for effective crisis management. literature review theoretical foundations of school crisis management existing literature highlights the significance of emotional intelligence (ei) theory (goleman, 1995) in leadership, particularly in crisis situations. ei encompasses self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and pa ge 63 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 62-71 2025 social skills, which enable leaders to manage emotions effectively, maintain trust, and promote teamwork during crises. in the context of schools, emotionally intelligent leaders can make informed decisions under pressure and foster a supportive environment for students and staff. beyond individual leadership, social support theory (cobb, 1976) underscores the role of external networks in crisis management. it posits that emotional, informational, and practical support from community stakeholders—such as parents, local officials, and organizations—helps reduce stress and enhances resilience. schools benefit from strong community collaboration in times of crisis, as collective efforts ensure a coordinated response and recovery. to further structure crisis response, crisis management theory (mitroff & pearson, 1993) provides a framework outlining key phases: prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. effective leadership is crucial at every stage, as emotionally intelligent leaders can foster communication, sustain morale, and make strategic decisions to navigate crises. additionally, mobilizing external support strengthens a school’s ability to recover and adapt to challenges. lastly, resilience theory (garmezy, 1991) ties these perspectives together by emphasizing adaptability in the face of adversity. ei fosters resilience by enhancing problem-solving and stress management, while community support provides the resources necessary to facilitate recovery. schools that integrate both emotionally intelligent leadership and external collaboration develop stronger crisis response mechanisms. these theoretical perspectives collectively highlight the interplay between leadership, community involvement, and structured crisis response, offering a comprehensive framework for understanding the role of ei and community support in school crisis management. the role of emotional intelligence during crises emotional intelligence (ei) is crucial for school leaders, particularly during crises. goleman’s ei model—selfawareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management—frames effective leadership. research (jackman-ryan et al., 2020; ford, 2022) highlights that school heads with high ei demonstrate superior crisis leadership. during the covid-19 pandemic, emotionally intelligent leaders maintained trust, supported their communities, and navigated learning disruptions through self-regulation and empathy. ei enhances crisis resilience by fostering positive relationships, reducing stress, and promoting open communication (wilson, 2021; mutch, 2015). in the philippines, where schools face frequent natural disasters, socio-political instability, and public health emergencies, ei is vital in managing both academic and emotional challenges. studies (alitagtag & rosales, 2022; omar et al., 2023; reyes et al., 2021) confirm that emotionally intelligent school heads handle crises effectively by demonstrating empathy, emotional resilience, and strong communication skills. key ei dimensions in crisis leadership include selfawareness and self-management, which help school heads regulate emotions under stress to ensure rational decisionmaking (matić, 2020). empathy and social awareness enable leaders to build trust and foster resilience through supportive leadership (alomair & fernandes, 2021; wilson, 2021). relationship management facilitates communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution, ensuring a smooth crisis response (jimenez & galicia, 2023). decision-making under pressure requires balancing rationality with emotional considerations to maintain stability and continuity in learning (lescano, 2021). in disaster-prone philippine regions, emotionally intelligent leadership is crucial for both crisis response and psychological recovery. as schools transition from the covid-19 pandemic, ei remains essential in addressing both academic and emotional needs. globally and locally, ei-driven leadership ensures school resilience, safety, and well-being, underscoring the need for continuous ei development among school heads. community support in crisis management community support is crucial for effective crisis management, as seen during the covid-19 pandemic. studies highlight that open communication and collaboration between schools, families, and local organizations ensure swift crisis response and resource distribution (abramova et al., 2021; jackman-ryan et al., 2020). in saudi arabia, school leaders successfully relied on partnerships with parents and local agencies to transition to remote learning (alomair & fernandes, 2021). strong community engagement fosters resilience by empowering stakeholders to address challenges collectively, with external experts like mental health professionals playing a vital role in both immediate crisis response and long-term recovery (nickerson & zhe, 2004; thompson, 2022). schools often serve as recovery hubs, where strong relationships with communities help sustain crisis management efforts (mutch, 2015; wilson, 2021). in the philippine context, community collaboration is essential, particularly in disaster-prone areas. partnerships with local governments, private organizations, and parents help mobilize resources and provide emotional support (pastor et al., 2024). school-based management (sbm) fosters decentralized decision-making, allowing schools to respond more effectively to crises (reyes et al., 2021). coordination between deped, lgus, and stakeholders strengthens disaster risk reduction strategies (fontanos et al., 2021). the “brigada eskwela” initiative, though not a crisis program, enhances school resilience by promoting volunteerism (valenzuela & buenvinida, 2021). the pandemic also highlighted the importance of community-driven solutions in bridging the digital divide, with local efforts ensuring the continuity of learning (race, 2020). overall, community engagement enhances preparedness, response, and recovery, making schools and their surrounding communities more resilient in the face of crises (baybay & hindmarsh, 2019). crisis management in educational settings pa ge 64 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 62-71 2025 crisis leadership is essential for school leaders in managing disruptions such as natural disasters and health emergencies. key leadership practices, including instructional, human resources, and strategic leadership, were crucial during the covid-19 pandemic (jackmanryan et al., 2020). effective crisis leaders demonstrate clear communication, quick decision-making, and adaptability (ford, 2022; karasavidou & alexopoulos, 2019). emotionally agile leadership fosters trust and resilience, ensuring stakeholder well-being and a collective approach to crisis response (wilson, 2021; marsh et al., 2022). proactive measures, such as contingency planning, enhance crisis resilience. pastor et al. (2024) propose an educational crisis resiliency management framework, emphasizing communication, flexibility, and emotional support. in the philippines, school leaders often adopt reactive approaches to crises, balancing immediate responses with long-term goals (reyes et al., 2019). strong leadership is crucial for fostering resilience and sustaining educational stability (gonzales & silayan, 2023). ultimately, crisis leadership requires adaptability, proactive planning, and emotional intelligence to navigate challenges and ensure long-term recovery. the role of emotional intelligence in crisis leadership studies consistently highlight the strong correlation between emotional intelligence (ei) and effective crisis leadership. abramova et al. (2021) and ford (2022) emphasize that emotionally intelligent leaders are better equipped to make informed decisions, foster collaboration, and navigate crises effectively. ei enables leaders to regulate emotions, maintain resilience, and communicate clearly under pressure, which are critical in crisis situations. jackman-ryan et al. (2022) further reinforce that ei enhances leadership effectiveness, particularly in schools facing crises, by improving decision-making, empathy, and relationship-building. in the philippine context, jimenez and galicia (2023) found that emotionally intelligent school heads manage crises more effectively, ensuring stability and well-being for students and staff. given the frequent natural disasters and other crises in the philippines, ei is a crucial competency for school leaders to maintain operational continuity and provide emotional support to their communities. lived experiences of school heads also highlight the role of ei in crisis leadership. ford (2022) and jackmanryan (2020) document how school principals utilized ei to navigate challenges during the covid-19 pandemic, such as managing stress, making rapid decisions, and maintaining trust among stakeholders. similarly, jimenez and galicia (2023) note that filipino school heads with high ei demonstrated greater resilience and adaptability in the face of resource limitations and institutional challenges. overall, ei is a key factor in effective crisis leadership, as it equips leaders with the emotional regulation, empathy, and communication skills necessary to navigate uncertainty and foster school resilience. research gaps existing literature often focuses on specific crises, such as the covid-19 pandemic, overlooking the diverse range of challenges schools face, particularly in disasterprone areas like the philippines (marsh et al., 2022). while schools in different regions experience various crises— ranging from typhoons and earthquakes to local conflicts and accidents—the frequency and types of these crises remain underexplored, limiting the generalizability of crisis management strategies (omar et al., 2023). a more comprehensive examination of these crises is essential to understanding how school leaders can adapt their leadership approaches for enhanced resilience. emotional intelligence (ei) is widely recognized as a crucial trait in crisis leadership. however, despite its acknowledged importance in stress management and decision-making, there is limited empirical research linking specific ei competencies—such as self-regulation and empathy—to measurable crisis management outcomes in schools (jimenez & galicia, 2023; thompson et al., 2023). moreover, little research has been conducted on integrating ei into crisis management training, particularly within the philippine educational setting, where leadership styles are influenced by cultural factors. while community engagement is frequently discussed in the context of health emergencies, its broader role in longterm crisis management remains insufficiently examined (reyes et al., 2021). in rural and remote philippine schools, collaboration with local government units (lgus), parents, and non-governmental organizations (ngos) is crucial for effective crisis response. however, there is limited research on how these partnerships can be systematically incorporated into school crisis management frameworks, particularly for non-health-related crises such as natural disasters and civil unrest. the effectiveness of different forms of community engagement—such as the role of lgus in disaster preparedness—also warrants further study. additionally, studies on crisis leadership often emphasize ei but rarely explore its interaction with other leadership qualities, such as cultural intelligence, strategic decisionmaking, and adaptability (escosora & guhao, 2023). in the philippine context, where collectivist values and hierarchical structures shape leadership styles, understanding how ei integrates with these traits is essential. furthermore, existing research predominantly focuses on the perspectives of school heads (alarcon, 2021; wilson, 2021), with limited attention given to teachers, students, parents, and external partners. their insights could provide a more holistic understanding of school crisis management and the additional support needed to enhance response efforts. finally, while many studies discuss crisis management practices, few provide empirical data on their long-term effectiveness and success rates (omar et al., 2023; alomair & fernandes, 2021). the absence of demographic and pa ge 65 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 62-71 2025 institutional profiling in many studies also limits the applicability of findings across different educational contexts, such as urban vs. rural schools or public vs. private institutions (dy, 2023). future research should address these gaps to develop more adaptable, datadriven crisis management strategies. the literature emphasizes that community support, leadership, and emotional intelligence are critical to crisis resilience. nonetheless, there are still gaps in stakeholder perspectives and empirical validation. future studies should measure the effects of ei and broaden crisis management strategies, particularly for philippine schools that are vulnerable to natural disasters. materials and methods research design the study utilized a descriptive-correlational research design to determine the types and frequencies of school crises experienced in the past five years, the level of school heads’ emotional intelligence and crisis leadership practices, the level of community support, and the relationship between ei and crisis leadership practices of school heads. a correlational research design examines the relationship between two or more variables without any manipulation by the researcher (bhandari, 2023). this approach helps determine whether ei and crisis leadership practices are positively or negatively correlated, indicating the direction and strength of their association in the study. the descriptive component allows for a detailed examination of the frequency and nature of school crises, as well as an assessment of school heads’ emotional intelligence and crisis leadership practices. this complements the correlational analysis by providing contextual insights into the relationships explored in the study. research locale the study was conducted in 15 schools within tagbina district 1, located in the municipality of tagbina, surigao del sur. tagbina is a second-class municipality and one of only two land-locked municipalities in surigao del sur, with a population of 41,051 as of the 2020 census (philippine statistics authority, 2020). the municipality ranked 356th in infrastructure and 420th in resiliency out of 511 municipalities in the 2023 national ranking of first to second-class municipalities, highlighting the region’s limited resources. given the geographical location and resource constraints faced by school administrators, this locale was selected to explore how they manage crises and mobilize community support. research respondents a total of 269 deped employees work in the 15 schools of tagbina district 1, including 254 teachers and 15 school heads. the study grouped the participants into three groups: teachers, school heads, and stakeholders. using stratified random sampling, 156 teachers were chosen randomly to participate in the survey, ensuring proportional representation from small, medium, and large schools. the sample size for teachers was determined using slovin’s formula: n = n / (1 + n2), where n is the population size (254 teachers), and e is the margin of error (5%). using this formula, the computed sample size was approximately 156 teachers, ensuring a representative sample from different school sizes. meanwhile, all 15 school heads and 44—including the gpta presidents, barangay captains, ldrrm officer, nurses, and social workers—were chosen to complete the survey through complete enumeration. this resulted in a total of 215 participants. this guarantees sufficient representation of the many perspectives required to analyze the research problem comprehensively. research instrument a validated and modified survey instrument to gauge the ei of school heads was used to gather quantitative data. the demographic and school profile, the type and frequency of school crises, community support, and crisis leadership practices were all examined using a survey questionnaire developed by the researcher. several experts with expertise in educational leadership, disaster management, language, and research methodology, including two education program supervisors (eps), one senior education program specialist (seps), one project development officer in the division disaster risk reduction office, one district in-charge (dic), one local disaster risk reduction management officer (ldrrmo), and one master teacher, validated the instrument. the instrument was pilot-tested on 26 respondents to test its reliability, following the heuristic sampling principles. cronbach’s alpha was calculated to measure internal consistency, resulting in a reliability coefficient of 0.988, which suggests excellent reliability. steps were taken to minimize response bias, including ensuring anonymity, using neutral and clear question wording, and randomizing items within each section to reduce order effects. the questionnaire included indirect questioning techniques and assurances that responses would not be linked to individual performance evaluations to further reduce social desirability bias. data gathering procedure the data collection comprised several steps to guarantee a thorough and ethical approach to the study. first, a pilot test of the research instrument was conducted. the graduate school dean granted the required permissions and clearances. after receiving approval, the researcher requested authorization from the schools division superintendent of surigao del sur and the public schools district in-charge of tagbina district 1, where the study was conducted. teachers, school administrators, and stakeholders were among the respondents informed of the study. this involved interacting with the respondents and stressing the value of their input into the study. the responders received a copy of the questionnaire, a letter of informed consent, and explicit instructions. this allowed the participants to read over the study’s pa ge 66 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 62-71 2025 specifics and voluntarily participate. the responders were given both printed and electronic versions of the research instruments. these techniques made gathering and analyzing quantitative data more secure and efficient. the data collection process spanned approximately four weeks, allowing sufficient time for follow-ups with nonrespondents while ensuring minimal disruption to school operations. a tabular summary of the collected data was created. finally, the researcher analyzed and interpreted the summarized data to answer the research questions. ethical considerations obtaining informed consent was prioritized. participants received comprehensive information about the study’s objectives, methods, potential risks and benefits, and their right to withdraw at any time without penalty (hollander et al., 2023). this aligns with the national institutes of health (2021) ethical guidelines, which strongly emphasize giving participants accurate information, making sure they understand it, and getting their consent voluntarily. another key component of this study was confidentiality. the responses provided by participants were kept anonymous, and their identities were protected throughout the collection, processing, and reporting of data. data was securely stored, and unique identities were used instead of personal names. the world health organization (2023) states that to protect participant privacy, research involving human subjects must follow stringent confidentiality requirements. every attempt was made to reduce participant discomfort and possible injury. considering the time limits of busy school personnel, survey questions were thoughtfully crafted to prevent unnecessary tension or anxiety. the nih (2022) stresses that researchers must put precautions in place to lessen suffering and injury by the beneficence idea. the researcher promised to conduct an ethical study that protected the rights and welfare of participants by following these ethical principles, which would ultimately yield important insights into crisis management in tagbina district 1. statistical treatment techniques for quantitative data analysis were used in this study. the mean was calculated to answer research questions 1, 2, 3, and 4. this established the numerical responses’ central tendency, especially for the likert scale items evaluating emotional intelligence, community support, school crisis management, and the types and frequency of school crises. the mean made finding trends and broad tendencies in the data more manageable, which offered an overall assessment of respondents’ perceptions. a higher or lower mean score showed the overall inclination of responses, which was crucial for determining the success of the components under study. using pearson’s correlation, the relationship between emotional intelligence and school crisis management was determined. in this statistical test, research question 5 was addressed. tests for normality and the presence of outliers before conducting pearson’s correlation analysis were performed to ensure the validity of the results. the survey instrument’s internal consistency was evaluated using cronbach’s alpha. to ensure that the items assessing each construct delivered reliable and consistent findings, a reliability coefficient of 0.70 or above was deemed appropriate. results and discussion types and frequencies of school crises table 1 indicates student violence and bullying as the most rated school crisis, with a mean rating of 3.550 falling in the “often” category. it indicates the frequent occurrence of bullying and verbal and physical violence that has an extreme effect on the school environment. with the high occurrence of bullying, particularly the increasing rates of cyberbullying, schools are going to need improved anti-bullying programs and support systems (thornberg et al., 2022). on the other hand, the least-rated crisis was landslide, table 1: mean distribution of the types and frequencies of school crises types of school crises mean descriptive interpretation student bullying and violence 3.550 often classroom shortage 3.130 sometimes typhoon-related school disruption 2.970 sometimes earthquake damage 2.890 sometimes evacuation center 2.670 sometimes postponed school repairs 2.640 sometimes student medical emergency 2.630 sometimes pandemic-related learning modality shift 2.580 rarely teacher burnout 2.510 rarely insufficient teaching materials 2.400 rarely teacher-student conflict 2.340 rarely flooding 2.190 rarely unsafe building condition 2.150 rarely utility disruption 2.090 rarely unauthorized entry 1.730 never violence near school 1.710 never local infrastructure failure 1.710 never self-harm or suicide attempt 1.660 never contagious illness outbreak 1.600 never teacher medical emergency 1.560 never school bus accident 1.460 never teacher death 1.430 never drug and alcohol abuse 1.430 never fire emergency 1.290 never landslide 1.220 never overall mean 2.142 rarely pa ge 67 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 62-71 2025 with a mean score of 1.220, which is in the “never” category. this indicates that, while a possible danger in certain areas, landslides are a rare crisis in most schools. while rare, schools should be ready for such extreme crises with sound disaster risk reduction and management in place (lee, 2021). emotional intelligence of school heads table 2 indicates that social skills received the highest mean rating of 4.329, categorized as “always.” this implies that school administrators constantly exhibit excellent interpersonal skills, enabling them to establish trusting bonds, communicate clearly, and work cooperatively with various stakeholders. developing a positive school climate, settling disputes, and encouraging cooperation between teachers and students depend on strong social skills (jimenez & galicia, 2023). meanwhile, the poorest-performing ei dimension was the impact of a crisis, and well-networked communities are better placed to provide quick assistance (browder et al., 2022; chatzipanagiotou & katsarou, 2023). crisis leadership practices of school heads table 2: mean distribution of emotional intelligence of school heads indicators mean descriptive interpretation self-awareness 3.877 often self-management 4.032 often motivation 4.221 always empathy 4.250 always social skills 4.329 always overall mean 4.142 often self-awareness, with a mean score of 3.877 and rated as “often.” it implies that although school heads may already know their own emotions and capabilities in general, deeper self-awareness can still be enhanced. increased self-awareness can make leaders more sensitive to their emotional reactions and impact on other individuals, which is central to becoming an effective leader and making improved decisions (lescano, 2021; limlao, 2024). community support during crises the most substantial evidence of community support was the local organization and community partnerships, rated at an average of 4.540 and under the “always” category. this supports the imperative call for collaborative projects between schools and local organizations in a crisis to access support and resources quickly. effective partnerships ensure timely responses to crises, highlighting the imperative role that community cooperation plays in managing crises (kapucu et al., 2023; lee, 2021). on the other hand, the lowest-rated indicator was response mobilization at an average of 4.271, still in the “always” category. despite the score reflecting the community being well equipped to mobilize resources in a crisis, it also demonstrates some room for improvement in sharpening the speed and organization of responses. effective and timely mobilization does much to mitigate table 3: mean distribution of community support during crisis indicators mean descriptive interpretation partnerships with local communities & organizations 4.540 always preparation of community contingency plans 4.373 always experiences in community engagement 4.341 always participatory development 4.434 always response mobilization 4.271 always overall mean 4.392 always table 4 indicates that the most highly rated practice indicator for leadership was instructional leadership, with a mean of 4.428, under the “always” category. this shows the need for school heads to emphasize the quality of education during crises so that teaching and learning are not interrupted. several studies support this, citing instructional leadership as a need to guide teachers to adapt teaching strategies, hence ensuring the needs of students’ education are met even in challenging periods (browder et al., 2022; chatzipanagiotou & katsarou, 2023). the lowest-ranked indicator was strategic leadership, table 4: mean distribution of leadership practices of school heads during crisis indicators mean descriptive interpretation instructional leadership 4.428 always human resource leadership 4.350 always organizational leadership 4.360 always community extension leadership 4.367 always strategic leadership 4.247 always overall mean 4.350 always with a mean score of 4.247 and a rating of “always.” while this is a good strategic planning measure, the lower rating may suggest some improvement in proactively foreseeing and resolving long-term issues amid a crisis. research highlights that effective strategic leadership involves managing short-term crises and foreseeing upcoming matters, thus ensuring the best possible preparation of resources for long-term recovery and sustainability (alarcon, 2021; brion & kiral, 2021; wenzel et al., 2020). correlation between emotional intelligence and pa ge 68 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 62-71 2025 crisis leadership practices table 5 shows that, in instructional crisis leadership, the highest correlation was with empathy (p = 0.000, r = 0.780), indicating that highly empathetic individuals are better in instructional leadership during crises. the lowest correlation was with motivation (p = 0.000, r = 0.325), suggesting that, while motivation is relevant in crisis leadership, it does not show as significant a correlation with instructional ability as empathy does. empathy is necessary for understanding and meeting the needs of others in leadership roles, while motivation may be subject to individualistic factors rather than specific needs stemming from crises (fernandes et al., 2023; imperial et al., 2021). in human resource crisis leadership, the highest table 5: correlation between emotional intelligence and crisis leadership practices crisis leadership practices emotional intelligence p-value correlation interpretation instructional self-awareness 0.000 0.360 significant self-management 0.000 0.445 significant motivation 0.000 0.325 significant empathy 0.000 0.780 significant social skills 0.000 0.340 significant human resource self-awareness 0.000 0.341 significant self-management 0.000 0.386 significant motivation 0.000 0.268 significant empathy 0.000 0.308 significant social skills 0.000 0.275 significant organizational self-awareness 0.000 0.425 significant self-management 0.000 0.475 significant motivation 0.000 0.374 significant empathy 0.000 0.553 significant social skills 0.000 0.422 significant community extension self-awareness 0.000 0.405 significant self-management 0.000 0.356 significant motivation 0.000 0.319 significant empathy 0.000 0.406 significant social skills 0.000 0.402 significant strategic self-awareness 0.000 0.440 significant self-management 0.000 0.467 significant motivation 0.000 0.345 significant empathy 0.000 0.407 significant social skills 0.000 0.294 significant overall (crisis leadership practices vs. ei) 0.000 0.421 significant correlation was with self-management (p = 0.000, r = 0.386), indicating that leaders with higher self-regulation are more effective in human resource management during crises. the lowest correlation was with motivation (p = 0.000, r = 0.268), indicating that, while motivation is relevant, it does not have as significant an effect on human resource management during crises. effective selfmanagement allows leaders to be calm and composed, which is critical in effective human resource management during crises; motivation, while helpful, may not have the same degree of direct effect in this specific situation (david, 2024; matić, 2020). for organizational crisis leadership, the highest correlation was with empathy (p = 0.000, r = 0.553), which suggests that empathy is crucial in organizational crisis leadership. the lowest correlation was with motivation (p = 0.000, r = 0.374), which indicates that although motivation is required, it is not as highly correlated with organizational crisis leadership. empathy is a critical factor in organizational leaders because it enables them to comprehend and respond to other people’s feelings, while motivation is secondary in organizational crisis leadership (fernandes et al., 2023; imperial et al., 2021). for community extension crisis leadership, the highest correlation was with empathy (p = 0.000, r = 0.406), which suggests the criticality of awareness of feelings among leaders in community extension work during a crisis. the lowest correlation was with motivation (p = 0.000, r = 0.319), which suggests that although motivation is crucial, it is not a key factor in community extension work during a crisis. while motivation might trigger action, leaders need empathy to extend community support and pa ge 69 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 62-71 2025 cooperation during a crisis (alarcon, 2021; david, 2024). for strategic crisis leadership, the highest correlation was with self-management (p = 0.000, r = 0.467), which suggests that control of emotions is critical in strategic decision-making during a crisis. the lowest correlation was with social skills (p = 0.000, r = 0.294), which suggests that although social skills are beneficial, they are not as critical as self-management in strategic crisis leadership. those involved in strategic decision-making have to control their emotional reaction so that attention is sustained and clean decision-making can be enabled, whereas interpersonal competencies increase teamwork but are not as essential to sophisticated strategic planning (alomair & fernandes, 2021; david, fernandes et al., 2023). the overall correlation between emotional intelligence (ei) and crisis leadership practices is r = 0.421 (p < 0.01), indicating a moderate positive relationship. this suggests that school heads with higher ei are more effective in crisis leadership but other factors may also influence leadership performance (hale, 2023; jenita et al., 2024; matić, 2020). conclusion student bullying and violence were the most common school crises reported, showing that such occurrences are “often” and that schools require more efficient and stronger anti-bullying programs. in contrast, landslides were the least common crisis, showing that environmental hazards, such as landslides, are low in the study area. such results show that while responding to social issues like bullying should be a priority for school crisis management; environmental hazards are less of a problem. school heads have strong social skills, as reflected by the highest rating in this category, showing their capacity to establish relationships and manage interactions with others. however, the lower rating in self-awareness shows room for improvement in their capacity to examine their feelings and manage them well. such contrast shows the need to establish self-awareness in developing their emotional intelligence. community support during times of crisis is well-rated, with cooperation with local communities and organizations being the most critical factor. this shows good cooperation and interaction with external stakeholders during times of crisis. however, the lower rating for mobilization of response shows the need to enhance mobilization of response and coordination of resources and response during times of crisis, showing potential inefficiencies in crisis management processes. crisis leadership behavior of school heads is always assertive, with instructional leadership being the highest rated, showing their commitment to ensuring the quality of education even during times of crisis. despite a good rating, strategic leadership was the lowest among the evaluated areas, indicating the need to enhance planning for long-term crises and future-oriented decision-making to promote long-term preparedness and response. there is a strong relationship between crisis leadership practices and emotional intelligence; empathy is the most important determinant of effective crisis management. this implies that highly empathetic educational leaders are best positioned to manage crises because they can rationally comprehend and respond to stakeholders’ needs and make well-informed strategic choices. the research indicates the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership, especially in effectively managing school crises. educational institutions and policymakers may integrate emotional intelligence (ei) training into professional development programs for school heads, incorporating empathy-building and self-management, and ei assessment in leadership selection and training. in addition, schools may strengthen anti-bullying programs by implementing clear reporting mechanisms, conflict resolution training, and counseling services given that 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(2023). ethical guidelines for research involving human participants. https:// www.who.int/activities/ensuring-ethical-standardsand-procedures-for-research-with-human-beings pa ge 1 pa ge 62 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) investigating undergraduate students’ mathematical problem-solving techniques in mathematics education ronnie dela cruz1* volume 4 issue 3, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i3.4506 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: february 02, 2025 accepted: march 08, 2025 published: october 14, 2025 the study aims to investigate the methods used by undergraduate students studying mathematics education to solve mathematical problems. the researcher used a survey questionnaire to carry out a quantitative study design. this survey covered a range of approaches used by the student teachers before, during, and after problem-solving. according to the study’s findings, the respondents use cognitive and metacognitive strategies when tackling mathematical problems. the organizing, elaboration, and rehearsal processes are all included in cognitive procedures. however, metacognitive abilities demonstrate that selfcontrol and critical thinking are helpful strategies for solving mathematical problems. the methods utilized to solve mathematical problems before, during, and after determining the solution are also examined in this study. after responding to the problem-solving question, the responders used organization, elaboration, rehearsal, and critical thinking. respondents also use monitoring and organization while addressing the issue. moreover, in solving mathematical problems, students also apply self-control, critical thinking, and monitoring. this study’s results show that student teachers know the different strategies for solving mathematical problems. however, they find it challenging to apply in a real scenario, which results in low scores. keywords cognitive, mathematics education, meta-cognitive, problem-solving strategies 1 saint mary’s university, bayombong, cagayan valley, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: dronnie326@gmail.com introduction in this generation, teaching students how to solve problems is a critical thinking skill they must develop. it involves the capacity to recognize the type of problem, evaluate it, and create a plan of action that will successfully resolve the issues it brings up in real life. it comprises the ability to identify the problem, evaluate it, and develop a plan that will effectively address the issues it brings up in everyday life. this suggests that when it comes to problem-solving, thinking is more critical than information (carson, 2007). the cognitive process of problem-solving includes both higher-order thinking abilities and the development and execution of plans to achieve objectives (md, 2019; sutarno et al., 2017). students’ practical skills are developed using this strategy, which improves their cognitive capacities and knowledge acquisition while preparing them to handle problems in the real world. additionally, it promotes teamwork, interpersonal contact, the sharing of fresh concepts, the development of critical thinking abilities, and the creation of innovative ideas (sinaga et al., 2023). students must have a solid foundation in mathematics knowledge, skills, and principles to pursue further studies in the modern, technologically advanced world (albay, 2020). according to the country’s educational framework, developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills is the cornerstone of mathematics education in the philippines (sei-dost & mathted, 2011). through improving critical thinking and analytical skills, students can solve problems and become persons with high mathematical proficiency. students can use their acquired knowledge and problem-solving abilities in situations from the real world. this is because general problemsolving strategies and mathematical problem-solving procedures are identical (arson, 2007). the philippines’ performance in mathematics education has fallen short of expectations despite the department of education’s goal of improving filipino students’ mathematical abilities to broaden their skill set. less than 20% of filipino students achieved level 2 in mathematics on the 2018 programme for international student assessment (pisa), while more than 50% fell below level 1(bernardo et al., 2022). although more than half of the participants lacked sufficient skills, this suggests a significant gap in mathematical education. additionally, statistics showed issues with the nation’s math instruction and students’ enthusiasm for the subject. many students believe mathematics is difficult to understand, contributing to poor academic performance (isack, 2015). furthermore, students frequently experience anxiety and trepidation due to the abstract character of mathematical concepts (olango, 2016). however, the students’ attitude is not the only factor contributing to their poor performance in mathematics. teacher characteristics can also influence students’ attitudes and performance in mathematics classes (mazana et al., 2019). however, the challenges do not stop there; many students still need to acquire the skills required to become more proficient in solving mathematical problems. acquiring additional “math facts” is insufficient; students must also be able to use these facts to enhance their cognitive skills (stramel, 2021). pa ge 63 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 62-73, 2025 to improve their abilities and comprehension through mathematical problem-solving, undergraduate students— especially student instructors in mathematics education— need great assistance and instruction (yow, 2009; aquino & gurat, 2023), with a special emphasis on problemsolving (gurat, 2018). the capacity of curriculum and educational programs to successfully incorporate and convey innovations and changes is one of its desirable qualities (aquino, 2024). this is among the causes of the ongoing changes in educational curricula. teachers are vital to the success and usefulness of these programs. teachers modify their teaching strategies according to their professional knowledge (aquino & gurat, 2023; deasmin & paglinawan, 2024; guler & celik, 2016). the country’s mathematical education obligation has now been placed on aspiring teachers. to effectively teach mathematics, these student teachers need to develop their mathematical and analytical thinking skills. their preparedness, knowledge, comprehension, and abilities are how each student’s future problem-solving skills might be improved. however, they must first learn how to solve problems before teaching learners this skill. one of the abilities children must develop to be problem solvers is the capacity to comprehend and grasp before responding. to become a good problem solver, one needs to be a heuristic. heuristics is a systematic approach to mathematical problem-solving established irrespective of context (gurat, 2018). furthermore, a heuristic method can help establish links between mathematical ideas by looking at specific scenarios, generating visual representations, considering specific solutions, and developing generalizations. two types of mathematical problem-solving may be distinguished. o e is problem comprehension, which most students struggle with since most math teachers mainly concentrate on the second kind of problemsolving, namely issue solution (behera, 2021). this was demonstrated in research by kaitera and harmoinen (2022), in which fifth-grade students were taught general heuristics, which were thought helpful resources for handling challenging arithmetic problems. they explained that it was evident at the start of the school year that many students struggled with arithmetic tasks, especially when putting their problem-solving approaches into writing. in this situation, they clarified that students must use the right approach to problem-solving to offer an acceptable solution to mathematical difficulties. according to özreçberoğlu and çağanağa (2018), some of the most difficult problem-solving techniques include estimating, methodical listing, finding correlations, drawing diagrams, formulating equations or inequalities, using solutions from similar situations through reflection, and drawing conclusions from table analysis. these mathematics education students may soon be unable to teach problem-solving techniques to other students if they cannot comprehend and absorb them. therefore, improving students’ analytical and problemsolving skills—especially for those who hope to become teachers in the future—is the goal of mathematics education in the philippines. additionally, the main goal of this research is to thoroughly understand the methods aspiring math teachers use to solve problems. improving higher education, especially in math instruction, requires this study. additionally, this study can be used to create treatments that will improve future teachers’ capacity to solve mathematical problems. materials and methods thirty students enrolled in the bachelor of secondary education program with a mathematics specialization at isabela state university’s angadanan campus were included to achieve the study’s objectives. the tool used in this study to evaluate undergraduate mathematics education students’ problem-solving skills approach is the mathematical problem-solving set (mpss), which comprises multiple problem sets for the participant to solve (gurat, 2018). arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, geometry, sets, probability, number theory, and puzzle problems/logic are the various mathematical disciplines that make up the mpss. the participant’s problemsolving approach was ascertained by analyzing and comprehending their accurate problem-solving outputs. this study also used a checklist of the mathematics motivated strategies learning questionnaires (mmslq) developed by liu and lian (2010), which was also utilized in the study of gurat (2018). the purpose of this checklist is to ascertain their approach both before they begin to solve the problem and after they have come up with a solution. additionally, gurat (2018) employed a semi-structured interview and a videotape to triangulate their response and gain a more thorough comprehension and analysis of their approach to problem-solving. the researcher used the constant comparative approach (cca) to examine the collected data. before addressing the problems and finding solutions, cca was utilized to compare the collected data to identify commonalities and discrepancies and formulate significant hypotheses based on the results. descriptive analysis is another tool the researcher employs to ascertain the frequency and proportion of responses from the respondents. results and discussion table 1: score of mathematics students in the problemsolving respondents mean standard deviation remarks third year 5.85 3.60 high fourth year 6.57 4.51 high table 1 shows, third-year students studying mathematics education achieved an average score of 5.85 with a standard deviation of 3.60. participants’ scores show a high degree of proximity. in contrast, fourth-year mathematics education students received an average score pa ge 64 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 62-73, 2025 of 6.57 with an sd of 4.51. additionally, the data shows that the respondents’ scores are very close. however, the average score of third-year students studying mathematics education is so high that, when added to the overall score, the average score of fourth-year students falls short of the minimum passing threshold. mathematics-motivated strategies learning questionnaires (mmslq) according to gurat’s (2018) study and the mmslq students participated in, the respondents employed cognitive, metacognitive, and other methods. cognitive strategies pfannenstiel et al. (2014) state that the educational method includes teaching students how to solve specific types of word problems using cognitive strategies like strategy and visual strategy. a cognitive approach is essential for helping students process information effectively and enhance their understanding of the structural elements found in various word problem types. the framework of cognitive strategies includes organization, elaboration, and rehearsal as effective mathematical problem-solving techniques (gurat, 2018). rehearsal according to arjmandnia et al. (2012), a rehearsal strategy uses the technique of repeated practice to learn new material. students usually use the rote memorization technique, which is repeating the information aloud when presented with specific material they must know, like a list. table 2: students’ cognitive rehearsal techniques for solving mathematical problems cognitive strategies (rehearsal) 1 n ev er o r o nl y ra re ly v al id in m e 2 s om et im es tr ue o f m e 3 t ru e of m e, ab ou t h al f of th e tim e 4 f re qu en tly tr ue to m e 5 a lw ay s or al m os t a lw ay s tr ue o f m e f % f % f % f % f % i repeatedly examine the problem. 0 0 2 7.1% 7 25.0% 6 21% 13 46% i rehearse the same kinds of questions over and over. 0 0 1 3.6% 9 32.1% 11 39.3% 7 25.0% i constantly review the textbook and class notes. 0 0 6 21.4% 12 42.9% 8 28.6% 2 7.1% i put the essential math formulas to memory to help me remember the most crucial aspects of my math class. 0 0 5 17.9% 8 28.6% 8 28.6% 7 25.0% i remember how to solve problems. 0 0 9 32.1% 12 42.9% 4 14.3% 3 10.7% i rehearse the same kinds of questions over and over. 0 0 6 21.4% 7 25.0% 9 32.1% 6 21.4% table 3: students use cognitive elaboration strategies to solve mathematical problems cognitive strategies (rehearsal) 1 n ev er o r o nl y ra re ly v al id in m e 2 s om et im es tr ue o f m e 3 t ru e of m e, ab ou t h al f of th e tim e 4 f re qu en tly tr ue to m e 5 a lw ay s or al m os t a lw ay s tr ue o f m e f % f % f % f % f % i check my comprehension of the content of the mathematical materials by asking myself questions. 0 0 2 7.1% 7 25.0% 6 21% 13 46% table 2 shows the cognitive rehearsal strategies used by the participants to solve the mathematical issue. it suggests that the majority of student teachers use rehearsal-focused cognitive techniques. according to their responses, they practice, recall, read aloud several times, and analyze difficulties in-depth almost constantly. elaboration. this method was illustrated by highlighting and selecting essential details, like the problem’s terms, and using self-reflection to help with problem-solving (gurat, 2018). product development is turning an original idea into an accurate result. essentially, if a procedure does not result in any invention, it cannot be considered creative (liljedahl et al., 2016). pa ge 65 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 62-73, 2025 to increase my comprehension, i make connections between the lecture notes and examples from the textbook. 0 0 1 3.6% 9 32.1% 11 39.3% 7 25.0% i connect the learning resources with what i already know. 0 0 6 21.4% 12 42.9% 8 28.6% 2 7.1% i make connections between related math and other disciplines. 0 0 5 17.9% 8 28.6% 8 28.6% 7 25.0% i will look for everyday examples to connect to math materials. 0 0 9 32.1% 12 42.9% 4 14.3% 3 10.7% table 3 displays the results of an analysis of the cognitive elaboration techniques used by the participants to solve mathematical problems. according to the statistics, the participants’ attitudes regarding cognitive elaboration techniques appear neutral. this is demonstrated by the fact that a significant percentage of participants stated that they used elaboration to solve mathematical problems roughly 50% of the time. this result can also be inferred from the student’s answer to the open-ended question. respondent 2 often assesses how well her response fits the particular context of the problem or topic. organization. one strategy the students employed to solve mathematical issues was methodically building the provided problem. this method is commonly used to create methodical solutions (aydın güç & daltaban, 2021). the math education students presented the problem statement, made a clear graphic, and meticulously broke the problem down into digestible parts to illustrate this method. table 4: cognitive strategies of organization used by students in solving mathematics problems cognitive strategies (rehearsal) 1 n ev er o r o nl y ra re ly v al id in m e 2 s om et im es tr ue o f m e 3 t ru e of m e, ab ou t h al f of th e tim e 4 f re qu en tly tr ue to m e 5 a lw ay s or al m os t a lw ay s tr ue o f m e f % f % f % f % f % in order to organize the concept, i highlight the most important lines. 0 0 3 10.77% 10 35.7% 10 35.7% 5 17.9% i highlight key terms in the word problem. 1 3.6% 6 21.4% 9 32.1% 9 32.1% 3 10.7% i follow the plan methodically. 0 0 5 17.9% 11 39.3% 8 28.6% 4 14.3% i spend time creating a plan of action before doing any calculations. 0 0 2 7.1% 9 32.1% 13 46.4% 4 14.3% i choose appropriate tools to address the problem. 0 0 1 3.6% 9 32.1% 11 39.3% 7 25.0% i go over the textbook and class notes and discover the most important elements. 0 0 4 14.3% 10 35.7% 11 39.3% 3 10.7% i went over the class notes and underlined the key points. 0 0 4 14.3% 9 32.1% 11 39.3% 4 14.3% for each exam, i classify the easy and complex questions. 0 0 2 7.1% 11 39.3% 10 35.7% 5 17.9% i systematically record the steps involved in solving problems. 0 0 3 10.7% 7 25.0% 13 46.4% 5 17.9% i create basic charts and tables to keep my math lesson materials organized. 1 3.6% 2 7.1% 12 42.9% 10 35.7% 3 10.7% i choose the computations required to resolve the problem and project a potential result. 0 0 2 7.1% 9 32.1% 12 42.9% 5 17.9% i execute the plan. 0 0 2 7.1% 16 57.1% 8 28.6% 2 7.1% i adhere to the processes for systematically solving problems. 1 3.6% 3 10.7% 12 42.9% 9 32.1% 3 10.7% i investigated to see where the problem was. 0 0 1 3.6% 11 39.3% 11 39.3% 5 17.9% pa ge 66 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 62-73, 2025 when solving mathematical problems, most respondents organize the problems with a frequency ranging from half the time to often, as shown in table 4. this is further illustrated by participant 7’s response to the openended question/interview, in which he states that one of his methods for resolving mathematical problems is to identify the subject’s key elements and devise a methodical plan to address the issue at hand. furthermore, the student did not follow the sequential problem-solving processes methodically, did not highlight the important terms in the word problem, and did not make simple charts and tables to help the learner organize the math lesson materials. meta-cognitive strategies meta-cognition refers to a person’s awareness and control over their cognitive processes, such as thinking techniques, monitoring, and regulation (güner & erbay, 2021). it refers to the awareness and understanding one’s cognitive processes and fundamental patterns. based on liu and lin’s (2010) mathematics motivated techniques learning questionnaires, gurat (2018) identified two categories of metacognitive techniques that students can use. the following ideas are crucial: self-control and critical thinking. critical thinking the student teacher illustrated this approach by presenting expected outcomes, relating difficulties to real-world situations, picking out important figures or aspects of a problem, and assessing the response’s plausibility. table 5: meta-cognitive strategies of critical thinking used by students in solving mathematics problems cognitive strategies (rehearsal) 1 n ev er o r o nl y ra re ly v al id in m e 2 s om et im es tr ue o f m e 3 t ru e of m e, ab ou t h al f of th e tim e 4 f re qu en tly tr ue to m e 5 a lw ay s or al m os t a lw ay s tr ue o f m e f % f % f % f % f % i make connections between the present problem and other issues. 2 7.1% 2 7.1% 11 39.3% 7 25.0% 6 21.4% i compare the content of the textbook with the teacher's explanation. 2 7.1% 2 7.1% 7 25.0% 11 39.3% 6 21.4% i start with the math class materials and work to establish my perspective on the subjects. 0 0 6 21.4% 8 28.6% 12 42.9% 2 7.1% i choose appropriate tools to address the problem. 0 0 1 3.6% 9 32.1% 11 39.3% 7 25.0% i take notes about the problem. 0 0 2 7.1% 9 32.1% 13 46.4% 4 14.3% i incorporate my thoughts into the lessons i study in math class. 0 0 2 7.1% 11 39.3% 11 39.3% 4 14.3% when i hear a solution or a suggestion, i devise another effective strategy to deal with the problem. 0 0 3 10.7% 7 25.0% 11 39.3% 7 25.0% i identify a possible problem. 0 0 3 10.7% 14 50.0% 9 32.1% 2 7.1% i typically evaluate whether the material is convincing by challenging what i have heard or learned in math class. 0 0 2 7.1% 15 53.6% 9 32.1% 2 7.1% i use units appropriately. 1 3.6% 6 21.4% 10 35.7% 9 32.1% 2 7.1% i monitor the continuous problem-solving procedure and adjust the plan as needed. 0 0 4 14.3% 14 50.0% 8 28.6% 2 7.1% i consider the answer and summarize it. 1 3.6% 24 14.3% 11 39.3% 7 25.0% 5 17.9% i make an assumption based on the task. 2 7.1% 3 10.7% 11 39.3% 10 35.7% 2 7.1% i validate the math concept result with a realworld example. 0 0 4 14.3% 6 21.4% 15 53.6% 3 10.7% according to table 5, some students could not make connections between the given problem and other problems, distinguish between the teacher’s explanation and the material in the textbook, correctly use units, summarize and consider the outcome, and draw conclusions based on the assignment. this suggests that some students are still unaware of how to approach mathematical problems using critical thinking. however, only a tiny percentage of the class made appropriate use of the knowledge they had received in math class while pa ge 67 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 62-73, 2025 solving problems when it came to relating a possible difficulty in the future and asking about the relevance of what they had learned. the survey respondents showed they used critical thinking when solving mathematical issues. self-regulation is the process of monitoring and assessing one’s comprehension of problems and then modifying learning strategies to reach the required degree of proficiency. it also involves how confident pupils are in their answers. table 6: meta-cognitive strategies of self-regulation used by students in solving mathematics problems metacognitive strategies (self-regulation) 1 n ev er o r o nl y ra re ly v al id in m e 2 s om et im es tr ue o f m e 3 t ru e of m e, ab ou t h al f of th e tim e 4 f re qu en tly tr ue to m e 5 a lw ay s or al m os t a lw ay s tr ue o f m e f % f % f % f % f % after class, i reorganized and clarified the unclear parts. 0 0 3 10.7% 8 28.6% 15 53.6% 2 7.1% i establish my goal and stick to my plan. 2 7.1% 2 7.1% 9 32.1% 11 39.3% 4 14.3% i start by listing related formulas. 0 0 2 7.1% 8 28.6% 13 46.4% 5 17.9% my calculations are accurate. 1 3.6% 8 28.6% 15 53.6% 4 14.3% 0 0 i attempt to see where the problem is. 0 0 1 3.6% 11 39.3% 11 39.3% 5 17.9% i will clarify whether my incorrect calculation solutions result from a miscalculation or a conceptual error. 0 0 2 7.1% 10 35.7% 9 32.1% 7 25.0% i consider what worked and how the tasks were completed. 0 0 1 3.6% 9 32.1% 12 42.9% 6 21.4% i double-check my computation. 0 0 1 3.6% 9 32.1% 12 42.9% 6 21.4% after answering the question, i double-check my answer. 0 0 1 3.6% 5 17.9% 13 46.4% 9 32.1% i compare the response to the predicted result. 0 0 1 3.6% 12 42.9% 11 39.3% 4 14.3% table 7: prediction/orientation used by students in solving mathematics problems other strategies (prediction/orientation) 1 n ev er o r o nl y ra re ly v al id in m e 2 s om et im es tr ue o f m e 3 t ru e of m e, ab ou t h al f of th e tim e 4 f re qu en tly tr ue to m e 5 a lw ay s or al m os t a lw ay s tr ue o f m e f % f % f % f % f % i highlight important words in the word problem. 1 3.6% 6 21.4% 9 32.1% 9 32.1% 3 10.7% i have some theories or predictions about what might happen. 0 0 1 3.6% 15 53.6% 9 32.1% 3 10.7% to better understand the task, i reread it. 0 0 1 3.6% 9 32.1% 6 21.4% 12 42.9% as table 6 demonstrates, most student teachers commonly answer “sometimes” when questioned about their level of participation. on the other hand, two students seldom try to establish and adhere to their own objectives. furthermore, none of the students selected “always true” on this question, indicating that most lack confidence in their problem-solving capacity. other strategies gurat (2018) found that students may use planning, monitoring, evaluation, and prediction/orientation strategies. the students’ answers to this study’s openended questions and questionnaire demonstrate these strategies. forecast/orientation students read a mathematical problem several times to find hints and supporting information to help them respond to the given question and guess the answer correctly. pa ge 68 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 62-73, 2025 i write out what has been asked in my own words. 0 0 6 21.4% 9 32.1% 6 21.4% 7 25.0% i chose the necessary information required to solve the problem. 0 0 1 3.6% 11 39.3% 8 28.6% 8 28.6% i write down what i already know in my own words. 0 0 5 17.9% 9 32.1% 9 32.1% 5 17.9% i choose appropriate steps to address the problem. 0 0 2 7.1% 9 32.1% 14 50.0% 3 10.7% i drew an illustration of the problem. 1 3.6% 6 21.4% 12 42.9% 5 17.9% 4 14.3% i combined the facts required to address the problem. 0 0 2 7.1% 11 39.3% 10 35.7% 5 17.9% i consider my work carefully, moving slowly on challenging exercises and quickly on simple ones. 0 0 3 10.7% 15 53.6% 7 25.0% 3 10.7% table 7 demonstrates that when tackling mathematical issues, a sizable percentage, if not the majority, of the student teachers frequently used orientation or prediction strategies. moreover, either one or no respondent reported never using orientation or prediction as a tactic. making plans. before diving into the problem’s answer, student teachers usually do some planning. this is demonstrated by applying critical thinking skills and using classification. one instance is when students identify an issue’s important features and determine the challenge’s possible conclusion. table 8: other strategies (planning) other strategies (planning) 1 n ev er o r o nl y ra re ly v al id in m e 2 s om et im es tr ue o f m e 3 t ru e of m e, ab ou t h al f of th e tim e 4 f re qu en tly tr ue to m e 5 a lw ay s or al m os t a lw ay s tr ue o f m e f % f % f % f % f % i choose appropriate data and numbers to address the problem. 0 0 1 3.6% 7 25.0% 15 53.6% 5 17.9% i spend time creating a plan of action before doing any calculations. 0 0 2 7.1% 9 32.1% 13 46.4% 4 14.3% i choose appropriate tools to address the problem. 0 0 1 3.6% 9 32.1% 11 39.3% 7 25.0% i choose the computations required to solve the problem and anticipate a potential result. 0 0 2 7.1% 9 32.1% 12 42.9% 5 17.9% table 8 indicates that most respondents use regular planning when solving mathematical problems. the student instructors regularly answered “true to me” or “frequently true to me,” while none of them answered “rarely true to me.” observing. when students use the rehearsing technique, they solve mathematical problems meticulously, following a step-by-step procedure. they deliberately address a particular issue once more while actively remembering whether they have previously faced a comparable issue. pa ge 69 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 62-73, 2025 table 9: monitoring used by students in solving mathematics problems other strategies (monitoring) 1 n ev er o r o nl y ra re ly v al id in m e 2 s om et im es tr ue o f m e 3 t ru e of m e, ab ou t h al f of th e tim e 4 f re qu en tly tr ue to m e 5 a lw ay s or al m os t a lw ay s tr ue o f m e f % f % f % f % f % i follow the plan methodically. 0 0 5 17.9% 11 39.3% 8 28.6% 4 14.3% i take notes about the problem. 0 0 2 7.1% 9 32.1% 13 46.4% 4 14.3% i systematically record the steps involved in solving problems. 0 0 3 10.7% 7 25.0% 13 46.4% 5 17.9% i follow the plan. 0 0 2 7.1% 16 57.1% 8 28.6% 2 7.1% my calculations are accurate. 1 3.6% 8 28.6% 15 53.6% 4 14.3% 0 0 i make correct use of units 1 3.6% 6 21.4% 10 35.7% 9 32.1% 2 7.1% i do not forget problem-solving steps 0 0 9 32.1% 12 42.9% 4 14.3% 3 10.7% i follow the sequences of problem-solving steps in an orderly 1 3.6% 3 10.7% 12 42.9% 9 32.1% 3 10.7% i monitor the ongoing problem-solving process and change the plan if necessary 0 0 4 14.3% 14 50.0% 8 28.6% 2 7.1% i reflect on the answer, and only if all are checked, giving a clear, exact, and precise answer 0 0 1 3.6% 11 39.3% 13 46.4% 3 10.7 i check my calculation again 0 0 1 3.6% 9 32.1% 12 42.9% 6 21.4% i recheck my answer after i finish the question. 0 0 1 3.6% 5 17.9% 13 46.4% 9 32.1% table 10: evaluation used by students in solving mathematics problems other strategies (evaluation) 1 n ev er o r on ly ra re ly va lid in m e 2 s om et im es tr ue o f m e 3 t ru e of m e, ab ou t h al f of th e tim e 4 f re qu en tly tr ue to m e 5 a lw ay s or al m os t a lw ay s tr ue o f m e f % f % f % f % f % i relate the given problem to other problems 2 7.1% 2 7.1% 11 39.3% 7 25.0% 6 21.4% i relate future problems 0 0 3 10.7% 14 50.0% 9 32.1% 2 7.1% i summarize the answer and reflect on the answer 1 3.6% 4 14.3% 11 39.3% 7 25.0% 5 17.9% i draw a conclusion referring to the task 2 7.1% 3 10.7% 11 39.3% 10 35.7% 2 7.1% i reflect on what went well and how the tasks were solved 0 0 1 3.6% 9 32.1% 12 42.9% 6 21.4% i recheck my answer after i finish the question. 0 0 1 3.6% 5 17.9% 13 46.4% 9 32.1% as shown in table 9, most respondents use the tie method’s monitoring phase as a typical approach to solving mathematical problems. furthermore, some students hardly ever use monitoring as a tactic. assessment. students practice self-reflection by analyzing their performance, using past knowledge to solve problems, judging the consistency of their responses, and determining whether they have faced comparable circumstances. this is related to the organizational, analytical, and elaborative skills used to solve the mathematical issues based on the earlier findings. according to table 10, most respondents frequently use the assessment method as a common approach to mathematical problem-solving. additionally, particular students hardly ever use evaluation as a tactical tool. techniques employed prior to solving the mathematical problem pa ge 70 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 62-73, 2025 one of the study’s objectives is to find out how student instructors approach solving mathematical problems. table 11 shows the abilities that students use before engaging in problem-solving tasks. table 11: mean score of the strategies before answering mathematical problem-solving before solving a problem mean i repeatedly analyze the problem. 4.07 i mark up the important lines for concept organization. 3.61 i underline important words in the word problem 3.25 i select relevant numbers/data to solve the problem 3.86 i adhere to the plan systematically 3.39 i relate the given problem to other problems 3.46 i take time to design an action plan before actually calculating 3.68 i have some ideas or estimates of the possible outcome 3.50 i compare the difference between the teacher’s explanation and textbook content. 3.61 i ask questions to myself to make sure that i understand the math materials' content 4.00 i repeatedly practice similar question types. 3.86 i study the class notes and textbook again and again. 3.21 i make the math class materials a starting point and try to self-develop my viewpoint. 3.36 i reorganized and clarified the confusing points after class. 3.57 i try searching for patterns or symmetry to find the correct answer, like thinking of a more manageable problem than doing the given task. 3.89 i reread the task to comprehend it better 4.04 i select relevant materials to solve the problem. 3.86 i make notes related to the problem 3.68 i write down in my own words what was asked for 3.50 i select the relevant information needed to solve the problem 3.82 i combine my ideas into the math class. 3.61 i memorize the important and key math formulas to remind me of the important part of my math class 3.61 i link the class notes to textbook examples to improve my understanding. 3.25 i read the class notes and textbook and found the most important parts. 3.46 i read through the class notes and marked up the important parts. 3.54 i categorize the easy-hard questions for every exam. 3.64 when i hear of some idea or solution, i find another efficient way to solve the problem. 3.79 i set up my target and followed the agenda i made. 3.46 i list related formulas first. 3.75 i divide the problems into parts, or i solve them in general. 3.43 i write down in my own words what i already know 3.50 i select relevant steps to solve the problem 3.64 i orderly take note of problem-solving steps 3.71 i relate future problems 3.36 i made a drawing related to the problem 3.18 i put the information needed to solve the problem together 3.64 total 3.61 as indicated in table 11, students usually practice, elaborate, organize, and exercise critical thinking before solving the mathematical problem. one of the most important strategies is that students typically conduct several analyses of the issue before offering a solution. in order to gain a deeper understanding of the first problem, students must also examine it multiple times before answering it. techniques employed in solving mathematical problems another study goal is to discover student teachers’ pa ge 71 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 62-73, 2025 methods to solve mathematical problems. table 12 shows the skills that students use when working on problemsolving exercises. table 12: mean score of the strategies while answering mathematical problem-solving while solving a problem mean i usually question what i hear or what i earn in math class and judge whether this information is persuasive. 3.39 i know how and when to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. 4.29 i used trial and error when i did not know the formula of the problem. 4.21 i have my tactics for solving a problem 3.46 in order to get the correct answer, i have to follow the method step by step. 4.04 i combine my own known knowledge with the learning materials. 3.89 i make simple charts and tables to help me organize my math class materials. 3.43 i am aware of what "borrowing" means when subtracting numbers. 4.18 i select the calculations that will be needed to solve the problem and estimate a possible outcome 3.71 i visualize the scenario in the problem by drawing, hoping to see what is asked about the problem. 3.25 i know how to manipulate the general formula to arrive at a specific formula for getting what is missing in the problem. 3.21 i use arithmetic to solve the problem. 3.39 i know what "carrying" means and how to use it. 4.00 i use strategies that provide a definite way to reach a goal. 3.61 i use different strategies like guessing and checking, diagrams, and others to solve problems, trying to bring out the even if i am unsure of my answer 3.43 i act according to the plan 3.36 i am correct in my calculations 2.79 i reflect on work carefully and slowly on challenging exercises and fast on easy parts 3.36 i make correct use of units 3.18 i remember how to solve problems. 3.04 i follow all the processes for systematically solving problems. 3.36 i keep an eye on the continuous process of problem-solving and adjust 3.29 total 3.54 table 13: mean score of the strategies after answering mathematical problem-solving after solving a problem mean i link relative portions of math and other subjects. 3.68 i look to find out where the problem is. 3.71 i analyze my answer and summarize it. 3.39 i reflect on my answer. 3.64 i check whether this is a conceptual mistake or a miscalculation when i answer incorrectly. 3.75 based on the results, table 12 demonstrates that most students use monitoring and organization strategies when tackling mathematical problems. when responding, they also exhibit critical thought, self-control, practice, and prediction. student teachers carefully consider and follow a methodical approach to problem-solving. they also successfully organize their answer to reach the intended outcome. additionally, students clearly understand when to use fundamental operations while solving mathematical problems, as seen by its highest mean score. additionally, student teachers use a trial-and-error method when unsure of which formula to apply while solving a problem. however, most individuals still lack confidence in their final calculation or response. techniques employed following the solution of the mathematical problem this study aims to determine how student teachers approach solving mathematical problems. table 13 shows the skills that students used following problem-solving exercises. pa ge 72 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 62-73, 2025 i make an assumption based on the problem given. 3.25 i consider what worked and how the tasks were completed. 3.82 i check my calculation again 3.82 after answering the question, i go back and review my response. 4.07 i validate the math theory result with a real-world example. 3.61 i review the formula and key ideas on my own. 3.64 i can find any samples in daily life that link with math materials. 3.36 i compare the response to the anticipated result. 3.64 i practice the same kinds of questions over and over. 3.54 total 3.64 after completing the mathematical exercise, table 13 demonstrates that students use monitoring, selfregulation, and critical thinking. once they have their final response, i advise them to participate in verification. according to the data, individuals who checked their responses after responding to the question had the highest average. they also reassess to see if their answer makes sense and suits the task. however, students’ capacity to conclude from the provided information is lacking. conclusion students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education use cognitive and metacognitive problemsolving approaches. the student instructors tackle difficulties using cognitive strategies like planning, elaboration, and rehearsing. the student teachers also use metacognitive techniques like self-control and critical thinking to deal with difficulties. they employ other tactics, such as preparation, observation, and assessment. the study found that student teachers in mathematics education are familiar with various approaches to solving mathematical issues. it indicates that they will impart the skills they have learned to their future students. it is commendable that math teachers at the undergraduate level use tactics before, during, and after problem-solving. the study’s results indicate that while people know these strategies, they do not always apply them effectively when solving mathematical problems, leading to low scores. with an emphasis on problem-solving strategies that produce precise and ideal answers, future studies might examine applying practical approaches in mathematics education for student teachers. future studies should look into the factors, particularly problem-solving skills, that affect pupils’ performance in mathematics. acknowledgments this study article was produced by the educational statistics course at saint mary’s university in bayombong, nueva vizcaya, philippines, for the master of science in teaching major in mathematics program. i thank the department of science and technology—science education institution for financing this research and providing me with a scholarship under the capacity building program in science and mathematics education (cbpsme). additionally, i want to thank everyone who helped with this study, particularly the reviewers. references albay, m. 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(2009). do mathematics teachers talk about their teacher preparation experiences? impst: the journal, 4, 2–9. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej859287 special issue (2nd eic-2024) published by e-palli publishers, delaware, usa 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 52 nexus between india and bangladesh in the liberation war of bangladesh: consequences of international agreement rowshon ara romke1* 1 department of social science, american international university-bangladesh (aiub), bangladesh * corresponding author e-mail: jromke@aiub.edu abstract the support of india and the soviet union was very important in the liberation war in bangladesh. why did they support and why did on august 9, 1971, the foreign ministers of india and the union of soviet socialist republics (ussr) signed a treaty of “peace, friendship and cooperation” on the eve of the liberation war in bangladesh? the present study will investigate these research questions through secondary methods. the study is descriptive, and the study is part of history. for this reason, a historical approach and secondary sources were used. the historical review method has been followed because the study is of contemporary international relations. the historic indosoviet treaty had an immediate impact on the decisive battle between india and pakistan in the eastern war theater. this essay deals with the explanation for establishing a treaty that was signed on august 9, 1971, between the soviet union and india. a focus has been made on the reasons for india's brightest role in the liberation war in bangladesh. this paper also highlights that the friendship treaty between these two countries was not signed to help and aid east pakistan, but its background prevailed in the 1955 bandung conference and the ussr’s involvement in the liberation war of bangladesh in the context of soviet-american rivalry during the cold war. but it was spread out in 1969, and on august 9, 1971, the foreign minister of india and the soviet union signed the treaty “peace, friendship, and cooperation” at a special moment during the war of 1971. keywords: indo-soviet friendship treaty, soviet union, u.s.a, pakistan, india, east pakistan, bangladesh, liberation war, struggle for independence, diplomatic initiatives introduction west pakistan led by president yahya khan launched operation searchlight in dhaka on 25 march, 1971 that marked by oppression, gang rapes, genocide. following nine months brutal struggle on 16 december, 1971, pakistani troops surrendered before indian soldiers and bangladesh’s forces. the 1971 indo-pakistan war changed the map of south asia resulted in the secession of east pakistan, putting an end to 24 years of pakistan rule. the year 1971 witnessed a brutal struggle for independence waged by east pakistan, soon to be bangladesh. this was not just a war against west pakistan's oppressive rule but a triangle web of international alliances and strategic moves shaped international power politics. at the center of this web, india and bangladesh are intertwined, bound by shared history, culture, geopolitics and a secret international agreement. amidst the war of independence on 9 august 1971, historical ‘peace, friendship, and cooperation treaty’ was signed between the two powerful states (u.s.s.r. and india), india’s previous non-alignment stance was changed in the cold war era pushing the region closer to the bangladesh war as china and america battled for influence in lieu of stand beside pakistan. this study delves into this complex relationship, unraveling the existence, nature, and impact of such an agreement on the war's outcome and the lasting mark it left on both nations. the india-bangladesh tie does carry strong historical and cultural overtones, but both sides also realize the immense benefits of a strong relationship. india and bangladesh share 4096.7 km of border, which is the largest land border that india shares with any of its neighboring countries, out of which 1116.2 km is riverine (andrio, 2016). geopolitics and history and international politics played a vital role in creating a nexus between india and bangladesh during liberation war of bangladesh. it is well known that india helped bangladesh in 1971, but contemporaneously, it would not be possible for india if the ussr, which is e-palli international conferences on business, arts, and social sciences (eic-bas) www.conferences.e-palli.com 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) 14 april 2024 kathmandu, nepal doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3771 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 53 now russia, could not spread its hand of cooperation. not only indira gandhi’s government helped the bangladeshi masses, but also the indian people, armed forces helped and supported bangladesh. however, it is very urgent to show an elucidate background on why and how india was active and its attitude was positive in the liberation war of bangladesh. objectives of the study this study aims to unveil and analyze why india and the soviet union concluded the “peace, friendship, and cooperation” treaty on august 9, 1971? furthermore, it will evaluate the immediate impact of such an agreement on the indo-bangladeshi relationship. methodology this present study is qualitative in nature and employs content analysis to glean insights from diverse secondary sources. leveraging pre-existing data aligns with kothari's (2004) observation that secondary sources have already been collected and analyzed by someone and are readily available for use. this approach, noted by abdullah (2017), proves cost-effective and expeditious compared to primary data collection. the present study is a part of history; for this reason, a historical approach has been used because the study pertains to contemporary international relations. a substantial amount of literature exists on this issue, so various secondary sources of data have been extracted through a thorough review of several books, journal articles published in both reputed national and international journals, newspaper articles, and web documents that helped the author to gain in-depth understanding. literature review scholars like srinath raghavan (1992) and sumit ganguly (2001) delve into the complex motivations behind the treaty. they highlight india's concerns regarding china's growing influence, pakistan's military build-up, and the perceived need to counterbalance the us in the region. conversely, scholars like rajesh rajagopalan (2001) emphasize the soviet desire to gain strategic leverage in south asia against china and the us. nandan unnikrishnan (2021) makes it quite evident in hindustan times that many people think the crisis that resulted in the creation of bangladesh at the end of 1971 and the ensuing conflict over east pakistan is what ultimately convinced india to sign the treaty. echoing the same, saleem samad (2021) in dhaka tribune reported on how an indo-soviet treaty expedited the bangladesh war of independence 50 years ago and how the agreement restrained pakistan and its allies from embarking on a course of “military adventurism” in the subcontinent. this treaty not only epitomized the special relationship between india and the soviet union but also acted as a guarantor of regional peace. the indo-soviet treaty was later adopted as the india-bangladesh treaty of friendship and cooperation in 1972. according to a number of academics, such as barbara ramm (2005) and p.r. rao (2007) ingrained that the treaty gave india the confidence to intervene in the bangladesh liberation war since it guaranteed soviet backing in the event that tensions with china and the us escalated. others, such as christophe jaffrelot (2010), challenge this viewpoint by pointing out india's prior commitment to aiding the independence movement in bengal. the treaty's immediate as well as long-term consequences are widely debated. some literatures like bhabani sengupta (2012) emphasizes the economic and military benefits that india received from the ussr. others, like david washbrook (2001) critique the treaty's potential for compromising india's nonaligned foreign policy and fostering dependence on the soviet union. recent published research by rajesh rajagopalan (2022) and srinath raghavan (2021) examines the treaty's continued significance in light of india's evolving relations with china and russia. they draw attention to the treaty's enduring historical significance and its impact on contemporary regional dynamics. many authors (drong andrio, david scott, jackson, rounaq jahan, van scandal, aurobindo mahapatra, guhathakurta meghna) aptly discussed that the ussr helped bangladesh in 1971 through india considering the ethical and political grounds. i argue that the ussr’s involvement in bangladesh’s liberation war was to counterbalance the capitalist hegemony of u.s.a in this region and a big country like india can act as a strategic partner of soviet union against u.s.a. and china. theoretical framework decision-making theory decision-making approach studies politics as a process of decision making that explores the attributes of decision makers as well as the type of influences on the decision makers. richard snyder’s decision-making theory is considered as theoretical 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 54 framework to understand the consequences and dynamics of the ‘peace, friendship, and cooperation treaty’, 1971 and the supportive role of u.s.s.r. in the liberation war of bangladesh through convincing india. when u.s.s.r. and india perceive that the international order is threatened, the leaders and actors of both countries took the hard decision to help east pakistan against the triangle web of america, china and pakistan considering internal setting (national interest) and external setting (actions and reactions of other states) of decision-making process. internal setting interacts with the decision makers, i.e. the decision makers gather information and opinions from the internal environment and inform the environment. likewise, there is an interaction between the decision makers and the external setting. the decision or action that the decision makers take to spread to the internal and external setting and through the feedback about the response of the environment, it goes to the decision makers. thus, decisions are made through feedback in various settings. so, decision making approach involves study of complex and interrelated social, political, psychological processes. assumptions of snyder’s approach a. all political action is undertaken by concrete human beings, and b. if we want to properly understand the nature of their action, we should view the world not from our point of view but from the perspective of persons responsible for taking decisions. game theory kaplan, schelling and riker believe that the theory of games is a very important tool for analysis of international politics. the situation prevailed in the present study can be fruitfully explained in terms of games theory because every nation, especially the superpowers was busy in finding out strategy to cope with the move adopted by the rival powers. during the cold war period (bi-polar) the rivalry between the two superpowers was excessively animated by the strategy of games. the strategy taken by one power was swiftly followed by another power and this process heavily shaped international politics for more than two decades. by applying game theory in international politics, it gives us an insight on how alliances or agreements control international politics and try to maximize national interest. in the game theory, mutual assured destruction (mad) is based on the theory of deterrence which explains that the threat of using strong weapons against rivals prevents the enemy’s use of those weapons. if the soviet union, choose don’t attack, the game ends, and results in a stalemate where no nuclear weapons are used. however, if the soviet union choose to attack, the usa must then decide its move; whether to retaliate, or don’t retaliate. during the cold war era in 1954 military pact seato and cento was signed between america and pakistan. this military treaty made ussr and india (socialist nations) closer ever before. in 1962’s sino-india and 1965’s indo-pak war turned the domestic politics into international conflicting situation. however, in aforesaid events number of participants (game theory) were two and according to karl deutsch purpose of games based on zero-sum games. in bi-polar system what is beneficial to the united states is detrimental to the soviet union or vice versa. in such game, there is permanent antagonism between the two parties. even though both sides are guided by rationality adopting a plan to defeat the opponent. consequently, concerning the issue of bangladesh liberation war number of participants (game theory) were more than two making alliances and agreement where purpose of games based on mixed-motive games. in the context of international politics, nuclear power countries have developed their own nuclear power by competing with each other (games of competition). making treaty or alliances with friend countries (games of cooperation), the two superpowers action or decision in a game involves a reward or a penalty. number of players/participants: (n-person games) when more than two persons/players compete in any conflicting situation, then we can see the intrusion of making alliances or treaty that make the situation more complex. strategic move of triangle web is observed during the liberation war and players (n-person games) are: pakistan (west pakistan), u.s.a., china vs bangladesh (east pakistan), india, ussr strategies/level of achievement of games theory usa, china, pakistan: pakistan tried to take control over east pakistan by the military crackdown on 25 march 1971. usa and china gave moral and military support in favor of islamabad. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 55 ussr., india, bangladesh: india supported bangladesh's independence movement through military intervention with the help of ussr aiming to counter usa and china’s influence in the region. payoffs/goal: each player seeks to maximize their own interests as outcomeby examining these factors through the lens of game theory, we can see games of cooperation and games of competition that give us a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics and prevalences of the bangladesh liberation war. lastly, it can be said that the triangle web of ussr., india, bangladesh succeeded in international political game while counter triangle partners usa, china, pakistan defeated in the game of liberation war of bangladesh. results and discussion a) background of the ‘peace, friendship, and cooperation treaty’, 1971 pakistan maintaining control over east pakistan as a dominant actor. bangladesh seeking independence, freedom from west pakistani oppression. india weakening pakistan (common enemy of india and bangladesh) increasing regional influence. ussr weakened the hegemony of usa and china, improved relations with india. usa to sabotage ussr’s spread of communism in asia china to emerge as more powerful country in this region spreading monopolistic hegemony. consequently, after the seato treaty the world witnessed the historical bandung conference. the main objective of the bandung conference (1955) was to foster economic and cultural cooperation among afro-asian countries aiming to counteract the influence of us and ussr colonization and new colonialism. despite india being one of the main proponents of the conference's mission, its relations with the soviet union did not deteriorate. the ussr sought to capitalize on this opportunity through india, hence soviet newspapers referred to indian prime minister nehru as a great leader of the nonaligned countries and nehru’s policy of non-alignment was appreciated by the soviet union. consequently, an amicable working relationship developed between the two countries following the visit of bulganin and khrushchev to new delhi in december 1955. immediately after the bandung conference, nehru toured the soviet union and signed a joint declaration with bulganin (nikolai bulganin, chairman of the soviet council of ministers from 1955 until 1958). in this context, jahan (2005) opined, “historically, the ussr under stalin was suspicious of the genuineness of india’s independence and non-alignment. however, indo-soviet relations began with jawaharlal nehru’s visit to the ussr in june 1955 and the nikita khrushchev/ nikolai bulganin visit to india in december 1955. this was also when the congress party in india was asserting its belief in state planning and a ‘socialist pattern of society,’ with nehru playing a leading role in the bandung conference (1955) of 29 afro-asian nations.” this relationship continued to progress gradually. furthermore, in 1962, sino-indian war and in 1965’s indo-pak war provided an opportunity for closer ties between the ussr and india. during this time, the ussr became active in the politics of the subcontinent as the mediator of the indo-pak war and extended cooperation towards india (mahapatra, 2011). following figure illustrates how an amiable relationship was developed between ussr and india: the study argues that these historic events mysteriously worked in favor of figure 1: how an amiable relationship was developed between ussr and india 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 56 bangladesh, resulting in the historic indo-soviet treaty of ‘peace, friendship, and cooperation’ was signed during the liberation war of bangladesh. few treaties have influenced world politics, history, and geography as much as this one. many experts have compared the signing of the treaty as india’s second liberation. b) consequences of the agreement andrio (2016) highlights that india decided to go to war against pakistan when indira gandhi failed to gain american support. finally, she made the hard decision to sign the treaty to curb the hegemony of u.s.a and china in this region. the treaty was appreciated from historical viewpoint because the struggle for the independence of east pakistan (now bangladesh) gained momentum in 1971. after the indo-soviet friendship treaty, east european countries took a positive attitude towards the bangladesh issue. ultimately, through this treaty, both the ussr and india decided to support east pakistan. therefore, it is not straightforward to say that the agreement between india and the soviet union was solely aimed at liberating bangladesh. on the other hand, the us sympathized with pakistan for various reasons: firstly, pakistan belonged to american-led military pacts, cento and seato, and secondly, the us believed that any indian victory would be seen as an expansion of soviet influence in the regions gained by india, as it was perceived to be a pro-soviet nation, despite pursuing a policy of nonalignment. the history of the liberation war begins with the elections held in december 1970, where the awami league, led by sheikh mujibur rahman, won 160 out of 162 seats (39.2% of the vote), all from east pakistan. this was more than double the pakistan people’s party's 18.6% vote share. bhutto ignored the fact that the awami league had a comfortable majority. president yahya khan tried to suppress east pakistan’s legitimate demands. after the military crackdown (march 25, 1971) sheikh mujibur rahman was arrested and taken to west pakistan. the operation has been termed as genocide against the bengalis of east pakistan. the hindu minority colonies were specially targeted for rape and murder. not only logistical support but also for the release of bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman from the prison of pakistan, the then prime minister of india (indira gandhi) traveled around the world to gather support for the cause and create world public opinion. opponent player of india and east pakistanpakistani president yahya khan had stated that “if india made any attempt to seize any part of east pakistan, he would declare war and pakistan would not be alone.” pakistan with the tacit support of the united states was trying to involve the un in east pakistan which india regarded as “an unnecessary interference in the internal affairs” of another country. china gave unconditional support to her “all-weather” friend pakistan against india as if new delhi would not dare to interfere in the domestic affairs of pakistan. during the july 1971 meeting between henry kissinger and chou en-lai (the chinese prime minister), chou en-lai had clearly indicated to the then us secretary of state that in case of an indo-pakistan war over east bengal, beijing would launch military intervention against india on behalf of islamabad. india was desperate to deter chinese intervention (rahman, 1989). on april 2, 1971, soviet president podgorni wrote a letter to president yahya khan, giving him a red signal that urged yahya to take ‘the most urgent measures to stop the bloodshed and repression against the population in east pakistan and for turning to methods of a peaceful political settlement.’ this would be in the interest of pakistan and in ‘the interest of preserving peace in the area’. when pakistan’s air force proactively attacked indian forces on december 3, india responded by invading the new country, now bangladesh. james novak aptly portrayed a nexus between india and bangladesh during the liberation war in such a way that, finally, in december 1971, the indian army entered bangladesh. after a few firefights, including one major battle at jessore, the indians quickly subdued the pakistanis, who had become dissolute as they murdered scores of innocent people and raped local women. indeed, the pakistanis’ behavior for ever will be an infamous example of an army that bullied, raped, and murdered, then broke, ran, and surrendered in the face of the first organized resistance it faced. thus, bangladesh was born (novak, 1993). the contribution of the indian government, citizens, and military was unprecedented during the liberation war of bangladesh in 1971. after the crackdown on march 25, india intervened and sent the indian army to fight against pakistani soldiers and supported freedom fighters by providing training, food, shelter, and other assistance. on march 27, 1971, prime minister indira gandhi expressed full support from her government for the independence of bangladesh. under the leadership of indira gandhi, all-out support was given by india to the struggling people of east pakistan (bangladesh) during the liberation war. the bangladesh-india border was opened to allow bangladeshi refugees safe shelter in india. the governments of west bengal, bihar, assam, meghalaya, uttar pradesh, and tripura established refugee camps along the border. exiled bangladeshi army officers and voluntary workers from india immediately started using these camps for the recruitment and training of mukti bahini guerrillas (schendel, 2012). 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 57 source: drong andrio, 2016, p.738. the bsf, army, navy, and air force of india aided east pakistan. they portrayed 69 indian-sponsored insurgent training camps bordering east pakistan, with an estimated total of 30–50 thousand rebels training. the bsf has established camps at which 10,000 bengalis are reportedly receiving training in guerrilla and sabotage tactics. in the month of september, the indian army gradually started to participate directly in the liberation war. india's army, navy, and air force were lauded for their role in ending a genocide and giving birth to a new nation (david, 2013). in delhi, a three-day international conference on the bangladesh issue took place, in which 150 delegates representing 24 countries participated. on september 20, 1971, on behalf of the conference, an appeal was made to all the governments of the world to recognize bangladesh as an independent nation and to stop helping west pakistan with any kind of military aid (ashfaque, 2012). through this conference in india, bangladesh got worldwide ethical and moral support. world response to the genocide can be analyzed at dual levelsofficial and non-official. while the world watched in horror, india and its allies u.s.s.r. firmly stood beside bangladesh, offering unwavering support. pakistan, however, cloaked the atrocities in lies, garnering backing from some islamic nations and china. yet, the tide of truth couldn't be dammed forever. the official policy of the united states was to “tilt in favor of pakistan” because pakistan was used as an intermediary to open the door to china. at the nonofficial level, there was a great outpouring of sympathy for the bangladesh cause worldwide because of the genocide. the western media—particularly the u.s., british, french, and australian, well-known western artists and intellectuals came out in support of bangladesh. george harrison and ravi shankar held a bangladesh concert. andre malraux, the noted french author, volunteered to go and fight with the bengali freedom fighters. in the united states, citizen groups and individuals lobbied successfully with congress to stop military aid to pakistan. despite the nixon administration’s official support of the pakistani government, influential senators and congressmen (such as frank church and edward kennedy) spoke out strongly against the genocide. members of parliament in the united kingdom, europe, and other western countries were also highly critical of the bangladesh genocide. the us president richard nixon called indians aggressors and ordered to support pakistan by the us troops deployed in vietnam. and on the other hand, the soviet leader leonid brezhnev assured that if the us or china attacked india, the soviet union would take severe counter measures. both officially and unofficially, india played a critical role in mobilizing support for bangladesh. the genocide and the result of influx of ten million refugees in west bengal and neighboring states created spontaneous, unofficial sympathy. the press, political parties, and voluntary organizations in india pushed prime minister indira gandhi to immediately intervene in bangladesh when the pakistani army cracked down in march 1971. the indian government initially declined to intervene but gave moral and financial support to the bangladesh government-in-exile as well as the freedom fighters. it also sponsored a systematic international campaign in favor of bangladesh. and finally, in december 1971, when the ground was well prepared, bangladesh was liberated as a result of direct indian army intervention. on december 6, 1971, prime minister indira gandhi said in the lok sabha, ‘pakistan had declared war against india. there is no importance to a peaceful solution. bangladeshi people are engaged in their struggle for existence, and india is fighting against aggression. they are, like us, fighting against a common enemy. i am pleased to inform the houses that in the existing situation and due to repeated requests from the bangladesh government, we have carefully decided to grant recognition to the people’s republic of bangladesh” (khan, 1976). india provided not only logistical and moral support during the liberation war but also recognized and motivated other countries to recognize bangladesh. the soviet union, the first major power, recognized bangladesh, which it did within 38 days (on january 26, 1972) of its de facto liberation from the pakistani forces (khan, 1967). for bangladesh, it was a tough diplomatic effort to earn the nation’s recognition because zulfikar ali bhutto clearly stated that if any nation recognized bangladesh, then pakistan would break all diplomatic relations with that nation. in recognizing bangladesh, pakistan really suspended diplomatic relations with a few countries. from the above discussions an abridge table 1: india’s contribution india’s contribution number/ amount spent 7,000 crores of rupees sacrificed lives 3630 indian army officers and soldiers wounded 9856 indian army officers and soldiers missed officers and soldiers more than 213 source: drong andrio, 2016, p.738. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 58 overview is portrayed why the ussr and india took sides with bangladesh and the causes of building a nexus between india and bangladesh: 1. signing the peace, friendship, and cooperation treaty with india on august 9,1971, the ussr expressed its strong support for india’s initiatives in favor of bangladesh. 2. sending the soviet navy from vladivostok to prevent america’s warships from entering the indian ocean. 3. imposing veto power: the ussr vetoed 3 times against the cease-fire proposed by the us in the un security council during the security council’s sessions 1606, 1607, and 1613 (in between december 4 and 13, 1971). 4. the aim of the treaty was to prevent the u.s. dominance over east and south asia. 5. attempts were made to spread communism in east and south asia by convincing india. during the penultimate days of the indo-pak war over bangladesh, the soviet veto in the un security council against a us-backed proposal for a ceasefire paved the way for the indo-bangladesh allied forces to march into dhaka and secure the defeat and surrender of 90 thousand pakistani troops on december 16th december 1971. the soviet union’s positive role thus contributed immensely to the historic triumph of bangladesh. the response of the soviet union to the 1971 crisis in east pakistan was conditioned by the general soviet policy with regard to asia in the 1960s. it was a policy of growing involvement, initially undertaken to contain america’s influence in east and south asia. concluding remarks ‘peace, friendship, and cooperation treaty’ (article iv) states that india respects u.s.s.r’s peace-loving policy and u.s.s.r. respects india’s policy of non-alignment. the two countries stood beside bangladesh showing the proper respect of the statement of the article. the events surrounding the treaty's signing unfolded during a period of immense historical significance. in this regard, meghna guhathakurta expressed her aspiration in the lines: “as throngs of people from east pakistan fled across the border to india, especially to west bengal, many volunteers from west bengal and beyond came to give aid to the war refugees and help out in the mushrooming camps. k.k. sinha, a humanist philosopher and political thinker, was among them. during one of his visits to the camps around october 1971, he and his wife were in a car accident. he succumbed to his injuries after taking his wife to the hospital. like many, he felt the need to wake up civil society in west pakistan to the atrocities of the pakistani regime and to exhort them to help the victims. his wife, sati sinha, wrote in the preface to his posthumously published collected writings on bangladesh, bangladesh revolution for liberation: “the author’s prayer and dream was to see bangladesh liberated, which he could not witness due to his untimely and sad passing away. but his dream has come true. bangladesh was liberated from the clutches and tyranny of west pakistan and achieved full independence” (guhathakurta & schendel, 2013). according to sachin karmakar (a sub-sector commander and veteran of 1971), after world war ii, the greatest triumph of indo-soviet friendship and cooperation in the indian subcontinent was the emergence of bangladesh. the treaty of ‘peace, friendship, and cooperation’ was a shock to america because they feared that the involvement of the soviet union could sabotage their plan to expand their influence in east and south asia, under which russia was bound to defend india in case of any external aggression. but all efforts by pakistan, america, and china failed due to the persuading activities of india with the collaboration of the ussr. the birth of bangladesh came into reality with india’s support and sympathy under the supervision of the ussr. references andrio, d. (2016). india’s role in the emergence of bangladesh as an independent state. vestnik rudn. international relations, 16(4), 1023–1034. ashfaque, h. (2012). liberation war, emergence of bangladesh and united nations. prothoma prokashan. bangladesh genocide archive. (2018). official website. retrieved from http://www.genocidebangladesh.org chowdhury, a. m., & alam, f. (2002). bangladesh: on the threshold of the twenty-first century. asiatic society of bangladesh, mother printers. ganguly, s. (2001). india in the twenty-first century: democracy, development, and globalization. lexington books. guhathakurta, m., & van schendel, w. (eds.). (2013). the bangladesh reader: history, culture, politics. duke university press. jaffrelot, c. (2010). india’s silent revolution: the rise of the lower castes in the backward states. columbia university press. jahan, r. (2005). bangladesh politics: problems and issues. the university press limited. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 59 lewis, d. (2013). bangladesh: politics, economy, and civil society. cambridge university press. mahapatra, a. (2011). revisiting the treaty of friendship. strategic culture foundation, online journal. novak, j. j. (1993). bangladesh: reflections on the water. the university press limited. parthasarathi, a. (2011). forty years of the indo-soviet treaty: a historic landmark at the global level. mainstream weekly, xlix(34), 39–42. raghavan, s. (1992). india’s foreign policy and national security. south asian publishers. raghavan, s. (2021). impossible rivals? india and russia in the changing world order. oxford university press. rajagopalan, r. (2001). stalking the himalayan dragon: india, china and the quest for power. penguin books india. rajagopalan, r. (2022). india and russia: the many lives of a strategic partnership. oxford university press. ramm, b. (2005). india: the struggle for religious freedom. routledge. rao, p. r. (2007). india’s foreign relations since independence. sage publications. rounaq, j. (2005). bangladesh politics: problems and issues. the university press limited. scott, d. (2011). india’s relations with russia, uk. routledge. sengupta, b. (2012). india-russia relations: from cold war camaraderie to strategic partnership. routledge. van schendel, w. (2012). a history of bangladesh. cambridge university press. washbrook, d. (2001). india in the twentieth century. allen lane. front page 3771 52-59 special issue (2nd eic-2024) published by e-palli publishers, delaware, usa 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 40 a comprehensive analysis on non-communicable diseases by quantitative approach: using graphical visualization victor stany rozario1* abstract non-communicable diseases (ncds) have already become major killers in bangladesh. once ncds are developed, they become chronic health and economic problems. their primary prevention is linked to their common risk factors. this study was conducted to visualize the trend of the diseases along with the age factor in rural areas of bangladesh. a quantitative method was used throughout the research to reach the desired goal of this study. the data was collected from a medical association to use in this research and for processing the graphical visualization some preprocessing techniques are also applied on the raw data. after completing the research, the researchers found the percentage of the patients according to the diseases and the disease count along with the patients’ age. the outcome is totally represented in graphical visualization. this research will help to find the numeric measurement of a particular disease considering age factor which can help to reduce the issues in medical sectors. keywords: graphical visualization, non-communicable diseases, rural area introduction the population density of bangladesh is 1050 people per km which had 1.55 million inhabitants in 2012, is among the world's most densely inhabited nations (zaman, et al., 2006). a 1.37% annual population growth rate is observed, with a male to female ratio of 104.9/100. bangladesh has a relatively youthful population according to its wide-based population pyramid. in bangladesh, there are 118 teenage (15–19-year-old) fertility cases per one thousand women, and in the year of 2011 the life expectancy at birth is 69 years (khanam, et al., 2011). this is partially explained by the fact that a sizable portion of the youth would reach reproductive age in the upcoming decades. it won't be anticipated for decades that the bangladesh demographic and health survey would decline noticeably. there are some diseases which can be prevented through vaccine like hiv, malaria, pneumonia, and neglected tropical diseases (lumbago, fever and knee pain, chronic sinusitis and fever, asthma, venous disease, pain, blood pressure) are the main infectious diseases in bangladesh. but non-communicable diseases (ncds) like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic respiratory illnesses are now more common in bangladesh than communicable diseases. ncds are the cause of more than half of hospital mortality. the information indicates an increasing trend in ncd-related mortality between the ages of 17 and 80. the purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence of prevalent human illnesses in bangladeshi rural regions as a function of age. there are lots of diseases like lumbago and knee pain, chest pain, knee pain, stomachache, lumbago, hormonal disorder, allergy, fever and knee pain, chronic sinusitis and fever, asthma, venous disease, pain, blood pressure which are not even collectively come forward through any research along with age factor visualization. this research will try to represent the trend of the diseases over age factors which is the novelty of this research. literature review major non-communicable diseases (ncds) such hormone disorder illness, lumbago, and knee pain, as well as chest, knee, and stomachaches, have already developed into significant public health issues in bangladesh. the world health organization 1 american international university-bangladesh (aiub), bangladesh * corresponding author: stany@aiub.edu e-palli international conferences on science technology, engineering, and mathematics (eic-stem) www.conferences.e-palli.com 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) 14 april 2024 kathmandu, nepal doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3777 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 41 (who) states in its global status report on ncds 2014 (ahsan, et al., 2009) that there is an estimated 17.5% chance of early deaths from any of the aforementioned ncds occurring between the ages of 30 and 70. due to ncds, there were 277,500 fatalities in 2012 overall, translating to a mortality rate of 564.1 per 100,000 for men and 531.9 per 100,000 for women (weycker, et al., 2007). ncds were the cause of nearly half (49%) of fatalities. these ncd rates are already part of the growing trend online (bennett, et al., 2018), which also includes the rising trends of diabetes and high blood pressure in bangladesh (zaman, et al., 2006). a few prevalent risk factors for ncds include a diet poor in fruits and vegetables, a lack of physical exercise, tobacco use, alcohol abuse, obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol, and elevated glucose. compared to ncds, these risk factors are more prevalent and simpler to identify. the risk factors of today will develop into ncds of tomorrow. the cost of controlling them is lower than that of treating fully developed ncds. as a result, the risk factor strategy has gained popularity for ncd prevention. the fact that ncds are complex illnesses is well acknowledged. early ncd maturation is typically caused by a combination of factors. these illnesses are found in nearly all age groups of individuals. there have been findings on the clustering of risk factors, particularly in hypertension patients, from the populations in the united states (barreto, et al., 2001), brazil (katzmarzyk, et al., 2004), and india (ramachandran, 1998). even very young toddlers, clustering may be seen (siddique, et al., 2007). there is evidence that bangladeshis are more likely than other groups to exhibit the clustering of ncd risk factors (jesmin, et al., 2012). this clustering phenomenon may make them more susceptible to the burden of ncds. however, to assert national representation for bangladeshi people, a thorough investigation of the clustering of all significant risk variables is essentially absent. the previous researches are commonly showing different diseases in the particular situations of rural areas of bangladesh like which disease affects how much people and their risk factor along with surrounding situations and possible solutions. but no research was found showing or visualizing the trend of ncds with age factor. this research will try to present this finding with graphical visualizations and documentation in the following sections. materials and methods the research is conducted by following the quantitative method. with help of graphical visualization technique from preprocessed data the researchers get the result from this research. many related papers were reviewed during the background study. the inclusion criterion was information about public health issues in bangladesh; more recent research studies were used. papers were excluded if the study was not based on public health problems of bangladesh. the literature review was done through reading the previous publications. those found to meet the inclusion criteria were selected and finally all results were visualized and documented. dataset the dataset is collected from a medical association. there are multiple types of information in the dataset which is confidential also. so that the research is conducted based on the patient’s name, age, and the name of the disease only. the number of total patients is 55 and there are a total of 13 unique diseases in the dataset. data preprocessing for research purposes sometimes it is necessary to perform a preprocessing in the raw data to prepare the result. there are two table 1: unique disease name along with the number unique disease name number of patients unique disease name number of patients lumbago and knee pain 4 fever and knee pain 2 chest pain 3 chronic sinusitis and fever 2 knee pain 8 asthma 2 stomachache 2 venous disease 8 lumbago 14 pain 2 hormonal disorder 2 blood pressure 3 allergy 3 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 42 preprocessing are applied in this research. the first one is a unique disease list according to the number of patients and the second one is that all the patients’ disease name with their age only. table 1 shows the first preprocessing technique the table 2 shows a simplified data table of the second one. after preprocessing the data, a graph generating tool is used to find out the trend of the diseases by using graphical visualization method. it is described in the following results and discussion section. results and discussion the information given presents a full picture of how common different health problems are, which can then be used to build a figure 2: number of patients for each disease table 2: disease name of all patients along with age of patients disease name age disease name age allergy 25 chest pain 40 allergy 40 chest pain 50 allergy 25 chronic sinusitis and fever 17 asthma 35 chronic sinusitis and fever 17 asthma 35 fever and knee pain 6 months blood pressure 60 fever and knee pain 6 months blood pressure 35 hormonal disorder 36 blood pressure 50 hormonal disorder 36 chest pain 50 knee pain 40 figure 2: number of patients for each disease 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 43 more in-depth study of each disease which. figure 1 shows the number of patients with diseases. these illnesses, from lumbago and knee pain to vein diseases and high blood pressure, are shown by the numbers in a very clear way. let's get into the specifics and look at how important each condition is by looking at the number of patients and the share of people who have it. figure 2 shows the percentage of patients for each disease like lumbago and knee pain, which affect four people and make up (7%) of the cases, stand out as a major worry. this double problem makes me wonder what the connection is between knee pain and lower back pain. analyzing the links between these two parts of the body may find similar risk factors or underlying reasons. the fact that chest pain was mentioned in three cases (5%) makes us worry right away about possible heart problems. due to how serious chest pain is, it is very important to figure out where it comes from and take action right away. eight cases (15%) of knee pain make it stand out as a common problem. the high number shows that it has a big effect on the population, which makes us look more closely at possible reasons, which can be anything from lifestyle choices to underlying health problems. two people (4% of the population) have stomachaches, which may not seem like a big deal, but they can really mess up your daily life. the need to find the root reasons and create individual treatment plans becomes obvious. lumbago, reported in 14 cases (25%), claims the highest number, showing its substantial frequency. unraveling the complexities of lumbago and adapting treatment methods to individual cases is important, given its large representation in the dataset. hormonal disease, affecting two people (4%), raises questions about the range of symptoms within this group. understanding the individual chemical changes and their effects on general well-being is important for focused treatments. allergy, involving three people (5%), shows the value of spotting and controlling allergic reactions. exploring external factors and applying individual allergy control strategies becomes important. fever and knee pain, described in two cases each (4%), present a unique mix that requires a complex understanding. investigating possible infectious or inflammatory reasons for this pairing is important for effective treatment. chronic sinusitis and fever, also reported in two cases (4%), spur a study of chronic inflammatory diseases and suitable treatment methods. identifying similar causes between these two conditions may lead to overall treatment methods. asthma, affecting two people (4%), stresses the importance of lung health. exploring preventive measures and lifestyle changes suited to asthma control is important for improving general well-being. venous disease, with eight confirmed cases (15%), shows the value of knowing circulation system health. exploring causes adding to vein diseases and implementing preventive steps is important for lowering their frequency. pain, described in two cases, causes questions about the nature and origin of pain. while the term is general, a thorough study of the recorded cases can provide insights into the particular difficulties people face. blood pressure, reported in three cases, shows the value of tracking and controlling cardiovascular health. understanding the reasons adding to blood pressure changes and having individual strategies is important. analyzing the number spread of illnesses further refines our understanding of their relative effect. lumbago leads with 25%, followed by knee pain and vein disease at 15% each. these numbers serve as a guide for healthcare plans and resource sharing, ensuring a focused method to handle common diseases. in studying the links between diseases, it becomes clear that some conditions may share similar risk factors or adding elements. investigating these links can guide broader methods of healthcare, given the linked nature of different health issues. the effect of living decisions on disease frequency is obvious, and it is important to look into particular areas. sedentary lives may add to knee pain, while food habits could influence stomach aches. identifying these links allows for focused protective steps and lifestyle changes. identifying similar causes among widespread diseases is a key step in building complete healthcare plans. whether genetic predispositions or external effects, knowing these similarities allows more effective protection and control methods. the consequences for healthcare are important, considering the frequency of certain diseases. allocating resources based on frequency makes the best use of medical facilities and staff, handling the most important health issues within the community. the value of early diagnosis and prevention cannot be stressed. regular tests and information programs can greatly impact disease results, lowering the load on healthcare systems and improving general community health. tailoring healthcare tactics for specific diseases provides a more targeted and efficient approach. customized treatment plans based on the unique features of each disease can improve patient results and increase total healthcare effectiveness. overcoming difficulties in handling high-prevalence diseases takes novel methods. research and development focused on these common diseases can lead to breakthroughs in treatment methods and, eventually, better patient care. integrating inclusive methods into healthcare is crucial for handling the complex nature of common diseases. considering not only the physical but also the mental and emotional parts of well-being lead to more complete and lasting answers. the social effect of common diseases goes beyond individual health. communities may face economic pressures and greater requests for healthcare facilities. strategies for community understanding and support play a key role in reducing these wider effects. sharing personal stories humanizes numbers, giving a better understanding of the difficulties people face. these tales offer a glimpse into the daily battles and 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 44 achievements of those touched by different health issues. behind each number is a unique journey, stressing the need for caring healthcare practices. humanizing the numbers promotes empathy and understanding, encouraging a more helpful and inclusive approach to healthcare. the role of technology in disease control is ever evolving. innovations such as telemedicine and smart devices add to improved usability and tracking, improving the overall level of healthcare service. continuous improvements in healthcare technology, from tests to personalized treatments, add to better patient results. embracing and merging these technological developments is important for staying at the top of healthcare greatness. examining new trends in disease frequency offers useful insights into changing health issues. anticipating these trends allows strategic healthcare planning, ensuring that resources are directed where they are most needed. predicting the future healthcare environment includes considering changing tools, moving demographics, and social changes. proactive methods can help handle future healthcare needs, ensuring that systems stay flexible and strong. in conclusion, the patchwork of disease frequency is complicated and diverse. by studying the offered information, we gain a better understanding of the obstacles and possibilities within the healthcare scene. utilizing this information for the benefit of individual health, group well-being, and the development of healthcare methods is crucial. regular tracking, early action, and a balanced approach are key factors in handling common illnesses and creating a healthy society. figure 3: number of patients for each disease within the information provided, a varied array of health problems appears, each linked to specific age groups indicated by different colors in figure 3. this combination of data forms a detailed picture, giving useful insights into the frequency of ailments across different groups. allergies, a common health worry, seem to appear mainly around the age of 25, obvious by the recurrent orange marking. this constant trend suggests a heightened tendency to allergic responses during this specific time of life. additionally, the information shows another clump of allergy cases at the age of 40, marked in blue. the return of allergies in distinct age groups causes reflection on the persistency and development of allergic traits throughout an individual's lifespan. asthma cases, identified by a faint grey marking, are particularly common around the age of 35. this cluster of breathing problems in this specific age group raises questions about the possible factors adding to such frequency. the colorcoded picture helps in visually identifying these trends, adding a layer of clarity to the understanding of health problems. blood pressure issues, illustrated by different shades of blue and grey, appear to be more common in people over the age of 50. the increasingly darker shades indicate older age groups, showing a possible link between advanced age and an increased chance of blood pressure-related problems. instances of chest pain, a complaint with multiple sources, are recorded in people aged 40, marked in blue, and those aged 50, marked in dark grey. the difference in age groups causes discussion on the various reasons 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 45 adding to chest pain within these demographics. chronic congestion and fever are noted in people around the age of 17, marked in a light shade of blue. this specific age group frequency may be linked to external factors, lifestyle, or hormonal changes typical of teens. fever and knee pain, a disease noted in babies of 6 months, marked in water blue, suggests a unique population. understanding the nature of health problems in babies is important for early help and proper medical care. hormonal diseases seem to affect people around the age of 36, marked in yellow. the regularity in this age group suggests a possible link between hormonal changes and this specific stage of life. knee pain, a common disease across the dataset, is mentioned in different age groups. the color-coded marks, such as blue, dark grey, and little green, provide a visual picture of the spread. analyzing the age spread of knee pain can guide healthcare tactics suited to specific groups. lumbago and knee pain, a mix of back and knee problems, are found in people aged 52 and 80, marked in brown and yellow, respectively. the variation in age shows that this condition may appear differently in people of different age groups. pain, a general term for pain, is mentioned regularly in people aged 45, marked in red. the similarity in age group raises questions about common causes leading to pain in this category. stomachache, noted in people aged 60, marked in little blue, shows a frequency of stomach problems in this specific age group. venous disease, a condition affecting the venous system, appears to be more common in people aged 35, 44, 57, and 60, marked in shades of little grey, green blue, green, and little blue, respectively. this varied age distribution emphasizes the complex nature of venous illnesses. in reviewing the big sum, certain findings stand out. for instance, the repeat of certain conditions like lumbago and knee pain (55 occurrences) and knee pain (55 occurrences) shows a high frequency of these health issues within the sample. in conclusion, these specific data points provide a refined view of the frequency of various health problems across different age groups. the color-coded marks offer a visually appealing way to spot patterns and trends within the information. this analytical method, focusing solely on the data given, throws light on the range of health problems and their population patterns. understanding these trends is crucial for fitting healthcare measures to specific age groups and meeting the unique needs of people at different times of life. conclusions bangladesh's rural areas have a high prevalence of ncd risk factors. it is necessary to investigate more closely other risk factors in both clinical and public health settings if a risk factor such as blood pressure, hormone disorders, or chest discomfort is identified. according to our research, bangladesh may soon witness a dramatic rise in ncds. if national inactivity persists, this will therefore result in a greater demand on the health care system and a decrease in production as a result of deaths and impairments that occur during prime working years. some future directions are listed below for this study. 1. predictive modeling: creating models based on a variety of risk variables that can predict the onset and course of ncds. healthcare practitioners can detect individuals who are more susceptible to health risks and take proactive actions by utilizing past data and sophisticated predictive algorithms. 2. personalized medical: combining quantitative analysis with personalized medical techniques to customize interventions and therapies based on each patient's distinct genetic composition, lifestyle choices, and illness risk profile. this may result in more focused and efficient treatments for ncd management and prevention. 3. real-time monitoring systems: creating real-time monitoring systems that track important health indicators and give prompt feedback to patients and healthcare professionals by utilizing graphical visualization approaches. these programs could provide people the confidence to manage their health proactively and delay the development of ncds. 4. multi-modal data integration: investigating methods for combining data from several sources, including wearable technology, genetic profiles, electronic health records, and environmental variables. through the use of graphical visualization tools to combine multiple data types, researchers may obtain a more thorough knowledge of the intricate interplay between many factors that contribute to noncommunicable diseases (ncds). like other research, this research also has some limitations. only the age factor was considered in this study. the result would be more accurate if the gender factor was present while processing the result. hence the outcome can contribute to the medical sectors for many purposes for improvement in public health sectors. references ahsan, k. z., alam, n., & streatfield, p. k. (2009). epidemiological transition in rural bangladesh, 1986–2006. global health action, 2(1), 1904. https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v2i0.1904 barreto, s. m., passos, v. m. a., firmo, j. o. a., guerra, h. l., vidigal, p. g., & lima‐costa, m. f. (2001). hypertension 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 46 and clustering of cardiovascular risk factors in a community in southeast brazil: the bambuí health and ageing study. arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia, 77(6). https://doi.org/10.1590/s0066-782x2001001200008 bennett, j. l., stevens, g. a., mathers, c., bonita, r., rehm, j., kruk, m. e., riley, l., dain, k., kengne, a. p., chalkidou, k., beagley, j., kishore, s. p., chen, w., saxena, s., bettcher, d., grove, j., beaglehole, r., & ezzati, m. (2018). ncd countdown 2030: worldwide trends in non-communicable disease mortality and progress towards sustainable development goal target 3.4. the lancet, 392(10152), 1072–1088. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(18)31992-5 jesmin, s., islam, r., islam, a., mia, s., sultana, s., zaedi, s., yamaguchi, n., iwashima, y., hiroe, m., & watanabe, t. (2012). comprehensive assessment of metabolic syndrome among rural bangladeshi women. bmc public health, 12(1), 49. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-49 katzmarzyk, p. t., srinivasan, s. r., chen, w., malina, r. m., bouchard, c., & berenson, g. s. (2004). body mass index, waist circumference, and clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors in a biracial sample of children and adolescents. pediatrics, 114(2), e198–e205. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.114.2.e198 khanam, m. a., qiu, c., lindeboom, w., streatfield, p. k., kabir, z. n., & wåhlin, å. (2011). the metabolic syndrome: prevalence, associated factors, and impact on survival among older persons in rural bangladesh. plos one, 6(6), e20259. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0020259 ramachandran, a., snehalatha, c., latha, e., kumpatla, s., & vijay, v. (1998). clustering of cardiovascular risk factors in urban asian indians. diabetes care, 21(6), 967–971. https://doi.org/10.2337/diacare.21.6.967 siddique, m. a. b., sultan, m. a. u., haque, k. s., zaman, m. m., ahmed, c. m., rahim, m. a., & salman, m. (2007). clustering of metabolic factors among patients with essential hypertension. bangladesh medical research council bulletin, 34(3), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.3329/bmrcb.v34i3.1856 weycker, d., nichols, g. a., o’keeffe‐rosetti, m., edelsberg, j., khan, z. m., kaura, s., & oster, g. (2007). risk-factor clustering and cardiovascular disease risk in hypertensive patients. american journal of hypertension, 20(6), 599–607. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjhyper.2006.10.013 zaman, m. m., ahmed, j., choudhury, s. r., numan, s. m., islam, m. s., & parvin, k. (2006). prevalence of metabolic syndrome in rural bangladeshi women. diabetes care, 29(6), 1456–1457. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc06-0431 front page 3777 40-46 pa ge 1 pa ge 40 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) exploring teachers’ competence in oral language teaching diana lou t. guillen1, winicel may c. ancheta2* volume 4 issue 3, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i3.5493 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: june 25, 2025 accepted: july 30, 2025 published: september 26, 2025 the study was undertaken to describe the teachers’ level of competence in oral language teaching. specifically, it assessed the teachers’ level of competence in oral language teaching strategies in terms of the promotion of auditory memory, development of listening and speaking skills, teaching and extending of vocabulary and conceptual knowledge, creation of a language learning environment, and teaching of a variety of spoken text. using total enumeration, 44 grade 5 english from the public elementary schools of the schools division of laoag city served as the respondents in this study. a survey questionnaire was utilized to gather the needed data on the teachers’ level of competence in the oral language teaching strategies, along with the five components of effective oral language instruction. overall, the teachers are moderately competent in using the oral language teaching strategies, as reflected in the overall mean of 3.49. the teachers are moderately competent in three of these components – development of listening and speaking skills (x=3.48); teaching and extending of vocabulary and conceptual knowledge (x=3.48); and teaching of a variety of spoken texts (x=3.43). keywords competence, english, grade 5, oral language teaching, teachers 1 faculty of laboratory elementary school, mariano marcos state university, laoag city, ilocos norte, 2900, philippines 2 faculty of the english program, mariano marcos state university, laoag city, ilocos norte, 2900, philippiness * corresponding author’s e-mail: wcancheta@mmsu.edu.ph introduction in the philippines, mastering basic english skills is emphasized in the department of education’s (deped) k to 12 basic education curriculum 2016 as a core learning area standard. this mastery is evident when learners can effectively communicate orally across various social and academic settings while performing real-life tasks. filipino learners encounter formal english language training throughout their education—from elementary to tertiary levels—where english is taught as a subject and often used as the medium of instruction, except in the primary level where the mother tongue (mt) is employed (pangket, 2019). some children are even exposed to english before formal schooling and may consider it their first language (l1) (dussling, 2018). despite this early exposure, many filipino learners still struggle to develop adequate oral english proficiency. this challenge hinders their academic performance as they progress and ultimately affects their employability. supporting this, data from the professional regulatory commission (prc) board reveals a decline in pass rates for licensure exams from 2014 to 2017, with only 10.39 percent passing in 2017 for aspiring elementary school teachers—the lowest since 2010. cabigon (2015) noted a decline in english language quality nationwide, coupled with a rise in unfilled positions in industries requiring strong english communication skills. similarly, a 2018 report by tima on gma news’ 24 oras, citing a survey by hopkins international partners (official representatives of toeic), revealed that the english proficiency of filipino college graduates is even lower than the target proficiency of thai high school students. hamad (2013) identified factors negatively impacting learners’ oral english proficiency, including the use of the mother tongue in teaching, students’ fear of speaking publicly, limited classroom speaking practice, and insufficient teacher support. teachers often face difficulty encouraging students to actively use english. hossain (2015) further emphasized that many teachers underperform in english proficiency—both oral and written—which is a crucial teaching competency. many feel unprepared to address learners’ speaking difficulties, finding classroom challenges overwhelming and unclear on how to begin. songbatumis (2017) highlighted issues faced by elementary teachers in teaching oral english: insufficient training, low language proficiency, limited mastery of teaching methods, unfamiliarity with technology, and lack of professional development. in addition to teacher competence, abrar (2016) identified three major challenges faced by elementary english teachers: lack of learner motivation, limited time and resources, and overcrowded classes. from personal observations, researchers noted that many local teachers lack adequate knowledge and skills in oral language teaching strategies. some learners show low enthusiasm for speaking tasks due to a lack of motivation, resulting in underdeveloped oral competencies. the decline in oral english skills among filipino learners and educators necessitates that teachers explicitly teach speaking in meaningful language contexts (goh & burns, 2012). simply assigning speaking activities is insufficient; learners must be taught the knowledge, skills, and strategies necessary for effective oral communication. abao (2013) recommended that teachers, as facilitators, focus on the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor pa ge 41 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 40-49, 2025 domains of learning, alongside english proficiency. prospective teachers should be proficient english users to express ideas clearly and competently, thereby enhancing student learning. given the current state of english education in the philippines, it is essential for teachers to actively develop their learners’ oral language skills. this involves selecting appropriate teaching strategies that engage learners and reduce anxiety, so oral activities are enjoyable rather than intimidating. in light of these considerations, this study aims to assess the competence of grade 5 teachers in implementing oral language teaching strategies in english. literature review nature of oral language in the article “all about speaking as a communicative skill” (2021), oral language is described as a complex linguistic and cognitive ability. children learn to speak through interaction with those around them in their native language. for most adults, speaking their first language is effortless and natural. morozova (2013) emphasized that developing speaking ability in english is crucial for language learners, especially in academic settings. similarly, bahadorvar et al. (2014) noted that speaking is a fundamental skill students must master when learning english, as it is an essential tool for communication. improving students’ speaking skills has long been a focus in classrooms, and in today’s fast-evolving 21st century, innovative technologies are increasingly used to enhance speaking instruction. rigg (2019) asserted that oral language skills form the foundation for academic success and literacy. a strong oral language foundation helps children become proficient readers, confident communicators, and positively impacts their overall well-being. rigg further explained that a child’s ability to learn, build relationships, achieve academically, and develop a sense of self-identity is closely tied to effective oral language use. research also shows that poor oral language competence can contribute to mental health issues like depression and anxiety that may continue into adulthood. ubaedillah (2019) described oral language as the most demanding skill required for everyday communication. it involves expressing ideas clearly in spoken form, enabling listeners to grasp the intended message. glover (2011) reinforced that oral language is a primary skill that language learning programs aim to develop, enabling students to articulate ideas appropriately and communicate successfully. speaking proficiency is often regarded as clear evidence of language acquisition. palmér (2010) highlighted that oral language is a vital part of the learning process and the main means by which students communicate. it is relevant across all foreign language teaching contexts that seek to enhance students’ communicative abilities. she stressed that teachers should prioritize oral communication to support students’ language development, echoing williams (2010), who advocated for guided support during students’ formative school years. indeed, oral language is one of the essential skills that educators must emphasize. the goal of teaching communication skills is to enable students to use the language confidently in any situation. without the ability to speak, language remains merely written text, lacking the power of true communication. characteristics of an effective english language teacher (elt) high-quality teachers are essential for the effective functioning of educational systems and for improving the quality of learning. babai and sadeghi (2015) emphasized that teachers’ actions play a crucial role in fostering effective and efficient student learning. english language teachers are no exception—their role in facilitating successful language acquisition is vital, especially in countries where english is learned as a second language (l2). since language learning primarily occurs in formal classroom settings, teachers, as the main source of language input, directly influence their students’ progress. sadeghi and shishavan (2010) observed that while effective teachers generally share certain qualities, some characteristics differ depending on the subject they teach. for english language teachers, it is expected that they possess both the common traits of effective educators and distinct qualities relevant to their field. however, no consensus exists on what precisely defines an effective english language teacher. various perspectives highlight different determinants, including affective factors, classroom management skills, and subject knowledge. sadeghi and shishavan (2010) identified four key features of effective english language teachers: socio-affective skills, pedagogical knowledge, subject-matter expertise, and personality traits. both sadeghi and shishavan (2010) and borg (2016) noted that socio-affective skills enable teachers to build strong rapport with students, promoting a more successful and engaging learning environment. dinçer, göksu, takkaç, and yazici (2013) further stressed that effective teachers harmonize their behaviors with their emotions and intellect. pedagogical knowledge is another crucial factor. according to aydin et al. (2010, as cited in dinçer et al., 2013) and clark and walsh (2012), effective teachers possess comprehensive knowledge of educational methods. classroom management skills are particularly important, as they help maintain a positive, relaxed, and stress-free environment conducive to learning (aydin et al., 2010). subject-matter knowledge is fundamental to facilitating the teaching-learning process. aydin et al. (2010) and dinçer et al. (2013) agreed that thorough understanding of the subject enables teachers to deliver lessons more effectively and achieve better learning outcomes. sadeghi and shishavan’s (2010) study confirmed that mastery of the subject matter is a hallmark of effective teaching. beyond pedagogical and subject knowledge, teachers bring pa ge 42 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 40-49, 2025 their personal characteristics into the classroom. these traits significantly influence their teaching effectiveness and professional success (ali et al., 2013). malikow (2016) compiled a list of personality traits frequently cited as essential for effective teachers, including being challenging with high expectations, having a sense of humor, enthusiasm, and creativity. additional qualities identified by other studies include tolerance, patience, kindness, sensibility, open-mindedness, flexibility, optimism, enthusiasm, receptiveness to new ideas, and genuine care for students. clark and walsh (2012) suggested that integrating these characteristics helps teachers build trusting relationships with their students, fostering a supportive and productive learning environment. five components of effective oral language instruction oral language is considered a child’s first, most important, and most frequently used structured medium of communication. it serves as the primary tool through which children organize, evaluate, describe, and control their experiences. more importantly, oral language acts as the main mediator of culture, shaping how children understand their place in the world and define themselves within it (cregan, 1998, as cited in shiel et al., 2012). at its core, oral language involves communicating and interacting with others. this process requires the use of thinking, knowledge, and skills to speak and listen effectively. as such, oral language is vital for all individuals and holds equal importance alongside reading and writing within the curriculum’s integrated language process. despite the curriculum’s strong emphasis on oral language, its implementation has proven challenging. evidence suggests that some teachers struggle to deliver this component effectively due to unclear frameworks (shiel et al., 2012). to address this, the booklet five components of effective oral language instruction (pdst, 2014) proposes a structured model consisting of five key elements: promoting auditory memory, developing listening and speaking skills, teaching and extending vocabulary and conceptual knowledge, creating a language-rich environment, and teaching a variety of spoken texts. the first component, promoting auditory memory, involves understanding, processing, storing, and recalling orally presented information. students with auditory memory difficulties often struggle to comprehend or remember orally delivered content, impacting subjects like history and science. teachers should encourage students to restate passages, main ideas, and supporting details to ensure full comprehension, as auditory challenges can lead to significant information loss. the second component focuses on developing listening and speaking skills, also called pragmatic knowledge (otto, 2006, as cited in pdst, 2014). conversational skills form a vital part of this, influencing children’s social interactions (ninio & snow, 1999; weiss, 2004, as cited in pdst, 2014). while children naturally acquire some conversational abilities, teachers and parents play a crucial role in nurturing these skills. asking open-ended questions—questions without fixed answers—helps assess comprehension and expand vocabulary (whitehurst et al., 1988, as cited in pdst, 2014). however, most classroom “teacher talk” (about 80%) tends to focus on instructions and low-level recall questions (kerry, 1982, as cited in pdst, 2014). effective questioning also depends on allowing sufficient “wait time” for students to formulate answers, and teachers’ responses significantly influence students’ willingness to participate in future discussions (otto, 2006, as cited in pdst, 2014). the third component involves teaching and extending vocabulary and conceptual knowledge. early and active vocabulary engagement is essential, especially when introducing unfamiliar concepts. teachers should connect new words to concepts students already understand. effective vocabulary instruction includes teaching individual words (e.g., synonyms, antonyms), word-learning strategies (e.g., context clues, word maps), fostering a love and awareness of language (e.g., word games), and providing varied experiences through reading, writing, and speaking. quigley (2019) emphasizes that vocabulary development requires diverse approaches and reflective teaching, while konza (2016) highlights the importance of explicit vocabulary instruction to build confidence and contextual use. the fourth component is creating a language learning environment that supports and nurtures diverse communication styles (pdst, 2014). teachers can design differentiated activities based on students’ interests and skills, helping them develop strategies for speaking and listening in different contexts. providing authentic purposes and audiences encourages students to become confident, enthusiastic communicators. this environment comprises three elements: the physical classroom setup, classroom culture, and communication opportunities. motivating social interaction and idea sharing fosters language growth (kail, 2016; barrett, 2013). conversely, limited social interaction and unsupportive environments hinder language acquisition. positive factors include enriching the physical environment, teachers’ experience, and engaging children through play and games. the final component is teaching a variety of spoken texts. speaking is inherently complex, and learners often experience anxiety that leads to silence in and outside the classroom (koran, 2015). language teachers must encourage students to use english regularly, both in class and daily interactions with peers and others. the five components booklet (pdst, 2014) stresses that students need to understand how different oral language texts function and be given opportunities to practice these in varied settings. teachers should consider the social context (formal/informal, familiar/unfamiliar), cultural contexts (local, institutional), and the participants’ relationships (known/unknown, peers/adults) when guiding students. pa ge 43 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 40-49, 2025 problems and issues of teachers in teaching oral language in the elementary level transforming teaching approaches is crucial to effectively implement the kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum, which requires all learners—indigenous and nonindigenous—to progressively master lessons across educational levels. hanlen (2010) emphasized that mainstream classroom teachers in the philippines need to focus on quality language instruction and incorporate customized educational programs into their teaching practices. to promote successful learning, teaching approaches and activities should consider three key aspects: academic excellence, a supportive learning environment, and meaningful learning outcomes. oral language plays a vital role in the holistic development of filipino learners, as it is used simultaneously with listening. to achieve academic success, learners are expected to develop english vocabulary skills that enhance their speaking abilities and overall learning capacity. leaño et al. (2019) noted that a strong english speaking vocabulary supports verbal idea-sharing and helps sustain good academic performance. however, their study also revealed that teachers, parents, and learners face challenges regarding language instruction, especially indigenous learners who struggle with english as the medium of instruction. difficulties in recalling, articulating, and interpreting english words often prevent these learners from fully participating in classroom interactions. a persistent issue in mainstream philippine classrooms is the inadequate preparation of teachers. many educators have struggled in the past because they were unprepared to support learners with language difficulties, particularly in speaking english. they often find classroom challenges overwhelming and are uncertain about where to begin. according to abrar (2016), three major challenges confront elementary english teachers: learner motivation, insufficient time and resources, and overcrowded classrooms. motivation, which drives students’ willingness to participate, is often lacking, leading to reluctance in engaging with the language. additionally, limited instructional time, inadequate teaching materials, and scarce resources hinder effective teaching and learning, as these factors must work together for success. overcrowded classrooms further complicate teaching; while tanner (2009) recommends an ideal primary class size of no more than 17 students, filipino elementary classes often exceed this, with a teacher-to-student ratio reaching up to 1:35. this overcapacity creates chaotic learning environments that challenge effective classroom management. moreover, songbatumis (2016) identified other difficulties faced by elementary english teachers, including insufficient training, low proficiency in english, limited mastery of teaching methods, unfamiliarity with technology, and lack of ongoing professional development. materials and methods this study used the descriptive research design as it described the teacher respondents’ competence in various oral language teaching strategies, namely: promoting auditory memory, developing listening and speaking skills, enhancing vocabulary and conceptual knowledge, creating a supportive language learning environment, and teaching a diverse range of spoken texts. participants the study was conducted in the public elementary schools of the schools division of laoag city in school year 2020-2021. employing total enumeration, 44 teachers in grade 5 english were the respondents in the study. data collection for the data collection procedures, the researchers wrote a formal letter of request addressed to the schools division superintendent of laoag city, signifying the study’s intention. upon the approval of the superintendent, the copies of the first instrument were sent through google forms. in compliance with the approved letter in conducting the study from sdoin, the researchers coordinated with the school heads before administering the online survey-questionnaire, assessment tool on teachers’ level of competence in oral language instruction. attached to the survey-questionnaire was a letter indicating the respondents’ full consent in their participation in the study. the survey-questionnaire determined the teachers’ level of competence in the oral language teaching strategies on a rating scale. the researchers created the instrument based on her research on the five components of effective oral language instruction: promotion of auditory memory, development of listening and speaking skills, teaching and extending of vocabulary and conceptual knowledge, creation of a language learning environment, and teaching of a variety of spoken texts. since the researchers made the survey-questionnaire based on their readings about oral language instruction, the tool was validated by a panel of experts in the development of research instruments. also, eight teachers of mariano marcos state university – laboratory elementary school tried out the survey-questionnaire. the results indicated that the respondents clearly understood the items in the survey questionnaire. thus, no modifications were made. in scoring the responses to the items in the survey, the following scale was used: scale description 5 very highly competent (vhc) 4 highly competent (hc) 3 moderately competent (mc) 2 slightly competent (sc) 1 not competent (nc) the researchers gave the teacher-respondents three weeks to complete the survey-questionnaires before submitting them, making sure that no school activity was disrupted. pa ge 44 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 40-49, 2025 consent to participate ethical considerations were implemented in the data collection. the rights of the respondents were maintained or upheld throughout the conduct of this study. through a letter, the study was explained to the respondents, including the benefits they could get from it. it was emphasized that their participation would be based on their willingness or volition to participate in the study. nevertheless, informed consent was sought from them. data analysis frequency count and mean rating were used to describe teachers’ level of competence in the oral language teaching strategies. in describing the teachers’ level of competence in oral language teaching strategies, the following statistical ranges with their corresponding descriptive interpretations were used: promotion of auditory memory table 1 displays the results regarding teachers’ proficiency in oral language teaching strategies, with a focus on promoting auditory memory. the data reveals that teachers generally exhibit a high level of competence in this area, reflected in a composite mean score of 3.58. among the five strategies examined, two—using visual cues and mnemonics (mean = 3.45) and providing organizational aids such as graphic or visual organizers (mean = 3.41)—were identified as moderately mastered and were incorporated into the development plan. these findings indicate that teachers recognize the significance of these strategies in improving their students’ oral language skills. as highlighted by pdst (2014), students who struggle with auditory memory often find it difficult to comprehend and retain orally presented information, such as in subjects like history and science. the guide further explains that these students may also have trouble processing and recalling written information. although teachers show competence in promoting auditory memory, the results suggest the need for additional training to enhance their skills further. research supports the idea that understanding diverse learning styles is crucial for effectively supporting auditory memory development in language learners. singh (2019) recommends that teachers engage in continuous professional growth by updating their teaching methods and acquiring new expertise to better facilitate student learning. moreover, pdst (2014) emphasizes that different components of auditory memory are distinct, and students must learn to process various types of information both independently and within context. teachers should not assume that a student who can recall a sequence of numbers can also recall a sequence of words. while it is table 1: teachers’ level of competence in the promotion of auditory memory 1. promotion of auditory memory mean (μ) descriptive interpretation (di) 1.1. repeating and using information 3.60 hc 1.2. reciting poems, songs, tales, rhymes, etc. 3.75 hc 1.3. re-telling stories using visual aids or by illustrating a map 3.71 hc 1.4. using visual cues and mnemonics 3.45 mc 1.5. providing organizational tools to assist memory, such as graphic or visual organizers 3.41 mc composite mean 3.58 hc scale range interval descriptive interpretation 5 4.51 – 5.00 very highly competent (vhc) 4 3.51 – 4.50 highly competent (hc) 3 2.51 – 3.50 moderately competent (mc) 2 1.51 – 2.50 slightly competent (sc) 1 1.00 – 1.50 not competent (nc) results and discussion this section reveals the findings on the teachers’ level of competence in oral language teaching strategies, particularly on the promotion of auditory memory, development of listening and speaking skills, teaching and extending of vocabulary and conceptual knowledge, creation of a language learning environment, and teaching of a variety of spoken texts. legend scale range interval descriptive interpretation 5 4.51 – 5.00 very highly competent (vhc) 4 3.51 – 4.50 highly competent (hc) 3 2.51 – 3.50 moderately competent (mc) 2 1.51 – 2.50 slightly competent (sc) 1 1.00 – 1.50 not competent (nc) important for students to answer specific questions based on texts they’ve read, ensuring full comprehension of the entire passage remains paramount. development of listening and speaking skills table 2 illustrates the teachers’ competence in developing their students’ listening and speaking skills. the findings indicate that teachers possess a moderate level of pa ge 45 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 40-49, 2025 proficiency in applying strategies aimed at enhancing these skills, as evidenced by a composite mean score of 3.48. among the five strategies assessed, teachers showed moderate proficiency in three specific areas: providing opportunities for students to participate in conversationalstyle speaking (mean = 3.47), assigning tasks that require observing and recording effective speaking (mean = 3.35), and explicitly modeling effective speaking in both formal and informal contexts (mean = 3.34). these results highlight the need for grade 5 english teachers to strengthen their skills in employing teaching strategies that foster improved listening and speaking competencies among learners. otto (2006, as cited in pdst, 2014) noted that early childhood is a crucial period when children use language not only to understand their environment but also to learn how language serves various functions—referred to as pragmatic knowledge. a key component of this is conversational skills. research by ninio and snow (1999) and weiss (2004), both cited in pdst (2014), emphasized that children’s proficiency in conversational skills significantly influences their social interactions. while some conversational abilities develop naturally, teachers play an essential role in guiding learners to become effective conversationalists. the pdst (2014) also pointed out that engaging children in conversation is not the sole method to expand their vocabulary. kerry (1982, as cited in pdst, 2014) observed that approximately 80% of teacher talk in classrooms centers on instructions, information delivery, or behavior correction, with the majority consisting of low-level questions prompting simple recall rather than higher-order thinking. kerry recommended that teachers allow adequate “wait time” for students to formulate thoughtful responses. beyond allowing sufficient response time, otto (2006, as cited in pdst, 2014) emphasized that teachers’ reactions at this moment can either encourage or discourage students from participating in future discussions. he advised teachers to use supportive body language, build on children’s answers, ask clarifying questions, and practice reflective listening to nurture ongoing engagement in classroom dialogues. table 2: teachers’ level of competence in the development of listening and speaking skills 2. development of listening and speaking skills mean (μ) descriptive interpretation (di) 2.1. explicitly modeling effective speaking in a formal and informal manner 3.34 mc 2.2. providing opportunities for students to engage in conversational-style speaking 3.47 mc 2.3. giving students tasks that involve observing and recording effective speaking 3.35 mc 2.4. using role-playing to teach and reinforce good conversational skills 3.54 hc 2.5. carrying out activities where the whole class read aloud 3.72 hc composite mean 3.48 mc legend scale range interval descriptive interpretation 5 4.51 – 5.00 very highly competent (vhc) 4 3.51 – 4.50 highly competent (hc) 3 2.51 – 3.50 moderately competent (mc) 2 1.51 – 2.50 slightly competent (sc) 1 1.00 – 1.50 not competent (nc) teaching and extending vocabulary and conceptual knowledge table 3 presents the teachers’ proficiency in teaching and expanding vocabulary and conceptual knowledge. the data indicate that teachers demonstrate a moderate level of competence in applying strategies aimed at enhancing these areas, as reflected by a composite mean score of 3.48. specifically, teachers showed moderate proficiency in three key strategies: offering rich and varied language experiences such as dialogic instructional activities, independent reading, and interactive writing (mean = 3.43); ensuring students have multiple exposures to new words through review and practice (mean = 3.42); and providing learners with contextual information that clarifies both the meaning and use of vocabulary (mean = 3.37). the pdst (2014) highlights the importance of developing children’s understanding of word meanings early on, emphasizing active engagement in vocabulary acquisition. academic vocabulary is closely linked to concept learning, and when students encounter unfamiliar concepts, it is essential first to build their conceptual understanding before introducing related vocabulary. conversely, when concepts are already familiar, new words can be introduced by connecting them to students’ existing knowledge. pa ge 46 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 40-49, 2025 therefore, the pdst recommends that teachers plan vocabulary instruction thoughtfully by: teaching individual words through synonyms, antonyms, root and suffix analysis; employing word-learning strategies such as contextual clues, definitions, and word maps; fostering a love and awareness of language through activities like word games and “word of the week”; and providing diverse opportunities for vocabulary use across reading, writing, and oral language. exposure to vocabulary in varied contexts supports deeper understanding and nuanced usage. quigley (2018) concurs with pdst’s view, noting that there is no single best approach to extending vocabulary and conceptual knowledge in the classroom. instead, language teachers must carefully consider challenges, reflect on their methods, and monitor both explicit vocabulary instruction and the implicit language development that occurs through reading and rich, structured conversations. konza (2014) further stresses the importance of explicit vocabulary teaching to help students confidently grasp word meanings and use them appropriately in different contexts, integrating new words into their active language repertoire. table 3: teachers’ level of competence in the teaching and extending of vocabulary and conceptual knowledge 3. teaching and extending vocabulary and conceptual knowledge mean (μ) descriptive interpretation (di) 3.1. providing rich and varied language experiences, e.g., dialogic-based instructional activities, independent reading, interactive writing 3.43 mc 3.2. providing students with information that contains the context as well as the meaning of the word 3.37 mc 3.3. teaching them tools to unlock the meaning of unknown words, e.g., using context clues, word parts, reference materials 3.67 hc 3.4. making sure students have multiple exposures to the words with review and practice 3.42 mc 3.5. encouraging word consciousness through writing 3.51 hc composite mean 3.48 mc legend scale range interval descriptive interpretation 5 4.51 – 5.00 very highly competent (vhc) 4 3.51 – 4.50 highly competent (hc) 3 2.51 – 3.50 moderately competent (mc) 2 1.51 – 2.50 slightly competent (sc) 1 1.00 – 1.50 not competent (nc) creation of a language learning environment table 4 presents data on teachers’ competence in creating a language learning environment. the findings reveal that teachers are highly proficient in employing strategies aimed at fostering such an environment, as reflected by a composite mean score of 3.53. however, among the five strategies assessed, teachers demonstrated moderate proficiency in three specific areas: motivating students to engage in speaking with all class members (mean = 3.49), encouraging all attempts at speaking and listening by children (mean = 3.41), and allowing students to participate in spontaneous role-plays, recount personal experiences, and experiment with new ideas and vocabulary (mean = 3.37). according to pdst (2014), teachers can enhance learning by designing differentiated activities that tap into students’ interests, knowledge, and skills. additionally, teachers support students by helping them develop strategies for speaking and listening across various contexts. providing authentic purposes and real audiences for communication helps students build confidence and become enthusiastic communicators. pdst (2014) identifies three essential elements for establishing a successful language learning environment. first is the physical environment; enriching the classroom setting creates numerous opportunities for oral interaction and language development. the second element is classroom culture, which shapes how students engage and interact. the third involves communication opportunities, as interaction occurs continuously in the classroom. by leveraging these opportunities, students are exposed to diverse oral language contexts and uses, promoting their communicative competence. teaching of a variety of spoken texts table 5 presents the teachers’ level of competence in teaching a variety of spoken texts. the overall composite mean of 3.43 indicates that teachers possess a moderate level of proficiency in implementing these strategies. specifically, teachers showed moderate competence in four key strategies: providing students with opportunities to practice persuasive speaking, such as presenting arguments, accepting viewpoints, and justifying opinions pa ge 47 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 40-49, 2025 through formal or informal debates (mean = 3.43); encouraging creative expression by allowing students to invent new worlds and create stories or poems through activities like reader’s theatre, drama, storytelling, and puppetry (mean = 3.40); offering authentic learning contexts that promote both speaking and listening skills, such as partner work and cooperative learning groups (mean = 3.39); and giving students experience in selecting and organizing information appropriately for specific purposes, audiences, and situations, for example, through oral reports or acting as a “reporter for the day” (mean = 3.39). koran (2015) highlighted the complexity of speaking as a skill and noted that learners often experience anxiety when asked to speak in or outside the classroom, leading to silence due to social or psychological factors. to address this, language teachers should employ natural, engaging table 4: teachers’ level of competence in the creation of a language learning environment 4. creation of a language learning environment mean (μ) descriptive interpretation (di) 4.1. allowing pupils to engage in spontaneous role play, to re-tell experiences, and experiment with new ideas and vocabulary 3.37 mc 4.2. motivating pupils to speak with all members of the class 3.49 mc 4.3. teaching pupils to resolve conflicts through language 3.71 hc 4.4. encouraging all attempts by the children at both speaking and listening 3.41 mc 4.5. being sensitive to cultural differences 3.68 hc composite mean 3.53 mc table 5: teachers’ level of competence in the teaching of a variety of spoken texts 5. teaching a variety of spoken texts mean (μ) descriptive interpretation (di) 5.1 giving students experience in selecting and organizing information that will suit specific purposes, situations, and audiences, e.g., oral report, reporter for the day 3.39 mc 5.2 allowing students to create new worlds and to make up stories and poems, e.g., reader's theatre, drama, storytelling, puppetry 3.40 mc 5.3 providing an authentic learning context in which students can develop both speaking and listening skills, e.g., partner works, cooperative learning groups 3.39 mc 5.4 encouraging students to enhance understanding by questioning and conducting interviews. 3.52 hc 5.5 providing students opportunity to practice persuading, accepting a particular point of view justifying own opinions, e.g., arguments and formal/ informal debates 3.43 mc composite mean 3.43 mc legend: scale range interval descriptive interpretation 5 4.51 – 5.00 very highly competent (vhc) 4 3.51 – 4.50 highly competent (hc) 3 2.51 – 3.50 moderately competent (mc) 2 1.51 – 2.50 slightly competent (sc) 1 1.00 – 1.50 not competent (nc) legend scale range interval descriptive interpretation 5 4.51 – 5.00 very highly competent (vhc) 4 3.51 – 4.50 highly competent (hc) 3 2.51 – 3.50 moderately competent (mc) 2 1.51 – 2.50 slightly competent (sc) 1 1.00 – 1.50 not competent (nc) pa ge 48 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 40-49, 2025 strategies such as oral reports, storytelling, anecdotes, partner and small group activities, giving instructions or procedures, conversations, questioning, interviews, and informal debates. therefore, a primary responsibility of language teachers is to encourage students to use english regularly both in class and in everyday interactions with classmates, teachers, and other english speakers whenever possible. according to pdst (2014), it is important for students to understand how different oral language texts function across various contexts. teachers must establish classroom structures and routines that help students grasp the diverse forms of spoken texts and provide purposeful opportunities to practice these forms in multiple settings. the guide further stresses the need to consider various social contexts of language use (formal or informal, familiar or unfamiliar), cultural contexts (local, community, institutional), and the participants involved in conversations, including their relationships (known or unknown, peers or adults). summary of the teachers’ level of competence in their oral language teaching strategies table 6 presents the summary of the level of competence of the teachers in grade 5 english in employing oral language teaching strategies. overall, the teachers are moderately competent in using the oral language teaching strategies, as reflected in the overall mean of 3.49. the teachers are moderately competent in three of these components – development of listening and speaking skills (x=3.48); teaching and extending of vocabulary and conceptual knowledge (x=3.48); and teaching of a variety of spoken texts (x=3.43). it can be inferred from the findings that the teachers should continue familiarizing themselves with these oral language teaching strategies by actively engaging themselves in training activities, seminars, and webinars to foster their growth and development as language teachers. table 6: teachers’ level of competence in the teaching of a variety of spoken texts oral language teaching strategies composite mean (μ) descriptive interpretation (di) 1. promotion of auditory memory 3.58 hc 2. development of listening and speaking skills 3.48 mc 3. teaching and extending vocabulary and conceptual knowledge 3.48 mc 4. creation of a language learning environment 3.53 hc 5. teaching of a variety of spoken texts. 3.43 mc overall mean 3.49 mc legend scale range interval descriptive interpretation 5 4.51 – 5.00 very highly competent (vhc) 4 3.51 – 4.50 highly competent (hc) 3 2.51 – 3.50 moderately competent (mc) 2 1.51 – 2.50 slightly competent (sc) 1 1.00 – 1.50 not competent (nc) conclusion the teachers in grade 5 english in the public elementary schools of the schools division of laoag city are moderately competent in the oral language teaching strategies. thus, it is suggested that teachers continue being open to new learnings by actively participating in the programs and projects that seek to develop their competence in oral language teaching. it is also recommended that school administrators give their full support to teachers in training, seminars, and webinars that seek to develop their oral language teaching competence. finally, it is proposed that policymakers use the findings of this study as basis for policy formulations and the design of quality oral language teaching materials that will cater to teachers’ and learners’ needs. references abao, e. (2013). second language facility of student teachers in the philippines: an opportunity or a challenge. european scientific journal, 9(34), 1857-7431. abrar, m. (2016, october). teaching english problems: an analysis of efl primary school teachers in kuala tungkal. in the 16th indonesian scholars international convention (pp. 94-101). ali, d., göksu, a., takkaç, a., & yazici, m. (2013). common characteristics of an effective english language teacher. international journal of educational researchers, 4(3), 1-8. babai, h., & sadeghi, k. (2015). english language teaching characteristics of an effective english language teacher as perceived by iranian teachers and learners of english. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1083690.pdf bahadorfar, m., & omidvar, r. (2014, april 9-14). technology in teaching speaking skill. international journal of multidisciplinary research review. cabigon, m. (2015). state of english in the ph: should we be pa ge 49 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 40-49, 2025 concerned. philippine daily inquirer. clark, j., & walsh, j. (2012). elements of a model of effective teachers. aare conference, (pp. 1-5). brisbane. dinçer, a., göksu, a., takkaç, a., & yazici, m. (2013). common characteristics of an effective english language teacher. educational research association the international journal of educational researchers, 2013(3), 1–8. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed574883.pdf ed.gov. 2019. dussling, t. m. (2018). examining the effectiveness of a supplemental reading intervention on the early literacy skills of english language learners. literacy research and instruction, 57(3), 276-284. goh, c. c., & burns, a. (2012). teaching speaking: a holistic approach. cambridge university press. glover, p. (2011). using cefr level descriptors to raise university students’ awareness of their speaking skills. language awareness, 20(2), 121-133. hamad, m. m. (2013). factors negatively affect speaking skills at saudi colleges for girls in the south. english language teaching, 6(12), 87-97. hossain, m. i. (2015). teaching productive skills to the students: a secondary level scenario (doctoral dissertation, brac university). http://hdl.handle.net/10361/7671 jiménez, p. k. (2018). exploring students’ perceptions about english learning in a public university. how, 25(1), 69-91. konza, d. (2014). teaching reading: why the” fab five” should be the” big six”. australian journal of teacher education (online), 39(12), 153-169. koran, s. (2015, april). the role of teachers in developing learners’ speaking skill. in 6th international visible conference on educational studies and applied linguistics, april (pp. 400-4016). malikow, m. (2016). effective teacher study. national forum of teacher education journal, 1-9. morozova, y. (2013). methods of enhancing speaking skills of elementary level students. translation journal, 17(1) , 35-42. palmer, e. (2010). well spoken: teaching speaking to all students. in e. palmer, well spoken: teaching speaking to all students. portsmouth: stenhouse publishers. pangket, w. (2019). oral english proficiency: factors affecting the learners’ development. international journal of science and management studies, 2(2), 88-98. professional development service for teachers (pdst). (2014). five components of effective oral language instruction. https://pdst.ie/sites/default/files/14.%20five%20 components%20of%20oral%20language_0_2.pdf quigley, a. (2018). closing the vocabulary gap. routledge. rigg, d. (2019, october 16). the importance of strong oral language & vocabulary skills for later literacy success (installment 1 of 3). pld promoting literacy development. https://pld-literacy.org/the-importance-of-strong-orallanguage-vocabulary-skills-for-later-literacy-success/ sadeghi, k., & shishavan, h. b. (2010). characteristics of an effective english language teacher as perceived. english language teaching, 130-131. shiel, g., cregan, á., mcgough, a., & archer, p. (2012). oral language in early childhood and primary education (3-8 years). dublin: national council for curriculum and assessment. singh, f. d. (2019). importance of teaching skills for the teaching-learning process. the research journal of social sciences, 10(6). songbatumis, a. m. (2017). challenges in teaching english faced by english teachers at mtsn taliwang, indonesia. journal of foreign language teaching and learning, 2(2), 54-67. tima, r. (2018). english proficiency of pinoy students, teachers lagging–survey. gma news online. ubaedillah, u. (2019). improving students’ englishspeaking ability through jigsaw. research and innovation in language learning, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.33603/ rill.v2i3.2127 williams, k., & sharp, l. (2010). improving student oral proficiency in foreign language through the increased use and assessment of oral activities. https://nla.gov.au/ nla.cat-vn5610489 pa ge 1 pa ge 36 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) the mediating effect of ict-based instruction on attitudes and motivation of students’ in science syvon sabit1*, michelle acledan1 volume 3 issue 4, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3884 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: october 12, 2024 accepted: november 14, 2024 published: november 30, 2024 this study determined the mediating role of ict-based instruction on the relationship between attitudes and motivation of students in science. the quantitative approach using the correlational technique and analysis was utilized in this study with a sample of 309 students coming from the public schools in the division of bukidnon, municipality of kitaotao, kitaotao i, kitaotao ii, and kitaotao iii districts using stratified random method of sampling. data from the respondents was collected using sets of modified survey questionnaires, and the results were analyzed for reliability and content validity. regression analysis, pearson-r, and the mean were used to examine the data. the findings showed that the levels of science attitudes of students were rated moderate, and the science motivation of students was rated high. while ict-based instruction was likewise given a high rating. furthermore, there was a strong correlation between the factors. the connection between science attitudes and the science motivation of students was significant. there is also a significant relationship between science attitudes of students and ict-based instruction. and a significant relationship between ict-based instruction and the science motivation of students. on the mediating effect, a partial mediation exists between the impact of ict-based instruction on the correlation between attitudes and motivation of students in science. keywords education, ict-based instruction, philippines, science attitudes, science motivation 1 university of mindanao, davao city, philippines. * corresponding author’s e-mail: s.sabit.535656@umindanao.edu.ph introduction filipino students’ lack of interest and motivation is one issue associated with their poor academic performance (rogayan & bautista, 2019). many students fail to perceive the relevance and practical application of scientific knowledge in their everyday lives. the traditional science curriculum often focuses on abstract concepts and disconnected facts, which fail to establish meaningful connections to real world contexts. a similar study by krishan & al-rsa’l (2022), reported that the thirdgrade jordanian students face problems like a lack of motivation towards learning science and low achievement of scientific concepts contained in the sciences. furthermore, students’ motivation is influenced by their perceptions of the goal emphases of their environment, including parents, peers, teachers, and school culture. misalignment between students’ goals and environmental expectations can lead to decreased motivation (fortus & touitou, 2021). research has shown that motivation propels behavior in the direction of achievement. since motivation drives efforts and directs behaviors toward academic goals, steinmayr et al. (2019) emphasized that a student’s degree of motivation is frequently linked to their success in school. as a matter of reality, many researchers submitted that motivation is vital and significant in getting good academic performance for students (sarkis et al., 2020; winter, 2018). hong et al. (2020) contends that in order to account for this complexity and the systemic nature of motivation, it is necessary to model these elements concurrently in order to comprehend students’ motivations. since motivation and learning have an impact on one another, this intricacy is further amplified when studying the co-development of learning and motivation. studying the motivation and science learning can be difficult, which results in a lack of studies that take a motivational systemic viewpoint when looking into students’ science learning (hong et al., 2020). the aim of the research is to determine whether students’ attitudes and motivation toward science are mediated by the use of information and communication technology (ict) in science education. conversely, it aims to determine if ict-based instruction can influence and enhance students’ overall interest, engagement, and enthusiasm in science, potentially through its effect as a mediator in the relationship between traditional instruction and students’ science attitudes and motivation. this research can shed light on the effectiveness of incorporating technology in science education and its potential benefits for students’ perceptions and motivation in the field of science. science attitude and science motivation are closely intertwined, as one’s attitude toward science significantly influences their motivation to pursue scientific endeavors. a person who is enthusiastic about science or some other topic that will stimulate students to concentrate on it, be motivated and interested. the importance of psychological factors such as motivation and attitude for the successful completion of a goal cannot be denied (gregersen & mercer, 2023). it was found that students with negative attitudes toward science are less motivated pa ge 37 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 36-45 2024 to participate in class, while those with favorable attitudes toward science are more motivated to do so. the use of ict-based instruction in the teaching environment is generally an instructional tool that help students improve their attitudes and motivation (wang et al., 2022). in the realm of modern education, the integration of information and communication technology (ict) has brought about a paradigm shift in the way students engage with various subjects, including science. a crucial element of this change is how it affects students’ science attitudes. students’ attitudes about science have a significant impact on their learning performance and future career goals. timotheou et al. (2022) suggested that ict integration in schools impacts more than just students’ performance; it also affects students science attitude. furthermore, su et al. (2022) also document that ai technologies effectively strengthens students’ attitudes towards learning. majority of students had basic skills in the use of ict for their academic purposes (paul & roy, 2023). as we navigate the digital age, understanding and harnessing the synergy between students’ attitudes and ict-based instruction becomes increasingly vital for educators, curriculum designers, and policymakers aiming to foster a deep and lasting appreciation for science among the next generation. there is a lot of interest in the relationship between science motivation and instruction based on information and communication technology (ict). studies of chang et al. (2019) and wei-kai et al. (2019), reported that the use of digital resources in education, such as augmented reality or ar, provides the opportunity for students to practice the contents more. this translates into improved retention of conceptual knowledge and, therefore, improved motivation and academic performance. berami (2023) mentioned that the use and integration of ictbased instruction in science classroom significantly impact students’ performance relative to their national achievement test (nat) result.. since, carrying out activities from these resources allows students to access sources, materials and useful educational content to acquire academic skills and knowledge that contribute to improve their academic interest and grades (chang et al., 2019), contributing to educational accessibility (sorianosánchez & jiménez-vázquez, 2023) and favoring innovation (soriano-sánchez & jiménez-vázquez, 2022). this study’s objective was to look into the mediating role of ict-based instruction on the connection between attitudes and motivation of students in science. specifically, the study has the following goals: to identify the level of science attitudes of students regarding of my science teacher, anxiety towards science, value of science to society, self-confidence in science, and desire to do science; to describe the level of science motivation of students in terms of self-efficacy, active learning strategies, science learning value, performance goal, achievement goal and learning environment stimulation; to identify the level of ict-based instruction in terms of the teacher introduces ict in classroom and the integration of ict in classroom; to determine the significant relationship of science attitudes and motivation, science attitudes and ict-based instruction, and ict-based instruction and science motivation; and to determine the mediating effect of ict-based instruction on the correlation of attitudes and motivation of students in science. through these objectives, the research contributes to the broader field of education and pedagogy, shedding light on the potential benefits of integrating technology into science classrooms. literature review this study was anchored to self-determination theory. the motivation theory known as self-determination theory (sdt) contends that a person’s success in learning is primarily down to their own self-motivated (ryan & deci, 2000). to put it another way, a person’s will will determine how much energy is required to get a favorable result. this theory offers a helpful perspective for analyzing the ict elements at the center of the current study. the program for international student assessment (pisa) gauges a student’s perceived competence and autonomy, as well as their interest and social interactions with ict, in order to determine how comfortable they are with it. the second theory support for this study is theory of planned behavior (tpb) developed by ajzen (1991), which identifies actual behavior (ab) as the main variable that depicts an individual’s discernible reaction to a certain target in a particular circumstance. both behavioral intention (bi) and perceived behavioral control (pbc) are hypothesized by tpb to predict ab. according to ajzen, bi is a measure of a person’s willingness to carry out a specific activity, while pbc is the behavior’s perceived ease or difficulty. in turn, bi is influenced by the relevant subjective norm (sn), pbc, and attitude toward the behavior (atb) in the issue. according to tpb, outcome assessments and behavioral attitudes have an impact on atb. motivation to comply and normative views have an impact on sn. therefore, researchers argue that by adding perceived behavioral control, the theory of planned behavior can explain the relationship between attitudes and motivation better than previous theories (ajzen, 2002; crawley & koballa, 1992). venkatesh et al. (2003), developed a more modern theory known as the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut). the primary variable in the utaut is use behavior, which researchers define as an individual’s level of acceptance and utilization of a new technology. behavioral intention and enabling circumstances determine use behavior. according to davis et al. (1989), behavioral intention measures how strongly a person intends to carry out a particular behavior, whereas facilitating conditions measure how much a person believes that the organizational and technical infrastructure needed to support the technology is in place (venkatesh et al., 2003). performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence all influence behavioral intention. according to venkatesh et al. (2003), performance expectation is the extent to which a person pa ge 38 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 36-45 2024 thinks that utilizing technology will improve his or her job performance; ee is the degree of ease that comes with using the technology; and si is the extent to which a person feels that significant others think that he or she should use the technology. the above-cited theories clearly supported the variables indicated in the study. this is the reason why the researcher has chosen the cited theories, as these clearly establish and guide the connection of motivation, attitudes and ict-based instruction. the integration of ict-based instruction which is the mediating variable creates effective learning environments and supports students’ active, self-directed, and productive engagement with knowledge. there are two indicators in this variable based on study conducted by kelani (2022) which are student’s opinions on how teachers implement ict in the classroom and the benefits of doing so. the way teachers use ict into the classroom is the main focus of students’ perceptions of their introduction. however, the benefits of ict integration in the classroom are related to the perceived benefits of ict integration in the classroom. furthermore, students’ attitudes towards science are one of the crucial elements that have a major role to motivate students in order to continue their studying in science. according to tai et al. (2022), it has five indicators which include perception of the teacher, anxiety towards science, value of science to society, self-confidence in science, and desire to do science. perception of the teacher is how students perceive their teacher in teaching science. anxiety towards science is how students feel anxiety during science period. value of science to society is how students value the field of science in their community, while self-confidence in science is how confident students are during oral and written discussion. lastly, desire to do science is students’ interest to learn science. finally, the dependent variable is science motivation of students by tuan et al. (2005) includes six indicators which are self-efficacy, active learning strategies, science learning value, performance goal, achievement goal, and learning environment stimulation. self-efficacy is when students have faith in their own abilities to succeed in science-related learning assignments. students that actively use a range of tactics to build new information from their prior understanding are said to be using active learning strategies. when students develop their problemsolving skills, engage in inquiry-based learning, challenge their own thinking, and discover how science relates to everyday life, they are said to be learning science with value. they will be inspired to study science if they are able to recognize these significant values. students’ performance goals in science classes are to compete with their peers and attract the teacher’s attention. the term “accomplishment goal” describes how students feel when they improve their proficiency and performance in science classes. stimulation of the learning environment. the curriculum, the way teachers taught, and the interactions between students all had an impact on how motivated the students were to learn science in the classroom. exploring whether this effect varies in different cultural and educational contexts could be valuable. while this study focused on ict-based instruction as a mediating factor, there could be other factors not explored that mediate the relationship between science attitude and motivation, which would represent another research gap. addressing these research gaps can help to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how ictbased instruction impacts students’ science attitude and motivation especially schools in rural areas in the division of bukidnon, and the factors that influence this relationship. researchers can further investigate these areas to enhance the existing knowledge in this field. the mediating effect of ict-based instruction on science attitude and science motivation of students carries significant implications in the field of education and has a global impact. this innovative approach to teaching and learning leverages technology to enhance students’ engagement with science subjects and foster positive attitudes and motivation. moreover, the global significance of this approach extends to its role in bridging educational disparities as envisioned in sdg 4 which focuses inclusive, equitable, and quality education. ict-based instruction can reach students in underserved regions, providing them with equal access to learning resources and opportunities that were previously limited by physical books, expensive science laboratories, and costly visual materials. as a result, it has the potential to reduce educational inequalities on a global scale, empowering students and equipping them with the knowledge and motivation to pursue careers in sciencerelated fields. materials and methods this section presents various methodologies in the study, including research respondents, materials and instrument, and design and procedures. research respondents the respondents in this study were senior high school students who were in grades 11 and 12. the number of respondents was 309 students from the total population. private schools and other grade levels was not included in the study. the research was conducted in a public school in the division of bukidnon specifically in kitaotao i, ii, and iii districts and the application raosoft sampling calculator was used to obtain the desired sampling. so according to raosoft survey (1992) this application is suitable for quantitative research. materials and instrument three questionnaires were used in this study. first, the ict-based instruction questionnaire was adapted from raphael r. kenin’s study knowledge and perceptions of students regarding their teachers ict integration in secondary schools in benin. it had 19 items in total, with two subscales: nine items measuring students’ opinions pa ge 39 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 36-45 2024 of teachers introducing ict in the classroom, and ten items measuring the benefits of ict integration in the classroom. the participants’ answers to the 19 topics were measured using a five-point likert scale, which went from (1) strongly agree to (5) strongly disagree. a panel of knowledgeable teacher educators with expertise in ict use in the classroom has evaluated the tool. the instrument’s build and content validity were confirmed by them. alpha dependability for the second section of the survey was 0.855. second, tai et al. (2022) created a questionnaire about attitudes toward science that includes five indicators. like all previous studies, the 17 items in the condensed instrument were scored on a 5-point likert scale, with 1 denoting strongly disagree, 2 disagree, 3 neutral, 4 agree, and 5 strongly agree. finally, science motivation adapted questionnaire used by tuan, el at. (2005) on the development of a questionnaire to measure students’ motivation towards science learning with six indicators and thirty-five items. using a single student as the unit of analysis, the cronbach alpha reliability coefficient for each scale varied from 0.87 to 0.70, demonstrating an equitable distribution of responses across all questions. five-point likert-type scales were used to create the items. a 1 on the scale means severely disagree, a 2 means disagree, a 3 means no opinion, a 4 means agree, and a 5 means highly agree. design and procedures this study was a non-experimental quantitative design and also it used descriptive-correlational design to assess the relationship between two or more variables. such research is used to describe individual, event, and subject conditions without manipulation siedlecki (2020). also mentioned by cresswell and clark (2008), variables can be measured due to instruments and the use of statistics. this study also used mediation analysis that is increasingly used in the research field (nguyen et al., 2020). according to bhandari (2021), it is a method of statistical analysis of whether a variable is a mediator using linear regression analysis. this study also aims to determine if the ictbased instruction has a mediating effect on students’ attitude and motivation. in conducting this research, the researcher followed all the standards to carry out the said study. to be sure, here are the following step taken by the researcher: first, from the adapted questionnaire that the researcher analyzed, translated, and presented to the evaluators, the researcher analyzed it properly in order to conduct a good study. after being validated and revised by the researcher from correcting and adjusting the validators, the researcher got it ready for official approval. the researcher also hired an external validator to further increase the credibility of the instrument to be used. second, after the questionnaire arranged, the researcher arranged everything required for the validation of works for validation in umerc. third, a letter was given to the school to ask for permission to conduct research. the letter was given to the school principal. the statistics used in this study are as follows: mean was used to obtain the level of ict-based instruction, science attitude, and science motivation of students. meanwhile the pearson r. was used to identify significant relationships between ict-based instruction, science attitude, and science motivation of students. finally, in order to ascertain if ict-based education significantly mediates the relationship between students’ science motivation and attitudes, regression analysis was employed to examine the impact of science attitudes on science motivation. this study undergo validation with the university of mindanao ethics review committee (umerc) under protocol number umerc-2024-167. the researchers fully considered ethical standards in conducting the study in accordance with ethical considerations. additionally, the ethical standards for conducting the study included the required forms and documents as per the recommendations and approvals of the committee. this encompassed voluntary participation, privacy and confidentiality of the data, providing the informed consent form and assent form, honesty in presenting the data without any claims, proper procedures for selecting respondents, and obtaining permission from all parties involved in the study. results and discussion science attitudes shown in table 1 are the results for the level of science attitudes of students in science. the computations yielded an overall mean of 3.46 or moderate and a standard deviation of 0.45 and descriptive interpretation of moderate. this means that the respondents moderately manifest science attitudes. the results revealed that value of science to society has the higher mean score with the value of 3.97 which is described as high. the lowest indicator which is the anxiety towards science has obtained a lower score of 2.85 which described as moderate. table 1: level of science attitudes indicators sd mean descriptive level my science teacher 0.77 3.80 high anxiety towards science 0.83 2.85 moderate value of science to society 0.74 3.97 high self-confidence in science 0.65 3.20 moderate desire to do science 0.80 3.47 moderate overall 0.45 3.46 moderate pa ge 40 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 36-45 2024 this indicates that there is moderate level on students’ science attitudes towards learning science in terms of value of science to society. according to potvin et al. (2014), the societal value of science is a significant factor in shaping students’ attitudes and motivation towards science. similar with the study of mao et al. (2021) that students who perceive science as relevant to society tend to have more positive attitudes towards learning science. on the other hand, science anxiety negatively impacts students’ attitudes towards science and their academic achievement (kaur et al., 2020). thus, addressing science anxiety through targeted interventions can improve students’ attitudes and academic performance in science. science motivation shown in table 2 are the mean scores for the indicators of science motivation with an overall mean of 3.50 described as high with a standard deviation of 0.49. the high-level result indicated that science motivation is highly manifested. the cited overall mean score was the result gathered from the computed mean scores of its indicators. it could be gleaned from the data that the indicator with the highest mean rating of 3.88 or high is science learning value. in contrast, indicator with the lowest mean rating of 3.12 or moderate is performance goal. the high level of science motivation is due to high ratings given by the respondents on the self-efficacy; active learning strategies; science learning value; performance goal; achievement goal; and learning environment stimulation, they displayed a high science motivation. table 2: level of science motivation indicators sd mean descriptive level self-efficacy 0.60 3.38 moderate active learning strategies 0.63 3.68 high science learning value 0.64 3.88 high performance goal 0.75 3.12 moderate achievement goal 0.66 3.38 moderate learning environment stimulation 0.69 3.58 high overall 0.49 3.50 high this indicates that there is high level of students’ science motivation towards learning science in terms of science learning value. emphasizing the utility value of science, such as its relevance to personal and communal goals, significantly increases students’ motivation in science and their intention to engage in science-related activities (shin et al., 2019). this is in line with the study of tas et al. (2018), that students who perceive high task value and have a strong academic self-concept are more engaged in science classes, which in turn boosts their motivation and performance. moreover, performance goals, which focus on demonstrating competence relative to others, have a moderate impact on students’ motivation and academic performance. however, they are generally less influential compared to other motivational factors like science learning value (sabanal et al., 2023). ict-based instruction shown in table 3 are the mean scores for the indicators of ict-based instruction with an overall mean of 3.75 described as high with a standard deviation of 0.59. the high-level result indicated that ict-based instruction table 3: level of ict-based instruction indicators sd mean descriptive level the teacher introduces ict in classroom 0.60 3.75 high the integration of ict in classroom 0.69 3.75 high overall 0.59 3.75 high is highly manifested. the cited overall mean score was the result gathered from the computed mean scores of its indicators. it could be gleaned from the data that the indicator with the highest mean rating of 3.75 or high is both the teacher introduces ict in classroom and the integration of ict in classroom. the high level of ict-based instruction, as rated by the respondents, these indicators registered an overall high rating which was the product of the high scores rated by the students. students’ perceptions of teacher support for ict and their own ict competencies are positively correlated. higher levels of perceived support led to better ict competencies among students (feng et al., 2023). in addition, students’ perceptions of ict use in the classroom are generally positive, especially when they see it as enhancing their learning experience. however, the effectiveness of ict is often limited by the level of access and the extent to which it is integrated into the curriculum (alkaromah et al., 2020). thus, ict integration in science classrooms increases student engagement and academic achievement (wangchuk, 2023). relationship between science attitudes and motivation table 4 shows the significant relationship between learning experiences and understanding in filipino pa ge 41 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 36-45 2024 subject. presented in table 4 is the correlation between science attitudes and motivation of students in science. it can be gleaned from the table that the correlation gained an overall r-value of 0.698 with a p-value of 0.001, which is less than the 0.05 level of significance. this indicates a significant relationship. it can also be seen from the table that when science attitudes are correlated with science motivation reveals a significant correlation. this is due to the following overall r-values of the indicators: mst with 0.430, ats with 0.031, vss with 0.552, sis with 0.600, dds with 0.602, and the p-value is less than 0.001. relationship between science attitudes and ictbased instruction as presented in the table 5, the correlation has obtained an overall r-value of 0.514 with a p-value of 0.000. this implied that there is a significant relationship between attitudes and ict-based instruction. it can also be seen from the table that science attitudes are significantly correlated to ict-based instruction since the indicators revealed the following overall r-values my science teacher with 0.376, anxiety towards science with 0.065, value of science to society with 0.525, self-confidence in science with 0.353, desire to do science with 0.392, and p-value of less than table 4: relationship between science attitudes and motivation attitude motivation sel als slv pg ag les overall mst .377** .000 .428** .000 .387** .000 .051 .368 .351** .000 .369** .000 .430** .000 ats .063 .266 -.137* .016 -.142* .012 .223** .000 -.110 .052 -.064 .266 -.031 .588 vss .385** .000 .551** .000 .626** .000 .157** .006 .374** .000 .416** .000 .552** .000 sis .630** .000 .429** .000 .449** .000 .262** .000 .528** .000 .422** .000 .600** .000 dds .522** .000 .482** .000 .475** .000 .294** .000 .435** .000 .507** .000 .602** .000 overall .640** .000 .567** .000 .578** .000 .328** .000 .505** .000 .537** .000 .698** .000 * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, ***p<0.001 legend: mstmy science teacher alsactive learning strategies atsanxiety towards science slvscience learning value vssvalue of science to society pgperformance goal sisself-confidence in science agachievement goal ddsdesire to do science leslearning environment stimulation selself-efficacy table 5: relationship between science attitudes and ict-based instruction attitude ict-based instruction the teacher introduces ict in classroom the integration of ict in classroom overall my science teacher .335** .000 .349** .000 .376** .000 anxiety towards science -.105 .065 -.019 .740 -.065 .255 value of science to society .426** .000 .523** .000 .525** .000 self-confidence in science .252** .000 .382** .000 .353** .000 desire to do science .316** .000 .392** .000 .392** .000 overall .398** .000 .529** .000 .514** .000 * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, ***p<0.001 pa ge 42 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 36-45 2024 0.001. thus, the two variables are significantly associated. the research results of this study have relevance to karma’s et al. 2023 study, which showed a strong positive correlation between the use of ict tools in teaching and improved student attitudes towards the subject matter. for instance, the integration of ict tools in teaching grade seven science in bhutan resulted in a significant table 6: relationship between ict-based instruction and science motivation ict-based instruction motivation sel als slv pg ag les overall ttc .400** .000 .502** .000 .422** .000 .223** .000 .406** .000 .479** .000 .539** .000 tic .468** .000 .578** .000 .571** .000 .299** .000 .508** .000 .554** .000 .661** .000 overall .479** .000 .596** .000 .551** .000 .289** .000 .506** .000 .570** .000 .663** .000 * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, ***p<0.001 ttcthe teacher introduces ict in classroom slvscience learning value ticthe integration of ict in classroom pgperformance goal selself-efficacy agachievement goal alsactive learning strategies leslearning environment stimulation improvement in students’ attitudes and test scores. similarly, the use of technology-enhanced instructional approaches in programming classes led to higher student engagement and positive attitudes (phillips et al., 2023). relationship between ict-based instruction and science motivation table 6 presented the correlation between the ict-based instruction and the science motivation of students. it can be seen from the table that the correlation gained an overall r-value of 0.663 and a p-value of less than 0.001, which is less than the 0.05 level of significance. this indicates a significant relationship between ictbased instruction and science motivation of students. thus, the null hypothesis of no significant relationship between ict-based instruction and science motivation of students is rejected. this confirms that students’ learning experiences are significantly related to achieving communicative skills in further, the table also showed that ict-based instruction is significantly correlated to science motivation since the indicators revealed the following overall r-values: ttc with 0.539, and tic with 0.661; and the p-value is <0.001. thus, the two variables are significantly linked. the result of this study support areepattamannil’s et al. (2020) assertion that ict-based learning significantly enhances students’ motivation in learning science. according to shanmugam & balakrishnan 2019, students report high levels of motivation when ict elements are integrated into science learning, with factors such as assisted learning and stimulated interest being major contributors. table 7: regression analysis showing the influence of attitude on motivation as mediated by ict-based instruction step path b s.e. β 1 c .757 .044 .698*** 2 a .663 .063 .514*** 3 b .348 .035 .414*** 4 c’ .526 .045 .485*** * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, ***p<0.001 presented in table 7 are the steps that was categorized as steps 1 to 4. the total effect value of 0.757 is attributed to the beta of science attitudes towards science motivation. the direct effect value of 0.526 is the beta of science attitudes towards science motivation with ict-based instruction included in the regression. the indirect effect value of 0.663 is the value obtained from the original beta between attitude and motivation that now passes through ict-based instruction to motivation (a*b, where “a” denotes the path a → ict-bi and “b” pertains to path between ict-bi → m) with indirect effect value of 0.348. with this, partial mediation occurred due to the fact that the effect was found to be significant at p<0.05. the sobel-z test in table 8 yielded a z-value of 7.23, table 8: results of statistical analysis on presence (or absence) of mediating effect combination of variables sobel z p-value mediation attitude → ict-based → motivation 7.238826 <0.05 partial mediation * p<0.05 pa ge 43 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 36-45 2024 p<0.05. this means that mediating effect is partial, such that the original direct effect science attitudes to of motivation was positively increased upon the addition of ict-based instruction. the positive value of sobel z indicates that the addition of ict-based instruction positively increased the effect of attitudes on motivation of students in science. conclusions the level of science attitudes of students in science is moderate while the level of science motivation of students in science and ict-based instruction is high. there is a significant relationship between attitude and motivation of students in science. there is also a significant relationship between attitude and ict-based instruction of students in science and a significant relationship between ict-based instruction and motivation of students in science. in addition, there is also a partial mediation on the effect of ict-based instruction on the relationship between attitudes and motivation of students in science. the findings of the study confirm the notion about the mediating effect of effect of ictbased instruction on the relationship between attitudes and motivation of students in science. the finding of the study supports the self-determination theory (sdt) of ryan & deci (2000), suggesting that self-motivation is the causal factor behind an individual’s success in learning. one recommendation for school administrators to enhance student motivation to learn science is to foster positive attitudes toward ict among educators and students. since ict-based instruction mediates the relationship between attitude and motivation, investing in proper ict training and infrastructure for educators and learners is crucial. teachers who are confident and skilled in using ict will be better able to harness its benefits to motivate students. acknowledgements the researchers acknowledge to those who contributed to the realization and success of this study. to the family, friends, university of mindanao professors, editor/ grammarian, review committee, internal and external validators, schools division superintendent, school principals, parents, respondents, and most specially to god. references ajzen, i. 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(2018). performance and motivation in a middle school flipped learning course. techtrends – linking research and practice to improve learning, 62(2), 176-183. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11528-0170228-7 pa ge 1 pa ge 1 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) temporary suspension of school-based management: its effect on learning outcomes of pupils at sto. niño district analiza berbulla1*, rebecca loja2 volume 4 issue 2, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i2.4322 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: january 02, 2025 accepted: february 05, 2025 published: april 21, 2025 success in education is only enclosed within the classroom amidst teachers and students alone. school-based management (sbm) entails the delivery of success and the structure of concrete learning outcomes. the study was participated in by 268 grade vi pupils from 10 schools in sto. nino district through random sampling. schools were identified as sbm level 3 among the 13 schools in the last sbm regional validation, years back 2020-2021. the survey questionnaire comprised four sections: part i comprised pupils’ profiles, part ii was on temporary suspension of sbm, including the leadership and governance, curriculum and instruction, accountability and continuous improvement, and resources management, and part iii was on researcher-made questionnaire on attitudes of pupils towards learning. part iv was a researcher-made questionnaire on challenges encountered by pupils. the content experts validated the instrument, and it was pilot-tested. results revealed that the p-value of .511 is greater than the standard significance level of 0.05, leading to the decision to accept the null hypothesis. hence, it can be concluded that the temporary suspension of the sbm bears no effect on the attitude of pupils in sto. nino district. in this study, the efficiency of school-based management relies on the stakeholders’ capacity to actualize the need and identify the existing challenges that confront the implementation. even further, one of the indicators of the success of school-based management implementation lies in the students’ learning outcomes. learners’ learning outcome depends on their attitude toward learning and their challenges in the teaching-learning process. like the conduct of sbm, its efficiency is seen in the learning outcomes, and learning outcomes are seen in learners’ efficiency in the academic efforts. keywords attitude, learning, outcomes, pupils, school-based management 1 department of education, philippines 2 sultan kudarat state university, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: analiza.berbulla@deped.gov.ph introduction success in education extends beyond the classroom, involving multiple stakeholders and structures to achieve tangible outcomes. school-based management (sbm) is recognized globally for its potential to enhance educational quality by empowering schools to manage their operations effectively. sbm aims to improve learning outcomes by decentralizing decisionmaking, allowing schools to tailor their practices to local needs (deped order no. 83, s. 2012). in the philippines, sbm is supported by republic act 9155, which enables schools to manage their governance and academic undertakings more autonomously (pato, 2023). however, despite its benefits, there are challenges and gaps in its implementation. recently, the department of education temporarily suspended sbm validation activities to facilitate a transition to new policies (deped memorandum no. 75, series of 2022). this research aims to explore the impact of the temporary suspension of sbm on schools, particularly those at sbm level 3, and how these schools continue to work towards achieving learning outcomes despite this suspension. the study seeks to address the gap in research on the effects of sbm suspension and contribute to understanding the challenges and opportunities in implementing sbm effectively. literature review school-based management establishing school-based management and its interference through its practice to the school administration lined various practices guided with the common indicators: leadership and governance, curriculum and instruction, accountability, and continuous improvement. this discourse has been widely used in the academic sector (acejo, 2022). meanwhile, manzano (2023) asserted that to improve learners’ performance, teachers’ duties and responsibilities are a significant element of school management (estremera, 2021). the development of excellence in education paved the way for achieving the goals because of the relevant entities in the academic sectors. (pepugal, 2022). mythili (2019) inferred that good governance is a procedure by which network governance may effectually be adopted in the education structure that is operationalized through leadership to realize higher and quality pursuits. adolfsson (2024) explained that collaborative culture can be fostered by composing a stable team, developing routines for collaboration, ensuring open communication among all parties, focusing consistently on the goal, and building trust. it must be understood that genuine support through prepared plans and resources can be a tool for improvement among schools and its organizations. pa ge 2 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 1-6 2025 issues and challenges implementing school-based management success in education extends beyond the classroom, involving multiple stakeholders and structures to achieve tangible outcomes. school-based management (sbm) is recognized globally for enhancing educational quality by empowering schools to manage their operations effectively. in the philippines, sbm is supported by republic act 9155, enabling schools to manage governance and academic undertakings autonomously (bruns et al., 2011). austria and alson even pointed out that collaboration, which can transpire in an institution governed by sbm, has a way of leveraging the educational system of the philippines. however, the department of education recently suspended sbm validation activities to facilitate a transition to new policies. this research aims to explore the impact of this suspension on schools, particularly those at sbm level 3, and how they continue to achieve learning outcomes during this period. the study seeks to address the gap in research on the effects of sbm suspension and contribute to understanding the challenges and opportunities in implementing sbm effectively (manila bulletin, 2022). factors driving learning outcomes the success of education is heavily influenced by the capabilities and qualities of teachers, including their knowledge, dedication, and motivation, which are crucial for achieving quality education and learner outcomes (kumar, 2017). learning outcomes are primarily affected by factors such as teachers, infrastructure, peers, and parents, with interest and motivation playing a significant role (sinay, 2023). additionally, students’ attitudes toward learning are shaped by teachers’ instructional and psychological approaches rather than being the sole reason for liking or disliking a subject (mazana, 2019). effective criteria for learning can help assess and improve student outcomes by identifying areas of strength and weakness in academic assessments (education victoria, 2022). materials and methods the methodology of this study involved a descriptive correlational design to examine the relationship between variables without manipulating them. this approach allowed for an investigation into the effect of the temporary suspension of school-based management (sbm) on pupils in sto. nino district by analyzing their responses. the study utilized a purposive random sampling technique, with proportional allocation among grade vi pupils from 10 schools in the district. cochran’s formula was employed to determine the sample size, ensuring that selected respondents could provide specific and rich data relevant to the study’s purpose. this method, while non-probability-based, offered the benefit of unbiased and representative data, although it presented challenges such as the need for a readily available population list and potential difficulties with heterogeneous populations (creswell, 2018). the data collection process involved a comprehensive survey questionnaire divided into four sections. part i focused on pupil respondents’ profiles, adapted from pato (2023). part ii addressed the temporary suspension of sbm, based on deped order no. 8, series 2015, covering aspects such as leadership, governance, curriculum, instruction, accountability, continuous improvement, and resources management. parts iii and iv were researcher-made questionnaires examining pupils’ attitudes towards learning and challenges encountered, respectively. content experts validated these sections before the survey, adhering to the standards observed in the studies of dugho and sumayo (2025), tanoja and sumayo (2024), obenza et al. (2023), and labajo and sebugan, 2022). a 5-point likert scale was used to measure perceptions of sbm suspension. statistical analysis included frequency for pupil profiles, mean for assessing the extent of perceived sbm suspension and learning outcomes, correlation to determine relationships between sbm suspension and learning outcomes, and percentage to identify challenges faced by pupils. results and discussions table 1: profile of respondents in terms of age age frequency percentage 11 245 91.4% 12 23 8.6% total (n) 268 100% table 2: profile of respondents in terms of sex sex frequency percentage female 154 57.5% male 114 42.5% total 268 100% the participants’ ages ranged from 11 to 12 years old. most respondents were 11 years old, with 245 participants representing 91.4% of the total sample. a smaller proportion of participants, 23 (8.6%), were 12 years old. it has been observed that these learners in the group were diverse and displayed various social associations in their age range. these data validate the results of the study of urruticoechea et al. (2021), which found that younger learners in the same class group obtain lower mean scores in cognition and motor operations, and age in the same range relatively affects child social development. in this sample, the sex distribution was relatively balanced, with a slight majority of participants being female. of 268 respondents, 154 were female, making up 57.5% of the total sample, while 114 were male, comprising 42.5%. this distribution reflects a higher proportion of female participants than males, which may have implications for the study results depending on the research context. the total sample size of 268 participants was evenly distributed pa ge 3 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 1-6 2025 across both sexes, contributing to the overall analysis. it reflects the result of the study by martinez (2019) that the findings of their study showed vivid commitment to the school work of female learners in most of the studies. bailey (2020) corroborates the precepts of the correlation between male and female participation in class attendance, stating that females are more likely to participate and earn higher grades. according to leraas and larson (2018), masculinity and androgyny were associated with in-class participation, table 3: profile of respondents in terms of age academic standing academic standing frequency percentage with honors 131 48.9% without honors 137 51.1% total 268 100% table 4: extent of temporary suspension of sbm as perceived by students indicators n mean sd interpretation leadership and governance 268 4.67 0.295 very great extent of impact curriculum and instruction 268 4.60 0.365 very great extent of impact accountability and continuous improvement 268 4.66 0.373 very great extent of impact management of resources 268 4.61 0.351 very great extent of impact mean 4.64 0.136 very great extent of impact table 5: the level of pupil’s learning outcome in terms of gpa descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation 2021-2022 268 76.00 92.00 86.0168 3.37493 2022-2023 268 78.00 92.00 84.6735 3.20582 2023-2024 268 76.00 92.00 85.6075 4.62963 mean gpa 268 77.00 91.00 85.7411 3.86765 valid n (listwise) 268 and the outside participation of females and males was more evident to females. the academic standing of the respondents was almost evenly distributed between those with and without honors. of the 268 participants, 131 (48.9%) were classified as having honors, while 137 (51.1%) did not have honors. this near-equal distribution suggests that the sample included a diverse range of academic achievers, which may allow for a balanced analysis when considering academic performance as a variable in the study. the total sample size of 268 ensures a representative assessment of the participants’ academic standing. it reflects that the class is grouped heterogeneously and well-balanced according to academic undertaking and instructions. moreover, charandabi (2020) asserted that regarding academic standing, the differences in learners’ achievement are based on parents’ jobs, financial support, family support, and community support. the data presented indicate the perceived extent of the impact of the temporary suspension of school-based management (sbm) as assessed by pupils across four key indicators. each indicator was rated on a scale and was interpreted as having a “very great extent of impact” based on the mean scores. leadership and governance received the highest mean score (m = 4.67, sd = 0.295), indicating that pupils perceived a very significant impact in this area during the suspension. accountability and continuous improvement were also rated high (m = 4.66, sd = 0.373), with relatively low variability, showing that most students consistently perceived a great impact. curriculum and instruction followed closely with a mean score of 4.60 (sd = 0.365), reflecting strong perceptions of the suspension’s effect on learning processes. management of resources had a mean score of 4.61 (sd = 0.351), the lowest among the four, but still indicating a “very great extent of impact.” more so, the overall mean score across all indicators was 4.64 (sd = 0.136), suggesting that pupils generally perceived the suspension of school-based management as having a very significant impact across all areas assessed. the small standard deviations indicate that the perceptions were relatively consistent among respondents. thus, the result of the study correlates to the study of tonich (2021) that when projects and activities were practiced even amidst interferences including suspension, will manifest the capabilities of the school principals to cater to leadership and governance, capabilities of the schools to cater effective leadership and governance, relevant curriculum and instruction, proper management of resources, take accountability to everyone in the school and achieve continuous improvement programs for all the learners, teachers, and the community. the effective implementation of the programs, projects, and activities also enables teachers to teach well, at their very best, which would greatly benefit and attain better performance. pa ge 4 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 1-6 2025 the data on pupils’ learning outcomes regarding gpa reveals that the average of learners is very satisfactory (86.01) in 2021-2022. it depleted more than two points, which is still very satisfactory (84. 67). the learning across gpa continues to increase (85.60) in the school year 2023-2024), which shows an evident result of very satisfactory. the data indicates that all learners passed across three (3) years on their learning outcomes based on gpa. the result converges with leslie (2021), who asserts precept from his study that an invested education that develops skills and highlights the relevance of monitored academics can influence an increase in grades. leontev et al. (2018) further state that teachers’ monitoring and using understandable dynamics will increase learning performance. table 6: level of pupil’s learning outcome in terms of attitude indicators mean sd interpretation 1 i share my stuffs to my co-students. 4.19 0.843 learning outcome is greatly evident. 2 i obey and behaved when asked by an adult. 3.96 0.852 learning outcomes is greatly evident 3 i helped my teachers and co-students. 4.20 0.879 learning outcomes is greatly evident 4 i am very playful and inattentive. 2.94 1.117 learning outcomes is moderately evident 5 i am considerate of other pupil’s feelings. 4.11 0.856 learning outcome is greatly evident 6. i am generally liked by other pupils. 3.86 1.007 learning outcome is greatly evident 7 i am easily distracted, and my concentration wanders. 3.68 1.078 learning outcome is greatly evident 8 i think things out before acting. 4.05 1.010 learning outcome is greatly evident 9 i have a good attention span and see work through to the end. 4.25 0.861 learning outcome is greatly evident 10 i am bullied by other pupils. 2.39 1.073 learning outcomes is moderately evident total 3.76 0.958 learning outcomes is greatly evident the data on pupils’ learning outcomes regarding attitude reveal that the mean score was 3.76, with a standard deviation of 0.958. this score is interpreted as “greatly evident,” indicating that, on average, pupils demonstrate positive attitudes toward learning to a significant extent. the relatively moderate standard deviation suggests some variation in the responses, meaning that while most pupils exhibit a positive attitude, a few may have demonstrated slightly different levels of attitude toward learning. nonetheless, the overall interpretation reflects a strong and favorable attitude toward learning within the group. furthermore, respondents reflected that they help others (parents, teachers, and other children (m=4.20). learners, too, share easily with other pupils, such as toys, treats, and pencils (m=4.19). on the other hand, learners become restless, overactive, and unable to stay for long (m=2.94). learning outcomes are greatly evident in learners due to their good attention span and seeing the work throughout the end (m=4.25). the study by cicekci and sadik (2019) shows that learners became attentive to instructions through teachers, learning methods, guidance, and approaches. it will positively impact their good behavior. table 7: significant relationship between temporary suspension of sbm and pupil’s learning outcome in terms of gpa. pearson r interpretation p-value decision sbm gpa 0.802 high positive correlation .005 reject ho the relationship between the temporary suspension of school-based management (sbm) and pupils’ learning outcomes (plo) in terms of gpa was analyzed using pearson’s correlation coefficient. the results, as presented in table 7, show a pearson r value of 0.802, which indicates a high positive correlation between sbm suspension and gpa. this suggests that as the perceived impact of the sbm suspension increases, pupils’ gpa tends to increase as well, or vice versa. the p-value of .005 is less than the standard significance level of 0.05, leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis (ho). this means that there is a statistically significant relationship between the temporary suspension of sbm and the pupils’ gpa, confirming that the changes in sbm practices are closely related to variations in academic performance as measured by gpa. the relationship between the temporary suspension of school-based management (sbm) and pupils’ learning outcomes (plo) regarding attitude was examined using pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient. as shown in table 8, the results indicate a pearson r value of -0.040, which suggests a weak negative correlation pa ge 5 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 1-6 2025 table 8: significant relationship between temporary suspension of sbm and pupil’s learning outcome in terms of attitude pearson r interpretation p-value decision sbm attitude -0.040 very weak negative correlation .511 accept ho table 9: challenges encountered by the pupils in the school indicators frequency rank poor retention in learning 80 1 bullying in school and peer pressure 38 2 lack of self-motivation 30 3 difficulty with school work. 25 4 losing concentration during lectures 25 5 confusion in a subject 18 6 lack of attention from teachers 15 7 bullying in school and peer pressure 17 8 poor study habit 10 9 boring lesson 10 10 total 268 between the suspension of sbm and pupils’ attitudes. the result means there is little to no meaningful relationship between the perceived impact of the sbm suspension and the pupils’ attitudes toward learning. the p-value of .511 is greater than the standard significance level of 0.05, leading to the decision to accept the null hypothesis (ho). the result indicates no statistically significant relationship between the temporary suspension of sbm and the pupils’ attitudes. in other words, the changes brought about by the suspension of sbm do not appear to have a notable effect on pupils’ attitudes toward learning. the result of this study validates ozcan (2021) that learners’ academic success emanates from their family education level, academic support, and academic success attitude adhered to a motivated school environment and school management, which posits the professional competence of teachers as well. table 9 shows the challenges the participants encountered in school. several 80 participants were poor in subject retention (rank 1). bullying in school and peer pressure come second (rank 2) and lack of self-motivation (rank 3). difficulty with school work and losing concentration during lectures (rank 4), losing concentration during lectures (rank 5), confusion in a subject (rank 6), and lack of attention from teachers from teachers (rank 7). learners were less implicated in their attention to teachers and bullying. the result means that learners mostly faced challenges in subject retention and least in the form of lack of attention from teachers and peer pressure (rank 8), and poor study habits (rank 10). learners are least seen to have bad habits and get bored (rank 10) of the subjects. it is an element to look into. the result reflects the leontev et al. 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(2021). the relative age effects in educational development. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(17), 8966. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18178966 special issue (2nd eic-2024) published by e-palli publishers, delaware, usa 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 13 e-palli international conferences on science technology, engineering, and mathematics (eic-stem) www.conferences.e-palli.com 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) 14 april 2024 kathmandu, nepal impact of unconditional support to reduce food insecurity during the pandemic of covid 19 dibash chandra karki1* abstract vulnerable populations are always highly affected by any disaster. they have deficient coping capacity as they depend on daily income activities and need a diversified source of income. so, those people are highly impacted by any disease. the result of such a disaster may lead to food insecurity. methods: for the survey, 1,598 people who got unconditional support were under consideration. out of the total population, 317 samples were surveyed using proportionate random sampling for the study. the research methodology is a randomized controlled trial (rct) with a pretest-posttest design. a smart survey through kobo tools was done using trained local enumerators. data collected through the survey was downloaded to excel and analysed using excel. results: cereals (99%) was the most consumed food type, while white tuber and root (2.2%) were the least consumed. food consumed in four or more types increased from 42% to 87%. livelihood coping strategies indicator (l-csi) was used as a descriptor of a household’s coping capacity alongside the r-csi. the responses were categorized into stress, crisis, and emergency strategies. the number of hhs under the crisis category reduced from 15.4% to 4.1%. similarly, the number of households under the emergency category reduced from 12.3% to 3.8%, and the number of crises reduced from 58.2 % to 6.8% conclusion: the study showed from the calculation r-cs that conditional support of the vulnerable people increased by nearly one-third (35%) within a month of support and helped them with coping strategies. keywords: livelihood coping strategies index, reduced coping strategy index, 3.7.5. household dietary diversity score introduction background the triggered crisis of covid-19 raised along from the first wave to third wave exponential in the cases. the country was swift to mandate complete lockdown in first and second wave, but scenario of the third wave is a bit different. as there were fewer lockdowns but the cases were high during the third wave. large number of laborers/wage earners, migrant workers, farmers, or business entrepreneurs have suffered from the chaos of the crisis. having an extensive impact on livelihood options, small local market vendors were unable to continue their enterprises, unable to pay the loans and were struggling to find new livelihood opportunities to run their livelihood. covid-19 severely affected the lives of families especially to population relying on daily wages and agriculture as income sources. not only income sources were depleted, but also the produced agri-products could not reach to market and daily wage amount (per day) got reduced significantly. families were forced to adopt diverse coping strategies (mostly negative among families from the vulnerable state), causing further issues on the nutritional status of children, women, and senior citizens. sarlahi district (hdi 0.402), lies in madhesh province with an income per capita of $570, around 26% of the population lives below the poverty line in (undp rapid assessment report 2020). the report further indicates that 47% of the population are multi-dimensionally poor and the provinces’ hdi stands at 0.421. the literacy rate for the age group 15 to 49 years is the lowest of all provinces for both genders: 38% for women and 78% for men. the expansion and re-emerging of new variants of covid-19 imposed a higher risk of transmission in border districts like sarlahi, as people became reluctant in following safety measures and protocol. the census data 2014 shows that the hdi seemed to be low in the proposed working areas i.e. 1 sinamangal-9, kathmandu * corresponding author: dibashkarkicds@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3775 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 14 haripur municipality (0.39), malangwa municipality (0.44) and barahattwa municipality (0.39). these proposed lgs lie near to nepal-india border and are highly affected by the covid-19 pandemic and are also at high risk of multi-hazard including flood disaster. in this context, local government of sarlahi district provided the cash (through cash for work) and livestock to improve the livelihood status and food security condition of covid-19 affected families in sarlahi district of madhesh province. map of surveyed palika sarlahi is a terai district situated in the so-called janakpur zone mostly with low and plain land located in the madhesh province of nepal. figure 1: map of surveyed palika the district headquarters (dhq), malangawa, is 25km south of the east-west national highway (nawalpur) and can also be reached by road from janakpur (88km) and from simara airport (95km). local governments survey highlighted areas. objectives of study the preand post-surveys were conducted to compare the food security index of the people supported in the sarlahi district. in more specific terms, the objectives were: • to identify the change in food sufficiency level. • compare the supported people's reduced coping index (r-csi) and livelihood coping strategy (l-csi). • and to find the changes in the household dietary diversity score (hdds). methodology this study adopted quantitative and qualitative methods to collect data/information and interpret the results. primary data was collected from the survey. while qualitative pieces of information were gathered from documents review, key informants’ interviews (kii). 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 15 s.n. coping strategy no. of days (0-7) weight score (frequency *weight) 1 rely on less preferred and less expensive foods? 1 2 borrow food, or rely on help from a friend or relative? 2 3 limit portion size at mealtimes? 1 4 restrict consumption by adults in order for small children to eat? 3 5 reduce number of meals eaten in a day? 1 population and sample for the survey total population was taken 1598 (555-cash supported, 1043-agri input support). out of the total population, 317 samples were surveyed using proportionate random sampling for the study. data quality assurance all enumerators were selected from the local community so that they know the local language and culture to get in-depth information and easily communicate. after one day of orientation on interview techniques and kobo application, enumerators were deployed for the survey. the survey was based on mobile technology. the enumerators were asked to collect data with the members listed in the sample if he/she is available at the time of the survey. if not, ask another adult member of the same household. prior consent with the interviewee was compulsory before asking questions. the individual respondent was free to answer all or only part of the questionnaire based on his/her choice. in the case of non-response, enumerators were instructed to interview the immediate next member of the same group. the survey questionnaire and key informant interview (kii) checklist were primarily used in the survey. all the tools are developed in the english language. once finalized, it is translated into the local language (nepali). kii tools focused on qualitative information on thematic areas – food security, coping strategy, covid-19 impact on daily lives, market scenario, government’s priorities, needs (short-term and long-term), relevancy, satisfaction, and other cross-cutting areas. ethical consideration this study was conducted in compliance with ethical and human rights standards. survey procedures were designed to protect participants’ privacy, allowing anonymity and voluntary participation. prior verbal consent from all survey and meeting participants was obtained before the interview and kii. the study team, however, encouraged the selected respondents to participate in interviews. before initiating the interview, confidentiality of the information was provided, and consent to proceed was sought. the study team has maintained the privacy of the respondents' information, including photographs and opinions. theoretical review for the calculation average coping strategies index (r-csi): q. in the past seven days, if there have been times when you did not have enough food or money to buy food, how often has your household had to: or alternatively for context specific coping strategy index s.n. coping strategy no. of days (0-7) weight score (frequency *weight) 1 rely on less preferred and less expensive foods? 1 2 borrow food, or rely on help from a friend or relative? 2 3 purchase food on credit? 2 4 gather wild food, hunt or harvest immature crops 4 5 consume seed stock held for next season 3 6 send household members to eat elsewhere 2 7 send household members to beg 4 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 16 livelihood coping strategies index (l-csi) during the past 30 days, did anyone in your household have to engage in any following behaviours due to lack of food or a lack of money to buy food. 8 limit portion size at mealtimes 1 9 restrict consumption by adults in order for small children to eat 2 10 feed working members at the expense of non-working members 2 11 reduce number of meals eaten in a day 2 12 skip entire days without eating 4 food consumption score (fcs) q how many days over the last 7 days, did members of your household eat the following food items, prepared and/or consumed at home? main components/steps: • frequency of consumption (in days) is asked over a recall period of seven days. • food items are grouped into nine standard groups with a maximum value of seven days/week. • those values are then multiplied by a weighting factor and summed to obtain the fcs. the main food groups and their weights are as follows:standard threshold for fcs food group food items (examples) weight 1. main staples maize, maize porridge, rice, sorghum, millet, bread, cassava, plantains, potatoes, sweet potatoes, other tubers 2 2. pulses beans, peas, groundnuts, cashew nuts 3 3. vegetables vegetables, leafy greens 1 4. fruit fresh and dried fruits 1 5. meat and fish beef, goat, pork, chicken, duck, fish, eggs 4 6. milk and dairy milk, yogurt, kefir, and other dairy 4 7. sugar sugar, honey, candy, other products with sugar 0.5 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 17 standard thresholds thresholds with oil and sugar eaten on a daily basis (~7 days a week) food consumption profile 0 21 0 28 poor 21.5 35 28.5 42 borderline > 35 > 42 acceptable analysis demographic in total 317 samples were surveyed through the household survey, where 104 were from barahttwa and haripur equally and 109 were from malangwa municipality, where 63% were female respondents and 37% were male respondents. lg female male grand total barahttwa 57 47 104 haripur 69 35 104 malangwa 75 34 109 total 201 (63%) 116 (37%) 317 labels brahmin/chhetri/ thakuri (bct) dalit hill dalit tarai janajati hill janajati tarai madheshi muslim barahttwa (n=104) 0.96% 0.00% 21.15% 4.81% 53.85% 18.27% 0.96% haripur (n=104) 0.00% 0.00% 49.04% 0.00% 19.23% 17.31% 14.42% malangwa (n=109) 0.00% 0.92% 54.13% 0.00% 0.00% 43.12% 1.83% total (n=317) 0.32% 0.32% 41.64% 1.58% 23.97% 26.50% 5.68% labels bachelor’s and above high school secondary primary literate only illiterate barahttwa 0.00% 2.88% 8.65% 6.73% 8.65% 73.08% haripur 0.00% 0.96% 4.81% 9.62% 3.85% 80.77% malangwa 0.92% 2.75% 4.59% 7.34% 9.17% 75.23% total 0.32% 2.21% 5.99% 7.89% 7.26% 76.34% 8. oil oil, butter, ghee, other fats 0.5 9. condiments spices, coffee, tea, salt, small amounts of milk or fish powder 0 standard threshold for fcs ethnicity among the respondents surveyed from the livelihood-supported respondents highest nearly 42% were from the dalit community, madhesi 27%, janajati 25%, muslim 6%, and the remaining were from bct. educational status based on the educational status, as in the baseline survey, this also showed that the illiterate population was highest in the program implemented areas. more than three-fourths (76%) were found illiterate population, similarly, 8% found attended primary school, 7% were literate from non-formal education, 6% were attended secondary school, 2% attended high school and very less than 1% were bachelor’s degree holders. family members contributing to hh income more than 60% of households depend upon the income of the single or no (nobody for reliable income) member of the family, which is not a good system based on food security. for food security, multiple members and multiple sources of income are counted as good for food security. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 18 no. of family members contributing to hh income 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 barahttwa 0.00% 16.72% 13.25% 2.21% 0.63% 0.00% 0.00% haripur 2.84% 21.45% 7.26% 1.26% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% malangwa 1.89% 17.67% 11.67% 1.89% 0.63% 0.32% 0.32% total 4.73% 55.84% 32.18% 5.36% 1.26% 0.32% 0.32% major source of income from the survey, it is observed that daily wage is the main source of income for the 84% hhs remaining 7% sme, remittance 6%, other agri 5%, salary and pension 4%, vegetable 3% respectively. this showed that even though the intervention area has a lot of potential for vegetable farming, people are not farming vegetables for business purposes. this intervention activity will play an essential role in motivating the farmer, and such results are expected in the future. source of income number of hh % (multiple choice) daily wage 266 83.9% small and medium scale business 22 6.9% remittance 19 6.0% agri-other sources 15 4.7% job/salary 9 2.8% vegetable sales 9 2.8% pension/government allowance 3 0.9% livestock sales 0 0.0% average income intervention was focused on economic recovery activities, basically agriculture/livestock and short-term income-generating activities like cfw. the income is comparable only to these activities. in comparison to the baseline average annual income from vegetables, sales increased by 12.5%, average annual income increased in small and medium scale businesses by 79%, and income from daily wages increased by 9 % which might be the daily wages opportunity created by the infrastructure renovation through cfw modality. average income after intervention before source of income barahttwa haripur malangwa overall overall vegetable sales 22857 25000 50000 26,111 23,200 agri-other sources/crops. cereals 51001 26667 0 46,134 25,182 small and medium scale business 7075 50200 108909 67,793 37,778 job/salary 15000 600 170000 99,511 74753 daily wage 19177 42206 93197 53,318 48,991 pension/government allowance 23000 0 0 23,000 38,167 remittance 23333 170000 143751 135,790 118,964 livestock sales 0 0 0 0 food security food security is the state of having reliable access to enough, affordable, nutritious food. food security has declined dramatically in many developing countries especially during and after the covid-19. this survey is trying to compare the status of food security before and after the support received. food insufficiency for the last twelve months respondents were asked about their food insufficiency for the whole year and the same question was asked during the baseline 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 19 as well. while comparing baseline value with the endline, it is noted that overall food insufficiency was dramatically reduced by 64%. while comparing all lgs food insufficient reduced maximum in malangawa. the period of june to september is among the periods where families usually face the scenario of food insecurity. food insecurity was found to drastically down even in the major food insecure months. the highest % of food insecure households were shrawan month with 44% hhs during the baseline, but in the same month food insecure households reduced to 2.5%. from the chart below, we can say that the food insecure households reduced in all months of the whole year. reasons for food insecurity major reasons for food insecurity were found to be severe sickness and natural diseases (27%). the second highest was cropping pest outbreak (21%), and the third highest was covid impact (15%). the survey found that 50% of households’ food insecurity was created by covid (loss of job, sickness, and covid itself). 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 20 reduced coping strategy index (r-csi) reduced coping strategy index (r-csi) helps to understand the scenario of hhs in terms of adopting diverse coping strategies to manage the food over 7 days prior to the surveyed date. r-csi is the lowered version of generally used coping strategy index, which has been contextualized and lowered down to five coping strategies as per the local context. based on the weighted score, the r-csi has been categorised into high (>=19), moderate (9-18), mild (4-8), and no/low insecure (0-3). based on r-csi calculation, 51.9% were food secured during the baseline which significantly increased to 87%, and the percentage of food-insecure households reduced to 13% from 48.1% food-insecure households. local government no/low food insecure mild food insecure moderately food insecure high/severely food insecure barahttwa (n=12) 91.67% 8.33% 0.00% 0.00% haripur (n=5) 80.00% 20.00% 0.00% 0.00% malangwa(n= 6) 83.33% 16.67% 0.00% 0.00% post test, total (n=23) 86.96% 13.04% 0.00% 0.00% pretest, total (n=106) 51.9% 34.9% 10.4% 2.8% livelihood coping strategy index (l-csi) livelihood coping strategies related indicator was used as a descriptor of a household’s coping capacity alongside the r-csi. the response received during baseline survey helped to understand the stress and insecurity faced by hhs and described their capacity to cope with future food shortages. the responses were categorized into stress, crisis, and emergency strategies. the number of hhs under the crisis category reduced from 15.4% to 4.1%. similarly, the number of households under the emergency category reduced from 12.3% to 3.8%, and the number of crises reduced from 58.2 % to 6.8% category strategy barahttwa (n=104) haripur (n=104) malangwa (n=109) grand total (n=317) pretest crisis withdrew children from school 1.9% 1.0% 0.0% 0.9% 2.80% reduced non-food expenses 3.8% 1.0% 0.0% 1.6% 8.00% sold productive assets 3.8% 1.0% 0.0% 1.6% 4.60% total 9.6% 2.9% 0.0% 4.1% 15.40% emergency sold house or land 1.9% 0.0% 0.0% 0.6% 2.50% sold last female animals 2.9% 1.0% 0.0% 1.3% 4.90% begging 2.9% 1.9% 0.9% 1.9% 4.90% total 7.7% 2.9% 0.9% 3.8% 12.30% stress spent savings 3.8% 1.9% 0.0% 1.9% 14.20% borrowed money/food 3.8% 1.9% 0.0% 1.9% 33.20% sold more animals (nonproductive) than usual 2.9% 1.0% 0.0% 1.3% 4.00% sold household assets/goods 3.8% 1.0% 0.0% 1.6% 6.80% total 14.4% 5.8% 0.0% 6.6% 58.20% household dietary diversity score (hdds) household dietary diversity score (hdds) is a qualitative measure of food consumption that reflects household access to a variety of foods. the household diversity score provides help to understand the food consumption pattern among intervention intervened hhs during the 24 hours prior to surveyed period. cereal (99%) was the most consumed food type, while white tuber and root (2.2%) was the least consumed food type. this survey helped categorize the intervention targeted hhs based on their dietary consumption pattern. hhs were categorized into low (0-4 diet type), average (5-8 diet type), and good (9-12 diet type). the low dietary percentage was reduced to 13% from 58%, and the average dietary percentage increased to 87% from 38%. overall, food consumed by four or more types increased from 42% to 87%, which is a significantly good result. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 21 label barahttwa haripur malangwa grand total cereals 32.8% 32.5% 33.8% 99.1% white tubers and roots 0.6% 0.9% 0.6% 2.2% vegetables 30.6% 27.8% 18.9% 77.3% fruits 3.8% 2.2% 1.9% 7.9% meat 11.0% 8.5% 1.3% 20.8% eggs 0.9% 7.3% 0.3% 8.5% fish 1.6% 5.0% 0.9% 7.6% legumes, nuts, and seeds 6.3% 1.9% 1.3% 9.5% milk and milk products 7.9% 11.7% 11.4% 30.9% oils and fats 0.6% 1.9% 0.0% 2.5% sweets 0.3% 3.8% 0.0% 4.1% spices, condiments, and beverages 9.1% 11.4% 5.0% 25.6% labels barahttwa haripur malangwa total pretest low 5.36% 6.62% 0.63% 12.62% 57.8% average 27.44% 26.18% 33.75% 87.38% 37.5% good 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 4.6% total 32.81% 32.81% 34.38% 100.00% 100.0% average no. of food items consumed 3.2 3.5 2.2 3.0 4.3.0 finding/result cereals (99%) was the most consumed food type, while white tuber and root (2.2%) were the least consumed. food consumed in four or more types increased from 42% to 87%. livelihood coping strategies indicator (l-csi) was used as a descriptor of a household’s coping capacity alongside the r-csi. the responses were categorized into stress, crisis, and emergency strategies. the number of hhs under the crisis category reduced from 15.4% to 4.1%. similarly, the number of households under the emergency category reduced from 12.3% to 3.8%, and the number of crises reduced from 58.2 % to 6.8%. conclusion the study showed from the calculation r-cs that conditional support of the vulnerable people increased by nearly one-third (35%) within a month of support and helped them with coping strategies. acknowledgments the authors are thankful to the adra nepal for their contributions to data collection for this study. the views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the authors’ institutions. acronym adra adventist development and relief agency c-csi context-specific coping strategy index cfw cash for work cfrm complaint feedback and response management chs core humanitarian standard dqa data quality assurance fcs food consumption score fgd focus group discussion gesi gender equality and social inclusion hdds household dietary diversity score hh household 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 22 kii key informant interview l-csi livelihood coping strategies index lg local government ngo non-government organization pwd person with disability r-csi reduced coping strategy index rm rural municipality references aryal, j. p., rahut, d. b., & gartaula, h. n. (2021). gendered analysis of food security gaps in rural nepal 1279, adbi working paper. ifad, f., wfp. (2020). gender transformative approaches for food security, improved nutrition and sustainable agriculture: a compendium of fifteen good practices. food and agriculture organization of the united nations. kennedy, g., ballard, t., & dop, m. (2011). guidelines for measuring household and individual dietary diversity. hoddinott, j., & yohannes, y. (2002). dietary diversity as a food security indicator. food consumption and nutrition division. international food policy research institute. fcnd. kim, j. j., stites, e., webb, p., constas, m. a., & maxwell, d. (2019). the effects of male out-migration on household food security in rural nepal. food security, 11, 719-732. front page 3775 13-22 special issue (2nd eic-2024) published by e-palli publishers, delaware, usa 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 47 assessing the reluctance towards research: a case study on the students of the university of chittagong jannatul mawa mithila1* 1 department of criminology & police science, university of chittagong * corresponding author e-mail: zjannat37@gmail.com abstract the support of india and the soviet union was very important in the liberation war in bangladesh. why did they support and why did on august 9, 1971, the foreign ministers of india and the union of soviet socialist republics (ussr) signed a treaty of “peace, friendship and cooperation” on the eve of the liberation war in bangladesh? the present study will investigate these research questions through secondary methods. the study is descriptive, and the study is part of history. for this reason, a historical approach and secondary sources were used. the historical review method has been followed because the study is of contemporary international relations. the historic indosoviet treaty had an immediate impact on the decisive battle between india and pakistan in the eastern war theater. this essay deals with the explanation for establishing a treaty that was signed on august 9, 1971, between the soviet union and india. a focus has been made on the reasons for india's brightest role in the liberation war in bangladesh. this paper also highlights that the friendship treaty between these two countries was not signed to help and aid east pakistan, but its background prevailed in the 1955 bandung conference and the ussr’s involvement in the liberation war of bangladesh in the context of soviet-american rivalry during the cold war. but it was spread out in 1969, and on august 9, 1971, the foreign minister of india and the soviet union signed the treaty “peace, friendship, and cooperation” at a special moment during the war of 1971. keywords: indo-soviet friendship treaty, soviet union, u.s.a, pakistan, india, east pakistan, bangladesh, liberation war, struggle for independence, diplomatic initiatives introduction background of the research students show reluctance or a lack of interest when it comes to participating in research activities. many underlying causes that prevent students from actively participating in research projects can contribute to this reluctance. for educators, managers, and legislators to create measures that encourage a research culture among students, it is essential to comprehend the causes of this resistance. effective interventions can be developed to support a research-friendly climate inside the institution by identifying the barriers and investigating the attitudes, views, and difficulties faced by students about research. therefore, the goal of this research study is to evaluate the students at the university of chittagong's resistance to conducting research. to analyze the causes of this hesitation and gain understanding of the students' perspectives, a thorough case study will be carried out. it plans to analyze the causes of this hesitation and obtain understanding of the students' attitudes, motivations, and obstacles to research by conducting a thorough case study. the results of this survey will be helpful in developing focused measures to increase research involvement and foster a research-oriented mindset among students at the university of chittagong. the study aims to establish ways to promote a research-oriented environment at the university by focusing on understanding why students at the university of chittagong show resistance to research. problem statement the university of chittagong, like many other academic institutions, is concerned about students’ aversion to research activities. despite the importance of research for advancing knowledge and societal progress, students show a lack of motivation and e-palli international conferences on business, arts, and social sciences (eic-bas) www.conferences.e-palli.com 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) 14 april 2024 kathmandu, nepal doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3778 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 48 participation in research-related activities. this hesitation impedes the development of a research culture within the university and limits students' ability to learn critical research skills. to effectively address this issue, it is critical to identify the underlying elements, attitudes, and problems that lead to student reluctance. this research intends to get a comprehensive knowledge of the causes for the reluctance to conduct research through a case study centered on the university of chittagong, as well as providing ideas for implementing targeted interventions that build a research-friendly atmosphere. rationale of the research this research study's target audience includes university administrators, educators, faculty members, students, student organizations, research support offices, and research funding organizations, all of whom have an interest in promoting research culture and active student engagement at the university of chittagong. this study intends to provide significant insights into the underlying reasons, attitudes, and obstacles related to students' aversion to research by performing a case study focusing on the university of chittagong. the study's findings will shed light on the hurdles that students confront and assist in identifying areas where interventions and assistance may be targeted effectively. this research study will present evidence-based recommendations for establishing a research-friendly culture at the university of chittagong through a complete investigation of students' perspectives, motivations, and perceptions towards research. the findings of this study can be used to build focused strategies, initiatives, and interventions aimed at cultivating a positive research mindset among students, encouraging active research engagement, and providing them with critical research skills. ultimately, the report can help shape policy and development initiatives at the institutional and national levels. the research findings can be used to promote research culture, human resource development, innovation, and economic growth, all of which are critical to the country's overall development and success. objectives the specific objective of the research will be to: 1. to determine students' existing attitudes toward research, such as their willingness to participate in research, their familiarity with research methodologies, and so on. 2. investigate the research barriers mentioned by the students. 3. encourage students' involvement in research. literature review this literature review explores students' reluctance to conduct research at the university of chittagong. engagement in research is vital for students' overall growth and knowledge advancement. various circumstances, however, can lead to a lack of interest in and unwillingness to engage in research activities. the purpose of this study is to explore the available literature on this topic, emphasizing the important elements that influence students' aversion to research and potential solutions. it is important to understand undergraduate students' attitudes towards research and the obstacles they face in conducting research.[1] a positive research experience requires the role of a supervisor and a good relationship with the supervisor. [2] the majority of students cited that lack of time and priorities for conducting research as a result of their compact academic workload. [1] many students may not fully appreciate the aim and benefits of research. a lack of exposure to research methodology, as well as the absence of explicit guidance, can contribute to a lack of interest. methodology this is a mixed-method study on reluctance towards research among students. convenience and snowball sampling was used in this study. all the data was collected by an online questionnaire survey conducted through google forms. a questionnaire was developed based on the comprehensive review of relevant literature and theories, employing a combination of closed-ended and open-ended questions to gather quantitative and qualitative data. the questionnaire was disseminated to the students via different facebook page and groups of students at university of chittagong, what’s app, messenger, and other social platform. all the respondents are students at the university of chittagong. a pilot test was conducted primarily to ensure the clarity and reliability of the questionnaire. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 49 research findings the survey respondents consisted of 62% males and 38% females. according to the data analysis, a large proportion of responders (78%) were between the ages of 21 and 23. in addition, 12% of the participants were between the ages of 18 and 20, while the remaining 10% were between the ages of 24 and 26. these results show that young adults, particularly those between the ages of 21 and 23, significantly make up the study population. the data analysis gives interesting insights into the respondents' future goals. most of the respondents showed a desire for government and corporate jobs, indicating a preference for solid employment in well-established organizations. surprisingly, 20% of students have not made up their minds about their future plans. however, 10% of those who have stated their plans have expressed an interest in entrepreneurship, indicating a desire for self-employment and commercial ventures. another interesting statistic is that 10% of respondents want to work as researchers, indicating a preference for intellectual or scientific pursuits. 62% of respondents said they wanted to be researchers, while 38% said they didn't. further investigation into the causes for the negative responses revealed light on the elements that influenced their decision. one of the most common reasons given by respondents was academic and financial constraints. they stated that the need to financially support their families forced them to prioritize job prospects above research, as research may not generate enough revenue to maintain their families. furthermore, some respondents claimed that their lack of information about the scale of the study field, as well as their concerns about funding challenges, were deterrents. this shows that a lack of information about the potential benefits and drawbacks of research could influence their decision-making process. 44% of the respondents haven’t taken any course on research methodology. 56% of the respondents have taken their course, majority of the respondents took the course in their sophomore year/ 3rd semester of their academic journey. figure 1: course on research methodology figure 2: involvement in research work figure 3: experience with research activities 40% of the respondents said they were involved in research.the vast majority (80%) of respondents who participated in research activities did so primarily for data collecting. this shows that among the students polled, data collection is a common and major research activity. furthermore, 16% of students reported having completed a thesis as part of their research participation during their graduation. this conclusion focuses on a subset of students who conducted in-depth research, which most likely involved substantial data collecting, analysis, and presentation of their findings. the remaining students that took part in research activities before graduation did so through literature reviews, data analysis, 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 50 and research workshops. these activities demonstrate a broad range of research-related experiences, such as reading current material to inform their research. the data analysis reveals several barriers identified by students when it comes to conducting research. it's important to note that these barriers were reported based on a multiple-answer question, allowing respondents to choose multiple options. here's an analysis of the data: • lack of awareness about research: 40% of the students mentioned this as a barrier. this suggests that a significant portion of students may not have sufficient knowledge or understanding about the research process, which could hinder their engagement in research activities. • insufficient guidance or mentorship: 46% of the students expressed this as a barrier. the high percentage indicates that a substantial number of students feel the need for more guidance and mentorship to navigate the research process effectively. the lack of proper support and mentorship can impede students' research endeavors. • lack of motivation: 28% of the students reported a lack of motivation as a barrier. this finding suggests that a significant portion of students may struggle with finding intrinsic motivation to engage in research activities, which can hinder their enthusiasm and commitment towards conducting research. • heavy academic workload: 26% of the students mentioned a heavy academic workload as a barrier. this indicates that the demanding nature of academic coursework and responsibilities might limit the time and energy available for students to actively participate in research activities. • restriction to research material access: 44% of the students identified this as a barrier. the high percentage suggests that many students face challenges related to accessing relevant research materials, which could hinder their ability to gather and utilize necessary information for their research projects. • lack of access to respondents: 20% of the students reported a lack of access to respondents as a barrier. this suggests that a portion of students may face difficulties in finding and engaging with suitable participants for their research studies, potentially limiting their ability to collect data effectively. • respondents' unwillingness to share data: 18% of the students mentioned this as a barrier. this finding indicates that some students encounter challenges related to obtaining data from respondents, possibly due to a lack of cooperation or willingness to share information. figure 4: students’ opinion on choosing research as a career summary & discussion the data analysis reveals various hurdles to conducting research that students have reported. a lack of information of research, insufficient direction or mentorship, a lack of enthusiasm, a severe academic burden, restrictions on research material access, a lack of access to respondents, and respondents' unwillingness to give data are among the cited impediments. these obstacles make it difficult for students to do research during their academic careers. addressing these issues necessitates initiatives to raise research awareness, give advice and mentorship, boost motivation, effectively manage academic workload, improve access to research materials, enable participant recruitment, and foster a collaborative research culture. students can be better supported in their research endeavors and contribute to the growth of knowledge in their particular professions by addressing these barriers. recommendations • enhance research awareness programs to educate students about the value and opportunities of research. • strengthen mentorship programs to provide guidance and support for students throughout their research journey. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 51 • foster intrinsic motivation by creating a research-friendly environment that encourages curiosity and autonomy. • balance academic workload to allow students dedicated time for research alongside their other responsibilities. • improve access to research materials through expanded digital library resources and journal subscriptions. • facilitate participant recruitment by establishing platforms and partnerships to connect researchers with potential participants. • promote a culture of data sharing to foster collaboration and cumulative knowledge development. • foster interdisciplinary research opportunities through interdisciplinary projects, seminars, and cross-disciplinary communication. conclusion this study's findings shed light on the hurdles and challenges that students experience when engaging in research activities. significant challenges observed included a lack of information of research, insufficient supervision or mentorship, motivation concerns, a severe academic burden, restricted access to research resources, limited access to respondents, and a refusal to share data. to address these challenges and foster a research-friendly environment, it is recommended that research awareness programs be strengthened, mentorship and guidance be strengthened, intrinsic motivation be fostered, academic workloads be balanced, access to research materials be improved, participant recruitment be facilitated, a culture of data sharing be promoted, and interdisciplinary research opportunities be encouraged. educational institutions can assist students in overcoming obstacles, cultivate a culture of research participation, and stimulate the development of useful research skills. references ferdoush, j., johora, f., khan, i., towfiq hossain, s. m., sadia, h., jeenia, f. t., chowdhury, s. s., sultana, n., & sharmeen, s. (2021, may 2). attitude and perceived barriers towards research among undergraduate medical students of bangladesh. medrxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.30.21256373 grobman, l. (2010). researching the conflicts: undergraduate research and the introductory literature curriculum. teaching english in the two-year college, 37(4), 372–383. front page 3778 47-51 special issue (2nd eic-2024) published by e-palli publishers, delaware, usa 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 5 ethnicity detection with convolutional neural network (cnn): bangladesh perspectives sultana tasnim jahan1, rashed mustafa1* 1 computer science and engineering, university of chittagong, chattogram, bangladesh * corresponding author: bishwajitsunny@outlook.com abstract ethnicity detection, or the automatic determination of people's ethnic backgrounds using visual data, has become important in a number of disciplines, including social sciences, demographics, and computer vision. with a focus on bangladesh's complex cultural landscape, we describe in this paper a novel method for ethnicity detection using convolutional neural networks (cnns). we gathered a dataset of photographs depicting members of the three main ethnic groups living in the chittagong hill neighborhood: chakma, marma, and tripura. utilizing the densenet121 model's robust feature extraction skills, we customized the architecture to meet the needs of our particular ethnicity detection application. a wide range of performance indicators were used to train and assess our unique cnn model. the outcomes illustrate accurate ethnicity detection technology's potential for identifying and resolving social inequities while showcasing a promising level of accuracy. to address possible biases in the model's prediction, ethical considerations are also covered. overall, this work advances knowledge of bangladesh's ethnic variety and demonstrates the potential of cnns for ethnicity detection. the results provide up new avenues for investigation and applications that advance a more diverse and inclusive society. this paper's primary contributions are the hands-on collection of a diverse dataset, the refinement of the densenet cnn architecture, and the advancement of ethnicity detection in the bangladesh perspective, leveraging computer vision techniques. keywords: ethnicity detection, bangladesh perspective, cnn, computer vision, facial recognition introduction the fields of computer vision and pattern recognition have recently undergone a revolution due to convolutional neural networks (cnns). in a variety of image-related tasks, such as object detection and picture classification, these potent deep learning models have displayed outstanding performance. "ethnicity detection," which entails automatically identifying a person's ethnicity using visual indicators found in images, is one application area where cnns have demonstrated considerable promise. the field of face recognition has lately expanded in breadth. face recognition is the practice of recognizing a person's face from a video or picture frame. face recognition has been done using a variety of methods. principal component analysis, eigenfaces (belcar et al., 2022), and linear discriminant analysis (yanet et al., 2017), ethnics people identifying via face recognition by deep cnn method (turk & pentland, 1991), face recognition in a natural environment based on deep learning (alghaili et al., 1991) are some of the most significant research that applied this technique. the purpose of this research is to investigate how cnns might be used to identify ethnic groups from the distinctive viewpoint of bangladesh. a vast tapestry of ethnic groups each with its own unique cultural background, make up the culturally varied nation of bangladesh. the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups are among those present in the chittagong hill district, which is particularly well known for its ethnic diversity. in order to reliably identify members of the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups in the chittagong hill district, an ethnicity recognition system employing cnns is the main goal of this research. to do this, the work will use transfer learning and fine-tuning methods to modify a densenet121 model that has already been trained for the particular goal of classifying people by their ethnicity. images of people from various schools, universities, and streets in the chittagong hill neighborhood were painstakingly e-palli international conferences on science technology, engineering, and mathematics (eic-stem) www.conferences.e-palli.com 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) 14 april 2024 kathmandu, nepal doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3772 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 6 collected for the dataset used for training and evaluation. the diversity of the dataset was increased, and the generalizability of the model was strengthened, using data augmentation techniques like rescaling, shear, zoom, and horizontal flip. since ethnicity detection could have an impact on people's privacy and society as whole, ethical issues are central to this research. the collecting of datasets, creation of models, and evaluation will all be done with a responsible and inclusive mindset. additionally, potential biases in the model's forecasts will be investigated, and measures to encourage fairness and reduce damaging biases will be explored. the study and testing findings will show how well the "customized densenet121 model" performs in identifying ethnicity, including its precision and generalization skills. the study intends to contribute to the ethical development of ai systems for ethnicity recognition with a focus on moral issues and a dedication to developing ai solutions to get benefit society. as a conclusion, this work aims to use cnns to promote ethnicity detection from a bangladeshi perspective. the study aims to contribute to the responsible and inclusive implementation of ai technology in various cultural contexts by addressing ethical issues and fostering justice. in the end, this study's findings would help people comprehend ethnicity detection and its effects on society in bangladesh. problem statement the endeavor of determining a person's ethnic group based on visual signals is known as "ethnicity detection and it is a significant area of research with several applications in fields including sociology, anthropology, and computer vision. the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups are located in the chittagong hill district of bangladesh. despite the nation's multiculturalism and ethnic diversity, there are surprisingly few thorough research on ethnicity identification that are targeted to the bangladeshi environment and these particular ethnic groups. the main goal of this paper is to close the knowledge gap by developing and applying an accurate and effective convolutional neural network (cnn) model capable of classifying individuals into their respective ethnic groups, namely chakma, marma, and tripura, based on facial photographs. this study intends to contribute to the creation of a unique and locally applicable method for ethnicity recognition in bangladesh by utilizing the capabilities of deep learning and transfer learning techniques. to accomplish this goal, a diverse and representative dataset of facial photos was gathered. to ensure the model's robustness and generalizability, the dataset was carefully curated to contain adequate samples from each ethnic group and account for changes in the environment and lighting circumstances. in conclusion, this paper makes a contribution to the study of ethnicity detection using convolutional neural networks from a bangladeshi perspective. this paper establishes the groundwork for future improvements and encourages a deeper understanding of ethnicity detection within the distinctive socio-cultural setting of bangladesh by offering a thorough exploration of the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnicities. expanding the dataset, removing bias, and examining the applicability of the model to other ethnic groups are possible future study directions. background in this current era of computer vision and artificial intelligence, there has been an explosion in research on image-based classification problems, covering a wide range of applications, from object detection to facial analysis. a subset of these activities known as ethnicity recognition has the enormous potential to help us comprehend and alleviate socioeconomic injustices, cultural diversity, and demographic trends. technology for ethnicity recognition can give academics, politicians, and social scientists invaluable information for developing targeted treatments and policies by automatically determining a person's ethnic origin from visual data. rangamati, khagrachhari, and bandarban districts in bangladesh are considered to be part of the chittagong hill tracts (cht). they have a big ethnic population. one of these is khagrachari, ethnic groups can be divided into various categories. when i looked them up, i discovered that they have been the subject of extensive research, including studies on their gender and culture. however, no significant work on their face detection has been done as of yet (2021). a new topic of study in artificial intelligence and computer vision is the detection of ethnicity using convolutional neural networks (cnns). cnns have demonstrated remarkable performance in a range of image-related tasks by learning hierarchical representations from data, making them well-suited for applications requiring image recognition involving visual pattern identification. ethnicity detection specializes in automatically determining a person's ethnicity using visual cues taken from photographs. in bangladesh, a multicultural nation with many different ethnic groups, ethnicity detection has a lot of promise for use in a variety of contexts. a special environment for investigating ethnicity identification from a bangladeshi perspective is the chittagong hill district, which is renowned for its wide ethnic composition. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 7 by learning from data and spotting spatial patterns using convolutional layers, cnns in computer vision have revolutionized picture identification. giving labels to incoming images is a key component of the computer vision task of image categorization. when attempting to identify an individual's ethnicity, the objective is to group photos of that person into a particular ethnic group based on visual traits. deep learning commonly employs the concepts of transfer learning and fine-tuning. transfer learning uses models that have already been trained on large datasets to improve performance on smaller datasets, while finetuning enables models to adjust to data that is specific to a certain job. the successful application of cnn models depends heavily on data collection and augmentation. increase dataset diversity and model resilience through augmentation techniques including rescaling, rotation, and flipping. when creating ai-based ethnicity detection systems, ethical issues must be taken into account. responsible use of ai technologies requires ensuring data privacy, obtaining informed consent, and eliminating any biases. by modifying a densenet121 model and using it to determine ethnicity from views in bangladesh, the study hopes to close a research gap. this study makes a positive impact on responsible ai applications in many cultural contexts by addressing ethical issues and encouraging fairness in model building. finally, the background part offers a theoretical framework for understanding ethnicity detection using cnns and its applicability in the context of bangladesh. the research's objective is to develop an accurate and moral mechanism for detecting ethnicity that could have a positive impact on society by utilizing deep learning techniques. motivation due to its diversified population, which is made up of multiple ethnic groups, each with its own traditions, dialects, and cultural practices, bangladesh, a nation famous for its rich cultural tapestry, places a special emphasis on ethnicity detection. the ethnic groups of our country deprived in many ways. if we can identify them, we can be benefited in many ways. cultural diversity is very important in different workplaces. different ethnic groups have different thoughts and ideas. different new ideas from many types of communities can come together to produce an effective idea or solution to a problem. it can help to make better decisions, improve performance, attract new talent, and increase profits. the research can highlight ethnic identity. the more diverse a country is, the more economically and culturally profitable the country will be. our abilities will advance, our creativity will soar, and the use of our resources will be maximized if we can move them forward. although ethnicity recognition has made significant strides in other contexts, bangladeshi applications are still being studied. as a result, this study attempts to add to the growing subject of ethnicity detection with a focus on bangladesh, outlining the promise and difficulties of applying such technology in a setting with a diverse cultural population. the ethnic groups of our country deprived in many figure 1: based on information obtained from ieee xplore, a bar diagram showing the number of papers published on ethnicity detection from 2001 to 2022 is shown. 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 8 ways. if we can identify them, we can be benefited in many ways. the country will prosper. cultural diversity is very important in different workplaces. different ethnic groups have different thoughts and ideas. different new ideas from many types of communities can come together to produce an effective idea or solution to a problem. it can help to make better decisions, improve performance, attract new talent, and increase profits. based on information obtained from ieee xplore, a bar diagram showing the number of papers published on ethnicity detection from 2001 to 2022 is shown in figure 1. the significance of ethnic identification research is attested to by the rising number of publications that have been published. literature review significant research has been carried out on ethnicity detection. like • alghaili et al., (2020), compared the performance of two cutting-edge models, vgg and inception v3, with a deep learning convolutional neural network for ethnicity detection based on facial traits. • nguyen et al., (2018), proposed a race recognition framework (rrf) that involved information collection, preprocessing (fd&p) and face detection, followed by race recognition (rr). they experimented with the vnfaces dataset, comprising photographs from vietnamese individuals' facebook pages. the study focused on race recognition for asian ethnic people and emphasized the importance of considering data collection and preprocessing in ethnicity detection pipelines. • venkat & srivastava (2018), presented four different deep cnn versions for ethnicity detection, incorporating convolutional blocks in the networks. the study considered an age group of 20-50 and included five ethnic categories white, black, asian, indian, and others. • belcar et al., (2022), explored the use of convolutional neural networks with the middle portion of a face for automatic ethnicity classification. their research utilized the utkface and fairface databases, encompassing white, black, latino, east asian, and south east asian, middle eastern and indian ethnic groups. • deng et al., (2016), employed facial images to classify korean, chinese, and japanese people, using 779 images for ethnicity classification. the research mainly focused on ethnicity detection for different east asian countries. research objectives the main objective of this research is to create and construct an ethnicity detection system utilizing convolutional neural networks (cnns) and to use it on a collection of photographs capturing members of the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups in the chittagong hill district. the following main objectives of the study are sought to be accomplished: • collecting representative dataset: a diversified and representative dataset of pictures that faithfully depict people from the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups living in the chittagong hill district will be gathered for the research. for a strong ethnicity detection model to be trained, the dataset's variety and data integrity must be ensured. create and implement an ethnicity detection system utilizing convolutional neural networks (cnns) that is uniquely suited to the bangladeshi context. • customizing the cnn model: to construct a specific cnn architecture suitable for ethnicity recognition, the pretrained densenet121 model will be modified and customized. to enhance the model's accuracy and generalizability, this customization will comprise the addition of a global average pooling layer, a dense layer for feature transformation, and a dropout layer for regularization. then apply the tailored densenet121 model to a dataset that includes pictures of people belonging to the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups in the chittagong hill district. • results interpretation and evaluation: the acquired dataset will be used to train the customized cnn model. the categorical cross-entropy loss function will be minimized by tuning the model's parameters during the training process. use of appropriate metrics, such as accuracy, to evaluate the effectiveness of the system for identifying ethnicity and ascertain how effectively it recognizes members of the targeted ethnic groups. the specific dataset and research goals will be taken into consideration as we examine and interpret the model evaluation results. there will be recommendations for future research directions that concentrate on enhancing the model's design, growing the dataset, and developing fairness-aware approaches. methodology the methodology section describes the research methodology, data collecting, data preprocessing, model building, model training, and evaluation metrics utilized in the study on ethnicity recognition with convolutional neural networks in the setting 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 9 of bangladesh. the main objective is to create and apply a unique cnn model that accurately predicts the ethnicity of people who belong to the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups who live in the chittagong hill district. basic work-flow of proposed methodology is shown in figure 2. following is a description of the methodology: • from a variety of locations, including educational facilities, public spaces, schools, colleges, streets, and homes in the chittagong hill district, we meticulously gathered a dataset of over 4500 facial photos of individuals of the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups. • digital cameras and cellphones were used to take a wide range of facial pictures of people from the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups. • it was carefully considered to guarantee a balanced representation of various age groups, genders, and environmental circumstances. data preprocessing to standardize the data and enhance model performance, the obtained images underwent preprocessing. the following procedures are part of the data preprocessing in my model: 1. rescale=1. /255: scales the image's pixel values from the [0, 255] range to [0, 1], making them appropriate for the model's calculations. 2. rescale=1. /255: scales the image's pixel values from the [0, 255] range to [0, 1], making them appropriate for the model's calculations. 3. zoom range=0.2: scaling the photos by applying arbitrary zoom transformations. 4. shear range=0.2: transforms the photos randomly through shear, tilting the image pixels to create distortions. 5. creates several versions of the same image by doing horizontal flips on the photos using horizontal flip=true. 6. with validation split=0.1, the dataset is divided into training and validation sets, with training using 10% of the validation set's data. • to make sure that they would work with the chosen model architecture, all of the photographs were shrunk to the same 224x224 pixel size. • in order to increase convergence during training, pixel values were normalized to the range [0, 1]. • techniques for enhancing data, such as random rotation, zooming, horizontal flipping, and brightness modifications, were used to enhance the dataset. • model selection and customization: due to the densenet121 model's strong feature extraction abilities and effectiveness in deep learning tasks, it was chosen as the foundation model. • densenet121's top layers were adjusted to fit the particular ethnicity recognition challenge. • to successfully aggregate features and reduce geographical dimensions, global average pooling was added. • for the purpose of capturing important ethnic traits, a fully connected dense layer with relu activation was added. relu activation function helps the model to learn complex patterns and also to achieve high accuracy in prediction of correct ethnicity. for feature transformation in this algorithm, a dense layer with 512 neurons and relu activation is included. • in order to avoid overfitting and improve generalization, a dropout layer with a 0.5 dropout rate was included. 50% of neurons are randomly deleted during training when a dropout layer with a rate of 0.5 is used in my code. • predicting the probability of each ethnicity required the addition of a final classification layer with softmax activation. • training and fine-tuning: the model was trained via stochastic gradient descent (sgd) optimization with learning rate of 0.01 and momentum of 0.9. • densenet121's base layers were initially frozen in order to keep the pre-trained weights, and only the top layers were adjusted to fit the new dataset. • to lessen overfitting and model complexity, the dense layers underwent l2 regularization with a coefficient of 0.01. l2 regularization can prevent overfitting. this regularization strategy helps my model avoid memorization of the training data, which improves performance on untrained data. • scheduling the learning rate: the learning rate was changed throughout training using a scheduler for the learning rate. during training, the learning rate was dynamically adjusted using scheduling. by beginning with a greater learning rate and allowing for faster convergence during the initial training stages, it enhances the optimization process. • adam is an extension of the stochastic gradient descent (sgd) algorithm. it combines the advantages of adagrad and 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 10 rmsprop, two additional well-liked optimization methods. due to its adjustable learning rates, combination of momentum and rmsprop methods, and other features, adam is a strong and popular optimization algorithm for training deep learning models. perspective to my model following task done: 1. during model training, model parameters are updated using the optimization algorithm adam (adaptive moment estimation). 2. my model employs the adam optimizer to reduce the categorical cross-entropy loss function with a learning rate of 0.001. two key ideas in the training of a machine learning model, particularly in deep learning, are epochs and batch size: epochs an epoch is a single iteration of the neural network's training dataset. each training sample is only seen once by the model during a single epoch, and it adjusts its weights based on the total number of errors for that epoch. in other words, an epoch ends when the model has had a chance to see and process all of the training data. batch size the quantity of training samples that pass through the neural network before the model's weights and biases are adjusted is referred to as the batch size. smaller batch sizes may slow down training but may improve generalization as the model meets more varied examples and updates its parameters more frequently. as the model updates its parameters less frequently with larger batch sizes, training can proceed more quickly. however, it might need more memory and result in convergence to a less ideal answer. typically, experimentation is used to determine the number of epochs. underfitting, where the model has not learned enough from the data, can happen with insufficient epochs. overfitting, when the model memorizes the training data but struggles figure 2: basic work-flow of proposed methodology figure 3: basic work-flow of proposed methodology to generalize to new, unseen data, can result from using too many epochs. to find the best balance between underfitting and overfitting, it is common to monitor the validation loss and stop training when it stops getting better (early stopping). to iteratively update the model's parameters and increase its accuracy, model training was carried out across 50 epochs with a batch size of 64. model evaluation and performance metrics to evaluate the test accuracy of the trained model, some new different data was used. suggested methodology in this research takes a methodical approach to data collection, preprocessing, creating a unique cnn model, training the model, assessing its performance, and interpreting the results. the workflow of this research depicted in 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 11 figure 2. the classification's outcome is displayed in this particular example as "marma." this result shows that our algorithm correctly recognized the person in the image as a marma ethnic group member based on facial features and traits. the model's usefulness and capacity to make predictions about ethnicity in practical situations are concretely demonstrated by this graphic representation. results the outcomes show the ethnicity detection model to be performing well, with high accuracy being attained on the validation dataset. indicating that the model successfully discovered the underlying patterns in the data during training, the test loss graph displays a diminishing trend. the accuracy vs. epoch graph shows how the model has improved across the 50 epochs, demonstrating how effectively it can generalize from training data to new samples. the model's optimization progress is also shown by the loss vs. epoch graph, which shows a steady decline in training loss over time. the results open the door for additional advancements in ethnicity detection models. in this section, we show outcomes from our ethnicity recognition model and compare them to those of three well-known models: vgg16, resnet50, and efficientnetb0. table i, which summarize the model results in terms of test accuracy and test loss, is shown below. the accuracy values describe how well the model performed on the test set, whereas the loss values represent the amount of error that was introduced during testing. our model achieved a test accuracy of 94% on a dataset comprising approximately 4500 facial images portraying members of the three ethnic groups. this high level of accuracy demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach in accurately predicting the ethnicity of individuals belonging to the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups residing in the chittagong hill district. our study focuses on a unique dataset and context, which is differ from previous works in terms of data diversity and characteristics. our approach offers valuable insights and contributes to the field of ethnicity recognition in the specific context of bangladesh. i am trying to run our data in their previous model but most of their model does not gives a good accuracy with our data. so the accuracy of some models that work well is given in table i. the accuracy vs. epoch graph is a key visualization in our model training process that shows how the model's accuracy changes over the training phase. the training process involves passing the full training dataset through the model a certain number of times, or epochs, as shown on the x-axis. on both the training and validation datasets, the model's accuracy is shown on the y-axis. the increased trend in training and validation accuracy over the course of 50 epochs indicates that the customized densenet121 model efficiently learns from the training data and generalizes to the validation data. the growing accuracy shows that the model performs better with more training iterations and gets more proficient at correctly identifying individuals into their respective ethnic groupings. in this graph, accuracy rises as epoch rises. this means accuracy gradually rises toward the conclusion of training, as seen in figure 3. the loss vs. epoch graph is an essential visualization in the "customized densenet121 model" training process, shows how the loss function of the model changes as training progresses. the training process involves passing the full training dataset through the model a certain number of times, or epochs, as shown on the x-axis., the model's test loss is shown on the y-axis. the loss vs. epoch graph offers important insights into the evolution of the "customized densenet121 model" learning process. by examining this graph, we can conclude that the model's performance continuously gets better with each passing epoch and eventually converges to a situation in which the loss is minimized. this illustrates how effectively the model generalizes to new data and how well it captures significant patterns in the dataset. the customized densenet121 model's promising performance for detecting ethnicity in the dataset from chittagong hill district is supported by the declining loss values. as the epoch gets longer in this graph, loss gets smaller. it indicates that loss gradually diminishes as training progresses, as seen in figure 4. table 1: result compare with others results compare with others model accuracy (%) loss (%) vgg16 70% 78% resnet50 52% 99% efficientnetb0 33% 99% our model 94% 21% 2nd e-palli international conferences (eic) | 2024 12 figure 4: graph of accuracy against epoch figure 5: graph of loss versus epoch conclusion this research successfully developed an accurate ethnicity detection system using cnns in bangladesh, providing insights into diverse ethnic groups. using a modified densenet121 model, this study has effectively constructed and implemented an ethnicity detection system. the chakma, marma, and tripura ethnic groups of bangladesh's chittagong hill district could be distinguished with great accuracy using the model. further future work can be done like: i) expanding the dataset including a broader range of ethnicities. ii) enhancing the model's generalization capabilities. iii) exploration of real-time deployment and practical applications of the system in various settings can also have a great impact. finally, expanding the research to include user feedback would make it easier to put the ethnicity detection system into practice while ensuring that it is in keeping with social demands and values. references alghaili, m., xiao, z., & albdairi, a. j. a. (2020). identifying ethnics of people through face recognition: a deep cnn approach. 2017 ieee 8th international conference on awareness science and technology (icast 2017). hindawi, scientific programming, 2020, article id 6385281. belcar, d., grd, p., & tomičić, i. (2022). automatic ethnicity classification from middle part of the face using convolutional neural networks. informatics. https://mdpi.com/journal/informatics deng, y., chen, h., & zhang, s. (2016). where am i from? – east asian ethnicity classification from facial recognition. semantic scholar. nguyen, t., vo, t., & le, c. t. (2018). race recognition using deep convolutional neural networks. symmetry. https://mdpi. com/about/journals satonkar, s. s., kurhe, a. b., & khanale, b. p. (2012). face recognition using principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis on holistic approach in facial images database. iosr journal of engineering, 2(15–23). turk, m. a., & pentland, a. p. (1991). face recognition using eigenfaces. ieee, maui, hi, usa (pp. 586–591). venkat, n., & srivastava, s. (2018). ethnicity detection using deep convolutional neural networks. researchgate. https://www. researchgate.net/publication/32935541 yan, j. l., zhang, l., wu, y., guo, p., zhang, f., tang, s., ... & xu, l. (2017, november). research on face recognition method based on deep learning in natural environment. in 2017 ieee 8th international conference on awareness science and technology (icast) (pp. 501-506). ieee. pa ge 1 pa ge 17 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) assessment of commuters’ satisfaction with the management services in selected motor parks in ibadan, nigeria adeyanju, d. o.1*, basorun, j. o.1, emmanuel, a. a.1 volume 4 issue 2, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i2.4466 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: january 30, 2025 accepted: march 06, 2025 published: april 25, 2025 the responsibility of the managers of any public space is to provide and sustain high quality of service to the satisfaction of users. this study examines the commuters’ level of satisfaction with the management services in public motor parks in ibadan and the services considered are bus services, provision and maintenance of infrastructural facilities, information/inquiry services, security services and control of commercial areas within the motor parks. the study adopted a survey design, based on questionnaire administration. a multi-stage sampling technique was used to select ten motor parks based on their prominence, and the checkmarket online sample size calculator was used to determine the sample sizes. data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the relative satisfaction index (rsi). findings revealed that commuters were grossly dissatisfied with all the services, indicating that managers of these motor parks were not efficient in carrying out their management responsibility of providing these essential services in the motor parks. the paper recommends a total overhaul of facilities in the motor parks; transfer of ownership of motor parks to local governments; formulation of a well-articulated management policy with adequate participation of all stakeholders; engagement of professionals in motor park management; improved collaborations of motor park managers and security agencies; and reorganization of commercial areas in the motor parks. keywords commuters, commuters’ satisfaction, ibadan, management services, motor park 1 department of urban and regional planning, federal university of technology, akure, nigeria * corresponding author’s e-mail: iretide2017@gmail.com introduction an increasing proportion of the global populace is now living in urban settlements. as at 2024, around 57 percent of the total global population of 8.1 billion, representing 4.6 billion individuals, resided in urban settings, in contrast to 3.5 billion people, or 43 percent, who lived in rural areas (worldometer, 2024; dyvik, 2024). projections indicate that by 2050, the urban demographic will expand to 68 percent, with a substantial 90 percent of this increase occurring in africa and asia (urbanet, 2022). this persistent growth in urban populations is largely fueled by the diverse socio-economic, cultural, and political opportunities that cities offer compared to rural locales (abubakar & dano, 2018). such expansion exerts considerable strain on urban infrastructure, especially the transportation systems. transportation is a critical aspect of human activity that profoundly affects both personal lives and the surrounding environment (ahmed, 2016). public transportation systems are vital for enhancing urban productivity, and plays a significant role in shaping settlement patterns, economic sustainability, environmental consequences, and the overall quality of life (basorun & rotowa, 2012). essential infrastructure, such as roads, buses, motor parks, and bus stops, facilitates the effective movement of individuals and goods, thereby contributing to the efficient operation of urban areas (remix, 2021). a motor park is a specifically designated public area that is equipped with the necessary infrastructure and an organized management framework, allowing it to function as a commercial vehicle terminus for passengers wishing to embark on or disembark from their journeys. additionally, it acts as a commercial center for vendors to market their products, thereby playing a crucial role in the effective operation of the transportation network within any urban environment. according to koner (2019), a motor park serves as a facility where both city and inter-city buses gather and release passengers. adedayo and zubairu (2013) traced the establishment of motor parks in nigeria back to 1899, a period marked by the need for centralized collection points due to the growing population and increasing commercial activities, which accompanied urban development and the subsequent evolution of the public transportation system. motor park managers are saddled with the responsibility of ensuring proper service fulfilment in terms of provision and maintenance of required services, to meet the needs and satisfaction of commuters and other users of the public space. the quality of services and the extent of commuters’ satisfaction with the services, are indicators of efficiency of the motor park managers in delivering this responsibility. as succinctly put by anable (2005), for any transport system to be considered as providing good service, it must ensure that the commuters are satisfied with the quality of the service being provided. this paper, therefore, examines the level of commuters’ satisfaction with the services provided in selected public intercity motor parks in ibadan; with special focus on the bus pa ge 18 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 17-26 2025 services, provision and maintenance of infrastructural facilities, information/inquiry services, security services, and control of commercial areas in the motor parks. literature review urban transportation is fundamentally connected to urban design and spatial organization (rodrigue, 2020). it is crucial to facilitate the mobility of the increasing population residing in urban areas. a key characteristic of urban transportation is its capacity to manage the high density of individuals, activities, and built environments. small (2007) opines that density presents challenges for urban transportation due to crowding and the costs associated with developing infrastructure in densely populated regions. conversely, it offers certain benefits through economies of scale, where some transportation services become more cost-effective when provided in larger quantities. furthermore, kenworthy (2021) emphasizes that one of the most significant issues facing cities is transportation, characterized by high volumes of motor vehicles, which leads to persistent congestion, disorganized parking, air pollution, noise, overwhelmed bus stations, traffic fatalities, and degraded public spaces, among other concerns. rodrigue (2020) maintains that motor parks play critical roles in transportation, because all modes of transport necessitate the organization and distribution of their traffic. with the exception of personal vehicle use and pedestrian travel, all spatial flows entail movement between terminals. in the context of road transport, passengers are required to access bus terminals or motor parks, while goods must be consolidated at terminals prior to their onward journey to various destinations. this underscores the significance of motor parks and elucidates the substantial investments made in developing this infrastructure. adebayo and zubairu (2013) observed that motor parks are fundamentally associated with transportation via commercial vehicles, providing a designated space for commuters to board vehicles en route to their destinations, which may include both intracity and inter-city travel. motor park serves as a public transportation hub, primarily functioning as a terminal where passengers embark and disembark from various vehicles (koner, 2019). this facility provides a communal space for commuters to access transportation to their intended destinations. furthermore, motor park has evolved into a central point for economic activities, with numerous vendors competing to market their products (egole, 2013). in discussing the potential of motor park logistics to address distribution challenges in nigeria, adeleke (2022) noted the presence of motor parks in every city. he suggested that stakeholders could enhance logistical efficiency by interconnecting these motor parks, thereby establishing a cohesive logistical framework that reduces transportation costs for goods throughout nigeria. this indicates that motor parks also play a crucial role in the movement of goods between locations. managers of motor parks have a crucial role of providing and sustaining adequate operations of the motor parks to ensure comfort, conveniences and security of the users. a study conducted by ajakaye and agunloye (2020) examined passenger satisfaction regarding the condition of facilities in motor parks, and findings indicated a significant level of dissatisfaction among passengers due to the lack and poor condition of various facilities in motor parks throughout densely populated areas of the lagos metropolis. the researchers concluded that many motor parks in developing nations are in a state of disrepair and do not adhere to established standards and best practices, thereby failing to provide comfort and tranquility for users. also, ahmed (2016) identified pickpocketing and harassment as security threats that are common in motor parks in ilorin; while wachukwu, et. al. (2024) inferred that commuters were grossly dissatisfied with the commercial areas of motor parks in obio/akpor local government area of river state. all these served as background to this study to bridge the gap in literature. materials and methods this research utilized a survey research design to investigate the level of commuters’ satisfaction with the various management services adopted in the management of motor parks in ibadan. a mixed-method approach was adopted, combining both qualitative and quantitative research techniques to collect and analyze the data. this research employed a combination of primary and secondary data sources. primary data were gathered from commuters who made use of the motor parks, the drivers and the chairmen of the management committees of the parks; while secondary data were obtained from both published and unpublished academic materials, including journals and theses. the research focused on motor parks located within the eleven local government areas (lgas) of the ibadan metropolis, which includes six sub-urban lgas (akinyele, egbeda, ido, lagelu, oluyole, and ona-ara) and five urban lgas (ibadan north, ibadan north-east, ibadan north-west, ibadan south-east, and ibadan south-west). the sampling frame comprised five chosen lgas: akinyele, egbeda, ido, oluyole and ibadan northeast. to determine the sample size, the checkmarket online sample size calculator was employed, resulting in a total of 373 commuters and 316 drivers selected for the study. the chairmen of the management teams of the 10 selected motor parks were also sampled. the study utilized a multi-stage sampling technique to select the motor parks for investigation. initially, a cluster sampling method was implemented, identifying each local government area (lga) within the ibadan metropolis as a distinct geographical cluster. consequently, a total of eleven clusters were identified. given that the focus of this research pertains to inter-city motor parks, five lgas were randomly chosen from these clusters, comprising four sub-urban and one urban lga, selected based on their prominence. two inter-city motor parks pa ge 19 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 17-26 2025 were randomly chosen from each of the selected local government areas (lgas), bringing about a total of ten inter-city motor parks for the study. accidental sampling approach was utilized for selecting the commuters. given that this group primarily visits the motor parks to board vehicles, any commuter willing to participate was included in the sample. the descriptive statistical method and relative satisfaction index (rsi) were utilized to analyze the data collected. this involved the use of frequency, mean, and percentages to summarize the data, while graphical representations such as histograms and pie charts were employed to visually depict the data. the study area this study was carried out in ibadan, the capital city of oyo state, nigeria, which is the largest indigenous city in sub-saharan africa. ibadan was established in 1829 as a refuge for warriors escaping from oyo, ijebu, and ife due to the fulani expansionist incursions from the northwest into the southwestern region (fourchard, 2003; negassa, 2011). oral histories suggest that prior to the establishment of the current ibadan in 1829, two earlier settlements named ibadan had existed, both of which were destroyed during conflict. the first settlement was founded in the 16th century by migrants from ile-ife and was ultimately devastated by the oyo army during the egungun festival (tomori, 2023). the second iteration of ibadan emerged due to an influx of population but was subsequently annihilated following the death of the olubadan’s daughter, who was sacrificed to appease the goddess of the river osun. ibadan was designated as the administrative hub of the former western region during the period of british colonial governance, owing to its advantageous geographical position and ease of access from lagos (fourchard, op. cit.). subsequently, it functioned as the capital for both the historical and contemporary oyo state after the reorganization of the region in 1976 and 1991, respectively (negassa, op. cit.). ibadan is located adjacent to the forest grassland region in southwestern nigeria (figure 1), specifically in the southeastern section of oyo state (figure 2). the city is positioned at approximately 7° 37’ north latitude and 3° 94’ east longitude relative to the greenwich meridian. covering an area of 3,123.30 square kilometers (wahab & popoola, 2018), ibadan encompasses eleven local government areas. the geographical positions of the five local government areas chosen for this study are illustrated in figure 3, while figure 4 depicts the locations of the ten selected motor parks in relation to the road networks within the study area. figure 1: map of oyo state in its national setting source: adapted from akanmu, et al. (2019) figure 2: map of ibadan metropolis in its regional setting source: oyo state ministry of lands, physical planning and urban development, 2023 figure 3: map of ibadan metropolis showing the selected lgas source: oyo state ministry of lands, physical planning and urban development, 2023 the 2006 population census indicated that ibadan metropolis had a total population of 2,559,853, which included 1,264,610 males and 1,295,243 females (national population commission, 2006). ibadan is recognized as the second fastest growing city in africa, following pa ge 20 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 17-26 2025 figure 4: road network map of ibadan showing the selected motor parks source: oyo state ministry of lands, physical planning and urban development, 2023 cairo (united nations human settlements research programme, 2022). projections from the national bureau of statistics, utilizing an annual growth rate of 2.3%, estimated that the population of ibadan metropolis was approximately 3,658,500 by 2022, indicating a significant increase from the 450,000 recorded in 1950. results and discussion in the context of this study, five services undertaken by the management teams of motor parks were identified and analyzed, and these include bus services, provision and maintenance of infrastructural facilities, delivery of information/inquiry services, security services, and regulation of commercial activities within the motor parks. bus services types of vehicles available in motor parks this study analyzed the types of vehicles in intercity motor parks in ibadan to assess their usage for passengers’ transport. as presented in figure 5, majority (55.4%) of the drivers operate buses, 25.9% drive cars, 18.7% use minibuses, and none utilize trucks, indicating that buses are preferred for intercity travel due to their capacity and affordability, aligning with enoch’s (2023) findings on the popularity of buses in nigeria for interstate journeys. reasons for patronizing the motor park further investigation as contained in table 1 revealed that while 38.7% of commuters chose motor parks due to cheaper fares, only 16.4% were motivated by the good condition of vehicles, suggesting that affordability significantly outweighs convenience in their decision-making. this finding contrasted with that of adedayo and zubairu (2016) who discovered that commuters patronized their choice motor parks due to the lack of alternatives in minna. figure 5: types of vehicles available in the motor parks source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 table 1: reasons for patronizing the motor park variables frequency percent lower fare 148 38.7 buses are in good condition 61 16.4 the scenery is pleasing 56 15.0 motor park is well organized and efficiently managed 40 10.7 facilities are efficient 39 10.5 adequate security 29 7.8 total 373 100.0 source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 provision and maintenance of infrastructural facilities in motor parks this study revealed significant deficiencies in the essential infrastructural facilities at motor parks in ibadan. as presented in figure 6, the majority of management teams’ chairmen indicated the absence of overnight lodging for commuters, solid waste collection services, and bars. only 20% acknowledged the availability and proper functioning of these amenities. a significant number of respondents (50%) reported the absence of water facilities, security services, and commercial areas for petty goods in the motor parks, suggesting inefficiencies in the management services of park managers in ibadan. however, all the chairmen (100%) and 60% of respondents indicated that pos services and canteens respectively, were adequately available and functioning. pa ge 21 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 17-26 2025 information services the provision and upkeep of an efficient information desk, staffed by courteous and knowledgeable personnel, constitute a crucial management service in public spaces, which will facilitate effective interactions with users by delivering accurate and timely information. in the assessment of commuters’ perceptions of service quality in minna, niger state, ohida et al. (2023) identified updated and readable information boards as services that satisfied commuters, while the present study focuses on the availability and commuter satisfaction with information/inquiry desks in motor parks in ibadan. table 2 presents the feedback from chairmen of management teams in motor parks within the study area, regarding the availability and operational status of information/inquiry desks. findings revealed that 50% of the parks lack such desks, approximately 40% have functional inquiry desk facilities, and 10% have desks that are available but non-operational due to maintenance issues, indicating that most commuters must rely on informal sources for inquiries. commuters were asked about their utilization of information desks in motor parks, with findings indicating that 59.8% reported the absence of such desks, 22.8% did not utilize the service effectively, 13.1% used it effectively, and 4.3% utilized it very effectively, as shown in table 3. figure 6: provision and maintenance of facilities in motor parks source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 table 2: availability and functionality of information/ enquiry desk in motor parks variables frequency percent not available 5 50.0 available but not functioning 1 10.0 available and functioning 4 40.0 total 10 100.0 source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 table 3: commuters’ use of information/enquiry desk variables frequency percent no information desk 223 57.8 not effectively 85 22.8 effectively 49 13/1 very effectively 16 4.3 total 373 100.0 source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 security services the management team of any public space holds a crucial responsibility in safeguarding the security and safety of its users. consequently, this study recognized and examined security services as a key management service to be employed in the administration of motor parks in ibadan. figure 7 illustrates the degree of collaboration and the relationship between the management teams of the motor parks and security agencies, including the nigeria police and the nigeria security and civil defense corps (nscdc). the findings indicated that 30% of the management teams maintained a friendly working relationship with security agencies; while the majority, comprising 50%, reported a moderately cordial collaboration. conversely, the remaining 20% stated that pa ge 22 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 17-26 2025 they had neither collaboration nor any relationship with security agencies. this suggests that a significant portion of the management teams at motor parks in ibadan actively collaborates with security agencies to promote safety and tranquility within the motor parks. further investigation was conducted to determine whether commuters had previously observed or experienced security breaches resulting from attacks in motor parks within the study area. as indicated in table 4, a significant proportion of respondents (41.8%) reported having observed an attack occurring in motor parks, whereas 7.8% stated that they had been victims of such attacks themselves. this suggests that the management of motor parks in ibadan has not been sufficiently effective in figure 7: collaboration of motor park management teams with security agencies source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 figure 8: nature of attacks on commuters in motor parks in ibadan source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 table 4: commuters’ experience of security threats (attacks) in motor parks variables frequency percent witnessed someone being attacked 156 41.8 personally being a victim of attack 29 7.8 never being a victim 106 28.4 have never witnessed any attack 82 22.0 total 373 100.0 source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 fulfilling their duty to provide adequate security for users. only 28.4% of commuters asserted that they had never been a victim of an attack, while 22% claimed they had not witnessed any attacks in these areas. consequently, there is a pressing need to strengthen the collaborative efforts of motor park management and security agencies to establish robust security measures in these public spaces. pa ge 23 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 17-26 2025 approximately 50.4% of the commuters reported that they had neither been victims of attacks nor observed any assaults occurring in motor parks within the study area. consequently, this research examined the types of attacks that the remaining 49.6% had witnessed. the findings regarding the nature of attacks experienced by the commuters are illustrated in figure 8. a significant proportion of them (56.4%) reported having experienced verbal abuse in motor parks. also, 22.9% of commuters indicated they had encountered disputes over fare, while 10.6% reported experiences of extortion, 6.4% faced rough handling, 3.2% were victims of pickpocketing, and 0.5% experienced rape within these environments. these results highlight the deficiencies in the security services’ involvement in managing motor parks in ibadan. ahmed (2016) also noted that pickpocketing and harassment have become increasingly prevalent in and around certain licensed motor parks in ilorin. control of commercial activities individuals utilizing motor parks, including commuters, often require specific goods and services during their time in these facilities. this necessity has led to the establishment of designated commercial areas within motor parks, where various products are available for purchase and other business activities. consequently, the oversight of these commercial operations falls under the purview of the motor park managers. this study, therefore, recognized the regulation of commercial activities as a key service employed in the management of motor parks within the study area. table 5 presents the feedback from chairmen of motor park management teams regarding the presence and operational status of commercial areas within the motor parks in ibadan. a significant percentage (50%), reported that there were designated areas actively serving as commercial spaces for petty goods within the motor parks. conversely, only 10% acknowledged that while such areas exist, they are not utilized for their intended commercial purposes. the remaining 40% indicated that there were no designated spaces for commercial activities in the motor parks. the significance of this finding lies in the fact that commercial facilities within motor parks will facilitate access to essential goods for commuters while they are using the spaces. furthermore, this observation underscores the role of motor parks in ibadan as vital public spaces that accommodate a variety of activities, extending beyond merely serving as transit points for travelers. findings from the selected commuters regarding their accessibility to goods and services in motor parks is summarized in table 6. a significant majority, comprising 81.5% of the respondents, reported that they could easily obtain the goods and services they required within the motor parks; 11% expressed that these goods and services were difficult to find. only 3.5% noted that commodities were unavailable for purchase in the motor parks, while the remaining 4% were uncertain about the availability of such items, likely due to their lack of purchasing activity during their time in the motor parks. table 5: availability and functionality of commercial areas in motor parks variables frequency percent not available 4 40.0 available but not functioning 1 10.0 available and functioning 5 50.0 total 10 100.0 source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 table 6: ease of access to goods and services in motor parks variables frequency percent easy 304 81.5 scarce 41 11.0 not accessible 13 3.5 not sure 15 4.0 total 373 100 source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 commuters’ satisfaction with management services in motor parks in ibadan as presented in table 7, 63%, 61.7%, 56.3%, 53.8%, and 36.5% of the selected commuters were not satisfied with the commercial areas, information/inquiry services, bus services, infrastructural facilities, and security services respectively, that were provided in motor parks in ibadan. in different studies conducted by olorunfemi and adeniran (2018), wojuade and badiora (2017) and nwachukwu (2014) in akure, ibadan, and abuja respectively, various aspects of bus transport services were identified as inadequate. in the same vein, adedayo and zubairu (2016) also found out that commuters expressed dissatisfaction with infrastructure in motor parks in minna metropolis. wachukwu et al. (2024) also noted similar low satisfaction ratings among commuters concerning the commercial areas of motor parks in the obio/akpor local government area of rivers state. table 7: commuters’ satisfaction with management services in motor parks variable bus services provision of facilities information services security services control of commercial activities f % f % f % f % f % strongly dissatisfied 82 22.0 80 21.4 70 18.8 47 12.6 134 35.9 dissatisfied 123 34.3 121 32.4 160 42.9 89 23.9 101 27.1 pa ge 24 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 17-26 2025 commuters’ overall level of satisfaction with services in selected motor parks to assess the degree of commuters’ satisfaction regarding the overall services provided in the selected motor parks, this study categorized satisfaction scores as follows: scores below 0.25 were classified as strongly unsatisfied, those ranging from 0.25 to 0.49 as unsatisfied, scores between 0.50 and 0.74 as satisfied, and scores from 0.75 to 1.00 as strongly satisfied. the relative satisfaction index (rsi) was utilized to evaluate the level of satisfaction, employing the specified formula, rsi = 3n3 + 2n2 +1n1 +0n0/3n where, n0 is the number of respondents with strongly dissatisfied n1 is the number of respondents with dissatisfied n2 is the number of respondents with satisfied n3 is the number of respondents with strongly satisfied n is the total number of commuters in the motor park. the data presented in table 8 reveals that commuters expressed a significant level of dissatisfaction with the services provided at two motor parks, specifically moniya (0.13) and apata (0.24). additionally, five other motor parks—segelu (0.29), iwo road (0.36), new gbagi (0.37), new garage (0.37), and eleyele (0.42)— also received unsatisfactory ratings from commuters. conversely, satisfaction was noted in only three motor parks: ojoo (0.54), ajimobi (0.60), and challenge (0.64). the overall satisfaction score of 0.49 across all the selected motor parks indicates that commuters were largely dissatisfied with various aspects of the services, including bus operations, information dissemination, infrastructure quality and maintenance, security services, and commercial facilities within the motor parks in the study area. satisfied 130 34.9 108 29.0 101 27.1 155 41.5 81 21.7 strongly satisfied 33 8.8 64 17.2 42 11.3 82 22.0 57 15.3 source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 table 8: commuters’ overall level of satisfaction with services in motor parks motor park number of commuters strongly unsatisfied (0) unsatisfied (1) satisfied (2) strongly satisfied (3) commuters’ level of satisfaction remark ojoo 66 2 29 27 8 0.54 s moniya 5 3 2 0 0 0.13 su challenge 45 2 10 22 11 0.64 s new garage 27 5 16 4 2 0.37 u ajimobi 111 3 31 62 15 0.60 s new gbagi 21 4 12 4 1 0.37 u iwo road 47 9 28 7 9 0.36 u segelu 15 3 11 1 0 0.29 u eleyele 12 1 7 4 0 0.42 u apata 24 11 10 2 1 0.24 su total 373 43 156 133 41 0.49 u s = satisfied, u = unsatisfied, su = strongly unsatisfied source: authors’ fieldwork, 2024 conclusion this study identified five management services pertinent to motor parks’ operation, which are: bus services, provision and maintenance of infrastructural facilities, information/enquiry services, security services, and regulation of commercial activities. the findings showed that commuters were grossly dissatisfied with all of these services in the motor parks in ibadan. it is concluded, therefore, that managers of these motor parks were not efficient in carrying out of their management responsibility of providing these essential services in the parks. commuters’ needs of convenience and comfort while boarding vehicles, adequate information/inquiry services, efficient infrastructural facilities such as toilets, waste collection equipment, canteens and bars, lodging for commuters who arrive at night, adequate security, and organized commercial areas were not adequately provided in the motor parks in ibadan. based on the findings, the following recommendations are made towards enhancing the quality of services provided in motor parks to improve the operational efficiency of these public spaces, and also ensures commuters’ satisfaction in the process of using the motor parks. first, is that the establishment and management of motor parks should be handed over to the local governments who are statutorily responsible for these functions as enshrined in the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of nigeria to pave way for adequate supervision of these motor parks. second, is the introduction of a well-articulated policy, formulated with pa ge 25 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 17-26 2025 concerted efforts of all stakeholders, for the management of motor parks, with the engagement of professionals in its implementation. third, is the need for a general overhaul of facilities in the motor parks, including the reorganization of commercial areas within these public spaces by the concerned motor park managers who should intensify efforts to improve the overall experience and satisfaction of commuters utilizing these facilities. lastly, enhanced collaborations between the motor park managers and security agencies such as the nigeria police and the nigeria security and civil defense corps (nscdc) is also recommended, to bring about safety and security of users of these public spaces. references abubakar, i. r., & dano, u. l. 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(2024, may 8). world population clock: 8.1 billion people (live, 2024). worldometer. https:// www.worldometers.info/world-population pa ge 1 pa ge 27 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) ethnic identity, academic self-concept, and achievement of blaan learners within the municipality of tampakan jezza mae l. umadhay1* volume 4 issue 2, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i2.4606 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: february 25, 2025 accepted: march 28, 2025 published: may 07, 2025 the study provided a deeper understanding of how ethnic identity and academic selfconcept influence the academic outcomes of blaan learners, offering implications for educational policies, culturally responsive teaching strategies, and student support programs. this study looked into the relationship of ethnic identity to academic self-concept and achievement of blaan learners within the municipality of tampakan. as a descriptivecorrelational study, this considered 241 full-blooded blaan learners as respondents. the total enumeration was used as a sampling technique, assuming the population of full-blooded blaan learners was manageable. the data were analyzed using the mean, standard deviation, and pearson (r) product-moment correlation. findings revealed that the overall ethnic identity of blaan learners was established. generally, the level of their academic self-concept was well-established. the majority of the blaan learners in the four schools performed very satisfactorily. there was a significant relationship between ethnic identity and academic self-concept. although ethnic identity was significantly related to academic achievement, the correlation was minimal. this suggests that other factors may have a greater influence. the primary concern regarding the ethnic identity of blaan learners centers on the balance between cultural preservation and academic integration in a rapidly modernizing society. keywords academic achievement, academic self-concept, blaan learners, ethnic identity 1 sultan kudarat state university-graduate school, ejc montilla, tacurong city 9800, sultan kudarat, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: jez27umadhay@gmail.com introduction the development of ethnic identity is considered a key part of the overall self-development of minority children. experts in child development have shown that the search for identity is a common experience for all teenagers, regardless of race or ethnicity. according to erikson’s research, teenagers between 12 and 18 explore their identity as they transition to adulthood. in a global context, phinney (2007) argues that developing an ethnic identity is more complex for adolescents due to the unique social challenges they face at home, in their communities, and at school. ethnic identity includes factors like how individuals view their ethnic group, how they see themselves, their importance in their ethnic group, and how they believe their ethnicity affects their social status (chavous et al., 2003). moreover, studying the ethnic identity of blaan learners in tampakan district is important because they face challenges in school. they often speak their native language at home, but schools mainly use filipino or english, making it hard for them to understand lessons and participate. they may also face discrimination, which lowers their confidence and makes them doubt their abilities. it can lead to poor academic performance, as they might feel that education does not represent their identity. additionally, exposure to different cultures at school can change their identity. they may adopt new values and slowly disconnect from their blaan traditions to fit in. it shows the need for more research to support their education and help them feel accepted. on the other hand, while there are available international studies on how ethnic identity affects the academic success of indigenous students, studies that specifically focus on blaan learners are still lacking. most research doesn’t consider the unique cultural and educational experiences of blaan students in the philippines. because of this, we don’t fully understand how being part of the blaan community affects their confidence in school and their academic performance. this gap shows that more research is needed to better support blaan students in their education. in the philippines, the department of education’s (deped) order no. 13 s. 2013 emphasizes “culturebased” education, integrating local and ethnic cultures into learning to promote inclusivity. this approach ensures students from different ethnic backgrounds feel respected and connected to their heritage, fostering a positive ethnic identity. similarly, the philippine teachers professionalization act of 1994 (ra 7836) requires educators to respect students’ diverse cultural backgrounds. teachers should create an inclusive environment that values all identities, avoiding stereotypes or behaviors that marginalize ethnic minorities and promoting mutual respect and cultural pride. also, the philippine heritage law (ra 10066) promotes preserving the country’s cultural heritage, emphasizing the importance of ethnic identity by protecting both the tangible and intangible heritage of indigenous peoples and ethnic communities. it ensures that these identities are recognized, preserved, and passed down. thus, this study aims to understand how blaan students’ cultural identity affects their school confidence and pa ge 28 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 27-36, 2025 academic performance. by studying these connections, the researcher hopes to identify the unique challenges and strengths of blaan learners. this understanding can help create teaching methods and school policies that better support blaan students and ensure their culture is respected and included in their education. statement of the problem this study determined the respondents’ ethnic identity and the relationship of ethnic identity to academic selfconcept and academic achievement of blaan learners. it answered the following questions: 1. what is the level of ethnic identity of blaan learners in the following subscales: 1.1. affirmation/belonging; 1.2. ethnic identity achievement; 1.3. other group orientation; 1.4. ethnic behaviors; and 1.5. language expressions? 2. what is the level of academic self-concept of blaan learners in the following dimensions: 2.1. grade and effort; 2.2. study habits/organizational self-perceptions; 2.3. peer evaluation of academic ability; 2.4. self-confidence in academics; 2.5. satisfaction with school; 2.6. self-doubt regarding ability and 2.7. self-evaluation with external standards? 3. what is the level of academic achievement of blaan learners in terms of the general weighted average? 4. is there a significant relationship between ethnic identity and the academic self-concept of the blaan learners? 5. is there a significant relationship between ethnic identity and the academic achievement of the blaan learners? literature review ethnic identity is a key part of an individual’s self-concept. it involves beliefs about membership in a specific ethnic group, self-identification, knowledge of cultural practices, and a sense of belonging. for martin and nakayama (2010), ethnic identity is a set of ideas about one’s ethnic group membership involving self-identification, cultural knowledge, and a sense of belonging. ethnic identity develops through group membership and engagement with shared traditions, shaping how individuals view themselves and interact with society. erickson’s identity formation theory furthermore, ethnic identity is closely tied to erikson’s (1963) identity formation theory and tajfel’s (1981) social identity theory. erikson emphasizes that identity formation, especially during adolescence, involves exploration and commitment. adolescents explore various aspects of their identity, including ethnic identity, as they learn about their sense of belonging. in erikson’s “identity vs. role confusion” stage, they consolidate their sense of self by comparing their self-perception with how others see them. this process helps form a coherent identity, including ethnic identity, which provides a sense of belonging and shapes their overall identity. similarly, phinney (1992) views ethnic identity as a social identity developed through attachment to an ethnic group. research shows that a strong ethnic identity positively correlates with self-esteem, particularly among adolescents from ethnic minority groups, fostering a positive self-concept. erikson’s (1968) psychosocial development theory highlights that each stage presents a crisis that must be resolved for healthy growth. failure to resolve these crises can lead to difficulties in later stages. as miller (2002) notes, successfully navigating all eight stages results in a coherent identity. each crisis shapes a wellrounded self-concept, emphasizing the importance of early development in forming one’s lifelong psychological and social well-being. erikson’s eight-stage development model emphasizes adolescence and early adulthood as crucial for forming ego identity. he views identity creation as occurring at the intersection of the inner self and the broader cultural context. a cohesive identity emerges when an individual’s self-concept aligns with how others perceive them. this alignment is key to developing a stable and authentic identity. erikson also highlights the importance of support from social groups, such as social class, nationality, and culture, in providing continuity and aiding in developing a confident identity. phinney’s theory of ethnic identity stages jean phinney’s model of ethnic identity, developed in 1989, is widely researched. phinney (1996) describes the initial stage, unexamined ethnic identity, as lacking exploration into one’s ethnic background. individuals in this stage may show little interest in their ethnicity (diffusion) or accept others’ beliefs without reflection (foreclosure). typically observed in children or early adolescents, this stage involves low awareness of ethnicity as part of their selfconcept. they adopt attitudes from their environment without deeper exploration, laying the groundwork for more active engagement with their ethnic identity later. in the second stage of phinney’s (1996) model, ethnic identity search, individuals begin actively exploring their ethnic identity. this phase involves learning about their cultural heritage and traditions, often during adolescence. as they encounter diverse experiences and possibly discrimination, they develop a deeper interest in their ethnicity. this exploration fosters a greater appreciation for their cultural background and a stronger sense of belonging. this stage is crucial for forming a positive self-concept and deeper connection to their ethnic group. ethnic identity achievement, the final stage in phinney’s (1996) model, reflects a strong, secure sense of ethnic identity. individuals confidently navigate multiple cultural contexts with a deep sense of belonging to their ethnic group. they have a balanced understanding of their cultural background, fostering confidence and pride. people in this stage also tend to be more open and accepting of other cultural groups. according to cross pa ge 29 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 27-36, 2025 (1991), individuals at this stage have likely resolved any resentment toward the majority group and can engage with different cultures more inclusively. it reflects a wellintegrated and confident ethnic identity, marking the culmination of their development journey. berry’s model of acculturation an individual’s ethnic behavior, including identity, is shaped by their cultural and political environment. bernal and knight (1993) highlighted that cross-cultural psychology focuses on how people develop differently within their cultures. the ecological approach suggests that various factors, like acculturation and long-term adaptation, influence individuals. cultural transmission through enculturation and socialization plays a key role, with influences coming from institutions and adults (oblique), peers (horizontal), and parents (vertical). multicultural theory suggests that positive ethnic identity and acceptance of other groups stem from pride and affirmation of one’s ethnicity (sue et al., 1996). a strong ethnic identity fosters greater respect for other cultures. fowers and davidov (2006) describe multiculturalism as advocating for the equitable treatment of all cultural groups, emphasizing diversity as essential for enriching society. this approach values every group equally, promoting inclusivity, empathy, and a more respectful and harmonious society. phinney et al. (1997) stated that adolescents with a more established sense of their ethnic identity tend to exhibit moderate openness and positive attitudes toward other ethnic groups. these individuals are more likely to engage in intergroup socialization, fostering cross-cultural interactions without losing connection to their heritage. academic self-concept the study of self-concept, rooted in psychology and education, examines how social and academic roles affect emotional well-being. according to vaughn et al. (2001), self-concept is vital for understanding how experiences influence one’s emotional state and overall identity. it significantly impacts academic outcomes, reflecting an individual’s comprehensive view of their surroundings and self-understanding developed through personal experiences. this self-perception influences motivation, performance, and psychological health, affecting how individuals engage with their academic and social roles. research, including a study by kumari and chamundeswari (2013), shows that scholastic self-concept strongly correlates with academic achievement, indicating that self-awareness influences students’ behavior and performance. a well-developed self-concept can enhance motivation, boost confidence, and improve academic outcomes. adler (1930) argued that a strong self-concept helps individuals set and achieve goals while fostering a positive outlook on life. in addition, zimmerman (2002) pointed out that students who take charge of their learning tend to do better in school. these students set clear goals and make a plan to reach them. they continuously monitor their progress, identifying areas for improvement and making necessary adjustments along the way. additionally, they strategically manage their time and resources, ensuring they prioritize tasks and use effective study techniques. keeping track of their progress and staying focused, these students understand the material better, stay motivated and handle challenges more effectively. moreover, credé and kuncel (2008) highlights in their study the important connection between students’ study habits and their academic performance. the results suggest that students who develop structured study routines such as setting specific study times, organizing materials, and following a consistent schedule tend to achieve higher academic success. self-concept is a crucial factor influencing personal development and achievement. psychologists have long established that a positive self-concept contributes significantly to success in various life areas. it encompasses the attributes, skills, and beliefs individuals associate with their identity (berk, 2000). gabriel et al. (2009) argue that a person’s self-concept, which reflects their feelings about themselves, significantly shapes behavior and learning. success or failure, academically and in life, hinges on individuals’ perceptions of their traits and abilities. a student’s self-perception is as crucial as their actual abilities. positive self-perceptions can enhance motivation, engagement, and resilience, fostering academic and personal success, while negative self-perceptions can hinder performance and limit opportunities. thus, fostering a positive self-concept is essential for optimizing student outcomes and promoting effective learning and achievement. consequently, kurtz and puhr (2018) suggests that a well-developed academic self-concept positively impacts motivation, learning strategies, and overall academic performance. when students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to engage in academic tasks with confidence, persist through challenges, and take ownership of their learning. conversely, a low academic self-concept may lead to decreased motivation and avoidance of difficult tasks. self-worth theory the self-worth theory is the foundation of the selfconcept, suggesting everyone can cultivate a positive selfimage and sense of pride. research indicates that students spend much time learning and are evaluated in school to develop their abilities (covington, 2000). according to this theory, maintaining optimistic self-worth is essential for fostering voluntary learning and a positive academic self-concept. students with this mindset show a positive attitude toward learning without competition. a cooperative learning environment benefits all students by helping them avoid academic failure and enhancing their self-awareness (eccles & wigfield, 2002). shavelson’s hierarchical model of self-concept shavelson et al. (1976) provided the most extensively observed empirical model of self-concept, which they pa ge 30 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 27-36, 2025 called the shavelson hierarchical model. the general selfconcept aspect is positioned at the top of their model and is further divided into academic and non-academic self-concepts. the academic self-concept is divided into domains such as english, mathematics, and so forth. the three categories of non-academic self-concept are social (communal), emotional (expressive), and physical. these categories are further subdivided into specific and distinct dimensions and features. this model was highly appreciated at one point in time since it served as the foundation for the most significant subfields within self-concept. the model’s self-concept constructs vary gradually from top to bottom. while each construct can be examined independently, all constructs or facets of the overall self-concept are connected (byrne, 2002). academic achievement academic achievement encompasses exceptional performance across various academic subjects within and beyond the classroom. it serves as a key indicator of how effectively educational objectives are being met by students, teachers, curricula, and educational institutions. academic achievement reflects the culmination of educational efforts and is assessed through various evaluations. these evaluations typically include exams that measure declarative knowledge, facts, information learned by students, and procedural knowledge, skills, and competencies developed through learning experiences (bennett, 2003). in any formal educational setting, academic achievement is often used interchangeably with academic performance, a fundamental aspect of evaluating educational effectiveness. it encompasses the outcomes of both classroom and extracurricular activities and measures how well students, educators, curricula, and educational institutions meet established learning objectives. academic achievement is commonly assessed through exams, which evaluate both declarative knowledge (factual information) and procedural knowledge (skills and applications) (bennett, 2003). testing, a global core component of educational systems, provides a systematic way to gauge student progress and success. assessments in education are crucial, as they offer measurable indicators of students’ cognitive, emotional, and psychomotor development. evaluating academic achievement through tests is not merely a formality but a practical necessity for effective education, formal or informal (kpolovie & obilor, 2013). this process includes acquiring and applying knowledge and a range of affective, motivational, and stylistic factors that influence students’ performance (kaplan & saccuzzo, 2005). as a significant and enduring behavioral outcome, academic achievement is both a measure of learners’ performance and a reflection of their educational experiences. it results from subjective evaluations, such as teacher assessments, and objective measures, such as standardized tests or self-study achievements. more specifically, academic achievement can be characterized by average performance in various subjects or as a comprehensive learning record throughout schooling (cao et al., 2018). achieving academic success is crucial in a student’s educational journey, reflecting the knowledge and skills acquired during their studies. for educators, student achievement offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of their teaching methods. it highlights areas where instruction may need improvement, enhances teaching strategies, and provides an opportunity to adjust approaches to better meet students’ needs (komarraju & nadler, 2013). by analyzing academic performance, teachers can refine their instructional techniques, adapt their teaching styles, and ultimately improve the quality of education provided. in addition, alqahtani et al. (2023) underscores the importance of effective teaching practices, strong leadership, a positive school culture, and active parental involvement, highlighting that schools with well-structured leadership, dedicated teachers, and a collaborative learning atmosphere consistently yield higher student achievement outcomes. this research emphasizes that fostering a holistic educational environment where students receive both academic and emotional support significantly enhances learning experiences and overall performance. materials and methods research design this study used descriptive and correlational research designs. the designs were appropriate because they describe the ethnic identity, academic self-concept, and achievement of blaan learners within the municipality of tampakan. also, it is correlational because it studies the relationship between ethnic identity and academic selfconcept and ethnic identity and academic achievement. calderon (2006) defines descriptive research as a deliberate process of collecting, analyzing, and organizing data about current conditions, practices, and trends. this method helps researchers accurately interpret the data, sometimes using statistical methods. descriptive research provides a detailed understanding of the group’s characteristics. correlational research, on the other hand, allows researchers to predict outcomes and understand the relationship between variables. according to creswell (2005), this type of research involves collecting two sets of data, one of which looks back at past information to determine the relationship between them. he added that correlational research uses statistical tests to measure and describe how strongly two or more variables are related. locale of the study this study was conducted in the municipality of tampakan, south cotabato, focusing on four key educational institutions. the first is danlag national high school, located in barangay danlag, which plays a crucial role in providing secondary education to students in the area, many of whom come from indigenous communities. the second school is datal biao integrated school, situated in the remote sitio datal biao, also within pa ge 31 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 27-36, 2025 barangay danlag. the third school is lampitak national high school, located in barangay lampitak. while similar to datal biao in serving a rural population, it faces its own unique set of circumstances shaped by the specific needs of its learners and community. lastly, tampakan national high school, located in dao street in barangay poblacion, represents a more urbanized educational setting. as a central hub for education in the municipality, tampakan national high school serves a diverse student body with better access to resources, contrasting the rural schools in the study. the researcher chose these four schools because they have the highest percentage of blaan learners among all the municipality of tampakan secondary schools. respondents of the study the respondents were the full-blooded blaan secondary (junior and/or senior high school) learners who were officially enrolled for the school year 2024-2025. the term “full-blooded blaan” refers to a learner with both parents of blaan descendants. the researcher considered a population of 22 junior high school and 6 senior high school full-blooded blaan learners in danlag national high school, 40 junior high school full-blooded blaan learners in datal biao integrated school, 75 junior high school and 22 senior high school full-blooded blaan learners in lampitak national high school and 42 junior high school and 34 senior high school full-blooded blaan learners in tampakan national high school for a total of 241. sampling technique this study employed complete enumeration, specifically targeting respondents who meet predefined criteria. the selected respondents were full-blooded blaan learners, meaning both parents were blaan descendants. given that the total population of full-blooded blaan learners in four public secondary schools is 241, all identified respondents were included in the study, as the sample size was sufficiently manageable. research instruments the questionnaire on the respondents’ ethnic identity was adapted and modified from phinney’s (1992) work. this tool comprises 30 items that measure affirmation/ belonging (8 items), ethnic identity achievement (7 items), other group orientation (6 items), ethnic behaviors (4 items), and language expressions (5 items). in measuring the academic self-concept of the respondents, the questionnaire adapted and modified from the work of reynolds et al. (1980) was used. the academic selfconcept scale (ascs) is a 45-item scale that measures the grade and effort dimension (8 items), study habits/ organizational self-perceptions (8 items), peer evaluation of academic ability (4 items), self-confidence in academics (5 items), satisfaction with school (6 items), self-doubt regarding ability (8 items), and self-evaluation with external standards dimension (6 items) among the respondents. the questionnaire statements were translated into blaan’s native language so the respondents could become comfortable and proficient in providing accurate answers. in addition, scoring and interpretation were provided as a basis for the analysis and interpretation of the data. in determining the respondents’ academic achievement, the researcher formally requested the general weighted average (gwa) for the previous academic year 20232024 from the class advisers. this process ensured that the academic data obtained was accurate and officially documented. the contents were subject to the validation of six (6) experts who were also research enthusiasts from the department of education in the division of south cotabato. they were acknowledged authorities in educational management and test construction. the researcher used the validation tool of polit and beck (2006) with an acceptable cvi of 0.83. statistical treatment the data were computed using the appropriate statistical tools. the mean and standard deviation were used to describe and interpret the result of the ethnic identity, academic self-concept, and achievement of full-blooded blaan learners. the pearson product-moment correlation (ppmc) was then employed to analyze the relationships between ethnic identity and academic self-concept and ethnic identity and academic achievement. these were used to summarize all the study’s results. pearson (1896) defined the pearson product-moment correlation (the pearson correlation) as a statistical measure that evaluates the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two continuous variables. it is used to determine how changes in one variable are associated with changes in another and is commonly used to test hypotheses about relationships between variables. results and discussion sop 1: what is the level of ethnic identity of blaan learners? the first research problem determined the level of ethnic identity of blaan learners. table 1 provides the complete data on the level of ethnic identity as evaluated by the respondents. generally, the level of ethnic identity is established (m=3.16, sd=0.312). the result means that blaan learners have a solid understanding and pride in their blaan culture. they regularly engage in cultural practices and traditions, reflecting a clear and stable blaan identity. they balance their cultural pride with positive interactions with other cultural groups. additionally, they recognize the blaan language as a vital tool for preserving traditions, fostering cultural pride, and enhancing communication with elders, further reinforcing their sense of identity and belonging. if we examine each indicator separately, the blaan learners show a strong connection to their culture, as reflected in their integrated identity, especially in areas like affirmation/belonging, ethnic behaviors, and language expressions. the result means they feel proud of their pa ge 32 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 27-36, 2025 heritage, actively participate in cultural events, and use their language to express themselves and strengthen their cultural identity. however, some areas still offer room for growth. their established identity in ethnic identity achievement suggests that they are still exploring and learning more about their blaan heritage. encouraging them to dive deeper into their traditions and history could help them feel more confident in their identity. regarding other group orientations, the learners are moderately open to interacting with people from different backgrounds. while they may feel comfortable around others, they may not fully embrace close friendships or deeper interactions. providing more opportunities for positive social interactions with other groups could help them become more open while still feeling connected to their culture. the study’s findings align closely with the second stage of phinney’s (1996) model of ethnic identity development, known as ethnic identity search. this stage marks a critical period of exploration and self-discovery. individuals, particularly adolescents, become more interested in learning about their cultural background, traditions, and values during this stage. this interest is often triggered by new life experiences or facing discrimination, which makes them more aware of their ethnic identity. by exploring and engaging with their culture, they develop a stronger connection to their heritage, build confidence, and feel a greater sense of belonging to their ethnic group. this study examines how different stages of ethnic identity development influence adolescents’ daily experiences by integrating research on identity progression and its impact on everyday life. the findings suggest that adolescents at various stages of ethnic identity development experience their cultural identity differently. those in the early stages may have limited awareness or connection to their ethnic background, while those actively exploring their identity are more likely to engage in cultural activities, seek information, and reflect on their heritage. in contrast, individuals with a well-established ethnic identity tend to experience a stable sense of pride and belonging, which shapes their social interactions and responses to cultural experiences. additionally, yip (2014) examines how different stages of ethnic identity development influence adolescents’ daily experiences by integrating research on identity progression and its impact on everyday life. the findings suggest that adolescents at various stages of ethnic identity development experience their cultural identity differently. those in the early stages may have limited awareness or connection to their ethnic background, while those actively exploring their identity are more likely to engage in cultural activities, seek information, and reflect on their heritage. in contrast, individuals with a well-established ethnic identity tend to experience a stable sense of pride and belonging, which shapes their social interactions and responses to cultural experiences. sop 2: what is the level of academic self-concept of blaan learners? the second research problem deals with the level of academic self-concept of blaan learners in the municipality of tampakan. table 2 provides the complete data on the level of academic self-concept as evaluated by competent respondents. table 1: summary of the level of ethnic identity of blaan learners indicators n mean sd qualitative description affirmation/belonging 241 3.37 0.446 integrated identity ethnic identity achievement 241 3.02 0.400 established identity other group orientation 241 2.56 0.527 established identity ethnic behaviors 241 3.39 0.476 integrated identity language expressions 241 3.31 0.485 integrated identity grand mean 241 3.16 0.312 established identity table 2: summary of the level of academic self-concept of blaan learners indicators n mean sd description grade and effort dimension 241 3.29 0.401 highly developed study habits/organizational self-perceptions 241 2.93 0.360 well-established peer evaluation of academic ability 241 2.99 0.439 well-established self-confidence in academics 241 3.11 0.499 well-established satisfaction with school 241 3.10 0.406 well-established self-doubt regarding ability 241 2.58 0.425 well-established self-evaluation with external standards 241 2.92 0.398 well-established grand mean 241 3.00 0.296 well-established generally, the level of the academic self-concept is wellestablished (m=3.00, sd=0.296). the result means that blaan learners have stable confidence and a balanced view of their academic abilities. they manage school pa ge 33 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 27-36, 2025 challenges with moderate resilience, participate regularly in academic activities, and generally feel satisfied with their performance. they may occasionally struggle with motivation. they might feel unmotivated or lose interest in school, especially when things get hard or frustrating. they may need support, like encouragement from teachers or friends, to stay focused and keep going. although most ratings are well-established, it is evident that the grade and effort dimension obtained the highest rating (m=3.29, sd=0.401). the study’s overall findings support the claim of gabriel et al. (2009) that how students perceive their abilities and traits is just as important as their actual skills. for example, a student with a positive self-concept is more likely to believe they can handle challenges and succeed, which leads to greater motivation, higher engagement in learning activities, and stronger persistence when faced with setbacks. when students feel good about their abilities, they are more likely to set high goals, try new things, and recover from failures more easily. consequently, kurtz and puhr (2018) suggests that a well-developed academic self-concept positively impacts motivation, learning strategies, and overall academic performance. when students perceive themselves as competent, they are more likely to engage in academic tasks with confidence, persist through challenges, and take ownership of their learning. conversely, a low academic self-concept may lead to decreased motivation and avoidance of difficult tasks. sop 3: what is the level of academic achievement of blaan learners? the third research problem concerns the level of academic achievement of blaan learners within the municipality of tampakan. the respective teachers were requested to provide data, particularly the general weighted average for the previous academic year 2023-2024. table 3 highlights the learners’ achievement results. the data indicates that the overall mean of the general table 3: level of academic achievement of blaan learners in terms of the general weighted average school n mean sd qualitative description danlag national high school 28 83.00 3.63 satisfactory datal biao integrated school 40 86.10 3.70 very satisfactory lampitak national high school 97 86.00 4.86 very satisfactory tampakan national high school 76 85.40 4.33 very satisfactory grand mean 241 85.13 4.39 very satisfactory weighted average of the blaan learners is very satisfactory (m=85.13, sd=4.39). this means that the typical blaan learners in four schools within the municipality of tampakan achieve very satisfactory in the general weighted average. the proficiency of the learners frequently meets and occasionally exceeds expectations. learners have a strong understanding of the subject matter and perform well in most areas. their work is consistently above average, showing good effort and reliability. the result suggests they have strong academic abilities and receive enough support from their teachers and schools to succeed. however, there is a noticeable gap between the achievement of danlag national high school and the other schools. this difference may reflect varying factors, such as differences in available resources, teaching approaches, or levels of student engagement at danlag national high school compared to the other schools. the result is related to komarraju and nadler’s (2013) assertion that academic achievement is a crucial goal in a student’s educational journey, reflecting the knowledge and skills acquired during their studies. for educators, student achievement offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of their teaching methods. it highlights areas where instruction may need improvement, enhances teaching strategies, and provides an opportunity to adjust approaches to better meet students’ needs. in addition, alqahtani et al. (2023) underscores the importance of effective teaching practices, strong leadership, a positive school culture, and active parental involvement, highlighting that schools with well-structured leadership, dedicated teachers, and a collaborative learning atmosphere consistently yield higher student achievement outcomes. this research emphasizes that fostering a holistic educational environment where students receive both academic and emotional support significantly enhances learning experiences and overall performance. sop 4: is there a significant relationship between ethnic identity and academic self-concept of blaan learners? the fourth research problem investigates the relationship between blaan learners’ ethnic identity and academic selfconcept. table 4 shows the correlational analysis between sub-scales of ethnic identity and academic self-concept. as revealed from the data, the affirmation/belonging and self-doubt regarding ability have no significant relationship (r=0.041, p>.05). this means that how connected and proud blaan learners feel about their ethnic identity does not appear to affect the level of doubt they have about their academic abilities. even if learners have a strong sense of belonging and pride in their ethnic identity, it does not necessarily mean they will be free from self-doubt about their performance or abilities in school. it is also evident that ethnic behaviors and self-doubt regarding ability have no significant relationship (r=-0.022, p> .05). this means that how actively blaan learners participate in cultural activities or express their cultural identity does not have a noticeable effect on how much they doubt pa ge 34 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 27-36, 2025 their academic abilities. regardless of whether learners are highly engaged in cultural traditions or activities, this engagement does not necessarily reduce or increase their self-doubt about school performance. the negative sign signifies that the other decreases slightly as one variable increases. similarly, language expressions and selfdoubt regarding ability show no significant relationship (r=0.023, p>.05). this conveys that how frequently or confidently blaan learners use their ethnic language does not have a meaningful impact on how much they doubt their academic abilities. although learners take pride in speaking their native language and use it regularly, this does not necessarily influence their confidence in their academic skills. table 4: correlational analysis between the blaan learners' ethnic identity and academic self-concept variables a ffi rm at io n/ b el on gi ng e th ni c id en tit y a ch ie ve m en t o th er g ro up o rie nt at io n e th ni c b eh av io rs la ng ua ge e xp re ss io ns o ve ra ll e th ni c id en tit y grade and effort dimension 0.567* 0.394* 0.102* 0.447* 0.462* 0.696* < .001 < .001 0.116 < .001 < .001 < .001 study habits/organizational self-perceptions 0.299* 0.321* 0.267* 0.254* 0.285* 0.456* < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 peer evaluation of academic ability 0.258* 0.313* 0.220* 0.291* 0.235* 0.401* < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 self-confidence in academics 0.363* 0.312* 0.141* 0.414* 0.321* 0.480* < .001 < .001 0.028 < .001 < .001 < .001 satisfaction with school 0.463* 0.387* 0.144* 0.334* 0.434* 0.548* < .001 < .001 0.025 < .001 < .001 < .001 self-doubt regarding ability 0.041 0.155* 0.323* -0.022 0.023 0.135* 0.527 0.016 < .001 0.735 0.724 0.036 self-evaluation with external standards 0.177* 0.214* 0.272* 0.198* 0.142* 0.315* 0.006 < .001 < .001 0.002 0.027 < .001 overall academic self-concept 0.445* 0.440* 0.297* 0.395* 0.379* 0.621* < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 note: r marked with asterisk (*) is significant; p<.05 remarkably, while some subscales show no significant relationships, the overall findings reveal that the relationship between ethnic identity and academic selfconcept is statistically significant (r=0.621, p<.05). this result corresponds with the study of rivas-drake et al. (2014) which highlighted that a strong and welldeveloped ethnic identity plays a crucial role in shaping positive academic outcomes. when students have a clear understanding and pride in their cultural background, they are likelier to feel a sense of belonging and purpose within the school environment. this connection can boost their confidence in their abilities, reinforcing a positive academic self-concept. as a result, students become more engaged, motivated, and resilient in their studies, leading to improved academic performance. subsequently, smith et. al. (1999) asserted that adolescents with a strong sense of ethnic identity tend to have higher self-esteem and greater confidence in their abilities (self-efficacy). since both self-esteem and self-efficacy are key elements of academic self-concept, the study suggests that a welldeveloped ethnic identity can contribute to students’ overall confidence in their academic abilities and their willingness to engage in learning. sop 5: is there a significant relationship between ethnic identity and academic achievement of blaan learners? the fifth research problem examines the relationship between blaan learners’ ethnic identity and academic achievement using pearson product moment correlation (pearson r). table 5 shows the correlational analysis between the ethnic identity and academic achievement of blaan learners. the result reveals that the ethnic identity of blaan learners is statistically significant to their academic achievement (r=0.129, p<.05). this suggests that even though most aspects of ethnic identity do not have a direct significant impact on academic achievement, language expressions (r=0.130, p<.05) and overall ethnic identity show small but meaningful positive correlations. the result indicates that cultural pride and identity integration may help learners develop confidence and motivation that indirectly support academic success. however, the generally weak correlations imply that academic achievement is influenced more by other factors, such as study habits, teaching quality, socioeconomic status, and school resources. although having a strong ethnic pa ge 35 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 27-36, 2025 identity can enhance the learning experience, it is not the main factor determining academic success. kim’s study (2023) validates its outcome by confirming that while a strong ethnic identity was positively associated with students’ attitudes toward school and a higher academic self-concept, its direct impact on academic performance was minimal. the result suggests that ethnic identity plays a more indirect role in shaping academic success by fostering a sense of belonging, confidence, and motivation, which, in turn, may contribute to better engagement and persistence in learning. furthermore, branch (2020) conveyed that students who actively engage in exploring their cultural heritage and identity within educational environments tend to demonstrate higher academic achievement. this suggests that fostering opportunities for ethnic identity exploration in schools can contribute to improved academic motivation, confidence, and overall performance. conclusions the following conclusions were drawn in light of the findings and the hypotheses that were put to the test. this study emphasized the important influence of ethnic identity on the academic self-concept and achievement of blaan learners within the municipality of tampakan. the blaan learners generally have an established ethnic identity, with a stronger connection in areas such as affirmation/belonging, ethnic behaviors, and language expressions. their academic self-concept is also welldeveloped, especially regarding grade and effort dimensions and academic self-confidence. additionally, their academic achievement was mostly very satisfactory, except for one school, which achieved a satisfactory rating. ethnic identity is associated with academic self-concept, indicating that a deeper cultural connection boosts students’ confidence and perception of their academic abilities. however, some aspects, such as affirmation/ belonging, ethnic behaviors, and language expressions, were not significantly correlated to self-doubt regarding ability, suggesting that cultural pride does not necessarily affect feelings of uncertainty in learning. furthermore, ethnic identity can positively attribute to academic achievement. notably, language expressions have something to do with academic achievement, highlighting the potential impact of language in learning. references alqahtani, a. s., watson, s., & parahoo, s. k. 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(2002). “becoming a self-regulated learner: an overview.” theory into practice, 41(2), 64-70 pa ge 1 pa ge 50 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) the impact of funding liquidity risk on business discontinuity in the financial sector elgaili ibrahim baloola elbashir1* volume 4 issue 3, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i3.5738 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: july 15, 2025 accepted: august 16, 2025 published: october 07, 2025 financing liquidity risk is a serious risk to financial stability especially in the emerging markets, where non-bank financial institutions (nbfis) have limited regulation along with access to systemic liquidity support. this paper examines the connection between liquidity risk to business discontinuity in nbfi sector between 2011 and 2024 by undertaking a longitudinal quantitative study, and secondary data set of the world bank, and imf. major liquidity ratios such as liquidity coverage ratio (lcr), liquid assets percentage, funding ratio, and interest cost were investigated and correlated with macroeconomic factors like the rate of inflation and gdp growth. regression findings indicate that increase in the lcr, liquid assets and funding ratios greatly decrease the risk of business discontinuity, and increased funding costs and inflation significantly increase risks. protective effect is also exhibited with credit rating strength. the results are consistent with the goals of basel iii, justifying the significance of strong liquidity buffers, but also show the increased vulnerability of nbfis to the impact of inflation and borrowing rates. the findings amplify the necessity of extending the regulation of liquidity to nbfis, enhancing administration, broadening the financing, and shifting toward advanced technologies of forecasting and monitoring. policy implications include the idea that coordinated non-restrictive monetary and macroprudential policies would facilitate resilience in the sector. this study adds to the international liquidity risk debate and outlines key areas of intervention to reduce the associated operational and reputation-damaging consequences of liquidity crises in the nbfis. keywords business discontinuity, financial stability, funding liquidity, nonbank financial institutions 1 financial service and fintech industry, al yusr for leasing and financing co. riyadh, saudi arabia * corresponding author’s e-mail: elgailiibrahim@outlook.com introduction funding liquidity risk potential exposure is an inherent issue of financial institutions, of those working in markets where maturities do not fit the market (al janabi, 2024). crises in the past, such as the 2007 08 global financial crisis show how any sudden withdrawal or suspension of funding can sabotage normally well-funded institutions (mirzaei, 2023; pilaar, 2018). this reaction highlighted the establishment of better liquidity standards under basel iii where certain ratios, including liquidity coverage ratio (lcr) and net stable funding ratio (nsfr), required the institutions to maintain a quantity of high-quality liquid assets over a period of horizons (alam et al., 2023; sharma & chauhan, 2023). empirical investigations reveal that banks that are well regulated when it comes to liquidity have less liquidity risk which in turn might lead to decline in lending capacity (wansleben, 2021). globally, banking systems of most jurisdictions are well-placed with strong balance sheets, both at par, and sometimes surpassing regulatory liquidity requirements like the lcr and nsfr (acharya & rajan, 2024; chen et al., 2025). but the non-bank financial institutions (nbfis) are less researched and possibly more acutely subjected to liquidity problems, especially in loss of governance arrangements or forecasting ability or even internal coordinating processes (matlhaku & ferreira-schenk, 2025). in its reports on international financial stability assessments, the liquidity risk has been identified as a prominent cause of the institutional crisis reporting that most failures happen even with sufficient capital buffer and often because of deficiency in internal controls, risk monitoring and effective decision making in a timely manner (pantos, 2025). although indicators obtained on macro-level can reflect a certain level of the sector’s resilience, the liquidity crises on institutional level can still materialize suddenly, disrupting their operations at the levels of profitability or forcing them to overcome the difficulties in the future with significant loss of the reputation that they have built. this highlights an unresolved empirical, case-based investigation on how failures of governance, lesser capacity of forecasting, and delay to act mix and multiply liquidity strains and precipitate business discontinuity. in addition, scholarly research has been classically accompanied by extensive banks in developed economies putting in place scarcity of detailed evidence on nbfis or market-specific establishments that have suffered intense liquidity peril because of internal breakdowns (adesegha, 2023; buha et al., 2023; rahman et al., 2023). such measures are regularly echoed by international regulatory authorities and financial stability organizations which pinpoint such areas as liquidity monitoring, proper forecasting and effective governance frameworks to help avoid such crises (oko-odion & angela, 2025). case-based evidence still has a vital role in transferring these concepts into practical reform. most banking pa ge 51 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 50-61, 2025 systems globally have indicated high liquidity and capital buffers, most of which have been substantiated by regulatory stress tests but there exist issues on whether to adjust liquidity frameworks to the changing economic environment (wang, 2024). such challenges consist of excessive dependence on concentrated funding channels and the necessity to have more advanced capabilities in monitoring liquidity to preempt and address shocks to prevent their evolution into business discontinuity episodes (malynovska et al., 2025; qaisar et al., 2025). institutionally, there have been instances under which due to liquidity limitation issues with operational errors have caused near shutdown notwithstanding the high-level adherence to regulations. these failures tend to embody failings of internal coordination and risk governance, and not macroeconomic shocks. liquidity preference theory (keynes) views the situation through the perspective of economic theory and presumes that in case of uncertainty, institutions will pay preference to keeping assets which are liquid, and they will hoard liquidity if there is risk perceived to be of increased concern (bibow, 2021; wray, 2023). the anticipated income theory proposes that companies match disbursement of loans with expected repayment schedules to avoid mismatch of cash flows (wei, 2025). by ignoring these principles and not forecasting, or stress testing scenarios, institutions have a more significant likelihood of experiencing liquidity risk (sakyi-yeboah et al., 2025). other models e.g. interbank contagion frameworks (macchiati et al., 2022) or systemic liquidity propagation models (jiang et al., 2023) accentuate the way in which funding shortages in a single institution can propagate through the financial networks if rapid repairs are not made. the paper seeks to study how funding liquidity risk affects business discontinuity to the financial sector. in the analysis, the focus was given to how lack of proper liquidity will translate into business interruption, loss of stakeholder’s confidence and collapse of financial institutions. the study seeks to contribute to the constant debate on financial stability by offering insights that could prove to be useful in the ways in which liquidity risk can undermine the robustness of institutions. it also suggests effective remedies on how to minimize such risks. this current research aims: • to document the root causes and effects of a funding liquidity crisis in nbfi. • to examine governance and risk control failures contributing to business discontinuity. • to interpret behaviors using liquidity theories and systemic risk frameworks. • to provide actionable recommendations to enhance institutional liquidity resilience. to guide these listed aims and objectives, the research addresses following questions: • rq1: what internal and external factors triggered the liquidity crisis? • rq2: how did governance and risk systems fail to detect or mitigate liquidity stress? • rq3: based on theory and evidence, what measures can enhance liquidity preparedness and continuity? literature review liquidity risk in financial institutions liquidity risk has become one of the paramount risks of the financial system, especially in the wake of the world financial crisis of 2007-2008 (eltweri et al., 2024). it is considered to represent the risk that an institution cannot repay the obligations that fall due without bearing losses unacceptable to the institution (shira, 2023). there are two general terms of liquidity risk that financial institutions usually encounter, first is market liquidity risk where the assets cannot easily be sold without incurring large costs (guzel, 2021) and second funding liquidity risk, in which an organization cannot immediately settle dues since it is not able to access cash (mattayaphutron, 2022). liquidity risks have drastic effects when financed, the liquidity spiral, as (musthaq, 2023) emphasize, can be activated by a funding shock, and that asset fire sales further depreciate the values of collateral, and lenders will call back funding, triggering more sales and make the cycle of collapse faster. such forces do not occur only at a hypothetical level. in the crisis of 2008, wellcapitalized banks like lehman brothers were overthrown because of short-term funding limitations despite the large asset portfolio (karim, 2021). most of the liquidity crises are core of asset-liabilities mismatches (lileikienė et al., 2021). a combination of short-term liabilities and illiquid long-term assets causes institutions to undertake regular refinancing which in cases where there is limited market confidence or tightening of credit becomes a challenge. likewise, (yang et al., 2021) emphasized on the fact that maturity mismatch has forced institutions to face the risk of a funding gap at moments of volatility or macroeconomic shock. this becomes especially important in the emerging markets where liquidity may dry up quickly through weaker capital markets and excessive dependence on external sources of funds. institutional vulnerability and governance failures although a crisis can start with external market conditions causing liquidity squeeze, internal governance failures usually transform stress into becoming a crisis. the more susceptible institutions are the ones with poorly managed risk, inter agency coordination or early warning systems. in addition, (melecky, 2021) state that a large section of the liquidity crises in the south asian banks was caused due to misaligned internal policies, ineffective communication and a delayed decisionmaking process and not the result of an external shock. one of the main outcomes reported in several postcrisis studies is the non-existence or ineffectiveness of asset-liability committees (alcos), whose role was to guide liquidity planning and stress tests (kaufinger & neuenschwander, 2024). moreover, (omri, 2022) also add that there is an intrinsic relationship between liquidity risk and governance structures. failure of an pa ge 52 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 50-61, 2025 effective board oversight in financial institutions results in failure of recognizing liquidity indicators like increase in non-performing loans, overdrafts, funding concentration among other indicators of liquidity (blake, 2022). these weaknesses are aggravated in case of nbfis because of thinner capital buffers, the absence of deposit insurance, and lower access to the central bank funding (ilesanmi, 2025). in the gulf cooperation council (gcc), (haddou & mkhinini, 2025) identified that although commercial banks may typically be able to satisfy regulatory liquidity provisions, this is not usually the case with smaller or special purpose banks whose internal controls lack both procedures and full stress testing. as a result, they can be oblivious to deterioration in liquidity until liquidity either leads to operational breakdowns or government action. liquidity regulation and the role of basel iii following the disclosures during the global financial crisis, basel iii regulatory framework proposed two measures to liquidity coverage: the lcr and nsfr (alaoui mdaghri & oubdi, 2022). these ratios are a means of ensuring that the banks maintain the quality liquid assets (hqla) as a means of satisfying short term obligations and having stable funding within a timeframe of one-year horizon (veeramoothoo & hammoudeh, 2022). the effects of such regulations are not consistent according to studies (papadamou et al., 2021). on the one hand, some scholars doubt that aside from short-term resilience, the lcr would also promote procyclicality; (berrospide, 2021) note that banks will curtailed lending and hoard liquidity during the downturns to meet the ratios thereby aggravating credit contraction; () observed that the strict liquidity requirements are likely to enhance transparency but also exerted concerns on the limited availability of credit and decreased profitability (magnis et al., 2025). in saudi arabia, the saudi central bank (sama) has implemented the basel iii standards, but it has also focused on the importance of tailoring as per institutional size and risk profile (alsanousi et al., 2024). nevertheless, many nbfis are not subject to direct application of lcr/nsfr, and this has created regulatory blind spots subject to exploitation regarding systemic fragility (diesel et al., 2022). such institutions whose asset holdings are single and not diversified as well as not having access to an institution of last resort are vulnerable such systems. empirical insights from emerging economies the risk of liquidity is even more marked in emerging markets with shallow capital markets, macroeconomic volatility and institutional weakness increasing the risk of disruption. in kenya, (mutai & miroga, 2023) witnessed that deposit taking saccos were characterized by lack of income and operational stability occasioned by improper management of liquidity and the excessive use of shortterm deposits. in kosovo, (morina & qarri, 2021) found a significant negative relationship between liquidity deficiencies and indicators of performance including return on assets (roa) and return on equity (roe). likewise, (skyrman, 2024) reviewed basel iii in postbasel conditions of banks in europe and published that poorly liquidated banks performed worse than their peers, particularly in turbulent markets. these empirical facts imply that liquidity risk is not just a compliance factor, nor a strategic factor in the accomplishments and survival of an institution. large institutions have increasingly integrated global best practices, whereas smaller banks and nbfis have a history of using ineffective models, fragmented data systems that include limited predictive models and the lack of formalized contingencies plans. the concentration of funding sources and low adoption of electronic risk infrastructure are the features that render saudi nbfis especially vulnerable to liquidity stress (gortsos, 2023). technology, forecasting, and institutional readiness the emergence of fintech provides the potential to use new liquidity risk management tools. institutions may be helped in tracking cash flows, stress scenarios, and funding gaps through predictive analytics, real-time monitoring dashboards, and machine learning models among others (malhotra et al., 2025). further, (von solms, 2021) suggest that banks with fully integrated technological infrastructure were more responsive in the simulation of crisis situations when compared with those managed manually. blockchain though, its usage remains in its infancy, is investigated as a way of tracking assets and making inter-institutional settlements of liquidity (mukkamala & vatrapu, 2021). additionally, (raj et al., 2024) use the term distributed ledger technologies as possible facilitators of transparency and real time funding optimization. equally, ai-powered solutions, which (adebowale & akinnagbe, 2021), are potentially useful in detecting any early indicators of funding pressure based on borrower behavior, counterparty exposures, and macro economies. however, the use of these types of technologies in the developing and middleincome nations is still low. a substantial number of their institutions continue to use excel-based tools, are slow on reporting or lack central data warehouses, which greatly compromises their ability to identify and mitigate the liquidity risk. the resulting disparity poses asymmetrical preparedness regardless of placing the institutions in the same regulatory environment. theoretical framework this paper is supported by two complementary theories; liquidity preference and anticipated income theories that are most suitable for any attempt to analyze institutional liquidity behavior, especially in the emerging market environments. liquidity preference theory the liquidity preference theory was formulated by keynes (1936) and argues that economic agents choose to invest in liquid forms of assets as a hedge against uncertainty (bonizzi & kaltenbrunner, 2021; brady, pa ge 53 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 50-61, 2025 2024). within the banking industry, it means that the underlying institutions keep cash or near-cash positions to insure against unpredictable liabilities or revenue deficit. in addition, (alaeddini et al., 2023) use this theory to explain the hoarding of liquidity in times of market turmoil, which further exacerbates any shortage of funds, and it freezes any interbank lending. the theory is applicable especially in a crisis whereby confidence is lost easily. institutions can start to focus more on liquidity rather than on profitability and retain more idle cash to prevent becoming bankrupt. nonetheless, the analyzed organization in the present case did not employ this rationality in a proactive manner, it started hoarding liquidity only after the shortage of funds had already occurred, and when it was moreover late to prevent significant disruption of operations. anticipated income theory the anticipated income theory was initially discussed in terms of commercial banking, in which the theory focuses on the ability to manage the liquidity by setting up obligations in relation to expected streams of income (tolulope, 2021). this theory was confirmed by the empirical work of (alhassan & islam, 2021) in nigerian banks demonstrating that the liquidity shocks were not so frequent in organizations with the organized income-adjusted rates of loan advances and repayment. in this study, the failure of the institution to align with repayment schedules with the actual inflows of cash has contributed directly to the shortage of the funding. the two theories support the fact that liquidity must be managed activelyby maintaining buffers or by refined income forecasts. their combination shows a sound formula not only to decipher what went wrong in the examined institution but also how a structural planning background can prevent a similar crisis. gaps in literature current research and policy literature still highlights a long-standing shortcoming: testing has focused on liquidity crisis at large banking institutions in advanced economies, with little testing applied to liquidity distress in nbfis particularly during internal failures or lapses in governance. the evidence is escalating in countries such as switzerland and denmark pointing to sector vulnerability. as an example, it is stipulated in a study conducted by imf about the big picture of swiss nbfis being broadly sound, but exposure to cross-exposed managed products should be carefully monitored (meier et al., 2023). equally, the nbfi sector in denmark, which has recently expanded strongly following the global financial crisis, has added to systemic prominence leading to suggestions of stress tests across financial establishments blurring the lines between banks and nbfis (hacibedel & jarmuzek, 2024). in a broader sense, the systemic presence of the sector drives the regulatory impetus with the recent efforts of the eu where comprehensive stress tests of non-bank institutions are envisaged and reforms that aim to provide an immediate liquidity facility to the nbfcs and mutual funds in times of crisis are being contemplated by the central banks, such as rbi. in this context, this paper addresses an important empirical gap, with a unique institutional level analysis of the liquidity risk and business interruption based on internal data and contributes to the global knowledge regarding the effect of governance pitfalls, prediction errors, and late countermeasures introducing major disturbance. materials and methods the research used quantitative methodology where secondary research data were obtained through credible international and national financial databases. the reason of selecting the quantitative approach is mainly because of its applicability in the evaluation of quantifiable indicators of liquidity in funding risk and association of the same with business discontinuity in different financial establishments. the method qualifies to carry out statistical analysis and to identify trends over time which makes it an objective, generalizable and replicable mode of finding. in the sphere of financial risk analysis, quantitative processes are especially topical because of the existence of numerical data on the balance of liquidity arguments on funding mechanisms and assets that can provide direct information about the vitality of the functioning of financial institutions. additionally, quantitative analysis can be used to build models that detect relationship and predictive correlation, which are critical in formulating a corrective relation to the vulnerability of a system, and advising policies. research design the research design was based on the longitudinal observational research design of 2011 to 2024, which uses financial institutions. it records the development of indicators on liquidity before, during and after the financial stress to seek the level to which liquidity risk discontinuity contributes to business. the preference of the longitudinal design is suitable in capturing the trends of liquidity pressures response pattern within institutions across time. the timeframe chosen covers the macroeconomic changes (e.g., oil price volatility, covid-19 disruptions), regulatory changes (e.g., basel iii implementation), dynamic monetary policy changes, which may affect the liquidity management of financial institutions. the design permits the study of cause-effect because it is possible to analyze historical patterns of data and model the cause-effect using statistics. data sources and collection three major sources of secondary data which are publicly available are utilized in the study. financial development indicators were based on the world bank global financial development database that offers crosscountry standardized financial indicators, such as liquidity and credit allocation indicators. this has been used to acquire institution-specific liquidity indicators and financial stability information such as lcr, layouts of pa ge 54 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 50-61, 2025 assets and liabilities and the availability of short-term funds. second, more macroprudential indicators and measures of financial stability at country terms were obtained using imf database. the collected data covered with the range of 14 years (2011 2024) and represent a thorough picture of the shifts in liquidity risk and institutional performance. the institutions whose data were available continuously throughout at least 10 years were included with the single exception of the universities whose data was available only quarterly or yearly; in these cases, only the data with consistent information on a quarterly or annual basis was considered. attention was directed at nbfis, as they were relatively vulnerable to funding shocks and attracted relatively little regulatory attention in comparison to commercial banks. all the financial indicators were gathered in time-series form and adjusted as needed to inflation and currency changes. where data gaps were experienced, proxy measures like ratio between liquid assets and short-term liabilities or interest expense to total liabilities, were employed as in established empirical convention. variables and operational definitions business discontinuity is the dependent variable in the study; it is operationalized as the observable consequences (including asset shrinkage, non-performing loans (npls) outburst or pausing of lending by financial institutions. all these factors point to instability of the institution and are definite with the meaning of financial distress as defined by the world bank and imf. on the contrary, amongst the independent variables are liquidity risk indicators such as the lcr, liquid assets as a proportion of total assets, shortterm funding ratio and the interest expense on liabilities. these measures are used to describe various aspects of the liquidity health of an institution i.e. its capacity to fulfil short-term obligations, its dependence on funding sources that are potentially highly volatile, and the liquidity costs. by analyzing these variables through time, the research evaluates the possibility of trailing signs of loss before the signs of institutional decline and discontinuity occur due to deteriorating conditions of liquidity. data analysis descriptive and inferential statistics were concretely applied to the data analysis. at the first step, descriptive analysis of mean, trend, variance of the liquidity indicators and the discontinuity proxies of business were used to explore the business during the selected period. this aided in construction of historical baselines and determining the time of higher risk. second, the correlation analysis was employed to study the interrelations between the liquidity risk-based indicators and the variables characterizing the institutional performance. this gave an insight into the possible linear relationships as well as the regression modeling process. third, the liquidity indicators relative predictive power on the outcomes of business discontinuity was ascertained through the ordinary least squares (ols) multiple regression analysis. the macroeconomic variables included in the regression model to account the effects of institutional liquidity were gdp growth rate and inflation. ethical considerations all the data is publicly accessed and this study solely used secondary data and therefore no personal, sensitive or confidential information was employed. all sources are sufficiently acknowledged, and data was gathered in the way that follows the rules of the corresponding databases. there was no need for institutional review board (irb) approval because there were no human subjects involved or proprietary data. results and discussion descriptive statistics from 2011 to 2024, nbfi indicators show stronger liquidity, balance sheet expansion, and improved credit ratings, alongside persistent credit risk shown in table 1. the average liquidity coverage ratio (1.152) rose from 0.804 to 1.493, and liquid assets increased from 10.28% to 39.79% of total assets, reflecting enhanced resilience. total assets grew from 507 billion to 1,970 billion (mean: 1,218 billion), while credit ratings improved from 70 to 90 table 1: descriptives st at is tic ye ar lc r li qu id a ss et s (% ) fu nd in g r at io in te re st c os t ( % ) n pl r at io to ta l a ss et s g d p g ro w th (% ) in fla tio n r at e (% ) po lic y r at e (% ) m 2 su pp ly (b ill io n) c re di t r at in g mean 2017.5 1.152 26.705 0.832 3.095 5.594 1218.00 2.792 1.943 2.814 1887.27 82.14 std 4.046 0.200 8.445 0.213 1.148 2.426 429.03 0.833 0.452 1.264 242.06 7.98 min 2011 0.804 10.276 0.505 1.066 2.040 506.95 1.551 1.349 1.186 1427.51 70 25% 2014 0.998 19.808 0.635 2.025 3.196 861.28 1.890 1.499 1.488 1649.37 75 50% 2017.5 1.157 27.469 0.828 3.146 5.348 1239.82 2.999 1.838 2.871 1904.17 85 75% 2021 1.331 34.076 1.011 4.036 7.459 1590.51 3.581 2.286 3.737 2127.46 90 max 2024 1.493 39.789 1.191 4.999 9.973 1970.05 3.925 2.963 4.863 2175.67 90 (mean: 82.14). however, the funding ratio (mean: 0.832) and npl ratio (mean: 5.59%, range: 2.04%–9.97%) indicate variability in funding stability and ongoing asset quality concerns. macroeconomic conditions remained pa ge 55 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 50-61, 2025 stable, with average gdp growth at 2.79%, inflation at 1.94%, and policy rates at 2.81%, while m2 money supply steadily expanded to 2,176 billion. correlation matrix figure 1 displays the relationships between different financial metrics. the matrix uses a color gradient ranging from dark red (indicating a strong positive correlation of 1.0) to dark blue (indicating a strong negative correlation of -1.0), with values closer to zero shown in lighter shades. key observations include a perfect positive correlation (1.0) between certain pairs such as year and itself, liquid assets, percent and liquidity funding ratio, and npl ratio and total assets, suggesting these variables move in lockstep. notably, there is a strong positive correlation (0.56) between year and money supply m2 billion, indicating a potential trend over time. conversely, significant negative correlations include -0.44 between interest rate policy and money supply m2 billion, and -0.42 between inflation rate, percent and credit rating score, highlighting inverse relationships. the matrix also reveals moderate correlations, such as 0.37 between year and lcr percent, and -0.31 between interest rate policy and gdp growth, percent, suggesting weaker but still notable associations. likewise, figure 2 illustrates the correlation coefficients between various predictors and the non-performing loan (npl) ratio. the x-axis represents the correlation coefficient ranging from -0.100 to 0.100, while the y-axis lists the predictors. inflation rate, percent shows the strongest positive correlation with the npl ratio, exceeding 0.075. interest cost, percent follows with a notable positive correlation, slightly below 0.075. other predictors like gdp growth, percent, total assets, and money supply m2 billion exhibit weaker positive correlations, all below 0.050. conversely, predictors such as liquid assets, percent, credit rating score, lcr, funding ratio, and interest rate policy show correlations close to zero, indicating minimal linear relationship with the npl ratio. the variance inflation factor (vif) analysis confirms the absence of problematic multicollinearity among the variables retained in the regression model for nbfis as shown in table 2. all vif values are well below the threshold of 5, indicating that each predictor offers unique explanatory power without being excessively correlated with the others. the highest vif is observed for inflation rate (%) (1.835), which remains far below critical levels, suggesting that macroeconomic conditions are measured independently of the liquidity and funding variables. liquidity-related measures such as lcr, liquid assets (%), and funding ratio all have vifs close to or slightly above 1, reflecting minimal collinearity. this ensures that the estimated coefficients in the regression are stable, reliable, and interpretable for assessing the impact of funding liquidity risk on business discontinuity in nbfi. figure 1: correlation matrix pa ge 56 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 50-61, 2025 figure 2: correlation of predictors with npl ratio table 2: vif table – multicollinearity check feature vif const 287.375 lcr 1.210 liquid assets (%) 1.325 funding ratio 1.280 interest cost (%) 1.410 inflation rate (%) 1.835 credit rating score 1.520 interest rate (policy) 1.620 gdp growth (%) 1.390 regression model tests the regression results reveal that several key liquidity risks and macroeconomic variables significantly influence business discontinuity in nbfi. the lcr (β = –1.185, p = 0.012), liquid assets (%) (β = –0.042, p = 0.009), and funding ratio (β = –1.050, p = 0.022) all have significant negative coefficients, indicating that higher liquidity buffers and stronger funding positions are associated with a lower likelihood of business discontinuity as indicated in table 3. interest cost (%) shows a positive and significant effect (β = 0.305, p = 0.016), suggesting that higher funding costs increase discontinuity risk. table 3: regression model with significant predictors for nbfis variable coefficient (β) std. error t-value p-value 95% ci lower 95% ci upper intercept (const) 6.9800 2.950 2.367 0.020 1.168 12.792 lcr -1.1850 0.468 -2.530 0.012 -2.104 -0.266 liquid_assets_percent -0.0420 0.016 -2.625 0.009 -0.074 -0.010 funding_ratio -1.0500 0.452 -2.322 0.022 -1.940 -0.160 interest_cost_percent 0.3050 0.125 2.440 0.016 0.058 0.552 inflation_rate_percent 1.0800 0.385 2.805 0.005 0.320 1.840 credit_rating_score -0.0480 0.020 -2.400 0.018 -0.088 -0.008 interest_rate_policy -0.1450 0.088 -1.648 0.101 -0.318 0.028 gdp_growth_percent 0.1900 0.165 1.152 0.250 -0.133 0.513 pa ge 57 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 50-61, 2025 similarly, inflation rate (%) (β = 1.080, p = 0.005) exerts a significant positive influence, reflecting the vulnerability of nbfis to macroeconomic inflationary pressures. credit rating score also emerges as significant (β = –0.048, p = 0.018), implying that institutions with better credit ratings are less likely to face business discontinuity. while interest rate (policy) and gdp growth (%) are not statistically significant in this model, their directions indicate potential macroeconomic effects worth monitoring. model diagnostic the model demonstrates a strong fit for explaining business discontinuity among nbfi, with an r-squared of 0.482 and an adjusted r-squared of 0.451, indicating substantial explanatory power. the f-statistic (15.62, p < 0.001) confirms overall model significance, while a durbinwatson value of 1.940 suggests no serious autocorrelation. low aic and bic values reflect a good balance between fit and complexity, and the condition number (39,200), supported by earlier vif results, indicates no problematic table 4: model diagnostic test metric value r-squared 0.482 adjusted r-squared 0.451 f-statistic 15.62 prob (f-statistic) 0.000 observations (n) 140 aic 512.4 bic 540.7 durbin-watson 1.940 condition number 39,200 multicollinearity shown in table 4. likewsie, figrue 3 qq plot that compares the ordered residuals of a dataset against the theoretical quantiles of a normal distribution. the x-axis represents the theoretical quantiles, ranging from approximately -2 to 2, while the y-axis represents the ordered values, ranging from about -6 to 6. a red diagonal line indicates where the points would lie if the residuals perfectly followed a normal distribution. the blue points, representing the actual ordered residuals, generally follow the red line, suggesting that the residuals are approximately normally distributed. however, there are slight deviations, particularly at the extremes, where the points deviate from the line, indicating potential minor departures from normality, such as heavier tails or slight skewness. figure 3: qq plot discussion the results indicate that increased liquidity strength, as measured by the lcr, liquid assets (%) and funding ratio, is an important factor in minimizing the risks of discontinuity of the business among financial institutions. the result holds true to the liquidity preference theory that institutions in time of uncertainty are concerned with liquidity to provide protection against uncertainties pa ge 58 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 50-61, 2025 of obligations (bonizzi & kaltenbrunner, 2021; brady, 2024). the sampled institutions had more liquidity buffers which ensured that it was easier to absorb the short-term shocks without having to sell their assets involuntarily or borrowing at high rates due to an emergency liquidity need. this is in concurrence with the findings of the (barbier-gauchard et al., 2021) that sound liquidity positions enhanced the resilience of banks to the eurozone crisis. on the other hand, weaker liquidity covered institutions were under a higher strain of operation, which substantiates the hypothesis of liquidity spiral (mishra et al., 2021). the findings also bear the theory of anticipated income, which advocates the match of the obligations to expect future cash flow (tolulope, 2021). increased levels of funding ratios in this research mean good balanced liabilities and potential revenues results with risks of rolling reduced. the notable effect of interest cost, however, makes it apparent that there are some institutions who remain dependent on short term and more expensive sources of funds going against the theory of sustainable cash flow matching. this is in line with (karim et al., 2021) who determined that south asian banks that had inconsistent loan repayment schedules and their sources of funding were more likely to experience a liquidity crisis. interest cost (%) has a positive and significant relation to discontinuity risk that identifies one of the main pressure points. increase in the cost of funds can also cause an erosion of confidence by shrinking margins, reducing lending capacity as (atichasari et al., 2023) claim. this conclusion is consistent with evidence provided by imf of emerging economies, where the heavy cost of funding and limited sources of funding, were usual precursor to institutional distress (kaplan & shim, 2024). the point is that even liquidity resilience is not purely an asset buffer dimension but a low-cost, diversified funding strategies aspect. another important destabilizing factor came in the form of inflation. in the perspectives of the liquidity preference theory, high inflation will diminish the actual value of liquid assets and might cause hoarding of instant liquidity at early periods or an insufficient keeping up of reserves (alaeddini et al., 2023). this resembles the findings of (bhamra et al., 2023) that the positive effect of an inflationary shock on the risk of default can be attributed to the fact that real returns and the ability of investors to trust the securities are weakened. similarly, (fang et al., 2025) determined that inflation drains capital adequacy and market accessibility, particularly in the economy that does not have strong hedging mechanisms. in addition, the defensive effect of credit rating score is also noteworthy, which strengthens both theoretical orientations. institutions of those which are rated higher probably share characteristics of more predictable cash flows, lower costs on funding and greater market confidence, which is consistent with the anticipated income theory that both considers stable inflows and liquidity preference theory, which states that precautionary liquidity reserves are necessary (alhassan & islam, 2021). empirical evidence produced by (wu et al., 2023) supports the findings depicting that higher ratings minimize the contagion risk and increase access to the markets in case of stress. importantly, these findings support theories in general, but at the same point as areas of gap. the liquidity preference theory has been used to explain the usefulness of large buffers in the market, but it is less suited in solving the opportunity cost of having too many idle assets where growth or profitability is constrained because of idle assets. similarly, the anticipated income theory provides a good basis to arrange funding alignment, but it can be inadequate in dealing with macroeconomic shockse.g. inflation or an increase in interest rates which can suddenly change income flows and the costs of funding. this evidence indicates that driving forces in contemporary financial systems require manipulation of the theoretical prescriptions to consider the association of volatile capital markets, the regulatory limitations, as well as technological improvements in the market of liquidity surveillance. overall, the study supports the predominance of the literature that attributed liquidity buffers and states that cost management and macroeconomic stability are also crucial aspects to prevent discontinuity. implications of findings the combination of liquidity preference theory and anticipated income theory with the empirical results is associated with several policy, managerial, and strategic implications. first, the facts that higher lcr, liquid assets, and funding ratios minimize discontinuity risk are consistent with the liquidity preference theory of demand which calls on precautionary reserves. it is thus important that regulators do not just ensure that strong standards of liquidity buffers are maintained by all financial institutions but that these reserves are pro-actively stressed in varied macroeconomic and market environments. basel iii standards are also a valid baseline, but such standards need to be calibrated according to institutional size, funding arrangements and concept of regional markets. second, the anticipated income theory highlights the relevance of matching funding maturities to predictable revenues to ensure that the stress is avoided in refinancing. the fact that greater funding cost increases discontinuity risk indicates that many institutions continue to depend more on short term or high interest borrowing which is a mismatch that goes directly against this theoretical advice. this means that financial managers must focus on liability structures that contain the roll over risk and structure favorable funding rates in stable quarters. third, this is because the destabilizing effect of inflation demonstrates the need to have macroeconomic coordination. monetary policy based on price stability should also be accompanied by macroprudential actions that are used to prevent the erosion of liquidity under the influence of inflationary brushes. lastly, the safeguarding feature of high credit scores implies that governance, transparency and market pa ge 59 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 50-61, 2025 credibility are also paramount. those institutions with relatively predictable cash flows and sensible funding policies are better placed to absorb liquidity shocks. such indicators can help investors better gauge institutional resilience and policymakers come up with interventions that drive governance reforms on a rewardingly liquidity compliance basis. the use of quantitative secondary data in this study limits the study to the extent that it lacks the qualitative aspect behind the decision of management on liquidity measures as well as the institutional culture, real time crisis management, which may affect the dependent variable. the narrowness of the list of liquidity and macroeconomic indicators followed implies that other potentially valid variables, including exchange rate volatility, geopolitical instability or interdependency of sectors, were not studied. although the longitudinal method has been valuable in trends, it fails to show micro level data on the operations that provide better causal explanations. moreover, the conclusions are based on the financial sector trends that have been identified in a defined market structure and although the underlying dynamics are theoretically universal, institutional and regulatory variations across countries have the potential of impacting on their applicability. in this research study, it is proposed that regulators need to make sure that the liquidity oversight regulations, such as the lcr and nsfr standards, are proportionate to all financial institutions. institutions need to be open to the real-time liquidity monitoring systems, predictive analytics, and ai driven early warning tools. the resilience can be increased through diversification of funding sources and discovery of interest expenditures as well as credit ranks. inflation or high rates environments are likely to encounter unintended tightening of liquidity to any adjustments of monetary policy, and this is to be fixed through coordination with monetary and macroprudential policies. similarly, further study ought to incorporate mixed-method designs, pertaining to quantitative modeling of liquidity management with qualitative interviews to ascertain aspects of governance and behavior in liquidity management. this would be worth investigating through cross-country comparative studies to understand what difference the different regulatory regimes and market structures make in resilience. newer initiatives like liquidity products provided by fintech, settlement using blockchain, and prediction modeling tools utilizing artificial intelligence should be examined further in terms of how they can contribute to decreasing funding liquidity risk. conclusion the empirical evidence in this study supports the idea that high credit ratings, cost-effective diversified funding structure, and good liquidity buffers minimize the occurrence of business discontinuation in the financial industry significantly. concurrently, increased funding and inflation costs are the major risks to stability, which emphasizes the relationship between institutional strategies, and macro economies. the inclusion of the theories of the liquidity preference and the anticipated income theory into the study does not only confirm the validity of these theoretical models but it also demonstrates their practical boundaries showing that classical theories of liquidity should be adapted to the new reality of the financial world. a combination of regulatory, governing and technological advancement can facilitate 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(2021). banks’ maturity mismatch, financial stability, and macroeconomic dynamics. economic research-ekonomska istraživanja, 34(1), 3038-3063. pa ge 1 pa ge 72 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) challenges and coping strategies of out-of-field araling panlipunan teachers: basis for continuing professional development course rostine jean bunda1* volume 4 issue 2, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i2.4931 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: march 02, 2025 accepted: april 08, 2025 published: june 04, 2025 the outdated background of the teachers handling araling panlipunan poses problems that internalize and aggravate learning outcomes and the education system. subject mastery, effective teaching and student interest are some areas lacking for most unqualified teachers. the purpose of this study was to determine how out-of-field araling panlipunan teachers out of these difficulties and what strategies they used to cope. a qualitative phenomenological approach was chosen and data were collected from ten teachers who were teaching outside their specialization from secondary schools in lutayan district 1 and 2 in the division of sultan kudarat. through insufficient content knowledge subject mastery, a lack of sufficient appropriate pedagogy, professional conflict and role construction curriculum interface and resource insufficiency were all gaps thoroughly analyzed. these gaps were addressed through self-directed learning,instructional research,team work and practice teaching, which resilience accompanied with technology helps. with all barriers facing educators, they personally saw value in transforming their teaching practices resulting in them becoming more devoted to teaching, fostering strong emotional relationships with students, and broadening the scope of education towards facilitating learners from all backgrounds. based on the findings, an enhanced pedagogical approach professional development course was designed to provide comprehensive support for out-of-field teachers. teachers employed selfdirected learning, research, collaboration, adaptive instruction, resilience, and technological integration to address these difficulties. despite these challenges, teachers gained valuable professional insights, including personal transformation, continuous learning, enhanced student connections, and a stronger commitment to inclusive and accessible education. based on these findings, a professional development course was designed to equip out-offield teachers with enhanced pedagogical approaches, curriculum adaptation strategies, and role adjustment techniques to improve instructional effectiveness. this study underscores the importance of structured training, institutional support, and capacity-building programs in addressing the needs of out-of-field teachers and ensuring quality education. keywords araling panlipunan, challenges, coping strategies, out-of-field 1 antong integrated school, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: rostinejeandeasis@gmail.com introduction out-of-field teaching remains a persistent challenge in the education sector, particularly when teachers are assigned subjects outside their specialization. in the context of araling panlipunan, this issue can significantly affect students’ academic performance and the overall quality of instruction. teachers without formal qualifications or subject expertise often face difficulties in delivering complex content, fostering student engagement, and facilitating meaningful learning experiences. these limitations can lead to learning gaps, hinder academic development, and compromise the goals of the k–12 curriculum in the philippines (katigba & andal, 2023). internationally, similar challenges have been observed. in countries such as the united states and britain, educators without proper qualifications in social studies may struggle to address historical and societal complexities, limiting students’ critical thinking and analytical skills (adam et al., 2018). in ghana, diverse educational backgrounds among teachers exacerbate the prevalence of out-of-field teaching in social studies, leading to challenges in concept mastery and classroom engagement (abudulai, 2020). literature review out-of-field teachers are also challenged while teaching beyond their field. a study by arendain and limpot (2022) listed out-of-field teachers’ experiences, such as ensuring that they review the topic before teaching it, where it is hard for teachers to teach a subject they are unfamiliar with. it will take time to study the lesson thoroughly. in connection, a study by asante et al. (2023) highlighted that teachers’ credentials, subject knowledge, proficiency, pedagogical expertise, and willingness play pivotal roles in shaping the success of the classroom experience. research findings underscore the critical importance of teachers possessing deep content knowledge, as highlighted in studies on pedagogical content knowledge (pck). a thorough understanding of the subject enables teachers to effectively impart knowledge and foster critical thinking skills among students (rashid, 2023). despite the importance of pre-designing quality lesson activities, social studies teachers may struggle to develop well-structured lesson plans that effectively guide learning progression (bin-hady & abdulsafi, 2018). nonetheless, lesson planning remains a systematic process that pa ge 73 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 72-84, 2025 teachers use to determine what and how students should know (alanazi, 2019). however, andrews and aydin (2020) highlighted in their review of teacher education programs that students have limited opportunities to develop these essential skills and perspectives. it poses a significant challenge, particularly for social studies teachers, who require a deep understanding of these concepts to effectively engage students in exploring societal issues and promoting civic competence. research on negative emotions, particularly in language learning, has garnered significant attention, focusing on affective responses such as anxiety and shame within foreign language (fl) classrooms (teimouri, 2018). quitoras and abuso (2021) conducted a study on the best practices of higher education institutions (heis) for developing research culture in the philippines, highlighting research capability training as one of the most effective practices). for instance, colomo-magaña et al. (2020) surveyed 123 trainee teachers who participated in a flipped-top classroom model during the 2019/2020 academic year. they found that this flexible approach facilitated students’ learning and enhanced their oral communication skills. materials and methods research design this study utilized a qualitative phenomenological research design, which focuses on understanding individuals’ experiences and the meanings attached to those experiences. this approach aligns with the study’s essence, which aims to explore the challenges and coping strategies of out-of-filed araling panlipunan teachers. by employing the qualitative phenomenological approach, we seek to uncover the intricate layers of how these teachers view and feel about their roles.as aspers and corte (2021) noted, qualitative research is an iterative process that contributes to the scientific community by revealing new insights and distinctions through a closer examination of the phenomenon under study. merriam and tisdell (2016) further emphasize the value of qualitative research in understanding how individuals construct their realities and assign meaning to their experiences, which directly relates to your focus on the perspectives and interpretations of out-of-field teachers. locale of the study the study was conducted in secondary schools located in lutayan districts 1 and 2 within the division of sultan kudarat. lutayan district 1 encompasses one secondary school, antong integrated school, while lutayan district 2 comprises three: lutayan national high school, palavilla integrated school, and sisiman integrated school. participants of the study this study’s participants were 10 out-of-field araling panlipunan teachers from secondary schools in lutayan districts 1 and 2 within the division of sultan kudarat. these teachers were considered the most appropriate respondents because the study focuses on their struggles and coping mechanisms as they teach this subject outside their expertise. by selecting these teachers as participants, the research has gained insights into their experiences and challenges, informing potential interventions and support mechanisms to address the future out-of-field teaching issue. table 1: profile of the participants participant gender degree length of service 1 participant 1 female mba 3 years 2 participant 2 female bsed english 11 years 3 participant 3 female bsed filipino 12 years 4 participant 4 female bsed english 13 years 5 participant 5 female bsed science 6 years 6 participant 6 male bsed mathematics 3 years 7 participant 7 male bsed filipino 11 years 8 participant 8 male beed 14 years 9 participant 9 male bsed english 10 years 10 participant 10 female bsed english 13 years sampling technique this study employed purposive sampling, which was rooted in methodological rigor and alignment with the research objectives. arikunto (2010) explains that purposive sampling is a deliberate approach beyond traditional demographic considerations. instead, it focuses on selecting participants based on specific criteria that serve the study’s purpose. this technique was well-suited for capturing the various experiences of out-of-field araling panlipunan teachers’ challenges and coping strategies. research instruments the primary instrument for data collection in this study was semi-structured interviews. this was chosen to gather rich and in-depth information from participants, allowing exploration of their personal experiences, attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs concerning the topic of interest (dejonckheere et al., 2019). data collection in this descriptive phenomenological study, data gathering pa ge 74 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 72-84, 2025 followed a systematic and rigorous process to explore the meaning of participants’ experiences. figure 1: data collection data analysis method the researcher has used thematic analysis for this study. braun and clarke (2006) stated that thematic analysis emphasizes identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns (themes) within the data. results and discussion presentation of findings this section presents the study’s results. the following presentation explores the lifeworld of non-native educators in executing the education program for indigenous peoples. finding significant statements, developing preliminary themes, locating clustered themes, and finally identifying the emerging themes are all steps in the thematic analysis process. challenges of out-of-field teachers teaching araling panlipunan twelve (12) clustered themes were used to formulate the four (4) emerging themes found after a thorough data analysis and interpretation process.it was revealed that the challenges of out-of-field araling panlipunan teachers included limited content knowledge and subject mastery, insufficient pedagogical and instructional strategies, professional mismatch and role adaptation, and curriculum and resource gaps. table 2: themes on the challenges encountered by out-of-field araling panlipunan teachers emerging theme clustered themes codes limited content knowledge and subject mastery lack of deep/specialized knowledge difficulty with historical details limited familiarity with subject conten “lack of familiarity”, “limited content knowledge” “lack of deep knowledge” insufficient pedagogical and instructional strategies need for extensive research and lesson preparation difficulty adapting teaching methods lack of effective strategies to engage students “need to read and do research,” “lack of strategy,” “extra time and effort.” professional mismatch and role adaptation lack of confidence teaching outside one’s area of specialization difficulty adjusting to new learner profiles role conflict and professional mismatch “lack of confidence,” “first time teaching,” “profession mismatched,” “struggle to transform myself.” curriculum and resource gaps uncertainty about curriculum coverage insufficient teaching materials and guides “i don’t know the coverage,” “insufficient resources,” “the teacher’s guide is insufficient.” emerging theme 1 limited content knowledge and subject masterylimited content knowledge refers to an insufficient understanding of a subject’s fundamental concepts, principles, and facts. this makes it difficult for individuals to explain key ideas clearly, connect related topics, and respond to higher-order thinking questions. this theme is characterized by three (3) clustered themes: a lack of deep/specialized knowledge, difficulty with historical details, and limited familiarity with subject content. this theme is characterized by three (3) clustered themes: a lack of deep/specialized knowledge, difficulty with historical details, and limited familiarity with subject content. out-of-field teachers describe their challenges in teaching araling panlipunan as limited content knowledge and subject mastery when they said: pa ge 75 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 72-84, 2025 “okay, so the challenge that i may encounter in teaching araling panlipunan and social studies is that i have limited familiarity with the topic since i am an out-of-field teacher. social studies is historically based and relies on factual events that happened in the past. it was a challenge, but not a big challenge since we had minor subjects in college that gave us an overview or introduction to social studies, humanities, sociology, philosophy, and political science. these subjects relate to my strand, the humanities and social sciences.” p1 emerging theme 2 insufficient pedagogical and instructional strategies -insufficient pedagogical and instructional strategies refer to ineffective teaching methods and techniques needed to facilitate meaningful learning experiences. this theme is characterized by three (3) clustered themes: the need for extensive research and lesson preparation, difficulty adapting teaching methods, and a lack of effective strategies to engage students. out-of-field teachers describe their challenges in teaching araling panlipunan as having insufficient pedagogical and instructional strategies when they said: “we need to read and do research before entering the classroom... because we cannot teach properly if we have not read thoroughly...” p3 emerging theme 3 professional mismatch and role adaptation-professional mismatch and role adaptation refer to educators’ challenges when their skills, qualifications, or expertise do not align with their assigned teaching roles. this theme is characterized by four (4) clustered themes: lack of confidence, teaching outside one’s area of specialization, difficulty adjusting to new learner profiles, and role conflict and professional mismatch. this theme is characterized by four (4) clustered themes: lack of confidence, teaching outside one’s area of specialization, difficulty adjusting to new learner profiles, and role conflict and professional mismatch. out-of-field teachers describe their challenges in teaching araling panlipunan as a professional mismatch and role adaptation when they say: “first, i would have a very difficult experience teaching araling panlipunan. i also lack confidence because it is my first time teaching araling panlipunan, and it is in grade 10, so it is very hard for me to teach. aside from having this english from the beginning of my career in deped, it is so shocking that i have one unit for araling panlipunan. it has something to do with the content. i think the content of the araling panlipunan is good. uh, unlike in english. so, that is the content.” p4 emerging theme 4 curriculum and resource gaps-curriculum and resource gaps refer to deficiencies in educational programs, materials, and tools that hinder effective teaching and learning. curriculum gaps occur when a curriculum’s content, scope, or sequence does not fully align with learning objectives, student needs, or real-world applications. it can lead to difficulties in achieving desired educational outcomes. this theme is characterized by two (2) clustered themes: uncertainty about curriculum coverage and insufficient teaching materials and guides. this theme is characterized by two (2) clustered themes: uncertainty about curriculum coverage and insufficient teaching materials and guides. out-of-field teachers describe their challenges in teaching araling panlipunan as a professional mismatch and role adaptation when they say: “yes. so, first of all, the most important thing, especially if you are not majoring in social studies, is that you do not know the coverage of social studies. what are they teaching? first grading, second grading, third grading, fourth grading. you also have no idea about the previous grades and the next level of grades. so, that is one of the most important things. and of course, after that, even the resources, what are the most accurate resources? what is the best way to be a good tutor? for example, grade 7. what resources will you use first? k-12 is hard because although there are curricula, the learner’s materials— including the pg and the teacher’s guide—are insufficient and unrelated. it is extremely difficult.”p9 coping strategies employed by out-of-field teachers in araling panlipunan seven (7) emerging themes were derived from eighteen (18) clustered themes following data analysis and interpretation.it was revealed that out-of-field teachers described their coping strategies for teaching araling panlipunan as self-directed learning, research, and resourcefulness; professional collaboration and seeking assistance; adaptive instruction and interactive strategies; acceptance, resilience, and a positive mindset; multimedia and technological integration for engagement; community outreach and problem-solving; and adjusting teaching goals and expectations. table 3: themes on coping strategies of out-of-field teachers in teaching araling panlipunan emerging theme clustered themes codes self-directed learning, research, and resourcefulness reading books, online articles, textbooks, academic articles researching online watching documentaries and educational videos “reading books,” “online articles,” “researching,” “read textbooks, “and “watching educational videos.” pa ge 76 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 72-84, 2025 emerging theme 1 self-directed learning, research, and resourcefulnessself-directed learning, research, and resourcefulness refer to an individual’s ability to acquire knowledge, develop skills, and solve problems independently. selfdirected learning involves setting personal learning goals, identifying resources, and actively engaging in continuous professional or personal development without relying solely on formal instruction. research entails systematically investigating topics, analyzing information, and applying findings to enhance understanding and teaching effectiveness. this theme is characterized by three (3) clustered themes: reading books, online articles, textbooks, and academic articles; researching online; and watching documentaries and educational videos. out-offield teachers describe their coping strategies in teaching araling panlipunan as self-directed learning, research, and resourcefulness when they said: “i navigate these difficulties by reading books, online articles, and artifacts related to my topic to discuss.” p3: “we overcame the difficulties we experienced through reading, researching, and, of course, asking social studies majors for help... ” p1 emerging theme 2 professional collaboration and seeking assistanceprofessional collaboration and seeking assistance refer to educators’ proactive engagement in working with colleagues, mentors, and experts to enhance teaching effectiveness and address classroom challenges. professional collaboration involves sharing best practices, co-developing lesson plans, participating in team teaching, and engaging in professional learning communities to foster continuous growth. seeking assistance means recognizing the need for support and contacting peers, administrators, or experts for guidance, mentorship, or resources. two (2) clustered themes characterize theme 2: asking co-teachers and social studies majors for help, and seeking advice and support from colleagues out-of-field teachers describe their coping strategies in teaching araling panlipunan as professional collaboration and seeking assistance when they said: “...and, of course, asking social studies majors for help...” p3 p4: “maybe, ma’am, in my experience, i am asking one of my co-teachers in araling pandipunan 10, i ask her details, the lesson plan, everything about araling panlipunan, and i make adjustments...” “so, in overcoming my difficulties in teaching araling panlipunan, i have first asked my co-teacher for advice from her and some other araling panlipunan teachers. yes.” p4 “to overcome this, i asked for help from economics teacher...” p6 emerging theme 3 adaptive instruction and interactive strategies-adaptive instruction and interactive strategies refer to teaching approaches that adjust to students’ diverse needs while actively engaging them in learning. adaptive instruction involves modifying teaching methods, content, or assessments based on students’ abilities, learning styles, and progress to ensure personalized and effective learning experiences. it may include differentiated instruction, scaffolding, or technology-driven learning tools. interactive strategies focus on fostering student engagement through active participation, collaboration, and real-world applications. these strategies include discussions, problem-solving activities, group work, handsprofessional collaboration and seeking assistance asking co‐teachers and social studies majors for help seeking advice and support from colleagues “asking social studies majors for help,” “asking my co-teachers”, “asked for advice,” and “asked help from an economics teacher.” adaptive instruction and interactive strategies updating and adjusting teaching skills adapting lessons to students’ capabilities using role-play, inductive methods, dramatization, and real-life examples “update our skills,” “adjust and update,” “assess the children’s capabilities,” “adapt our lessons,” “role-playing,” “inductive methods,” and “real-life situations.” acceptance, resilience, and positive mindset accepting the situation challenging oneself and encouraging self-growth emphasizing flexibility and not giving up “accepting the situation,” “challenging myself,” “encouraging myself,” “being flexible,” and “don’t give up.” multimedia and technological integration for engagement using social studies websites, video presentations, and downloadable lessons incorporating visual aids such as powerpoint presentations, documentaries, and maps “social studies websites,” “video presentations,” “multimedia materials,” “video clips,” “powerpoint presentations,” “visual aids,” “maps” community outreach and problem-solving applying problem-solving skills in real-life contexts home visiting and communicating with families to support students “problem-solving skills”, “home visit,” “communicate with them online,” “give them the support” adjusting teaching goals and expectations modifying expectations and teaching goals adjusting lesson plans and preparation time flexibility in addressing topics and content alignment “adjust my expectations,” “modify my expectations and teaching goals,” “still adjusting,” “divert that lesson,” “biggest adjustment in the time i dedicate.” pa ge 77 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 72-84, 2025 on learning, and digital tools to enhance interaction. three (3) clustered themes characterize theme 3: updating and adjusting teaching skills, adapting lessons to students’ capabilities, and using role-play, inductive methods, dramatization, and real-life examples. out-of-field teachers describe their coping strategies in teaching araling panlipunan as adaptive instruction and interactive strategies when they said: “ah... as teachers, we sometimes use strategies to make our teaching more effective. first, we assess the children’s capabilities and adapt our lessons to match their capacity...” p3 emerging theme 4 acceptance, resilience, and positive mindset-acceptance, resilience, and a positive mindset are key qualities that help individuals navigate challenges and maintain personal and professional growth. theme 4 is characterized by three (3) clustered themes: accepting the situation, challenging oneself and encouraging self-growth, and emphasizing flexibility and not giving up. emerging theme 5 multimedia and technological integration for engagement-multimedia and technological integration for engagement refers to using digital tools, interactive platforms, and multimedia resources to enhance teaching and learning experiences. technological integration extends this by utilizing educational technology, such as learning management systems, interactive whiteboards, gamified learning apps, and virtual simulations, to foster student participation and improve learning outcomes. two (2) clustered themes characterize theme 5: using social studies websites, video presentations, and downloadable lessons, and incorporating visual aids such as powerpoint presentations, documentaries, and maps emerging theme 6 community outreach and problem-solving-community outreach and problem-solving refer to collaborative efforts to build connections between schools and the wider community to address educational and social challenges. together, these practices foster a supportive environment, encourage collective responsibility for education, and create sustainable student and school development initiatives.theme 6 is characterized by two (2) clustered themes: applying problem-solving skills in real-life contexts and home visiting and communicating with families to support students. emerging theme 7 adjusting teaching goals and expectations-adjusting teaching goals and expectations involves modifying instructional objectives, strategies, and performance standards to align with students’ needs, learning progress, and evolving educational contexts. teachers may adjust lesson plans, assessment methods, or instructional approaches to ensure that learning remains meaningful and achievable. theme 7 is characterized by three (3) clustered themes: modifying expectations and teaching goals, adjusting lesson plans and preparation time, and being flexible in addressing topics and content alignment. insights and professional growth derived from teaching challenges of out-of-field araling panlipunan teachers after the data analysis and interpretation, four (4) emerging themes were identified, which were formulated from fourteen (14) clustered themes. it was revealed that personal transformation and continuous learning, enhanced connection with students and commitment to educational values, professional growth, adaptability, enhanced teaching strategies, and commitment to inclusive, empowering, and accessible education were the descriptions of the future self-perceptions of indigenous education programs implementing schools of non-native educators. table 4: insights and professional growth derived from teaching challenges emerging theme clustered themes codes personal transformation and continuous learning resilience and personal growth continuous learning and evolving perspectives increased interest in current events and content “remain focused, believe in ourselves, and stay inspired,” “teaching is about growth, not perfection,” “taught me resilience and adaptability,” “continue to learn,” “developed a greater interest.” enhanced connection with students and commitment to educational values learning from students and their diverse life circumstances establishing deeper connections with students aspiring to be a positive role model and promote patriotism “learn from our students”, “connected me to my students”, “good role model”, “positive outlook on life” professional growth, adaptability, and enhanced teaching strategies gaining insights from experience broadening professional horizons developing adaptive, resourceand studentcentered methods renewed interest in research and self-learning “experience is the best teacher,” “broadened my horizon,” “adaptive, resourceand student-centered,” “develop better problem-solving and self-learning skills,” and “interest in researching and gathering information.” pa ge 78 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 72-84, 2025 emerging theme 1 personal transformation and continuous learningpersonal transformation and continuous learning refer to the ongoing process of self-improvement, skill development, and mindset growth, particularly in professional and educational settings. continuous learning is the commitment to acquiring new knowledge, refining skills, and staying updated with advancements in education, technology, and pedagogy. the theme is characterized by four (4) clustered themes: gaining insights from experience, broadening professional horizons, developing adaptive, resourceand studentcentered methods, and renewed interest in research and self-learning. emerging theme 2 enhanced connection with students and commitment to educational values-enhanced connection with students and commitment to educational values mean fostering strong relationships with learners while upholding core principles promoting meaningful education. commitment to educational values means upholding inclusivity, integrity, lifelong learning, and student-centered teaching. the theme is characterized by four (4) clustered themes: learning from students and their diverse life circumstances, establishing deeper connections with students, aspiring to be a positive role model, and promoting patriotism. emerging theme 3 professional growth, adaptability, and enhanced teaching strategies-professional growth, adaptability, and enhanced teaching strategies refer to an educator’s continuous development, ability to adjust to changing educational demands, and improvement of instructional techniques to optimize student learning. enhanced teaching strategies include refining lesson delivery, integrating innovative methodologies, and using evidencebased practices to improve student engagement and learning outcomes. the theme is characterized by three (3) clustered themes: gaining insights from experience, broadening professional horizons, developing adaptive, resource, and student-centered methods, and renewed interest in research and self-learning. emerging theme 4 commitment to inclusive, empowering, and accessible education-commitment to inclusive, empowering, and accessible education refers to an educator’s dedication to ensuring that all students, regardless of background, ability, or circumstance, have equal opportunities to learn, grow, and succeed. accessible education ensures that teaching materials, resources, and learning environments are designed to be usable by all students, including those with disabilities or other challenges. the theme is characterized by four (4) clustered themes: recognition that “education is for all”; valuing quality education as a tool for empowerment; bridging gaps in resources for marginalized and underserved communities, and promoting community values and citizenship discussions challenges of out-of-field teachers teaching araling panlipunan it was revealed that limited content knowledge and subject mastery, insufficient pedagogical and instructional strategies, professional mismatch and role adaptation, and curriculum and resource gaps were the challenges of outof-field araling panlipunan teachers. limited content knowledge and subject mastery limited content knowledge and subject mastery among educators can significantly impact teaching effectiveness and student learning outcomes. it aligns with the findings of mafa-theledi (2024), who emphasizes that teachers require a deep and flexible understanding of pedagogical content knowledge and subject matter content knowledge to facilitate meaningful learning. a strong grasp of content enables educators to help students create cognitive maps, connect concepts across disciplines, and apply knowledge to real-life contexts. teachers may struggle to implement effective instructional strategies without adequate subject mastery, leading to comprehension and engagement gaps. insufficient pedagogical and instructional strategies insufficient pedagogical and instructional strategies can significantly hinder student engagement and learning outcomes. educators lacking effective teaching methods often struggle to address diverse learning styles, decreasing student motivation and achievement. it is consistent with kyriakides et al. (2021), who highlight that effective teaching practices are universally beneficial, emphasizing the need for educators to adopt dynamic instructional strategies to enhance student learning outcomes. therefore, as the university of iowa (2024) emphasized, well-designed professional development programs enable educators to stay current with educational trends and improve teaching strategies, ultimately boosting student engagement. professional mismatch and role adaptation professional mismatch and role adaptation refer to the commitment to inclusive, empowering, and accessible education recognition that “education is for all” valuing quality education as a tool for empowerment bridging gaps in resources for marginalized and underserved communities promoting community values and citizenship “education is for all,” “the importance of accessible education,” “quality education,” “a tool for empowerment,” and “teach them the value of education.” pa ge 79 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 72-84, 2025 challenges educators face when their skills, qualifications, or experiences do not align with their assigned teaching roles, necessitating adjustments to meet job demands effectively. it agrees with keller-schneider et al. (2016), who explored whether first-career teachers (fct) and second-career teachers (sct) differ in how challenged they feel by typical professional demands associated with teaching. curriculum and resource gaps according to world class learning systems (2024), curriculum gaps often arise due to the misalignment between prescribed educational content and students’ varying learning levels, with studies showing that students in the same grade can have a learning disparity of up to seven years. this discrepancy can result in some students struggling with too advanced content while others disengage due to a lack of challenge. additionally, the growing emphasis on integrating supplementary topics, such as indigenous culture and sustainability, has sparked concerns that core subjects like mathematics and science may receive less focus, potentially exacerbating learning gaps (world class learning systems, 2024; herald sun, 2024). coping strategies employed by out-of-field teachers in araling panlipunan the emerging themes regarding the coping strategies of out-of-field araling panlipunan teachers are self-directed learning, research, and resourcefulness; professional collaboration and seeking assistance; adaptive instruction and interactive strategies; acceptance, resilience, and a positive mindset; multimedia and technological integration for engagement; community outreach and problem-solving; and adjusting teaching goals and expectations. self-directed learning, research, and resourcefulness self-directed learning, research, and resourcefulness are interconnected components that empower individuals to take charge of their educational journeys, fostering autonomy and adaptability in various learning environments. self-directed learning (sdl) involves learners taking the initiative to identify their learning needs, set goals, locate resources, and evaluate their progress. professional collaboration and seeking assistance khasawneh et al. (2023) examined the influence of teacher collaboration within professional learning communities (plcs) and found that such collaboration positively impacts professional growth and student achievement. similarly, research by sonsupap and cojorn (2023) indicates that teachers who participate in collaborative professional development exhibit enhanced competence in designing activities that promote higher-order thinking among students. this collaborative approach enables educators to collectively address challenges and refine their teaching methodologies. adaptive instruction and interactive strategies according to yu et al. (2024), integrating adaptive learning strategies with diverse teaching techniques improves learning-teaching by aligning content with students’ existing knowledge and learning goals. interactive strategies, on the other hand, promote active student participation through group discussions, problem-solving activities, and multimedia integration. zhang et al. (2024) found that multimodal interactive teaching significantly improves student engagement and learning behaviors by creating a stimulating and dynamic classroom atmosphere. these strategies encourage collaboration, critical thinking, and practical application of knowledge, making learning more meaningful and effective (zhang et al., 2024). acceptance, resilience, and positive mindset according to reach out schools (2024), practicing acceptance allows individuals to shift from a victim mentality to a proactive approach, focusing on actionable steps and personal growth rather than dwelling on uncontrollable events. acceptance, resilience, and a positive mindset are essential psychological attributes that enable individuals to navigate challenges effectively and maintain overall well-being. acceptance refers to acknowledging and embracing circumstances beyond one’s control, which can reduce stress and foster a sense of empowerment. multimedia and technological integration for engagement multimedia and technological integration in education involve incorporating digital tools and interactive media to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes. participation and academic achievement. a study by suyono et al. (2024) examined the impact of interactive learning media on students’ science achievements. the research utilized an experimental design, with the experimental group engaging with interactive media while the control group followed traditional methods. findings revealed that students exposed to interactive learning media showed notable enhancements in understanding scientific concepts and overall academic performance. community outreach and problem-solving according to a study published in the journal of community engagement and higher education (2024), students who participated in community outreach projects related to natural hazards and risk management developed stronger communication and teamwork skills while making meaningful contributions to their communities. similarly, the communities that care (ctc) prevention system has demonstrated the impact of structured community engagement in fostering youth development and reducing behavioral problems. research indicates that communities implementing ctc programs experience improved social environments and sustain pa ge 80 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 72-84, 2025 positive outcomes over time (ctc, 2024). these findings highlight the effectiveness of evidence-based community outreach initiatives in promoting long-term community well-being. adjusting teaching goals and expectations darling-hammond et al. (2020) emphasize that flexible, adaptive goal-setting is essential for differentiating instruction and narrowing achievement gaps, as it allows educators to respond to individual learning differences in real-time. adjusting teaching goals and expectations is an ongoing, reflective process that enables educators to tailor instruction to meet diverse student needs effectively. teachers can recalibrate their objectives by continually assessing student progress and integrating formative feedback, ensuring that learning remains challenging and attainable. insights and professional growth derived from teaching challenges of out-of-field araling panlipunan teachersteachers were personal transformation and continuous learning, enhanced connection with students and commitment to educational values, professional growth, adaptability, enhanced teaching strategies, and commitment to inclusive, empowering, and accessible education. personal transformation and continuous learning recent research underscores the transformative impact of education on adults. sukri (2023) emphasizes that lifelong learning is pivotal for personal growth and adaptability, highlighting those educational experiences can lead to significant changes in identity, critical reflection, and emotional intelligence among adult learners. moreover, integrating continuous improvement methodologies within educational settings has fostered sustainable change and personal growth. a toolkit developed by the institute of education sciences (2025) outlines that sustainable change requires time, collective effort, and context-specific adaptations. this approach emphasizes that personal transformation is not an isolated endeavor but is supported by collaborative and iterative learning processes. enhanced connection with students and commitment to educational values according to riley (2023), students who perceive their teachers as supportive and understanding demonstrate higher motivation, engagement, and academic achievement. commitment to educational values, including integrity, respect, and social responsibility, shapes a positive learning atmosphere. blogs.glowscotland.org.uk (2023) highlights that educators who uphold these values create equitable and inclusive classrooms, promoting student well-being and academic perseverance. moreover, lifelong learning and professional commitment among teachers serve as powerful examples for students, reinforcing the importance of continuous personal and intellectual growth (teachhub, 2023). professional growth, adaptability, and enhanced teaching strategies professional growth, adaptability, and the enhancement of teaching strategies are critical for educators to remain effective in an evolving educational landscape. a study by al-fadhli (2023) emphasized that university educators who engage in continuous learning experience greater professional growth and improved instructional effectiveness. professional growth, adaptability, and the enhancement of teaching strategies are critical for educators to remain effective in an evolving educational landscape. lifelong learning plays a crucial role in professional development, as self-directed learning enables educators to refine their teaching practices and stay updated with educational advancements commitment to inclusive recent research underscores the multifaceted benefits of inclusive education. a study by jardinez and natividad (2023) highlights that integrating students with disabilities into mainstream classrooms fosters empathy and understanding among all students, contributing to a more compassionate and cohesive learning community. similarly, chaudhry et al (2024) emphasize that inclusive practices enhance social interactions and academic achievements for students with disabilities while promoting a culture of acceptance and mutual respect within the classroom. empowering and accessible education empowering and accessible education are essential in creating equitable learning environments that support all students, regardless of their backgrounds or abilities. according to a study by tntp and america succeeds (2023), modern education should prioritize adaptive, future-proof competencies rather than static technical skills. ensuring accessibility in education is equally crucial, particularly for students with disabilities. the national center on accessible educational materials (aem center) works with states and districts to develop systems that provide accessible materials and technologies, ensuring all learners have equal access to educational resources (cast, 2023). additionally, artificial intelligence (ai) presents significant opportunities for enhancing accessibility. a study by chen et al. (2024) highlights how ai-driven adaptive learning systems and natural language processing technologies can bridge educational gaps, particularly in underserved communities, promoting educational equity. professional development course based on the study’s findings, the proposed professional development course addresses key challenges educators face in enhancing their subject mastery, adapting to professional mismatches, and improving pedagogical strategies. this comprehensive training program pa ge 81 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 72-84, 2025 strengthens teachers’ competencies and bridges gaps in curriculum, instructional strategies, and resource provisions. strengthening pedagogical approaches and content knowledge to improve social studies subject mastery this module enhances educators’ understanding of social studies content while equipping them with effective pedagogical approaches. research suggests that teachers with a strong foundation in subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge can better facilitate student learning and critical thinking (darling-hammond et al., 2023).this segment will include workshops on historical analysis, geographical reasoning, and interdisciplinary connections, ensuring teachers deliver engaging and accurate instruction. bridging the gap: innovative approaches for solving gaps in curriculum and resource provisions one major challenge in education is insufficient curriculum materials and resources. this module will provide teachers with innovative solutions for addressing these gaps, such as integrating technology, utilizing open educational resources, and designing adaptive instructional materials (zhang & li, 2023). teachers will learn to develop resourceful strategies, collaborate with peers on shared materials, and implement studentcentered learning techniques to maximize available resources effectively. embracing role adaptation: strategies for teachers facing professional mismatch many educators encounter professional mismatches when assigned to teach subjects outside their expertise. this module aims to equip teachers with adaptive strategies to handle these challenges effectively. research by brown and white (2024) highlights the importance of professional flexibility, ongoing learning, and mentorship in overcoming role mismatches. the training will include mentorship programs, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and professional resilience techniques to help teachers navigate and succeed in new instructional roles. conclusions the findings suggest that out-of-field araling panlipunan teachers face significant challenges related to limited content knowledge, insufficient instructional strategies, professional mismatch, and curriculum and resource gaps, all impacting their teaching effectiveness. however, despite these difficulties, they demonstrate resilience and adaptability through various coping mechanisms, such as self-directed learning, collaboration with colleagues, and integrating technology and interactive strategies. their ability to seek assistance, adjust teaching goals, and engage in community problem-solving highlights their commitment to overcoming instructional limitations. moreover, their experiences in teaching outside their field contribute to personal and professional growth, fostering adaptability, stronger instructional practices, and deeper connections with students. these challenges catalyze continuous learning and a strengthened commitment to inclusive and accessible education. recognizing the need for structured support, a professional development course was designed to empower teachers with the necessary knowledge, skills, and adaptability to navigate their roles more effectively. by focusing on pedagogical enhancement, curriculum alignment, instructional refinement, and role adaptation, this initiative aims to equip teachers with strategies to improve their overall instructional effectiveness and ensure better student learning outcomes. references abid, t., zahid, g., shahid, n., & bukhari, m. 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(2022). the light and dark sides of student engagement: profiles and their association with perceived autonomy support. behavioral sciences, 12(11), 408. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12110408 pa ge 1 pa ge 74 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) enhancing conceptual understanding in geometry through journal writing: a case from one philippine secondary school hazel grace c. arban1, iza mary p. arellano1, karen a. gestosani1, arlyn j. sanot1, ernie c. cerado1* volume 4 issue 3, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i3.5915 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: august 12, 2025 accepted: september 15, 2025 published: november 08, 2025 traditional assessment practices in mathematics often stress procedural recall over conceptual understanding, limiting students’ opportunities for reflective engagement with abstract ideas. reacting to this concern, the present study examined the effectiveness of journal writing as an alternative assessment tool for promoting students’ understanding of geometry concepts. anchored on constructivist and metacognitive learning perspectives, a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was employed with two intact grade 10 classes from a public secondary school in south cotabato, philippines. the experimental group utilized journal writing to record reasoning processes, reflections, and conceptual insights, while the control group was assessed using conventional paper-and-pencil tests. data were gathered through validated pretests and posttests as well as open-ended questionnaires. quantitative results indicated that the experimental group got significantly higher mean gain scores than the control group, showing the positive impact of journal writing on students’ conceptual growth. thematic analysis of qualitative responses further disclosed that journal writing improved learners’ comprehension of geometric principles, sustained memory retention, and promoted reflective thinking. taken together, these findings present empirical proof that journal writing constitutes a meaningful mode of alternative assessment, augmenting traditional measures and encouraging deeper engagement in mathematics classrooms. keywords alternative assessment, conceptual understanding, journal writing, mathematics learning, quasi-experiment 1 sultan kudarat state university, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: erniecerado@sksu.edu.ph introduction assessment has long been acknowledged as a cornerstone of education, forming not only how student learning is evaluated but also how instruction is designed and delivered. globally, however, assessment practices have often been critiqued for emphasizing standardized tests, procedural recall, and rote memorization at the expense of conceptual understanding and higher-order thinking (campbell et al., 1998; adams, 1998). this concern is particularly pressing in mathematics education, where conventional paper-and-pencil tests typically measure factual recall rather than students’ reasoning, reflection, and capacity to solve complex problems. such practices limit opportunities for learners to engage in metacognition and meaning-making, both of which are critical for longterm mathematical proficiency. across asia, education systems have grappled with balancing traditional summative testing and innovative assessment approaches. high-performing systems such as singapore, china, and hong kong have gradually integrated authentic and alternative assessments like journals, portfolios, and project-based tasks into classroom practice to foster deeper learning (koh & luke, 2009; koh et al., 2012; brown & gao, 2015). research in east asian contexts highlights that assessment for learning, when effectively implemented, strengthens reflective thinking, student agency, and conceptual understanding, moving beyond the narrow scope of test-driven accountability (leong et al., 2018). similarly, in vietnam, efforts to promote alternative assessments in higher education have underscored their potential to develop critical and communicative competencies despite systemic challenges (duong, 2020; duyen & nghia, 2024). within southeast asia, the association of southeast asian nations (asean) has increasingly emphasized educational reforms aligned with global competitiveness and sustainable development goals. comparative studies note that while systems in singapore and malaysia have made significant strides toward embedding authentic assessment into pedagogy, many other asean countries remain anchored to conventional, examination-driven practices (wang & lin, 2005; tan, 2018). this unevenness poses risks to equity and inclusivity, particularly when students are denied opportunities to engage in reflective learning experiences that cultivate problem-solving and reasoning. the philippine context shows this wider regional tension. despite curricular reforms under k to 12, assessment in mathematics classrooms remains largely summative and test-based. evidence from the 2022 programme for international student assessment (pisa) indicated that filipino students ranked among the lowest in mathematics, raising concerns about the country’s reliance on evaluation practices that prioritize memorization over understanding (oecd, 2023). recent studies also point to the persistent lack of reflective and processoriented assessments, which deprives learners of chances to articulate reasoning, confront misconceptions, and internalize mathematical concepts (de dios et al., 2023). this challenge is particularly prominent in geometry, a pa ge 75 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 74-81, 2025 domain widely held as difficult due to its abstract nature and reliance on visualization, logical reasoning, and proof (demircioglu & hatip, 2023; jablonski & ludwig, 2023). students often struggle with geometric concepts, and without platforms to document their reasoning, misconceptions remain unaddressed (chiphambo & feza, 2020; martinovic & manizade, 2018). locally, there is limited evidence of systematic integration of alternative assessments such as journal writing in mathematics. while international scholarship proves that reflective writing tasks can enhance mathematical reasoning, metacognitive awareness, and communication (yeo & fan, 2003; mcallister, 2013; powell et al., 2017), such practices remain underexplored in philippine classrooms. this gap stresses the need for empirical studies that investigate how journal writing as an assessment tool may strengthen conceptual understanding of geometry among filipino learners. this study responds to this gap by examining the use of journal writing as an alternative assessment strategy in one philippine secondary school. specifically, it seeks to determine whether journal writing enhances students’ conceptual understanding of geometry by encouraging reflection, error analysis, and meaningmaking. in doing so, it aligns with the united nations sustainable development goal 4 (sdg 4), which calls for inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all (united nations, 2015). by encouraging reflective, process-oriented learning, this research contributes to efforts aimed at equipping learners with the reasoning, analytical, and problem-solving skills required in a knowledge-based society. conceptual framework the conceptual basis of this study is anchored on the notion that assessment should work as both a measure and a means of learning. traditional assessments aim largely on evaluating student performance but often neglect the processes that lead to deeper understanding. by contrast, alternative assessments like journal writing inspire learners to articulate their reasoning, reflect on their errors, and restructure knowledge in ways that raise metacognitive awareness and conceptual growth (martin, 2015; powell et al., 2017; mejares & tan, 2023). journal writing, when utilized in a mathematics classroom, permits students to document not only their answers but also their problem-solving strategies, errors, and insights. this reflective process complements with the constructivist view that learners actively construct knowledge through interaction with tasks and reflection on their experiences. it also reaffirms flavell’s (1979) metacognitive theory, which features the value of monitoring and controlling one’s thinking processes in learning. prior studies in mathematics classrooms have disclosed that writing tasks from reflective journals to proof-based expositions facilitate students to polish their reasoning and improve mathematical communication (yeo & fan, 2003; mcallister, 2013). despite its proven benefits in various contexts, the use of journal writing in secondary geometry classrooms remains underexplored, particularly in the philippine setting. this gap explains the present study, which sets journal writing as an alternative assessment strategy to enhance students’ conceptual understanding of geometry. objective of the study the primary objective of this study is to investigate the impact of journal writing as an alternative assessment tool on the understanding of selected geometry lessons among grade 10 students. specifically, it seeks to answer the following research questions: 1. what is the level of understanding of students in geometry lessons when exposed to journal writing compared with traditional assessments in the pretest and posttest? 2. is there a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of students in the control group? 3. is there a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of students in the experimental group (journal writing)? 4. is there a significant difference between the mean gain scores of students in the control and experimental groups? 5. what are the perceptions of students toward the use of journal writing as an assessment tool in geometry? literature review conceptual understanding has long been regarded a principal goal of mathematics education, distinguishing it from common procedural fluency. it involves understanding the meaning of mathematical ideas, their interrelations, and the ability to apply them in diverse contexts (niemi, 1996; greene & shorter, 2017). in geometry, this element of learning becomes particularly critical as students are presumed not only to memorize formulas but also to visualize, analyze, and logically reason about spatial relationships. research has shown that challenges in geometric learning often stem from weak conceptual foundations, particularly in areas such as proofs and transformations (malatjie & machaba, 2019; mccrone & martin, 2004). to address these issues, scholars have explored innovative approaches including visual media (tundreng, 2025) and dynamic software such as geogebra and geometer’s sketchpad, which have demonstrated potential in deepening students’ reasoning and engagement in geometry (abakah & brijlall, 2024; ames, 2011). however, while technological tools have gained distinction, there is increasing recognition of the role of reflective discourse through language and writing as equally powerful strategies for promoting deeper learning (nachowitz, 2019). writing in mathematics, particularly journal writing, has been viewed as a metacognitive strategy that assists learners to express their reasoning, defy misconceptions, and merge conceptual understanding. studies have consistently cited that written reflection drives students pa ge 76 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 74-81, 2025 to externalize their thought processes, making their reasoning evident both to themselves and to teachers (martin, 2015; stonewater, 2002). classroom journals, for example, have been shown to inspire students to expound concepts in their own words and to relate procedures with underlying ideas (camahalan & young, 2015). synthesis studies such as powell and colleagues (2017) stressed that journaling enables conceptual learning by associating cognitive processes with written expression. furthermore, nachowitz (2019) claimed that writing tasks are mostly effective when they oblige students to justify, explain, or critique mathematical ideas rather than simply describe them. at higher levels of learning, conceptual writing activities have also been noted to influence not just performance but also students’ attitudes toward mathematics (van dyke, malloy, & stallings, 2015), signifying that writing serves both cognitive and affective purposes in mathematics classrooms. empirical proof explicitly relating journal writing and conceptual understanding is likewise conclusive. in singapore, tan and garces-bacsal (2013) confirmed that high-ability students attained higher levels of mathematics performance when they employed reflective journals, while hirschfeld-cotton (2008) underscored that journal writing improves both mathematical communication and conceptual understanding. classic studies such as jurdak and abu zein (1998) also showed improvements in knowledge and attitudes toward mathematics when writing was incorporated into instruction. more recently, barr (2023) confirmed the continuing value of journal writing, mainly when aligned with instructional goals and feedback mechanisms. in the philippine context, ragaabee (2022) cited that grade 11 students’ conceptual understanding in mathematics enhanced significantly when journal writing was instituted, with students themselves stating that the practice aided them simplify concepts and make meaningful links between procedures and ideas. such findings uphold the potential of journal writing as a reflective tool for enhancing learning outcomes across diverse cultural and curricular settings. research on geometry has fed further insight into how reflective and alternative forms of assessment can brace students’ conceptual underpinnings. weldeana and sbhatu (2017), for instance, proved that portfolios of written explanations upgraded conceptual understanding and achievement in geometry among teacher education students, while omar et al. (2018) divulged that peer assessments promoted deeper comprehension beyond procedural mastery. corresponding innovations such as the integration of visual media (tundreng, 2025) and solid geometry learning packages (amarulloh et al., 2025) likewise reflect that conceptual understanding in geometry can be meaningfully enhanced when learners are given chances to articulate reasoning through multiple representations, including writing. these findings collectively support the notion that journal writing in geometry should not be regarded in isolation but as part of a wider pedagogical context that values reflection, representation, and critical discourse. in the philippines, numerous studies have pointed out the continued challenge of developing conceptual understanding in mathematics, particularly geometry. solaiman and bonsalagan (2017) surveyed the van hiele levels of secondary students in lanao del sur and found that many remained at the lower visualization and analysis stages, a judgement that is validated in bautista and valtoribio’s (2016) assessment of the grade 8 geometry teaching guide under the k to 12 curriculum, which showed gaps in responding to students’ developmental readiness. efforts to integrate alternative assessment approaches have generated promising results. lao and divinagracia (2022) cited that a theory-based alternative assessment enriched both metacognitive awareness and performance of grade 8 learners, while bautista (2018) noted the effectiveness of error analysis as a formative assessment tool for improving retention of geometry concepts. more recently, saavedra et al. (2023) proved that contextualized learning materials in analytic geometry upheld satisfactory levels of conceptual understanding among students notwithstanding the challenges of remote learning. the recognition that traditional practices in philippine classrooms often prefer procedural skills over conceptual depth has further urged calls for innovative strategies. cerado (n.d.) noted the scarcity of local literature devoted exclusively to mathematics assessment and pointed to the urgent need for frameworks that balance procedural fluency with conceptual growth. casanova and colleagues (2021) similarly stressed that filipino students’ geometric thinking, particularly on foundational concepts such as triangles, requires significant improvement, while mercado, sy, and ambay (2024) responded with the development of an instructional learning package that enhanced conceptual understanding and engagement in geometry. together, these studies reveal a local context marked by both persistent challenges and creative efforts to address them, underscoring the relevance of reflective and alternative approaches to assessment. overall, the literature asserts that journal writing encourages reflection, communication, and deeper conceptual understanding in mathematics, including geometry. international studies confirm its efficacy across various levels and situations, while local research features the continuing challenges filipino students confront in developing sound conceptual understanding of geometry and the encouraging role of novel assessment practices. yet despite these insights, there remains inadequate systematic proof on the integration of journal writing into philippine secondary geometry classrooms. addressing this literature space, the present study probes how journal writing can be used as a pedagogical tool to improve conceptual understanding in geometry, impacting to both localized knowledge and the broader discourse on writing-to-learn strategies in mathematics education. materials and methods this study employed a quasi-experimental pretest– pa ge 77 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 74-81, 2025 posttest non-equivalent groups design. two intact classes were purposively selected from grade 10 of surallah national high school, south cotabato. each class consisted of 40 students, with one serving as the experimental group and the other as the control group. both groups were taught by the same teacher to minimize instructional bias and guarantee consistency in the delivery of lessons. the research instruments consisted of a 25-item multiplechoice test on selected geometry competencies and an open-ended questionnaire. the test was content-validated by six subject experts and pilot-tested for reliability using the kuder-richardson formula 20 (kr-20), ensuring its appropriateness for measuring student understanding. meanwhile, the questionnaire was designed to obtain students’ perceptions of journal writing as an alternative assessment tool. the procedure started with the administration of a pretest to both groups to establish baseline performance. the experimental group subsequently engaged in journal writing, where students recorded reflections, solutions, and conceptual insights throughout the intervention. in contrast, the control group was assessed using traditional quizzes and paper-based tests. at the end of the intervention, both groups completed a posttest, while the experimental group was also asked to respond to the open-ended questionnaire to provide qualitative data on their experiences. for data analysis, descriptive statistics were used to describe performance levels. paired-sample t-tests compared pretest and posttest scores within groups, while an independent-sample t-test was employed to compare mean gain scores between groups. responses from the open-ended questionnaire were subjected to thematic analysis to identify emerging themes and patterns in students’ perceptions. in carrying out this study, basic ethical principles were duly observed. prior to data collection, informed consent was secured from both students and their guardians, to make sure voluntary participation. anonymity and confidentiality were assured by assigning codes instead of names, and students were also guaranteed that their participation or decision to withdraw at any stage would not affect their academic standing. the study followed to the norm of beneficence by making certain that no harm would result from participation and by providing both groups with equitable learning opportunities throughout the intervention period. results and discussion data in table 1 shows the level of students’ understanding in selected geometry lessons when exposed to journal writing (experimental) and traditional assessments (control) categorized by group during the pretest and posttest. likewise, the gain scores and t-test analysis results within and between groups are reflected. table 1: results of t-test analysis of the students’ level of understanding in the pretest and posttest scores/groups control experimental t-stat p-value pretest mean 8.48 9.88 sd 2.33 2.88 posttest mean 8.65 12.15 sd 2.24 2.62 t-stat 0.436 4.21 p-value 0.665 <0.001* gain scores mean 0.18 2.28 3.118 0.002* sd 1.66 2.94 note. m=mean, sd=standard deviation. *p<.05. students’ levels of understanding pretest results indicated that both the experimental group (m = 9.88, sd = 2.88) and the control group (m = 8.48, sd = 2.33) began at the “beginning” level of understanding. these low scores are expected prior to formal instruction, particularly in subjects widely regarded as difficult. this finding is consistent with chiphambo and feza (2020), who noted that students often hold alternative conceptions and misunderstandings in geometry, mainly concerning definitions and applications of terms. likewise, jablonski and ludwig (2023) pointed out that geometry remains one of the most intricate strands of mathematics given the abstract reasoning it requires. moreover, posttest results revealed that while both groups remained within the “beginning” proficiency, the experimental group (m = 12.15, sd = 2.62) showed a marked improvement compared to the control (m = 8.65, sd = 2.24). the relatively low average scores manifest the broader challenges of teaching and learning geometry, as cited by martinovic and manizade (2018), who claimed that difficulties in assessment usually compound students’ struggles in acquiring deep conceptual understanding. these findings support the conclusion that traditional assessments focused heavily on rote recall do not essentially lead to growth in reasoning or higher-order thinking (campbell et al., 1998). by contrast, alternative assessments like journals may generate space for students to process and reframe knowledge. pretest-posttest comparisons statistical analysis confirmed that the control group pa ge 78 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 74-81, 2025 exhibited no significant difference between pretest and posttest scores, t(39) = 0.436, p > .05, signifying that routine testing failed to move students toward deeper understanding. this lack of progress validates adams’ (1998) warning that conventional assessments in elementary and secondary mathematics commonly reduce geometry learning to procedural exercises wanting of conceptual grounding. in contrast, the experimental group validated significant improvement from pretest to posttest, t(39) = 4.208, p < .05. this confirms yeo and fan (2003), who established that journal writing in mathematics classrooms stimulates reflection and allows students to recreate their reasoning processes. journal entries facilitate students to articulate their thinking and reveal misconceptions for both themselves and their teachers, thereby sustaining flavell’s (1979) metacognitive perspective. comparison of mean gain scores when mean gain scores were compared, the experimental group (m = 2.28) significantly outshined the control group (m = 0.18), t(78) = 3.118, p < .05. this finding corroborates hadzima (2018), who verified how alternative assessments in geometry classes not only improved performance but also endured students’ motivation. also, jaelani and hasbi (2022) emphasized that authentic assessments in geometry, such as reflective writing, promoted not only skill acquisition but also deeper comprehension of properties and uses of shapes. taken together, these results show that journal writing is not merely a recording activity; rather, it works as a cognitive tool that enhances students’ internal dialogue with mathematics. as de villiers (2012) claimed, geometry learning entails dynamic engagement where reasoning is made explicit; this is a target that journal writing serves effectively. students’ perceptions of journal writing qualitative analysis revealed three major perceptions: (1) journal writing clarified and deepened students’ understanding, (2) it encouraged reflection and refinement of problem-solving processes, and (3) it enhanced memory retention of geometry concepts. these perceptions reaffirm findings by weldeana and sbhatu (2017), who stated that portfolios and reflective assessments in geometry enhanced understanding across four domains: skills, properties, uses, and representations. moreover, students’ reflections prove what omar, shahrill, and sajali (2018) observed in their work on peer and alternative assessments: students appreciated opportunities to monitor their learning, which in turn improved their grasp of geometry concepts such as angle properties. journal writing gave learners a sense of ownership of their progress—something traditional tests rarely achieve (ilany & shmueli, 1999). remarkably, these positive perceptions also harmonize with broader reviews of writing in mathematics. powell et al. (2017) synthesized evidence that writing tasks whether journals, proofs, or expository pieces, consistently support deeper mathematical reasoning by forcing students to explain, justify, and connect ideas. mcallister (2013) further demonstrated that written assignments in geometry help students improve proof-writing ability, suggesting that journal writing may scaffold students toward more advanced forms of mathematical communication. generally, the results indicate that journal writing is more than an assessment tool; it is also a learning strategy. it addresses the limitations of traditional assessments (campbell et al., 1998; adams, 1998) by fostering selfassessment, reflection, and critical thinking (yeo & fan, 2003; hadzima, 2018). the improved performance and positive student perceptions observed in this probe affirm the argument of jablonski and ludwig (2023) that reforms in geometry education must include not only new teaching strategies but also more meaningful forms of assessment. conclusion the findings of this study prove that journal writing is an effective alternative assessment strategy that improves students’ conceptual understanding of geometry. compared to traditional paper-and-pencil tests, it offers richer opportunities for reflection, critical thinking, and deeper engagement with mathematical ideas. although students’ proficiency levels remained generally modest, the significant improvement noted in the experimental group stresses the potential of sustained journal writing practices to stimulate higher levels of mastery over time. afar its measurable effects, journal writing revealed value as a tool for bridging gaps in mathematics assessment practices. by inspiring students to verbalize reasoning and engage in metacognitive reflection, it moves assessment beyond rote evaluation toward approaches that help meaningful learning and conceptual growth. these findings uphold the potential of incorporating reflective writing into mathematics classroom as a pathway to advancing both understanding and long-term retention of concepts. references abakah, f., & brijlall, d. 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(2003). using journals to promote reflective thinking in secondary school mathematics: an exploratory study. in n. a. pateman, b. j. dougherty, & j. zilliox (eds.), proceedings of the 27th conference of the international group for the psychology of mathematics education (vol. 4, pp. 403–410). pme. pa ge 1 pa ge 8 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) survey on waste management challenges: a case study ali isa1*, saidu baba2, mallam musa aji2, mohammed bashir ibrahim2, abubakar lawan gajerima1 volume 4 issue 4, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i4.5057 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: april 22, 2025 accepted: may 27, 2025 published: december 10, 2025 waste management is fundamental services that is crucial for the protection of human health and the larger environment before all organs of government and relevant stakeholders. wates management challenges had been a subject of discussion by intellectuals for years, so as to achieve a healthy working environment globally. this study explores on waste management challenges bedevilling maiduguri metropolis and environs. the study employed a survey research design. the study targeted population were individuals situated within maiduguri metropolis in 21 wards. 397 representing (71%) of the total population 56159 was used as sample size. the structured questionnaire was coded and randomly administered to respondents in the language they understood, and the outcomes were analysed using online (kobo toolbox). the results were presented in tables using frequency count and percentage. the outcome of the survey reveals (79%) predominantly male while (21%) were female. the study further depicted a significant proportion of civil servant making the largest group of respondents (54). the findings show (60%) infrastructure challenges, (72%) poor drainages constructions, and (75%) understaffing. the findings also revealed socio-economic and governance factor in waste management where (62%) of respondents identified poverty as a major factor, while (75%) agreed that poor leadership is a significant challenge. the study identified (55%) as lack of education and poor coordination (73%) as contributing factors. the study suggests multifaced approach to address waste management challenges by incorporating capacity building, infrastructure development and community participation. the study recommends capacity building training for waste management staff, structured waste collection points, community participation in decision making, focusing on modern sanitation infrastructure, and ensuring realistic funding. the study findings offer treasured insights for waste management practitioners, community leaders and government at all level seeking for better and improve waste management in maiduguri and similar contexts. keywords maiduguri,sanitation, wash, waste 1 department of water sanitation and hygiene, faculty of physical sciences, university of maiduguri, p.m.b 1069 maiduguri, borno state, nigeria 2 department of geology, faculty of physical sciences, university of maiduguri, p.m.b 1069 maiduguri, borno state, nigeria * corresponding author’s e-mail: isaali38@unimaid.edu.ng introduction waste management is fundamental services that is crucial for the protection of human health and the larger environment. waste management challenges have been a subject of deliberations by researchers for a sustainable health promotion and healthy working communities globally. proper waste management is an intervention that lessens or protects humans from exposure to various types of diseases, ensuring a clean environment and a clear measure that will interrupt disease transformation (ambrus, 2016). generation of waste has drastically increased around the world, having less than 20% of waste recycled every year. advocates around the globe via the sustainable development goal 12 encouraging for changing how we consume, produce, and dispose waste, the significant of driving a sustainable future is on how we dispose of our waste (raphela et al., 2024). proper waste management activities begin with waste generation, categorization, safe collection, treatment, transportation, disposal and recycle (jimme et al., 2019). waste management also includes partnership to innovate new ideas and facilities for a better human and environmental health. this is stalwartly related to the world health organizations concept of health programmes which tries to provide individuals with proper health benefit and help improve the larger public health (who, 2020). the capital city of borno state, maiduguri, has experienced fast urbanization due to displacement instigated by the boko haram insurgency (nkwocha et al., 2020). this has put immense pressure on the city’s limited infrastructure, which including waste management services. the ensuing waste management challenges in maiduguri metropolis can be attributed to several factors (buba et al., 2024). the available waste management infrastructure in maiduguri is inadequate to address the growing population (buba, et al., 2024). these challenges resulted to the accumulation of waste in unauthorized areas, leading to environmental pollution and possible health hazards. majority of maiduguri dwellers are less informed of the importance of proper waste disposal and the consequences of poor waste management in the municipal (mohammed et al., 2022). waste generated by households, industrial premises, schools, hospitals, care homes, prisons, streets, markets, pa ge 9 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 8-16, 2025 abattoirs, public toilets, bus stops, parks, and gardens, known as municipal solid waste, is in a very difficult situation in developing countries (nposwm, 2020). gloomily, this peril (waste management challenges) is increasing day by day, solid waste clog in gutters, streets, high-ways, markets, rivers and public buildings, leading to undiscerning open burning among the communities resulting to poor condition of environment. ezeudu (2020) pointed out that waste generated by 106 million people currently living in nigeria’s cities is about 67,000 tons per day (tpd), and this value is anticipated to surpass 125,000 tpd by 2040. lagos generates 119,320 tons per day, 7,051,800 tons per year, abuja the capital city generates 235 tons per day, 644,018 tons per year, and sokoto generates 383 tons per day, 139, 950 per year as of 2022. maiduguri metropolis and environs daily solids waste generation rose from 390 to 570 tons per day (undp, 2016). according to national bureau of statistics 2021 report the population of maiduguri has dramatically increased from 660,302 in 2006 to 1,493,273 in 2021 (nbs, 2021). the unexpected increase in population of internally displace persons to the capital city and environs is increasing the volume of waste generation and aggravating the smooth addressing of the waste management challenges. the un-evacuated waste is endangering the population and affecting the aesthetic view of maiduguri and environs mainly as a result of the accretion of fabulous volume of waste joined with the amassed pollutants. rainfall and moisture usually aid in the replication of pathogens, contamination of water bodies through leaching and possible outbreak of diseases. these challenges are rendering the populace of maiduguri metropolis to discomfort and fear of possible outbreak. the highlighted waste management challenges have made some part of the municipal look infuriating and clumsy especially the areas with population density. notwithstanding investigation by researchers in the last five years on waste management issues, the waste challenges still continue posturing potential risks to the general public and environmental safety. in view of the above background this study was conducted to address the lingering waste management challenges bedevilling maiduguri metropolis of borno state. the study underscored an in-depth understanding of the challenges of waste management practices. the study further edifies the general public on the ideals of proper waste management. the findings may also serve as a database for researchers in carrying out further investigation. literature review brief concept of waste management challenges nigeria is amongst the african countries with higher population increases in sub-saharan and is currently rassling with enormous socio-economic issues such as unemployment, water supply, sanitation, high poverty rate, electricity short supply, economic recession and underperforming agricultural activities. judging by the measure of economic and political importance, urban sanitation system ranks low among the government’s priorities. this has to do with the substantial increase in volume of waste generation in the sixteenth century when people began to move from rural areas to urban as a result of corruption, unemployment, industrial revolution, poverty, displacement and for a greener posture. the migration of people to cities usually lead to high population increase which directly lead to a surge in the volume of waste generation. the proportion of population in cities and communities increases the indiscriminate littering in open spaces, roads sides and public buildings. these dumps sites in turn become breeding ground for rodents and other vermin, posing significant risks to public health (williams, 2005). the human waste disposal has been one of the most essential parts of civilization activity for years, which is expected to be managed and maintain properly (who, 2020). the history behind human faeces management began right from the use of clay sewage pipes in 4000 before the common era (bce) to indoor plumbing systems and to flush toilets in the modern world. this revolution has been vital in human, environmental health development and economic prosperity (unicef & who, 2020). notwithstanding the efforts being implemented on the challenges of waste management, billions of people’s right to enjoy safe sanitation are hindered (who, 2020). world health organization reported more than half of the world’s population are into sanitations services that mostly leave human waste untreated especially in developing countries. these acts are threatening both human and environmental health safety. on general notes, the effects of poor sanitation and hygiene practices are upsetting the developing countries and public health at large. nevertheless, many developing countries have made positive progress in tackling waste management challenges which help in transforming lives, the environment and the economic development. reports by who shows countries such as india, ethiopia and nepal have drastically reduced open defecation which contributed in the progress towards accessing universal basic sanitation and hygiene (who, 2020). the reports of world health organisation in 2020 highlighted that achieving universal access to safe sanitation will be expensive, and inaction brings even greater costs (who, 2020). neglect to poor waste management will result to recurrent and unbearable increase of healthcare costs, income and waste of educational opportunities, loss of productivity, and increase of environmental pollution (who, 2020). research and innovations in water sanitation and hygiene particularly safe management of sanitation services will avert the costs and generate positive outwardness across communities (unicef, 2022). the socio-economic benefits of waste management have been estimated at about five times the cost of lack of it (unicef, 2020). in other to hasten progress, sanitation is defined pa ge 10 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 8-16, 2025 as an essential public matter that needs all hands-on deck (unicef and who, 2020). government and relevant stakeholders at all level most take this view and accelerate investment in research and innovation on waste management services, to ensure society reaps the benefits rather than just privileged (who, 2020). the speedy generation of municipal solid waste is leading to environmental pollution, health risks, and economic losses (wunubo et al., 2017). the federal government of nigeria has established the national environmental waste management regulations, 2009, to provide a framework for the management of solid waste (federal government of nigeria, 2009). however, the implementation of these regulations has been challenging due to issues associated with institutional capacity, corruption, inadequate funding, and poor public awareness (dauda & osita, 2003). therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive modern waste management approach to address these challenges sustainably. waste management challenges investigations in the field of waste management challenges had shown significant presence of lack of institutional arrangement, insufficient financial resources, absence of bylaws and standards, insufficient information on waste quantity and composition and in appropriate technology as the main challenges in developing countries (ferdoush et al., 2024). waste management challenges often to be serious in developing countries with poor sanitation practices and poor policies implementation (akpabio et al., 2021). this situation may as well result to desertification, shrinking of water sources, poor water supply which is growing the challenges of providing adequate sanitation and hygiene practices by governments and other relevant sanitation service providers in the region (ohwo & agusomu, 2018). a significant disparity exists in the efficiency of municipal solid waste collection between developing and developed countries. research by yadav and samadder (2018) revealed that the efficiency of municipal solid waste collection in developing countries stands at 40%, which is substantially lower than the 90% efficiency rate observed in developed countries. furthermore, a notable difference in priorities exists between developed and developing countries regarding waste management practices. the united nations strongly emphasise on sustainable practices, power generation, and safe disposal of municipal solid wastes. majority of developing countries primarily focus on safe disposal, with less attention to sustainability and power generation (marešová et al., 2023). in developing countries, substantial disproportions in solid waste management exist, often impaired by wealth gaps. a study in south africa revealed, the affluent population indicates greater proficiency in waste disposal against the impoverished, who face the effects of inadequate or poor waste management and government inaction (kalina et al., 2023). in essence, the concerns of developed countries and the united nations for sustainable use, power generation, and safe disposal of municipal solid wastes is to ensure and improve human and environment health so as to avert outbreak (marešová et al., 2023). furthermore, in developing countries, there exists a notable disparity, exemplified by extreme cases of wealth gaps compared to developed nations. asian countries have been more practical in propagating waste management policies to compared to most african countries. particularly, middle east and west africa countries having significant inadequacies in waste management models. an instance in guinea shows, the poor widespread practice of open incineration in landfills or communities poses a serious threat to environment of local populations and to the entire living (onyeabor et al., 2024). this poor sanitation practices highlights gaps in effective local regulatory systems and inadequate waste management infrastructure. generally, numerous factors contribute to the poor implementation of waste management policies. kumar et al. (2024) in a study conducted on challenges of environmental health in wastes management for peri-urban areas revealed improper wastes management poses serious risk to the human and environmental health. kumar further pointed out that less awareness among the general public on proper wastes management practices is exacerbating the problem and suggested citizen education on appropriate wastes disposal habits, efficient municipal wastes management planning, funding, sustained street sweeping and cleaning as a possible and sustainable solution. friedrich and trois (2011) conducted a study in morocco, which depicted, despite the establishment of 25 solid waste disposal and recycling centres, lack of adequate funds and environmentally friendly treatment options has resulted in poorly waste disposal, which is posing a potential threat to groundwater and the environment. this finding indicated a gap on policy implementation especially when it deals with large population. amos et al. (2024) conducted a study which depicted osun state wastes management agency is not performing enough to its responsibility which is leading to delay in collection of wastes. the waste services of the municipal and social control towards it, is majorly executed by micro and macro scale enterprises with limited contribution of the agency that is saddled with such responsibilities. oluwaseun and olayemi, (2023) revealed in a study that the private wastes enterprises was primarily responsible for solid wastes collection using door-to door methods in providing its service. however, jazat et al. (2023) reported that a greater government at all level and stakeholders’ involvement in solid wastes collection in ibadan north, ibadan northwest and ibadan northeast lgas. an assessment conducted by (mukhtar & akan, 2018) in maiduguri metropolis reveals that many people do not observe the mandatory monthly sanitation day slated for the last saturday of every month as expected which is specifically meant to neat their areas. an attitude observed by earlier studies shows that average nigerian views sanitation and management as the duty of either local, pa ge 11 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 8-16, 2025 state or federal government and not the communities that generate them. this and other possible factors are affecting the borno state environmental protection agency bosepa which has resulted to poor evacuation of wastes generated in maiduguri metropolis on daily basis. these gaps indicate the reasons behind huge backlogs of refuse piled up in most neighbourhoods (chiroma et al., 2016). majority of people in developing countries sometimes don’t show sense of concern when it comes to an issue that is of public in nature. many are tied to every public challenge is purely government responsibility and this is happening because the policy makers are not adequately allowing community participation in all angles of a project and in decision making. several literatures revealed proper leadership is a key in attaining every meaningful project where lack of it is next to failure. similarly, corruption signifies the most substantial resistance to policy improvement for less developed countries to which nigeria is inclusive. in nigeria, poor leadership and corruption is affecting many developmental projects, for instance, the organic content of solid wastes in nigeria is around 63.6%, which can be exploited not only to power generation but to provide jobs (temidayo, 2024). notwithstanding the existence of good policies, corruption and misappropriation of fund and resources have significantly hindered the effective implementation of waste management projects sustainably. for instance, nigeria’s 1999 solid waste management policy remains unimplemented due to these challenges (ayodele et al., 2024). in many developing countries lacking a working waste management system, alternative approaches have been employed. in malaysia, an educational approach to foster awareness and understanding of waste classification and management among local communities has been implemented and is yielding good results (moh, 2017). this strategy appreciates the impact of community participation and education in implementation of policies and promoting effective waste management practices. community engagement and accountability may also help in tackling corruption at all levels and in addressing majority of the issues clogging the addressing of wastes management sustainably. thus, a comprehensive investigation of waste management challenges is crucial for shaping the future of global health and advancing effective waste management practices. despite efforts, the collection, transport, storage, treatment, and disposal of waste within maiduguri metropolis and environs are still facing premature operations. materials and methods this study utilised a survey research design. the research design was is considered suitable because it enables recent data collection in surveys. the study area is maiduguri metropolis and environs. maiduguri is situated between latitudes 11o44”42’n and 11o56”6’n and longitudes 13o2”24’e and 13o19”30’e. the population of the study are individuals randomly selected from a total population of 56159 in 21 wards in maiduguri metropolis and environs, borno state, nigeria. the sample size of this study was statistically determined where a sample size of 397 out of 56159 households in maiduguri and environs was used, by substitution using araoye (2004) finite formular. the sample size represents 71% of the population and was considered satisfactory for the study. the study used both primary and secondary data. this was to ensure recent information are observed, recorded and obtained. the questionnaire and interview were administered to general public within the 21 wards using online (kobo toolbox). the questionnaire was read out in the major public language and was randomly administered to the respondents. the study in adherence to ethical standards obtained at a sport verbal consent and uphold confidentiality. the data collected were analysed with online kobotool box by adopting simple descriptive statistics using means of frequency counts, tables and percentage. results and discussion table 1: lga distribution local government area frequency percentage (%) maiduguri metropolitan council 205 52 jere local government area 128 32 mafa local government area 39 10 konduga local government area 25 6 total 397 100 table 2: distribution of wards wards frequency percentage (%) maisandari ward 41 10 bolori ii ward 41 10 old maiduguri ward 35 9 gwange ii ward 33 8 mafoni ward 22 6 ngomari costain/ kaleri ward 23 6 hausari ward 25 6 table 1 represent the local government areas of the study where maiduguri metropolis was having 52% respondents, jere with 32%, mafa having 10% and konduga with the least 6% respondents recorded. pa ge 12 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 8-16, 2025 gamboru ward 20 5 shehuri north ward 21 5 gwange i ward 21 5 gwange iii ward 21 5 shehuri south ward 16 4 limanti ward 16 4 bulabulin ward 11 3 bulumkuttu ward 6 2 ngomari airport ward 8 2 bolori i ward 8 2 lamisula jabamari ward 8 2 bale galtimari ward 8 2 mairi ward 8 2 mashamari 5 1 total 397 100 table 2 highlighted ward distribution of the study where majority were from bolori ii with 10% and 10% respondents in maisandari respectively, old maiduguri and gwange ii with 9% and 8%, mafoni having 6%, ngomari custain/kaleri with 6%, hausari 6%, gamboru 5%, shehuri north, gwange i and gwange with 5% each, shehuri south and limanti 4% each, bulabulin 3%, bulumkutu 2%, ngomari airport, bolori i, lamisulajabamari, bale galtimari and mairi are having 2% and mashamari 1% respondents identified. table 3: gender distribution gender frequency percentage (%) male 315 79 female 82 21 total 397 100 table 4: age status distribution age frequency percentage (%) 26-40 263 66 41-55 83 21 18-25 38 10 56above 13 3 total 397 100 table 5: educational status distribution education frequency percentage (%) students 125 31 secondary education 113 28 nce/diploma education 81 20 degree/hnd education 65 16 master and above 13 3 total 397 100 table 6: employment status distribution employment frequency percentage (%) civil servant 216 54 business 142 36 others 39 10 total 100 3 table 7: responses on waste management challenges challenges frequency percentage (%) drainages open waste dumping and in public buildings, uncompleted buildings, road side etc. 293 74 uncontrol population growth 140 35 inadequate waste collection points 293 74 inadequate staff and engagement of feeble individual 296 75 inadequate of modern waste infrastructures 241 61 poor education system 219 55 poor coordination with stakeholders 289 73 poor economic policies 247 62 lack of proper leadership at all level 296 75 poor drainage structures 287 72 table 3 outcome on the gender distribution of the study, depicting a significant majority of males as 79% and a minority of females as 21% responses. table 4 finding is on the age distribution of study, revealing a significant majority of respondents with 66% within the 26-40 years age bracket, followed by 21% between 41-55 years with 10% between 18-25 years, and 3% aged 56 years and above responses. table 6 is on the employment status of the respondents depicting 54% identified as civil servant, 36% as business and 10% representing other occupations. this shows majority of the respondents where civil servants representing 54%. table 5 results on the educational categorization of the study shows students undergoing studies having 31%, secondary certificate holders having 28%, n.c.e/ diploma holders with 20%, degree/hnd with 16% and masters and above recorded 3% responses. pa ge 13 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 8-16, 2025 table 7 results are on a question “what are the challenges of waste management within your area?” the findings highlighted open waste dumping in drainages, public buildings, uncompleted buildings, road side etc recorded 74% responses. rapid population growth recorded 35% responses. lack of specified waste collection points and containers the respondents view recorded 74%. understaff and engagement of weak hands also recorded75% responses. the result further shows 61% responses on the lack of modern sanitation infrastructure. the outcome further reveals on lack of education recorded 55% and on lack of proper coordination the findings show 73%. poverty is also considered as a major factor 62%. the findings on poor leadership 75% responses and poor drainages construction recorded 72% responses. discussion the study in its quest to address waste management challenges in maiduguri metropolis conversed the findings on demographic which revealed a diverse range of characteristics amongst the respondents. geographical distribution shows, majority of the respondents (52%) were from maiduguri metropolis, with wards spread across various areas, such as bolori ii and maisandari (10% each). the study further shows reasonable disparity in gender distribution, where males having 79% of respondents and females with 21%. the age distribution shows 66% mostly adult population respondents between 26-40 years old. the outcome on educational and employment highlight mixt status of the respondents. the majority (31%) were students undergoing studies and (28%) held secondary certificates, while civil servants having (54%) comprised the largest group of respondents. this has the support of a study conducted by oluwaseun and olayemi (2023) on solid wastes management practices in ibadan indicated majority of the respondents had formal education (61.5%), which means that the respondents are in position to make reasonable contributions that help in conducting this study. similarly, amos et al., (2024) in a study conducted on assessment of municipal solid wastes management system in oshogbo, reveals a larger proportion of respondents (27.3 %) attained an educational level of undergraduate program. additionally, a study conducted by umadhay (2025) revealed academic attainment covers exceptional performance across various field within and beyond the classroom. this study demographic characteristics provide an insight into the waste management challenges and may as well have implications for the findings and generalizability. the study outcome simply depicted knowledgeable people usually have good understanding while dealing with investigations. this has significantly facilitated the study where the majority of the people had at least primary school education. the collective demographic findings have painted a picture of a diverse sample with different characteristics. the dominance of males (79%) over female with 21%, adults (66%), and civil servants (54%) may reflect the study’s focus or societal factors. this finding opened a unique insight into waste management challenges investigations, particularly from a male perspective, while also highlighting the need for female stakeholders’ engagement in decision making processes. literatures have shown that women are often at the forefront bearing the primary responsibility for household waste management, yet, are underrepresented in decision making especially that of waste management processes (unep, 2019). this discrepancy can lead to an ineffective wastes management services, because of the disregarding the needs and perspectives of women and other marginalised group. the spread of wards across different local government areas provides a broad geographical representation, while the diverse educational fulfilment highlights the complexity of the sample. these discoveries can be a guide to future studies and policy interventions aimed at addressing the needs and concerns of the population. engagement of varied community-based initiatives will foster a better outcome in waste management decisionmaking processes, a sense of responsibility and promoting environmental awareness. the study’s results on waste management challenges shows a multitude of issues where one of the most significant challenges is open waste dumping having 74% responses, and lack of well level designated waste collection points and containers with 74% meaning waste is often dumped in drainages, public buildings, uncompleted buildings, and roadside due to poor specification of wastes collection centers which is hindering effective waste management. these poor practices do not only contribute to environmental degradation but also poses potential risks to human and community health. similarly, the study also highlights the role of systemic and infrastructural challenges, 75% responses show the significant challenges of understaffing and the engagement of weak personnel as major challenges, while 61% identified the lack of modern sanitation infrastructure. additionally, poor drainage construction was identified with 72% responses that this challenge also contributes to waste management difficulties. addressing waste management challenges will require a multifaceted approach that includes infrastructure development and capacity building to staff and contributions of all relevant stakeholders. the findings further point to the role of socio-economic and governance factors where 62% responses show poverty as a major factor, while 75% indicated poor leadership as a significant challenge. lack of education 55% and poor coordination 73% were also identified as contributing factors. these findings underscored the need for a comprehensive approach to addressing waste management challenges, one that takes into account the complex interplay of factors contributing to the identified challenges. asia and africa has presented rapid growth of solid waste generation which happens to be serious pa ge 14 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 8-16, 2025 challenges to the existing waste treatment infrastructure over the past decade (adam et al., 2021). the needs for a proper implementation of wastes management policies are now not tomorrow and must be adhered properly to ensure a safer and healthy environment by all. waste management requires effective awareness measures, well-informed and educated mindset contributions, as lack of awareness can exacerbate problems and lead to widespread issues. appropriate coordination involving relevant stakeholders including community participation are essential components of successful waste management projects and will directly impact the general public. furthermore, capacity building to waste management staff through training and retraining is crucial for efficient and effective service delivery, so as to enable updated skills and work within targeted periods. inadequate funding is unequivocally accepted as a thread to any progressive projects. therefore, injecting adequate funding for research and capacity buildings are crucial for the success of any project, including waste management initiatives. unsatisfactory funding can hinder effective waste management achievement, particularly in developing countries with a rapidly population growth having high waste generation increases. moreover, inadequate funding and failing to hold offenders accountable for improper waste disposal can lead to understaffing, placing undue stress on existing personnel, perpetuate a culture of non-compliance, encouraging others to engage in similar behavior and ultimately affecting productivity. in essence, the waste management system in maiduguri and its surrounding areas is characterized by unprofessional practices, relying heavily on vulnerable hands to collect and dispose of waste. this approach poses serious environmental and health risks highlighting the need for a more structured and sustainable waste management system. conclusion in conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into the demographic characteristics and waste management challenges in maiduguri and its environs. the findings reveal a diverse sample with varying characteristics, including a predominantly male population, adults, and civil servants. the study reveals that effective waste management is hindered by multiple challenges, including open waste dumping, lack of designated collection points, understaffing, poor sanitation infrastructure, and poor leadership. the current unprofessional practices of waste management services, which rely on vulnerable individuals, pose significant environmental and health risks, underscoring the need for a more structured and sustainable waste management system. addressing these challenges requires multifaceted approach, incorporating infrastructure development, capacity building, and community participation. furthermore, adequate funding for research and capacity building is crucial. engagement of the community members in decision making processes can foster a sense of responsibility and promote environmental awareness, ultimately contributing to more effective waste management practices. ackowledgements we thank all individuals that contributed in achieving this success. we also acknowledged the contributions of prof. saidu baba and the entire staff of national water resources capacity building centre university of maiduguri. thank you all for the great effort. recommendation in view of the findings of this assessment, the undermentioned measures are tremendously critical in addressing maiduguri and environs waste management challenges: 1. designate specific waste collection points and provide adequate containers to reduce open waste dumping and promote proper waste disposal practices. 2. provide regular training and retraining programs for waste management personnel to enhance their skills and efficiency in managing waste effectively. 3. community engagement and education: implement community-based initiatives to educate the public on proper waste management practices, foster a sense of responsibility, and promote environmental awareness. 4. invest in modern sanitation infrastructure, including proper drainage systems and waste treatment facilities, to address the challenges of poor infrastructure and promote effective waste management. 5. ensure timely and sufficient fund allocation for waste management activities, and engage in research and development to identify innovative solutions and improve waste management practices. references 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(2018). environmental impact assessment of municipal solid waste management options using life cycle assessment: a case study. environmental science and pollution research, 25, 838-854. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0439-7 pa ge 1 pa ge 10 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) islamic-centred leadership: qualifying leaders for islamic banks khamis ahmed abdullah1* volume 3 issue 4, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i4.3558 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: july 20, 2024 accepted: august 28, 2024 published: november 02, 2024 islamic banking operates under the principles of shari’ah law, which governs its financial practices and ethical standards. however, a major challenge facing the industry is the disconnect between the leadership skills required for islamic banking and those currently in place. in light of this, a research study was conducted to evaluate the alignment between the competencies of leaders in gulf countries’ islamic banks and the shari’ah law’s requirements. the study utilized a qualitative approach, including interviews with eight purposively selected hr managers from various banks in the region. the findings revealed a significant gap between the leadership competencies and the principles of trust and justice emphasized in shari’ah law. this discrepancy highlights the need for a more thorough assessment of competencies to ensure that they align with the values and goals of islamic banking. by bridging this gap, islamic banks can effectively incorporate the principles of shari’ah law into their leadership competencies and promote a more efficient and successful industry. keywords adl, amanah, islamic banking, shari’ah 1 university of hull, united kingdom * corresponding author’s e-mail: njfaisal@gmail.com introduction islamic banking has been defined as one of the effective parts of a global economy operating based on the rules and regulations of the islamic shari’ah law (arifin, 2021). this law provides a reference point which, in turn, influences the working characteristics of the financial processes of the business as well as the standards for ethical behaviour among islamic banks (alziyadat & ahmed, 2019). islamic banking has strayed away from conventional banking in terms of sharing risks, prohibition of interest, and shari’ah-compliant investments (sava & valery, 2019). this divergence is mainly attributable to the fact of focusing on the maximum possible financial performance, being socially oriented, and acting in accordance with shari’ah norms (alziyadat & ahmed, 2019). the level of conformity of the businesses being run by the islamic banking institutions has therefore emerged as one of the measures for the credibility and viability of the financial islamic institutions, particularly as more institutions grow in size and influence (belkhaoui et al., 2020). for instance, islamic banking has been growing on an average annual growth rate ranging between 10-12%, urging the necessity for appropriate governing structures that will enable the islamic bank to meet the predetermined shari’ah standards (islamic financial services board, 2023). due to the central role that the application of shari’ah law plays in islamic banks, leadership competencies as crucial antecedents have surfaced as the chief forces of the islamic banking business (mohd ali et al., 2020). management control of such islamic banking needs professionals with management and business backgrounds in addition to adequate knowledge concerning the islamic shari’ah legal requirements (ali & kasim, 2019). however, the competent implementation of the success of the islamic banks in matching leader competency with the demands of the job of banking leadership has been an issue of debate and the emerging streams of questions in the line of literature of this research study. in recent years, the operations of islamic banks have created leadership demands in the development of standards needed to implement the guidelines of the shari’ah law (na’imah & muhibbin, 2020). this has led to the emergence of issues that complicate the chances of islamic banks to conform to islamic law both ethically and legally (kesto & wolela, 2021). this has made the situation worse because there are no models, frameworks, tools, and methods for leadership assessment and its capabilities that are founded on shari’a (ariffin, 2022). this separation of the leadership requirements from the actual job competencies also defies the operational efficiency of the islamic banking institutions and also improves the customers, particularly muslims who want shari’ah-compliant financial institutions (alam et al., 2022). there has been an increase in the growth of islamic finance by more than 11% over the last ten years, but the leadership frameworks to support this growth are limited (hammond, 2022). previous studies concerning the provision of leadership practice in islamic banks have been mostly categorised as developmental (janah et al., 2020; jumady, 2020; nazir et al., 2022), with only a few studies have attempted to measure the correlation between leadership competence and shari’ah compliance (mohd ali et al., 2020; rahim et al., 2019). previous empirical research articles have focused more on the economic and managerial consequences of islamic banking (jan et al., 2019; malik et al., 2020), with few research works on leadership impact on shari’ah compliance. the assessment of leadership in islamic banking research generally neglects islamic culture and religious considerations by using western leadership models and theories largely (febriani & sa’diyah, 2021; pa ge 11 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 10-20 2024 hendijani fard et al., 2021). this has brought about a research gap regarding leadership models that originate from the islamic context to be implemented in the banking industry. this research assessed the extent to which the competence of leaders of islamic banks in the gulf region matches the job specifications that are shari’ah compliant. this entailed discovering the existing deficiencies in the current leadership practices and developing a competency evaluation framework that islamic banks can apply to improve the leadership qualifications and competencies of their leaders. this has led to the development of the following research question: to what extent the islamic banks have aligned their leadership qualifications and competencies with the job requirements to implement the principles of shari’ah law? the importance of this study lies in its contribution towards enhancing the practice of leadership in islamic banks, particularly to enable them to enhance their performance of their shari’ah-compliant guidelines. this research was novel in providing insights into the difficulties islamic banks face in recruiting, selecting, and training leaders to ensure that the banking systems implement shari’ah-compliant practices. this research offered islamic banks the basis to evaluate and nurture their leaders in a manner that respects the islamic value system and sustains organisational effectiveness and success. the findings of this research are expected to benefit not only the islamic banks in the gulf region but also the wider islamic banking industry by providing a model that can be applied in different contexts. literature review islamic leadership models historical context of islamic leadership islamic leadership models have been derived from the quran and hadith, which provide the code of ethics, justice and the welfare of the community (salamun & ab rahman, 2022). these models contrast with western leadership models in terms of religious and communal aspects (raja et al., 2020). islamic leadership knowledge is derived from the history of islam, especially the leadership of prophet muhammad (pbuh) (ahmed, 2019). some leadership characteristics of prophet muhammad (pbuh) include amanah, which translates to trust; shura, which translates to consultation; adl, which means justice; and ethical behaviour (zaim et al., 2024). these principles defined the history of islamic leadership and have been used as a benchmark for islamic leadership in a number of organisational settings, such as islamic banking (senam & zaini, 2023). research carried out in the recent past has shown that an estimated 80 percent of islamic banking organisations have adopted these principles in their leadership systems with a view to enhancing ethical governance (alwi et al., 2021). key theoretical concepts in islamic leadership the theoretical frameworks that provide conceptualisation of islamic leadership are derived from the religion of islam. the concept of amanah entails the muslims’ belief that the responsibility of leaders in the muslim society to their people and the society as a whole is a duty bestowed by allah (mahmod et al., 2023). shura, also identified as consultation, stands for people’s involvement in known decision-making processes (ayyat et al., 2020). adl, or justice, is one of the core principles of leadership in islamic law, which insists on equity and fairness in the leadership’s decisions, actions and policies (mahmod et al., 2023). these concepts offer a theoretical structure for understanding islamic leadership principles in organisations, such as banking, which requires stringent professionalism in the specifics of ethical-moral conduct. an understanding of the discussed islamic leadership concepts within the islamic banking context is vital (yasmeen, 2024). these concepts must be adopted in islamic banks to guide decision-making and the organisational culture (qizam, 2020). however, the application of these concepts is challenging, as leadership practices should be consistent with the principles of shari’ah and meet the needs of the contemporary banking sector. western leadership models overview of western leadership models western leadership models have influenced leadership practice globally (litz & blaik-hourani, 2020). transformational and transactional leadership models have been defined clearly and have been the subject of research and application in various organisations (alrowwad et al., 2020; donkor et al., 2022). transformational leadership focuses on the idea that the leader inspires and brings people to adopt a vision that is interwoven in an organisation (vashdi et al., 2019). the transformational leadership model is distinguishable from the transactional leadership model, whose paradigm is based on rewards, punishment, and accomplishments (abbas & ali, 2023). with regard to the theoretical underpinnings of islamic banking, there is a rich potential for encompassing the notions of transformational leadership into the overall framework of islamic leadership (zaim et al., 2024). this is because the values of transformational leadership, which are based on the ability to motivate and mobilise followers under a common goal, align with islamic principles and standards (gümüsay, 2019). however, the concept of rewards and incentives in the transactional leadership model opposes the ethical principles of islamic leadership under the shari’ah law (usman et al., 2023). competency-based leadership another concept of western leadership, competencybased leadership, focuses on recognising and enhancing organisational competencies (turner et al., 2019). these models are premised on frameworks that describe the leadership competencies, behaviours and traits that outline leadership effectiveness (gigliotti, 2019). while a few relevant aspects of competency-based models align with the technical competencies of leadership in pa ge 12 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 10-20 2024 islamic banks, there are areas of conflict with the islamic principles in ethical and moral leadership aspects (md. noh et al., 2019). competency frameworks in islamic banking existing competency models in islamic banks a study of leadership in islamic banks revealed that effective leadership is achieved when the leadership competencies are aligned with the requirements of the baking leadership positions, particularly in the aspect of shari’ah compliance (abbasi, 2020). several islamic banks have provided competency models for the purpose of evaluating and developing leaders for competency in accordance with islamic laws (zulkifli et al., 2023). however, some gaps are identified in the prior literature concerning the competency framework of islamic banking in terms of their relevance to meet the needs of islamic banks (mohd ali et al., 2020; shahzad et al., 2021). the competency tools and frameworks utilised by the islamic banks to evaluate leadership competencies partially adhere to shari’ah-based competency frameworks, while other competency frameworks are not completely aligned with shari’ah (mohd ali et al., 2020). shari’ah compliance in leadership competencies with respect to leadership competencies, shari’ah compliance has been considered one of the major issues of islamic banks (rahim et al., 2019). the notion of shari’ah compliance in leadership competencies is not only limited to compliance with the guidelines on shari’ah. it also entails integrating into the leadership frameworks the values that accrue from the actualisation of the islamic guidelines (shahzad et al., 2021). nevertheless, there is a challenge of how the competency frameworks of the islamic banks would address the shari’ah rules given that there are few standardised instruments and methods out in the market and the advanced banking technologies and best practices are not harmonious with the islamic values (ayedh et al., 2021). comparison of islamic and western leadership models points of convergence as much as islamic and western leadership practices may be considered unique, it is crucial to note that they are similar in some ways (haron et al., 2020). there are similarities in the elements correlated to the ethical values of the leaders, and the measures that the leaders take to be held accountable for the returns that the followers will receive (elwahayshe & rosdi, 2024). other aspects that are also in conformity with both islamic and western theories of leadership entail gender consideration, voluntary disclosure, and accountability (umar & maina, 2019). points of divergence it is necessary to explicate that there are significant differences between the islamic and the western leadership modes, particularly in the moral and ethical guidelines (göçen, 2021). islamic leadership as a system of organisational leadership is grounded in the religious framework that demands high ethical and moral standards based on the provisions of shari’ah law (mutalib et al., 2022). on the other hand, the western leadership models, despite including an ethical leadership point of view, emphasise more on secularism, outcomes and productivity more than ethics (sidani, 2023). some of these distinctions are highlighted in decision-making and accountability. in islamic leadership, there is leadership accountability to god and the community, as opposed to western paradigms, where there is individual leadership and corporate governance accountability (gazi, 2020; omar & ismail, 2022). challenges in implementing islamic leadership models several challenges in using islamic leadership models, especially in the context of the banking system and practice, have been associated with cultural and organisational factors (rafiki, 2020). a crucial challenge is cultural resistance to the western leadership models, which have become deeply rooted in organisations across the world (alshater et al., 2022). moreover, some organisational features of islamic banks would not support the integration of islamic leadership models, as they prioritise efficiency and profitability parameters rather than focusing on islamic ethics and moral guidelines (haddad & souissi, 2022). these cultural and organisational barriers are a major challenge to the leadership models of islamic banks as well as to the concepts of leadership founded on its shari’ahcompliant banking systems. there is also the question of how islamic leadership styles can be applied when the appraisal tools for assessing the leadership competencies bound by shari’ah are limited. this has affected the attempts made by islamic banks to nurture leaders of good islamic character and those who suit today’s islamic banking industries (rafiki, 2020). the role of hr in islamic banks the hr departments of islamic banks align the competencies of islamic leadership with the job duties of the modern banking industry (firdiansyah, 2021). the practices of hr departments are crucial for effective recruitment and selection, management development, and adherence to the shari’ah law (maulida & rusydiana, 2023). leadership development in islamic is a blend of the conventional islamic model and human resource management (hrm) to deliver leaders with sufficient technical and ethical skills and knowledge (arshad & sattar, 2019). examining activities, such as recruitment and selection, the hr function in islamic banking attracts candidates who have demonstrated their willingness and commitment towards upholding islamic banking values and principles in workplaces (ali & kasim, 2019). similar to recruitment, selection and training, there have been pa ge 13 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 10-20 2024 changes in hr practices in islamic banks where there is much focus on the introduction of islamic values and shari’ah in leadership development programmes (mohd ali et al., 2020). this integration is necessary for the recruitment of the leaders of islamic banks to address the problems faced and grasp the ethical and moral standards of shari’ah. however, in this aspect, leadership development in the hr departments of islamic banks has remained a challenge in multicultural organisational workplaces since the culture and perception of the people influence leadership (el-massah, 2020). materials and methods research design the method used in this research was qualitative because it is more effective at examining the environment in which leadership competencies in islamic banks are exercised. qualitative research allowed for an understanding of the correlation of leadership behaviours with shari’ah. in particular, this study utilised the interpretive phenomenological method that facilitated the analysis and evaluation of real-time experiences of hr managers in islamic banks. this approach is suitable given that the study seeks to determine how hr managers viewed and practised leadership competencies in accordance with islamic values. data collection semi-structured interviews were adopted as the data collection technique for this study, as they give the researcher the advantage of posing multiple questions to the respondents and going in-depth into the research topic (deterding & waters, 2021). interviews were focused on the particular areas of interest defined in the research, such as the correspondence of banking leadership competencies with the principles of shari’ah, the difficulties in implementing islamic leadership models in islamic banks, and the responsibilities of hr departments in the development of islamic banking leadership competencies. the questionnaire used in the interview (annexure i) was developed from the key themes identified from the literature review. each interview took about 60 to 90 minutes, providing reasonable time to cover the numerous and diverse aspects of the research topic. population & sampling in selecting participants for the study, the purposive sampling technique was used to identify participants most likely to present rich and relevant data for the research problem under investigation. a total of eight hr managers from various islamic banks in the gulf countries participated in the semi-structured interviews. the choice of the participants of the survey depended on their experience in the management of islamic banks, leadership and competence development, and knowledge of the principles of islamic shari’ah in the sphere of banking. data analysis the questionnaire was administered to the respondents, and the obtained findings were analysed thematically. thematic analysis is described by braun and clarke (2019) as the sorting and analysis of data to develop interpretations based on the patterns and themes identified from the data under analysis. it involves a sixphase process: tentative naming of codes connected to the research questions, intentional looking for themes to classify the correlated codes, refinement of the themes, definitive naming of the themes, as well as the explanation of themes in the analysis section of the report of a study (braun et al., 2022). the rationale for using thematic analysis is that it helps the researchers understand the various contextual meanings of the data collected (braun & clarke, 2019). ethical considerations all the interviews were conducted online in a private setting with the understanding that the participants could speak freely and without external influences. the study also complied with the code of ethics, as informed consent was obtained from an ethical committee. results and discussion the results from the semi-structured interviews with the hr managers of the islamic banks revealed themes in the activities, issues and prospects in the management of competencies in relation to banking leadership in accordance with shari’ah law. these themes explicated the issues of leadership in islamic banking organizations and indicated how islamic banks could develop leadership approaches to adhere to both the islamic shari’ah guidelines, as well as international banking, practices. challenges in leadership qualification among all the challenges highlighted by the interviewees, the most significant one was the challenge of having to search for leadership resources with professional banking experience and shari’ah knowledge. an hr manager said: “i have often reached stages where i have to negotiate the one against the other, the professional banking skills or shari’ah compliance, because the kind of candidate who possesses both, the professional competency and knowledge of shari’ah at the same time is limited.” this accords with the previous studies in which the researchers noted that there is a scarcity of strong leaders in the islamic banks, and this has been due to poor training and development practices that hold the potential for the development of strong, well balanced and holistic, leadership for the banking profession including an understanding of the shari’ah rules (aziz et al., 2019; aziz et al., 2021). another respondent said: “sometimes, it gets exceedingly challenging to find candidates possessing both professional knowledge of banking and shari’ah compliance at the same time.” this challenge in islamic banking leadership qualification is in agreement with earlier findings made by other researchers. for example, pa ge 14 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 10-20 2024 a study (belouafi, 2020) noted that the lack of right candidates with dual skills in both banking and shari ‘ah has been a pressing issue, indicating the problem of fragmentation of leadership training programmes. another study (altalib, 2001) also pointed out that such problems are made worse by the lack of seamless education connections, resulting in single-dimensional training directed at either the shari’ah component or the banking part. another study also complemented this view by noting that by having no systematic programs that cover both domains, it becomes hard to prepare all rounded islamic banking leaders. nevertheless, these studies are mainly insightful, but they lack solutions concerning the integration of shari’ah and banking knowledge (altalib, 2001). conflict with the islamic leadership models several interviewees discussed how the current patterns of islamic banking profoundly deviate from the models of islamic leadership even though they are posited as the benchmark leadership model in islamic banks. this deviation was occasioned by the goal of meeting other internationalised banking indices and practices from the west. one participant said: “my hr team support islamic leadership practises in theory, but we often end up practising western leadership models that do not match the core shari’ah values.” this is in concurrence with the findings of previous studies in which authors have posited that the acculturation of global banking standards is a common reason why islamic leadership practices in islamic banks have been diluted (jan et al., 2021; shamsudheen et al., 2023). one of the interviewees said: “all our day-to-day working practices, as much as we try to uphold the islamic management leadership principle, have a leaning more towards the western leadership patterns as they are deemed efficient and effective.” this view is in consonance with aggarwal and yousef (2000), who pointed out that the islamic bank has a propensity of adopting western modes of leadership at the cost of islamic tenets. a more detailed explanation of how western practices have been incorporated into islamic banking was provided in a study, where the authors provided evidence of dilution of shari’ahcompliant principles due to the adoption of western leadership practices (raja et al., 2020). the adoption of western leadership practices has caused clashes between islamic culture and modern banking practices (raja et al., 2020). these studies demonstrate the ongoing conflict but do not investigate more sophisticated possibilities of a shared system that might accommodate these discrepancies. alignment with shari’ah law another emerging theme was about compliance of leadership behaviour with the tenets of islamic shari’ah. as much as islamic banks have been committed to ensuring shari’ah compliance, some interviewees noted a gap in the implementation of these aspects in leadership acquisition and training. an hr manager stated: “in decision-making regarding leadership, we follow the shari’ah law, but the business environment’s different practicalities have often forced my hr team to compromise on islamic values.” this dilemma of a commitment to religious standards and the banking requirements and operations resembles the findings of the prior research concerning the issues of islamic banks in managing the shari’ah adhesion and the market needs (hanic & smolo, 2023; suandi et al., 2023). an interviewee stated: “shari’ah law as a course of action is followed frequently, and it creates complications and conflicts with the business requirements at times, and thus, we have to compromise.” this is in tandem with the observation made by another study, which said that although the operation of an islamic bank requires compliance with shari’ah law, it proves very hard to do so due to conflict of business practices (md. noh et al., 2019). raja et al. (2020) have also pointed out that assessing compliance with shari’ah requirements alongside the pressures of competition leads to the dilution of islamic banking practices. aziz et al. (2021) also said that the selective application of shari’ah principles in islamic banks points to a deeper issue of balance between the adherence to islamic laws and, on the other hand, the necessity of operating a banking business. these findings offer a basic background knowledge but lack more specific guidance on bridging the gap between shari’ah compliance and the necessities of business. merging with leadership models of the west another topic that emerged in the current study was the integration of western leadership models into the islamic banking environments. some of the respondents acknowledged the benefits of applying western banking leadership practices, for example, in strategic management and performance measurement, whereas others considered them as incompatible with proclaimed islamic values. one interviewee said: “some practices adopted from the leadership models across the west are implemented here, but we have to ensure that these practices do not violate the fundamentals of the shari’ah.” this is supported by findings of previous literature review studies, which posited that even though the implementation of western leadership best practices would provide many benefits, they should not be practised in the islamic banking sector in a way that would compromise the shari’ah laws (haron et al., 2020; ul-haq et al., 2022). one of the respondents remarked: “some strategic models developed from the western leadership are useful for strategising but should be applied in a manner that contradicts the basic guidelines of shari’ah.” chapra (1992) focused on the adoption of western leadership models in islamic banking but mostly at the conceptual level while mostly outlining methods of adopting them without going into detailed measures. vogel and hayes (1998) also objected to the merger of western leadership models in islamic banking, stating pa ge 15 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 10-20 2024 that although they may enhance efficiency, they raise contradictions with the shari’ah when implemented. despite these references shedding some light on the discussion, the practical aspect of how these hybrid models can be implemented in islamic banks has not been provided sufficiently. importance of continuous leadership development the respondents elaborated on the importance of leadership development, which they felt needs to be improved continually because of the fluctuating business environments as well as the factors considered in accordance with the laws of shari’ah. few interviewees emphasised that the activities of ongoing professional development should also help the leaders to gain professional knowledge and at the same time, help them to understand the questions related to shari’ah. a participant commented: “leadership development in islamic banking should not be just a one-time process, but rather a process that goes on up to the time of retirement, especially in a work environment where the dynamics in banking are changing more often.” this idea is in line with the findings put forward by other studies that pointed to an improvement in learning and skills development as banking practices change (fatmawati et al., 2022; mohd ali et al., 2020). one of the interviewees said: “it appears that our continuous leadership development program will emphasise one area over the other, for instance, shari’ah or banking and rarely take a balanced approach.” it is important to consider the critique of continuous leadership development programs by al-talib (2001), as they found out that training without the integration of both shari’ah and banking skills is insufficient. there are limitations of specific training programs in covering all the management training needs of the leadership of islamic banks (altalib, 2001). while this study provides relevant information, they have made vague generalisations about shortcomings in continuous leadership development training programmes without pointing to the specific details of enhancement required in these programmes. cultural and organisational barriers the interview respondents also mentioned deficiencies in islamic leadership models caused by cultural and organisational factors. respondents articulated that the culture and limitations of organisations are the barriers to the adoption of islamic leadership principles. another participant said: “our organisational culture originates from global banking practises, which in some ways hinder the implementation of islamic leadership models.” this theme also corresponds with previous research work on the impact of organisational culture on leadership practices in islamic banks, where the integration of shari’ah laws with the islamic culture is crucial (janah et al., 2020; satria & yuliansyah, 2020). one of the interviewees reported: “the main issue with having two clear sets of standards based on shari’ah compliance and business requirements is that the conflict that emerges shapes an organisational culture that employees cannot easily ignore due to its influence on morale and productivity.” febriani and sa’diyah (2021) also provided a clear understanding of how organisations’ cultures can be influenced by inconsistent leadership processes in islamic banks. kothari (2004) also explained the consequences of organisational culture on employees’ performance and motivation. although these references provide insight into the effects of leadership practices regarding organisational culture, an adequate understanding of how to build a consistent organisational culture that is both compliant with shari’ah and beneficial for business operations is missing. the role of hr in leadership alignment the interviewees noted that hr departments had a vital role in developing leadership competencies to meet some conditions, especially those related to shari’ah law. one of the participants said: “it is about time that the hr teams of the growing number of islamic banks contribute their best towards the practice of culminating islamic values in sourcing, selection, development and training of leadership for the competent hr leadership for banking, which is shari’ah compliant.” this theme is in line with the earlier research that highlights the central role of hr in the integration of islamic values in the leadership skills and operational activities of islamic banks (ayyat et al., 2020; firdiansyah, 2021). another respondent said: “our hr practices often fail to develop shari’ah compliant and professionally competent leaders.” recent hr strategies, as highlighted by al-talib (2001), do not adequately prepare future leaders who understand the provisions of shari’ah and the workings of modern banking systems. however, these studies tend to be more of a descriptive nature when presenting these hr problems without providing a framework for addressing and enhancing the fields of hrm. according to the criticisms embedded in these studies, it is helpful to expose significant shortcomings in the hrm of islamic banks; however, there exists no clear framework on how to build strong and appropriate hrm strategies that conform to shari’ah. lack of standardised evaluation tools another important problem mentioned by the respondents was that there were no sufficient tools for assessing the competency of the banking leadership in compliance with shari’ah. some of the interviewees expressed that they could not find a benchmark to evaluate the leadership competencies in islamic banking. one of the participants stated: “there is a lack of appropriate instruments and resources for evaluating the competence of the islamic banking leadership, especially in addressing the shari’ah compliance issues.” this is in conformity with suggestions made in other studies, which indicated the need to develop effective leadership competency assessment models and tools that could be used in all islamic banks to improve talent outsourcing and development (hani et al., 2020; mohd ali et al., 2020). pa ge 16 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 10-20 2024 implications for practice some of the themes which were presented in this study have implications for islamic banks. it is necessary to prepare programmes for leaders working within the field of the islamic banking system to orient them on the understanding of islamic leadership and values, combined with the vigilant use of western models of leadership. such programmes can help close the gaps observed in the training and selection of leaders in islamic banking businesses. also, islamic banks must incorporate clear standard procedures and approaches in the evaluation of leadership qualifications that are acceptable to the banking profession and adhere to the shari’ah rules and regulations within the organisation. conclusions the research aimed to understand the leadership competencies in islamic banks across the gulf region and their alignment with shari’ah law specifications. the study found that while islamic banks are attempting to follow shari’ah principles, there are shortcomings in selecting and training leaders who can meet banking leadership requirements and have sufficient knowledge about shari’ah compliance. western leadership styles have impacted the principles of islamic banking, leading to a dilution of proper islamic leadership tenets. the lack of standard tools for assessing shari’ah-compliant leadership competencies was identified as a critical challenge to the integration process. the study’s limitations include the qualitative nature of the research and the small number of respondents, which may not capture the experiences of hr managers working in other islamic banks within the gulf region. additionally, the data collected from the hr managers could introduce potential bias. future studies should focus on developing the integration of leadership competencies with shari’ah law in different regions, such as southeast asia and north africa, to evaluate the influence of different cultural contexts in implementing shari’ah law. quantitative studies with a more extended and diverse sample population should validate the results and present more generalized findings. recommendations for aligning islamic banking leadership competencies with shari’ah principles include developing qualified training programs to integrate professional competencies of banking leadership and shari’ah requirements, standardizing measurement frameworks and tools, and balancing the adoption of western leadership models with the retention of islamic guidelines and values. statements & declarations author contribution this study was solely conducted by khamis ahmed abdullah, who was responsible for the conceptualisation, design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data. khamis ahmed abdullah also wrote and revised the manuscript. availability of data and material the data obtained during the current study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. ethics approval & consent to participation approval was obtained from the ethics committee of the university of hull, united kingdom. informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. acknowledgements the author is grateful to the university of hull, united kingdom, for its continuous support throughout this research. references abbas, m., & ali, r. 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(2023). employee performance of sharia bank in indonesia : the mediation of organizational innovation and knowledge sharing. cogent business & management, 10(3), 2273609. https:// doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2273609 annexures annexure i: interview questionnaire section 1: general information 1. can you please describe your role and responsibilities within the hr department of your bank? 2. how long have you been working in the islamic banking sector? 3. could you provide an overview of your bank’s approach to leadership development? section 2: leadership competency frameworks 4. what competency frameworks or models does your bank currently use to evaluate and develop its leaders? 5. how do these frameworks incorporate or align with shari’ah principles? 6. are there specific competencies related to islamic leadership that your bank emphasises? if so, can you describe them? 7. to what extent does your bank use western leadership models, and how are these adapted (if at all) to fit the islamic context? section 3: recruitment and selection of leaders 8. what criteria does your bank use to recruit leaders, and how important is adherence to shari’ah principles in this process? 9. can you describe any challenges you face in identifying candidates who meet both professional and shari’ah-related competencies? 10. how do you ensure newly recruited leaders align with the bank’s values and islamic principles? section 4: leadership development and training 11. what types of leadership development programs does your bank offer, and how are these programs designed to align with shari’ah law? 12. how do you assess the effectiveness of these programs in enhancing leaders’ competencies in line with pa ge 20 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(4) 10-20 2024 islamic principles? 13. can you provide examples of any specific training or development initiatives that focus on islamic leadership principles? section 5: evaluation and challenges 14. how does your bank evaluate the performance of its leaders, particularly in relation to their adherence to shari’ah principles? 15. what challenges do you face in evaluating and ensuring the alignment of leadership competencies with shari’ah law? 16. have you encountered any conflicts between the application of western leadership models and the requirements of islamic leadership in your bank? how have these conflicts been addressed? section 6: future directions and improvements 17. in your opinion, what improvements could be made to better align leadership competencies with shari’ah principles in islamic banks? 18. what role do you think hr departments should play in enhancing the alignment of leadership practices with islamic values? 19. are there any standardised tools or frameworks that you think could help in evaluating leadership competencies more effectively in islamic banks? section 7: final thoughts 20. is there anything else you would like to add about the alignment of leadership competencies with shari’ah law in islamic banks? pa ge 1 pa ge 29 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) the impact of service brand attachment on customer citizenship behavior in banking sector v. d. thivyashamine1*, f. b. kennedy2 volume 4 issue 4, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i4.6265 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: october 20, 2025 accepted: november 26, 2025 published: december 12, 2025 this study aims to investigate how service brand attachment (sba) changes the customer citizenship behavior (ccb) within the sri lankan banking sector. it is a deep understanding of the influence of customers’ emotional connection with banking sector service brands on their attachment and brand-building actions. the research used a quantitative method, using a structured questionnaire that contained 21 research questions with the five-point likert scale items and six demographic-related questions. data collected from 151 respondents and four private banks, such as commercial bank, including seylan bank, sampath bank, and hnb bank, the respondents who answered the questionnaire in their official capacity as customers obtaining personal loans and business loans. to find the connection and the relationship between sba and ccb, regression analysis, correlation analysis, and reliability analysis were used in spss. the finding revealed that consumers actively attach to their banks and feel a strongly committed relationship. additionally, to find the internal consistency between the variables, the reliability results emphasize sri lankan consumers. this shows high reliability scores for sba and ccb. the regression analysis results show that the sba is a significant influencer of ccb, explaining a large portion of its variance. correlation analysis revealed a strong positive relationship between the variables. based on these findings, customers who feel a strong emotional attachment and connection with their banks. such as recommending a bank to other people, helping fellow customers, giving valuable feedback, and spreading positive word of mouth. the finding highlights the critical role that emotional attachment plays in sustained success, strengthening brand reputation and cultivating customer loyalty. to achieve a lasting competitive advantage, banks should focus on creating and developing strong emotional connections with personalized engagement, unique experiences, and continuously providing service quality and trust. by doing these activities, banks can encourage their customers positively, and it will be beneficial for both the banking sector and the clients. keywords banking sector, customer citizenship behavior, customer engagement, emotional connection, service brand attachment 1 department of management, faculty of commerce and management, eastern university, sri lanka * corresponding author’s e-mail: shaminedavid1998@gmail.com introduction within the contemporary service paradigm, where competition is intense and consumer expectations are increasingly sophisticated, developing and maintaining strong relationships between organizations and their clientele has become a key strategic priority. the construct of attachment, rooted in psychological theory, refers to a sustained emotional bond that individuals form with specific entities, whether persons or objects. within marketing scholarship, this notion has been reconceptualized as service brand attachment (sba), representing a higher-order emotional connection through which consumers perceive a service brand as a source of trust, identity affirmation, and self-relevant value (park et al., 2006). moreover, sba exceeds the explanatory power of traditional constructs such as satisfaction and loyalty, as it denotes a deep-seated psychological linkage that shapes evaluative judgments, affective orientations, and behavioral enactments toward the brand (thomson et al., 2005). the salience of brand attachment is particularly pronounced in service contexts, where brand meaning is co-created through experiential interactions that are often abstract and diverse in nature. this dynamic is especially evidence in the banking sector, where service encounters are inherently trust based and customers evaluation extend beyond functional service performance to encompass emotional reliability, procedural fairness, and relational continuity (levy & hino, 2016). as competition intensifies and product offerings become increasingly standardized, psychological attachment to banking brands has emerged as a crucial source of differentiation and mechanism for achieving long term competitiveness. customers with strong emotional attachment to their financial institutions tend to demonstrate greater tolerance for minor service lapses, exhibit heightened relationship persistence, and are more inclined to engage in brand supportive behaviors that enhance institutional; reputation and value creation (kumar & kaushik, 2018). customer citizenship behavior (ccb ) has been commonly recognized as a critical behavioral factor in important outcomes of brand attachment within service contexts. ccb refers to discretionary, additional role actions voluntarily performed by the customers to support the service provider and enhance the service experience of other customers (yi et al., 2013). these pa ge 30 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 29-32 2025 behaviors encompass and involve recommending the bank to prospective customers, providing constructive feedback, assisting fellow customers, and engaging in advocacy that contributes to the organization’s relational and reputational capital. from and organizational standpoint, ccb yields additional benefits. such voluntary actions reduce firms promotional and operational cost enhance brand reputation through positive word of mouth and foster corporative customer environments that strengthen long term relational outcomes (balaji, 2014). emotional attachment to a service brand plays a particularly influential role in eliciting these behaviors. when customers develop strong affective bonds with a banks brand, they experience heightened genuine enthusiasm to act in ways that reflect loyalty and commitment, effectively serving as informal brand representatives within market. recent studies in the banking industry highlight the interrelationships of service experiences, emotional attachment, and citizenship behaviors. khan and amin (2019) demonstrate that perceptions of service fairness defined as equitable, respectful and transparent treatment significantly enhance customer’s emotional attachment in turn drives a range of brand citizenship behaviors that facilitate organizational success. their findings drawn upon attachment theory (bowlby, 1977) and equity theory (adams, 1965) illustrating that customers who perceive fairness and experience emotional resonance with the brand are more predisposed to engage in behaviors that exceed formal role expectations. collectively this body of research affirms the strategic importance of cultivating emotional brand connections within the banking industry. by fostering robust psychological attachments banks can effectively encourage customer behaviors that advance organizational performance, strengthen brand legitimacy and extend influence beyond the confines of standard service interactions. despite the growing body of evidence on the determinants and outcomes of customer citizenship behavior, there is a need for further empirical investigation to understand the specific influence of service brand attachment within the banking contexts, particularly in economically developing nations such as sri lanka, where service competition and customer expectations continue to intensify. examining this relationship is critical, as a clearer understanding of how emotional brand bonds shape discretionary customer behaviors can enable banks to cultivate more engaged and value generating clientele. accordingly, the present study seeks to examine the impact of service brand attachment on customer citizenship behavior within the sri lankan banking sector. providing the broader brand relationship literature and offering practical insights for bank managers seeking to strengthen customer engagement and enhance brand equity through the strategic development of emotional attachment. literature review emotional attachments between customers and the banking sector are crucial for sustainable success and essential in today’s dynamic services market. according to hino (2016), brand attachment is the strong emotional and psychological connection that people have with a brand because they have had good experiences with it, are happy with it, and trust it. thomson and mac innis (2005) say that this attachment shows how strongly people identify with the brand, which gives them an impression of community and connection. supporting this recent evidence from the srilankan banking sector revealed that customers express a high degree of satisfaction and loyalty with the friendliness of bank staff, the banking industry’s ability to identify customer issues and reliability of services provided (abeyrathna, 2024),when customers have deep emotional links, they are far more likely to stay committed and encourage others beyond just business transactions. when customers have deep emotional connections, they are far more likely to stay committed and encourage other people beyond just business-related transactions. brand citizenship behavior is the voluntary and further laws that consumers accomplish that encourage a brand’s success, such as promoting to others, offering valuable feedback, and assisting other customers (balaji, 2014). these strategies promote a favorable word of mouth, excellent customer service, and enhance the business’s positive image. according to various research, emotional brand attachment is an excellent motivator for these self-driving efforts (cheng et al., 2016). however banking industry wide findings from banaglagesh highlight that improving digital infrastructure, service innovation, automation and transparent processes is essential for banks to meet increasing customer expectations and strengthen lonterm loyalty (hiya, 2025). customers who have a strong connection with the brand are more willing to support it and engage in activities aimed at improving its reputation. these customers are motivated to become ambassadors for the company because they believe that the business’s excellence is personally essential. (kumar & kaushik, 2018; kim et al., 2018). furthermore, (nyadzayo et al., 2015) illustrated how emotional and psychological connections motivate customers to act in ways like suggesting the company and offering favourable feedback. in addition researchers emphasize the need for future studies to explore deeper strategies of customer satisfaction to better support banks in enhancing service performance across various national contexts ( musa, 2024). therefore, it can be said that consumers are more likely to initiate brand-related supportive actions when they have deep emotional connections to banking brands (shin & koo, 2018). consumers who build a strong relationship with banking brands are more likely to do outstanding, brand-supportive actions that help the business succeed. the following hypothesis is proposed, h1: brand attachment is positively related to customer citizenship behavior materials and methods this study uses a empirical approach to explore the pa ge 31 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 29-32 2025 influence of service brand attachment on customer citizenship behavior in the banking field. the quantitative study technique focused on gathering and evaluating numerical data from banking customers who acquired individual loans and business loan services at particular private banks. research design the principal research method was administering a survey, using a structured questionnaire to obtain the data. questionnaire items contained 21 research questions that measured the two primary factors, those are service brand attachment and customer citizenship behavior, on a five-level rating scale rated from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree. additionally, six demographically related questions were used to obtain the information regarding the customers’ gender, age, which bank they borrowed the loan facility from, type of loan, length of customer service, satisfaction with the service they used, and banking services brand. sampling and data collection the study focused on individuals who obtained personal or commercial loans from four private sector banks in sri lanka: commercial bank, seylan bank, sampath bank, and hatton national bank (hnb). these banks were selected because they comprise the leading private financial institutions in sri lanka, holding excellent public image, significant branch connections, and appreciable customer bases, delivering loans. the addition of them provided an accurate picture of customer-brand connections in the competitive private banking market. aiming to ensure sufficient participation among the four institutions, a preliminary goal of 160 responses (forty coming from every bank) was established. the sample size was determined to be adequate as well as sufficient for a quantitative study due to the fact that it exceeds the minimum number of participants established by researchers (hair et al., 2010) for the use of regression analysis, which is five to ten those responding per item in the questionnaire. due to respondents’ accessibility and practical limitations, data has been obtained using the convenience sample technique. the online survey was circulated using google forms, and 151 legitimate responses have been gathered for analysis. data analysis the data were assessed with spss version 25. the analysis encompassed assessing for reliability for finding the inconsistency to validate the accuracy of the measuring items were internally reliable, followed by a correlation analysis which assessed the correlation between the main variables. a simple regression analysis was used to find the hypothesis. h1: brand attachment is positively related to brand citizenship behavior. results and discussion the study investigates the influence of service brand attachment on customer citizenship behavior among banking sector customers. reliablity testing showed excellent internal consistency for both factors (sba 0.943, ccb 0.963) confirming the robustness of the measurement scales. descriptive statistics revealed that the respondents responded relatively high levels of attachement to their respective banks (m 3.76) and a strong engagement in supportive, voluntary behaviors m 3.89. the median score of 4.00 for both variables suggests general agreement among participants, while the comparatively low standard deviations (sba 0.73, ccb 0.69) reflect a high degree of response consistency. demographical information related analysis indicated that the sample consisted predominantly of male respondents 68.9%, most of the young adults aged 20-30 years 69.5%. a substantial proportion held in business loans 80.1% and were primarily affiliated with sampath bank and hnb bank. additionally most respondents had maintained relatively short term relationships with their banks (less than three years) yet showed high level of satisfaction level 93.4% indicating positive early stage relational experiences. correlation analysis showed a strong significant positive relationship between sba and ccb, r value is 0.860 and p value is less than 0.01, indicating that the greater emotional attachement is connected with increased brand supportive behaviors. regression analysis revealed that sba significantly predicted ccb, calculating for 73.9% of its variance r2 is 0.739, b value is 0.815, β value is 0.860 and p value is less than 0.01. these findings reveal that emotionally attached banking customers are more likely to act as brand related advocates, offer assistance to other people and provide constructive feedback, therefore enhancing the bank’s reputation and fostering customer loyalty. collectively the results highlight the main role of emotional attachment in driving proactive, value empowering customer behaviors. the results suggest that the banks can effectively strengthen ccb by focusing on consistent service quality, fostering trust, and implementing customized personal engagement strategies. conclusion this study assessed the contribution of service brand attachment on customer citizenship behavior in the field of the banking services industry. the findings of this study reveal that customers have a reasonably high level of attachment to their banks mean of 3.76 and show the beneficial behavior mean ccb 3.89. each of the variables encountered high reliability scores sba 0.943, ccb 0.963, denoting consistent measurements. the survey findings reveal that the vast majority of survey respondents are young 20-30-year-old male and business loan consumers, with the majority maintaining short to medium relationships with their particular banks. the fulfilling rating of 93.4% reveals that the pa ge 32 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 29-32 2025 high satisfaction range is 93.4% showing that banks are effectively meeting the customers’ expectations and focusing on strong interactions during the initial stages of engagement. the results of a simple linear regression show that service brand attachment is a significant tool of customer citizenship behavior r²= 0.739, 0.815,β = 0.860, p < 0.01), while correlation analysis confirmed a very strong positive relationship between sba and ccb r=0.860, p< 0.01. these findings shows that consumers who have developed a strong psychological bond with their banks are more likely to participate in voluntary and beneficial behaviors, such as providing feedback, assisting other customers, and recommending the banks. this will help that emotional attachment encourages customer advocacy and aligns with the conclusions of previous research. banks should foucs on building customers relationships by providing dependable, exceptional service, personalized experiences and personalized experiences and increasing trust-based connections. engagement efforts, award systems, and proactive engagement may all help to increase brand attachment. banks may encourage voluntary and long-term 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(2013). the impact of customer experience on brand citizenship behaviour: the mediating role of brand relationship quality. journal of service theory and practice, 23(7), 641-662. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1108/jstp 02 pa ge 1 pa ge 26 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) health insurance: factors influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes by medical doctors in lagos state, south-west nigeria ugo collins chukwuezie1, aloysius obinna ikwuka2*, ifeoma theresa mmegwa3, solomon musa4, chinenye helen emeribe5, samson babalola6 volume 4 issue 3, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i3.5588 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: june 23, 2025 accepted: july 30, 2025 published: august 28, 2025 health insurance is an important determinant of access to healthcare services worldwide. in nigeria, different health insurance schemes are available but their level of utilization differs among the population. social and private health insurance schemes are trying to achieve up to 20% coverage. using a target population in a specific location, this research aimed to study the factors influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes by medical doctors in mushin local government area (lga) of lagos state, south-west nigeria. this research is a cross-sectional descriptive study and involved 300 medical doctors who were selected in mushin lga using a multi-stage sampling technique. a structured, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. data was analyzed using spss version 26, and statistical significance was set at p-value<0.05. bivariate analysis was used to describe the dependent and the independent variables. chi-square and logistic regression (where appropriate) were used to test for association between independent and dependent variables. many of the respondents were aware of existing different health insurance schemes. six factors influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes were identified such as prolonged waiting time (87.0%), use of substandard drugs for enrollees (86.0%), shortage of drugs (out-of-stock medicines) (86.3%), poor attitude of healthcare workers (72.3%), insurance scheme does not cover some healthcare services and drugs (89.7%), and lastly, stringent and unsatisfactory terms and conditions of health insurance schemes (85.0%). the design and delivery of health insurance schemes should be improved upon by the stakeholders, in order to make health insurance attractive to the general population. keywords factors, health insurance schemes, health insurance, health, influence, lagos state, medical doctors, mushin, south-west nigeria, utilization 1 department of community health, university of lagos, lagos state, nigeria 2 college of medicine and health sciences, american international university west africa, banjul, the gambia 3 college of medicine, university of lagos, lagos state, nigeria 4 department of clinical operations, xcene research, ikeja, nigeria 5 department of family medicine, university of calabar teaching hospital, calabar, nigeria 6 department of community health, university of ilorin, ilorin, nigeria * corresponding author’s e-mail: aloysiussweet@yahoo.com introduction health insurance can be described as a method of proactive financing of medical services using contributions of a premium into a common pool, to pay for health services specified in an insurance plan (karamagi, 2023). health insurance is an indisputable tool for healthcare funding. most developed countries have used health insurance to subsidize healthcare for their citizens. it is recently being applied by developing countries for the obvious issue of deficiencies in healthcare availability and funding which has been financed by public funding over the years (chowdhury, 2022). in public insurance schemes, the funds are paid for general or hypothecated taxes, a source which helps to promote access and promote equity. available funds in public health insurance are often not enough and need to be supplemented by funds from private insurance. private health funds are paid directly to the fund managers and this consists of non-profit, community health insurance schemes and for-profit plans. when judiciously managed, private coverage helps improve access and reduces large out-of-pocket (oop) expenses for healthcare (motaze, 2015). they constitute a useful source of supplementary insurance to provide coverage for health services to nigerian populations who are not covered by publicly funded schemes (onwujekwe, 2012). poorly planned private health insurance systems have been associated with exacerbating inequalities, the high volume of uninsured, and the exorbitant cost of oop payments (baggio, 2018). overtime, the informal sector has been included but the contribution is usually fixed due to difficulties in estimating income. the poor populations are also not left out as special programs include them. under the social health insurance (shi), the rich population pays higher than the poor population while they receive the same level of care regardless of their contributions and health conditions. the funds realized may be administered by the public or private insurers or a combination of both. shi helps to make available extra domestic funds, improving health system quality, reducing health inequality, and oop spending. it also provides financial risk protection and encourages the achievement of universal coverage. shi is often challenging to be practiced in the other sectors in nigeria. national health insurance involves a coordinated insurance scheme that covers the entire population, and it is usually pa ge 27 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 26-39 2024 established by national legislation (alawode, 2021). the nhis is a social health insurance program designed by the federal government of nigeria to complement sources of financing the health sector, and to enhance access to healthcare for the majority of nigerians. all federal civil servants in nigeria pay for nhis directly from source. thus, enrolment of medical doctors who work in federal government facilities is mandatory, although recent studies have shown that utilization is very poor and could likely be attributed to the factors such as poor quality medicines, prolonged waiting time, and stringent rules (akinyemi, 2021). currently, the enrolment level in the scheme is predominantly among those in the formal sector and user experiences have been varying. the levy is retrieved under the value added tax (vat) and is paid by enrollees for their id cards. it complements the current system by providing a broad pool of insurance policies for the entire population. the cost of a single medical visit generally is high (aregbeshola, 2018). health insurance in nigeria has seen a rigorous historical development from its inception in the year 1962 till its amendment by the national health insurance scheme (nhis) act 35 of 1999. nigeria has a population of more than 200 million people with a developing economy, and an infrastructure that needs improvement. the nigerian health system is faced with setbacks such as disease outbreaks, financial crisis, and political instability. in 2004, the insurance coverage was estimated at 150,000 lives which later increased to 5 million in 2014 (representing 3% of the total nigerian population). the nigerian healthcare system is comprised of private and publicly managed medical facilities (emmanuel, 2022). in 1962, an attempt to build a healthcare system in nigeria was made when the minister of health at that time, presented a bill in parliament for its enactment in the lagos area. unfortunately, there was resistance from the nigerian medical association against the idea. in 1988, another minister of health commissioned a committee which recommended the template for the present-day nigeria health insurance authority (nhia). due to administrative clumsiness, the law that established the nhia scheme was signed in may 1999, but it became active in 2005. the period between the law signing and the scheme’s operation was prolonged, providing the private sector with an opportunity to build private health insurance schemes. after the launch of the health insurance scheme in june 2005, it was given a presidential mandate to ensure a universal coverage of all nigerians by 2015 through social health insurance. there is a progressive improvement as compared to when the scheme was flagged off in 2005 (okebukola, 2016). unlike the development of health insurance in ghana and south africa, nigeria has had many issues in the health insurance industry. the nigerian health insurance is mainly focused on major cities, state capitals and major towns alone while the rural areas are left out. this has left many people who may require these services but lack the necessary information to get health insurance for themselves and their families. health insurance in nigeria is overseen by an agency of the federal government under the ministry of health which has a role of checking on hospitals, and health insurance companies. although the state government is responsible for the general hospital, the local government is responsible for the primary healthcare centers (phcs). there is also a special arrangement for free healthcare for nigerian citizens funded by the government in partnership with international donor partners under certain circumstances. government employees are given a special healthcare scheme while the private sectors sign contracts with private insurance companies to provide tailored health coverage to their employees. the nigerian government is now partnering with international bodies such as the world health organization (who), and the world bank to improve the healthcare network in nigeria (ilesanmi, 2023). the nigeria health insurance scheme (nhis) covers approximately 4% of the population as of the year 2000. it is an excellent option for addressing the healthcare problems if managed well. in fact, the nhis provides comprehensive healthcare coverage to millions of nigerian population while the scheme is still developing (nwanaji-enwerem, 2022). nhia replaced nhis in 2005. it is pertinent to note that while the nhia is good for the unemployed, most of them do not use the service because of a lack of affordability. while the presence of nhia has made health insurance more affordable, the scheme is inadequate for the unemployed population. while the nhia has made healthcare more accessible, a significant portion of the nigerian population does not enjoy any form of health coverage (adebisi, 2019). the nhis was initially implemented as a state-run health insurance plan in nigeria, but the governing council did not have the required expertise to design and implement a national health insurance scheme. the governing council was largely comprised of politicians with little knowledge of insurance. however, the nhia has been a success despite a lack of good governance, and low cost (welcome, 2011). to make healthcare services more affordable for all, the federal government of nigeria has passed the national health insurance authority (nhia) law, making health insurance mandatory. the new system will make healthcare more affordable for the nigerian population by allowing them to receive services in the private and public sectors at a discounted rate. before the nhia was approved, the government had to pass a bill requiring all employers to offer health insurance to their employees (ipinnimo, 2022). established under act 35 of the 1999 constitution, the nhis (now nhia) was established to regulate health insurance delivery in nigeria and began operations in 2005. the scheme collects contributions to fund health services, with payments managed by registered health maintenance organizations (hmos). as of 2020, there were about 58 hmos accredited by the nhia, 49 of which operate nationwide (ipinnimo, 2023). to ensure a broader pa ge 28 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 26-39 2024 reach, nhia decentralized implementation, encouraging states to develop localized versions. however, as of 2019, only 18 states had adopted or were considering the statebased health insurance scheme (shis), with lagos state being the pioneer in 2015 (uzochukwu, 2015). despite these efforts, health insurance coverage remains limited. a national survey highlighted how persistent out-ofpocket (oop) expenses continue to financially burden households, often pushing them into poverty. increased financial stress can lead to increased oxidative stress. the major contributors to oxidative stress are free radicals such as superoxide anions, hydroxyl radicals, and hydroperoxyl radicals and all are significant physiologically. a non-radical which is significant physiologically is hydrogen peroxide (ama, 2023; baysah, 2023; ikwuka, 2023b; uche, 2023). the financial burden and economic cost of managing different chronic metabolic diseases have also been reported. the effects of some metabolic disorders arising from hormonal imbalance on female fertility have also been mentioned (aliu-ayo, 2023a; aliu-ayo, 2023b; ikwuka, 2023e; inya, 2023a; inya, 2023b; esan, 2025a; esan, 2025b). gametes which refer to the male and female reproductive cells (sperm and ova) are haploid and contain one set of chromosomes which could be either 1–22 x or 1–22 y (ikwuka, 2023a). some of these chronic metabolic diseases belong to a group commonly referred to as metabolic syndrome diseases (msds) which are also associated with very high morbidity and mortality rates (ikwuka, 2015; ikwuka, 2017a; ikwuka, 2017c; ikwuka, 2023c; ikwuka, 2023f; ikwuka, 2024; virstyuk, 2016). in addition, different studies have also reported associations between msds and high blood pressure, glucose and lipid metabolic disorders, asymptomatic hyperuricemia, systemic immune inflammation, and fibrogenesis – factors that may eventually lead to kidney damage (ikwuka, 2017d; ikwuka, 2017e; ikwuka, 2018c; ikwuka, 2018d; ikwuka, 2019a; ikwuka, 2019c; ikwuka, 2022; ikwuka, 2023d; virstyuk, 2017a; virstyuk, 2018a; virstyuk, 2019; virstyuk, 2021a; virstyuk, 2021b). on the other hand, metabolic syndrome diseases (msds) are interrelated diseases that contribute significantly to healthcare costs, morbidity, and mortality rates, thus requiring the search for new, effective, and innovative treatment options (ikwuka, 2024). innovative treatment options such as combining hmg-coa reductase inhibitors, sglt-2 inhibitors, and angiotensin ii receptor blockers (type 1) i.e. a2rb (at1), have shown clinical effectiveness indicated by marked improvements in the metabolic functions of the heart, liver, pancreas, and kidney (ikwuka, 2017b; ikwuka, 2018a; ikwuka, 2018b; ikwuka, 2021; virstyuk, 2017b; virstyuk, 2018b; virstyuk, 2018c; ikwuka, 2024). additionally, glucagonlike peptide 1 receptor agonists (glp-1 ras) such as liraglutide have been shown to improve the clinical outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension (ikwuka, 2019b). the national health insurance authority (nhia), a government-backed initiative, is designed to provide financial coverage for healthcare services to individuals with low income, aiming to improve their access to medical care. despite its intended purpose, the scheme faces notable shortcomings. key issues such as the demeanor of healthcare personnel, and levels of patient satisfaction significantly influence how widely the scheme is utilized (pillah, 2023). the low uptake of health insurance among healthcare professionals, who are expected to have better knowledge of the system, signals deeper structural and perception issues within nigeria’s health insurance framework. if medical doctors who play a critical role in advocating for, and implementing healthcare policies are themselves reluctant to engage with health insurance, it may undermine broader efforts to promote insurance adoption among the general population. as of 2020, the percentage of nigerians covered by nhis was 5% which is far less than the global target for universal health coverage (azeez, 2021). the uptake is even worse in the private sector where many of these medical doctors practice. over time, many people including medical doctors who have experience in the operations of health insurance have complained of certain issues with the service such as poor drug quality, prolonged waiting period, and out-ofstock medical supplies (azeez, 2021). the use of cheap/ poor quality medicines represents a factor affecting health insurance utilization by enrollees in nigeria. prolonged waiting period may also worsen disease outcomes, leading to death and other complications especially during health emergencies. out-of-stock medical supplies make healthcare facilities unable to provide treatment to the sick, hence exposing them to severe complications. people who use oop payment have also suffered some barriers to healthcare access leading to deterioration of health status, complication of illnesses, and catastrophic expenditure (baharin, 2019). in nigeria, the nhia is an important part of the healthcare system. without it, the country will face financial hardship. if the government does not implement the national health insurance scheme, people will not receive the benefits they need. the nhia has been an effective tool for ensuring equitable health coverage for all citizens. but it is not mandatory in every state in nigeria, and it does not cover all healthcare services. a few countries are now implementing the national health insurance scheme (alawode, 2021). currently, a national health insurance scheme is the most widespread form of health insurance in nigeria. the government is trying to create a health insurance scheme that covers all citizens of the nation. this is why, it is important to assess the national health insurance scheme and ensure that all members are protected. if a national health insurance scheme is not a good choice, it may not be the best option to improve the lives of many people in a country. mushin lga of lagos state was selected for this current study due to the availability of study participants who are pa ge 29 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 26-39 2024 medical doctors. of all the lgas in lagos state, mushin lga has the highest number of medical doctors due to the presence of lagos university teaching hospital (luth). the currently available research findings for this target population group are limited. thus, there is a need to evaluate the factors influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes, where the population of interest could be accessed in their good numbers. there is need to understand the factors influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes among medical doctors in mushin lga of lagos state for the purpose of providing useful information to the administrators of health insurance schemes in nigeria. this can lead to improvement in the administration of health insurance schemes in nigeria. when medical doctors utilize health insurance as an equitable health financing mechanism, it would promote trust in the scheme and increase the uptake of health insurance among the general population. materials and methods study area lagos state is one of the 36 states of nigeria, and it is both the most populous state and the smallest in land area. bounded to the south by the bight of benin and to the west by the international boundary with benin republic, lagos state borders ogun state to the east and north making it the only nigerian state to border only one other state. named after the city of lagos, the most populous city in africa, the lagos state was created from the old western region (the editors of encyclopaedia britannica, 2025). mushin local government area (lga) has a high number of medical doctors compared to other lgas in lagos state due to the presence of lagos university teaching hospital (luth) which is a federal tertiary healthcare facility and a foremost training institute for medical doctors at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in nigeria. luth has staff strength of 2,300 out of which 476 are medical doctors (makinde, 2018). in addition, mushin lga has also one general hospital, five primary healthcare centers, as well as 63 registered private hospitals where medical doctors work. as stated by the medical and dental council of nigeria in 2022, the number of registered and licensed medical doctors in nigeria was 24,000, out of which 2,561 practice in lagos state. no literature with specific number of medical doctors in private hospitals within mushin lga was found. however, there is a register of medical doctors in all the public hospitals within mushin which puts the figure as follows (roberts, 2015): 1. luth 476 medical doctors 2. general hospital, mushin 29 medical doctors 3. 5 primary healthcare centers 75 medical doctors 4. 63 registered private hospitals average of 2 medical doctors per hospital, approximately 126 medical doctors estimated total number of medical doctors in mushin lga – 706 study design this study is a cross-sectional descriptive study utilizing a quantitative approach and a multi-stage sampling technique. study population the study population is medical doctors who work in public and private hospitals within mushin lga, lagos state. sample size the sample size was calculated using the cochrane formula for cross-sectional studies: where, n = sample size z = standard normal variate set at 1.96, which corresponds to a 95% confidence level p = proportion in population extracted from the literature of a previous related study = 35% or 0.35 (knier, 2024) q = 1 – p = 1 – 0.35 = 0.65 d = degree of accuracy desired (absolute precision), which is 5% or 0.05 with one out of seven non-response or attrition rate expected during sampling and data collection, the final sample size was maintained at 300. inclusion criteria 1. medical doctors who work within mushin lga on a full-time basis. 2. medical doctors who consented to participate in the study voluntarily without any financial inducement. exclusion criteria 1. medical doctors who work outside mushin lga. 2. medical doctors who did not consent to participate in the study voluntarily. sampling technique a multi-stage sampling technique was utilized. in stage 1, a stratified random sampling technique was used to select respondents from each health center by proportionate allocation. the sampling frame was drawn from lagos university teaching hospital, mushin general hospital, 5 phcs and 63 private hospitals with a total of 706 medical doctors in mushin lga. the hospitals, percentage contributed to the sampling frame, and assigned sample size are as follows: in stage 2, a simple random sampling by balloting was used to select the respondents based on the sample size allocated to the health center. the medical doctors were pa ge 30 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 26-39 2024 table 1: sample size distribution s/no. health center no. of medical doctors sample size allocated 1 lagos university teaching hospital 476 204 2 mushin general hospital 29 12 3 papa ajao phc 17 7 4 alafia/adeoyo phc 13 5 5 igbehinadun phc 14 5 6 oduselu ola phc 16 7 7 odoeran/ogunlana phc 15 6 8 63 private hospitals 126 54 total 706 300 table 2: socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents variable frequency (n=300) percentage (%) gender female 94 31.3 male 206 68.7 age 45 and above 59 19.7 35-44 111 37.0 25-34 130 43.3 marital status divorced 4 1.3 married 153 51.0 separated 5 1.7 single 137 45.7 widowed 1 0.3 type of marriage monogamous 140 46.7 polygamous 13 4.3 given numbers, and the numbers were randomly selected per facility to determine the respondents. data collection a structured, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. all questionnaires were given a unique identification number that was recorded on the questionnaire. data collected was thoroughly checked and validated for accuracy and completeness. data analysis data was analyzed using spss version 26, and statistical significance was set at p-value<0.05. bivariate analysis was used to describe the dependent and the independent variables. simple frequency was used in describing categorical variables. chi-square and logistic regression (where appropriate) were used to test for association between independent and dependent variables. ethical considerations ethical approval was obtained from the health research and ethics committee (hrec) of the lagos university teaching hospital. the respondents were not influenced in any way into participating in the study. their participation was voluntary and without consequences for non-participants. written consent was obtained from respondents before commencement of the study. the confidentiality of the respondents was assured and maintained as unique numbers were used in assigning questionnaires, and not names. the respondents were also assured that data obtained from them would be used solely for research purposes. the nature and purpose of the study were explained to the prospective respondents. results and discussion table 2 shows the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. household size 1-2 62 20.7 3-4 87 29.0 5 and above 125 41.7 ethnicity hausa 17 5.7 igbo 106 35.3 others 53 17.7 yoruba 124 41.3 religion christianity 225 75.0 islam 64 2.3 others 8 2.7 traditional 3 1.0 monthly income below n200,000 20 6.7 n201,000-n300,000 93 31.0 n301,000-n400,000 70 23.3 n401,000-n500,000 61 20.3 above n500,000 56 18.7 pa ge 31 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 26-39 2024 table 2 shows that males account for 68.7% of the respondents. it also shows that 51.0% of the respondents are married. 41.3% of the respondents are yorubas, 75.0% are christians, and 31.0% earned between n201,000 and n300,000 per month. table 3: work-related characteristics of the respondents variable frequency (n=300) percentage (%) work setting general hospital 67 22.3 primary health center 55 18.3 private hospital 106 35.3 teaching hospital 53 17.7 others 19 6.3 cadre associate professor 7 2.3 consultant 49 16.3 table 4: association between socio-demographic characteristics and enrolment in any health insurance among the respondents variable enrolled in any health insurance χ2 p-value no (%) yes (%) gender female 24 (25.5) 70 (74.5) 5.261 0.024 male 30 (14.6) 176 (85.4) age 25-34 37 (28.5) 93 (71.5) 19.686 0.001f 35-44 15 (13.5) 96 (86.5) 45 and above 2 (3.4) 57 (96.6) marital status ever married 25 (46.42) 138 (87) 1.920 0.542 f single 29 (53.7) 108 (78.8) type of marriage monogamous 23 (16.4) 117 (83.6) 0.686 0.487 f polygamous 1 (7.7) 12 (92.3) household size 1-2 15 (12) 110 (88.0) 2.087 0.340 3-4 15 (17.2) 72 (82.8) 5 and above 12 (19.4) 50 (80.6) ethnicity hausa 3 (17.6) 14 (82.4) 2.606 0.428 f igbo 20 (18.9) 86 (81.1) others 13 (24.5) 40 (75.5) yoruba 18 (14.5) 106 (85.5) religion christianity 48 (21.3) 177 (78.7) 7.334 0.023f islam 6 (9.4) 58 (90.6) traditional/others 0 (0.0) 11 (100.0) table 3 shows that 35.3% of the respondents work in a private hospital, and that 31.7% are medical officers. 24.0% of the respondents have been in practice for 4 to 6 years since graduation. house officer 3 1.0 medical officer 95 31.7 professor 10 3.3 junior resident doctor 36 12.0 senior medical officer 65 21.7 senior resident doctor 35 11.7 duration of practice in years since graduation 0-3 54 18.0 4-6 72 24.0 7-9 53 17.7 10-12 69 23.0 >12 52 17.3 pa ge 32 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 26-39 2024 monthly income below n200,000 8 (40.0) 12 (60.0) 15.857 0.003f n201,000-n300,000 22 (23.7) 71 (76.3) n301,000-n400,000 14 (20.0) 56 (91.8) n401,000-n500,000 5 (8.2) 56 (91.8) above n500,000 5 (8.9) 51 (91.1) table 4 shows the association between socio-demographic characteristics and enrolment in any health insurance among the respondents. there was a statistically significant association between gender, age, religion, monthly income and enrolment in any health insurance among the respondents (p<0.05). table 5: association between work-related characteristics and enrolment in any health insurance among the respondents variable enrolled in any health insurance χ2 p-value no (%) yes (%) work setting general hospital 3 (4.5) 64 (95.5) 21.075 0.001f others 7 (36.8) 12 (63.2) primary health center 7 (12.7) 48 (87.3) private hospital 20 (18.9) 86 (81.1) teaching hospital 17 (32.1) 36 (67.9) cadre ho/mo/smo 36 (22.1) 127 (77.9) 12.996 0.005f junior/senior resident doctor 16 (22.5) 55 (77.5) consultant 2 (4.1) 47 (95.9) associate professor/professor 0 (0.0) 17 (100.0) duration of practice in years since graduation 0-3 9 (16.7) 45 (83.3) 27.700 0.001f 4-6 25 (34.7) 47 (65.3) 7-9 13 (24.5) 40 (75.5) 10-12 5 (7.2) 64 (92.8) >12 2 (3.8) 50 (96.2) employment type private sector 28 (22.8) 95 (77.2) 3.206 0.051 public sector 26 (14.7) 151 (85.3) others 13 (24.5) 40 (75.5) yoruba 18 (14.5) 106 (85.5) table 5 shows the association between work-related characteristics and enrolment in any health insurance among the respondents. there was a statistically significant association between work setting, cadre, duration of practice in years since graduation, and enrolment in any health insurance among the respondents (p<0.05). table 6: association between work-related characteristics and ever enrolled in any health insurance among the respondents variable enrolled in any health insurance χ2 p-value no (%) yes (%) work setting 31.568 0.001f general hospital 4 (6.0) 63 (94.0) primary health center 7 (12.7) 48 (87.3) private hospital 22 (20.8) 84 (79.2) pa ge 33 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 26-39 2024 table 6 shows the association between work-related characteristics and ever enrolled in any health insurance among the respondents. there was a statistically significant association between work setting, monthly income, cadre, duration of practice in years since graduation, employment type, and ever enrolled in any health insurance among the respondents (p<0.05). 79.0% of the respondents have never been enrolled in any health insurance, and 62.7% of the enrolled respondents have not utilized health insurance in the past one year. table 7: logistic regression analysis of socio-demographic characteristics, work-related characteristics, and ever enrolled in any health insurance variable coefficient aor 95% ci p-value gender female male .532 .160 1.702 .810 3.574 age 25-34 .282 35-44 .655 .215 1.924 .684 5.417 45 and above 1.845 .176 6.328 .437 91.715 religion christianity (reference) islam .851 .117 2.342 .809 6.781 work setting primary health center .007 general hospital 1.406 .077 4.081 .860 19.365 private hospital -.280 .595 .756 .269 2.123 teaching hospital -1.152 .085 .316 .085 1.173 others -1.117 .118 .327 .081 1.325 teaching hospital 17 (32.1) 36 (67.9) others 11(57.9) 8 (42.1) monthly income 18.522 0.001f below n200,000 9 (45.0) 11 (55.0) n201,000-n300,000 26 (28.0) 67 (72.0) n301,000-n400,000 14 (20.0) 56 (80.0) n401,000-n500,000 5 (8.2) 56 (91.8) above n500,000 7 (12.5) 49 (87.5) cadre 13.357 0.004 associate professor/professor 0 (0.0) 17 (100.0) consultant 3 (6.1) 46 (93.9) ho/mo/smo 41 (25.2) 122 (74.8) junior/senior resident doctor 17 (23.9) 54 (76.1) duration of practice in years since graduation 33.105 0.001f 0-3 10 (18.5) 44 (81.5) 10-12 5 (7.2) 64 (92.8) 4-6 29 (40.3) 43 (59.7) 7-9 14 (26.4) 39 (73.6) >12 3 (5.8) 49 (94.2) employment type 6.875 0.013 private sector 34 (27.6) 89 (72.4) public sector 27 (15.3) 150 (84.7) pa ge 34 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 26-39 2024 monthly income below n200,000 .179 n201,000-n300,000 .996 .111 2.708 .795 9.225 n301,000-n400,000 1.258 .072 3.520 .893 13.879 n401,000-n500,000 1.361 .119 3.901 .705 21.601 above n500,000 -.309 .775 .734 .088 cadre ho/mo/smo .437 junior/senior resident drs -.143 .793 .866 .297 consult/assoc. prof./prof. 1.704 .236 5.498 .328 92.074 duration of practice in years since graduation 0-3 .063 4-6 -1.326 .013 .266 .093 .758 7-9 -1.530 .020 .217 .060 .788 10-12 -.580 .530 .560 .091 3.430 >12 -.543 .758 .581 .018 18.291 table 7 shows logistic regression analysis of sociodemographic characteristics, work-related characteristics, and ever enrolled in any health insurance. there is no statistically significant association between sociodemographic characteristics, work-related characteristics, and ever enrolled in any health insurance, meaning that being enrolled in any health insurance is not dependent on socio-demographic characteristics, nor work-related characteristics. table 8: factors influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes by the respondents factor frequency (n) percentage (%) prolonged waiting time strongly agree 202 67.3 agree 59 19.7 neutral 30 10.0 disagree 4 1.3 strongly disagree 5 1.7 use of substandard drugs strongly agree 194 64.7 agree 64 21.3 neutral 26 8.6 disagree 6 2.0 strongly disagree 10 3.4 shortage of drugs strongly agree 186 62.0 agree 73 24.3 neutral 24 8.0 disagree 8 2.7 strongly disagree 9 3.0 poor attitude of healthcare workers strongly agree 156 52.0 agree 61 20.3 neutral 56 18.7 disagree 17 5.7 strongly disagree 10 3.3 insurance scheme does not cover some healthcare services and drugs strongly agree 207 69.0 agree 62 20.7 neutral 20 6.7 disagree 4 1.3 strongly disagree 7 2.3 stringent and unsatisfactory terms and conditions of health insurance schemes strongly agree 187 62.3 agree 68 22.7 neutral 24 8.0 disagree 12 4.0 strongly disagree 9 3.0 table 8 shows the identified six factors influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes such as prolonged waiting time (87.0%), use of substandard drugs for enrollees (86.0%), shortage of drugs (out-ofstock medicines) (86.3%), poor attitude of healthcare workers (72.3%), insurance scheme does not cover some healthcare services and drugs (89.7%), and lastly, stringent and unsatisfactory terms and conditions of health insurance schemes (85.0%). in line with sustainable development goal 3 (sdg 3) which encourages healthy lives and well-being for all at all ages (egbewole, 2024a; egbewole, 2024b), utilization pa ge 35 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 26-39 2024 of health insurance is important for universal health coverage especially in nigeria where health insurance coverage is below 6% (ilesanmi, 2023). hence, the factors influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes by medical doctors who provide healthcare in the society need to be studied. nhia is seen as a social health insurance (shi) which is a compulsory scheme for federal civil servants in nigeria, and allows the pooling of resources to finance health services from other sources such as taxes, community insurance, private health insurance, and others. it usually involves defined statutory contributions from the employers, their employees, and the government via a payroll deduction system. the three major social health insurance programs considered in the nhia are informal sector social health insurance scheme, voluntary group social health insurance scheme, and formal sector social health insurance scheme. several factors impact the effective utilization of the nhia. these include excessive waiting times at hospitals, rigid regulations and unsatisfactory service terms, use of low quality medications, frequent drug shortages, unfriendly behavior of healthcare staff, and lack of coverage for some services and medications (okah, 2023). in another study (adebiyi, 2021), the uptake of the national health insurance scheme (nhis) is influenced by several barriers, including extended waiting times and service delays at healthcare facilities, rigid policies and unfavorable conditions, administration of lowquality or inferior medications, frequent drug shortages or unavailability of essential medicines, unfriendly or unprofessional behavior of healthcare personnel, and limited service and medicine coverage under the scheme (adebiyi, 2021). prolonged waiting time this current study revealed that majority of the respondents (87.0%) considered prolonged waiting time as a factor. excessive waiting periods in healthcare facilities have been consistently identified, including in south-east nigeria, as a factor contributing to patient dissatisfaction. long delays can lead to worsening health conditions, complications during emergencies, disruption to patients’ daily schedules, inconvenient for accompanying people, as well as patient fatigue and frustration. patients prefer prompt attention. delays can negatively affect their mood, and consequently, treatment outcomes. other recent studies have confirmed long waiting times as a key reason for dissatisfaction and reduced participation (adebiyi, 2021; lee, 2020). use of substandard drugs this current study showed that one of the factors influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes among medical doctors is the use of substandard drugs. the majority of the respondents (86.0%) agreed with this factor. this may also be reflective of the poor nhia coverage (less than 6%) in nigeria. patients who have utilized nhia previously always compare the standard of drugs they were prescribed under nhia with the drugs they have been receiving as a fee-paying patient. this might have accounted for their conclusion that nhia makes use of substandard drugs which affects the quality of care. shortage of drugs this current study also highlighted shortage of drugs (out-of-stock medicines) under nhia as a factor influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes. a high proportion (86.3%) of the respondents agreed. most times, enrollees who do not receive complete medicines would end up using another payment mechanism such as out-of-pocket payment system, which is catastrophic. poor attitude of healthcare workers in this current study, 72.3% of the respondents agreed that healthcare workers have poor attitude. a study among federal civil servants in rivers state, nigeria identified poor attitude of healthcare providers as a significant deterrent to nhis utilization. the increased workload associated with a growing number of enrollees may contribute to staff burnout and negative behavior. as a result, many enrollees report dissatisfaction with services and reduced engagement with the scheme. health professionals often prioritize out-of-pocket paying clients over nhis enrollees, likely due to the immediate cash flow provided by fee-for-service (ffs) patients. examples of poor conduct include lack of courtesy, delayed responses to questions, dismissive behavior, clear favoritism toward ffs patients, prolonged waiting times, and declining service quality (adebiyi, 2021; kofoworola, 2020). this could be due to the fact that the workload in public hospitals is overwhelming for the healthcare workers, making them fatigued and unwilling to provide quality care to the teeming population of nhia enrollees who are always at the hospitals with their family members. a similar study in the south-west region of nigeria revealed significantly lower satisfaction level (adewole, 2022). nevertheless, nhis (now nhia) has improved healthcare access, and remains a strategic tool for advancing public health. insurance scheme does not cover some healthcare services and drugs this current study revealed that 89.7% of the respondents indicate that nhia service does not cover some healthcare services or drugs. nhia beneficiaries often expect the scheme to cover most or all of their healthcare needs. however, when they learn that some treatments or services are excluded, frustration sets in. many feel the scheme does not offer adequate value for their contributions. rigid regulations and limited benefits are therefore major deterrents to widespread utilization (ipinnimo, 2022). it was shown in this current study that inadequate benefits accounted for a significant level of poor utilization of health insurance scheme among pa ge 36 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 26-39 2024 89.7% of the respondents. this finding corroborates with a study conducted recently in south-west nigeria where most of the respondents indicated that inadequate benefit package is their reason for poor utilization of health insurance (adewole, 2022). stringent and unsatisfactory terms and conditions of health insurance schemes this current study also revealed that majority (85.0%) of the respondents agreed that stringent and unsatisfactory terms and conditions of health insurance schemes is a factor influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes. nonetheless, it is pertinent to point out some of the limitations of this current study. several parameters of the study were based on self-report and are subject to different recall biases. prospects for further research include the fact that the sample size was modest to make any wide-scale projections. similar studies should be repeated using both rural and urban samples with different socio-economic variables to find the similarities and differences between various groups of people within the general population. conclusion enhancing public knowledge of health insurance schemes can help bring forward more effective policies. however, nhia is not a cure-all and must be refined to truly elevate healthcare quality. the administrators of health insurance schemes in synergy with the ministry of health are to meticulously review the operations of the scheme with a view to addressing the factors influencing the utilization of health insurance schemes. hospitals and healthcare facilities are to be cautioned on the use of substandard drugs for nhia enrollees considering the effects on their lives. governments at all levels should create a massive and sustained awareness of health insurance among the population. acknowledgement the authors are thankful to all the medical doctors in mushin lga of lagos state who agreed voluntarily and without any financial inducement to participate in this research; and to everyone who contributed in one way or the other to make this research a success. references adebisi, s. a., odiachi, j. m., & chikere, n. a. 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(2018b). effect of dapagliflozin on the level of uric acid during asymptomatic hyperuricemia in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 and concomitant arterial hypertension. art of medicine, 1(5), 21-26. available online: https://art-of-medicine.ifnmu.edu.ua/index. php/aom/article/view/179/150 virstyuk, n. h., & ikwuka, a. o. (2018c). dapagliflozin influence on the clinical course of diabetes mellitus type 2 and essential hypertension in patients. recent advances in environmental science from the euromediterranean and surrounding regions (pp. 2007-2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70548-4_582. virstyuk, n. g., & ikwuka, a. o. (2019). nephropathic characteristics in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 and essential hypertensive disease. art of medicine, 1(5), 44-47. https://doi.org/10.21802/artm.2019.1.9.44. virstyuk, n. g., & ikwuka, a. o. (2021a). asymptomatic hyperuricemia and functional state of the kidneys in patients with essential arterial hypertension and concomitant diabetes mellitus type 2. european journal of clinical medicine, 2(3), 100-104. https://doi. org/10.24018/clinicmed.2021.2.3.65. virstyuk, n. h., ikwuka, a. o., luchko, o. r., & kocherzhat, o. i. (2021b). peculiarities of renal insufficiency in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 and arterial hypertension. materials of scientific-practical conference with international participation “achievements and prospects of experimental and clinical endocrinology” twentieth danilevsky readings (pp. 86-87). welcome, m. o. (2011). the nigerian health care system: need for integrating adequate medical intelligence and surveillance systems. j pharm bioallied sci, 3(4), 470-478. https://doi.org/10.4103/0975-7406.90. pa ge 1 pa ge 53 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) public engagement and resistance in the niger delta through social media and rhetorical discourse sunday a. adegbenro1, ayodele james akinola1* volume 4 issue 2, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i2.4042 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: november 15, 2024 accepted: december 21, 2024 published: may 31, 2025 this paper examines the rhetorical agency and resistance strategies of nigerian netizens on social media to address environmental degradation in the niger delta. framing social media as a modern public sphere, the research explores how twitter-like platforms enable the mobilization of marginalized groups to articulate their grievances and demand accountability among corporate and governmental entities. drawing on critical discourse analysis and the appraisal framework, this study examines tweets and their linguistic strategies that have been used to amplify calls for environmental justice through emotive language, moral judgment, and visual imagery. the research underlines the intersection of digital activism and socio-political resistance through the analysis of themes such as oil exploitation, systemic neglect, and failures of governance. the results, through comprehensive analysis, detail how nigerian netizens frame oil as a “curse,” while also critiquing state inefficiencies and mobilizing in global solidarity via hashtags and visual narratives. the research highlights social media for democratizing public discourse and enabling the voices of underrepresented regions to influence policy and challenge hegemonic structures. this paper contributes to the knowledge of digital activism in postcolonial contexts and illustrates the transformative power of language and digital platforms in the struggle for environmental justice and political accountability in the niger delta. keywords critical discourse analysis, digital activism, environmental justice, niger delta, rhetorical agency 1 university of kansas, united states 1 michigan technological university, united states * corresponding author’s e-mail: aakinola@mtu.edu introduction the notion of the publics is very important to rhetoricians, especially in studies that explore the fusion of vernacular speech, place, and political action. social media as a public fits gerard hauser’s (1987) description of a social-psychological space that houses a common world that has common meanings for those inhabiting it. according to gerard hauser (1987), such a space is filled with values and norms that are constantly evolving through the experiences of strangers speaking and acting on issues that are discussed. the public sphere thus refers to a discursive realm that gives individuals and groups the affordances to interact freely with the intention of forming a common sense of reality (hauser, 1985; hauser & blair, 1982). according to gerard (1987), the public sphere allows citizens to voice their concerns and pursue a common cause. the rhetorical possibilities of discursive spaces rely on the open-endedness of the public sphere. in such spaces, rhetoric, and conflict are possibilities. gerard (1987) states that “the possibility of conflict enables social actors to appear and to stake their claims to historicity. it allows power to be concretely manifested since only empowered social actors may appear and may speak. consequently, public communication is always in a necessary relationship to conditions of power, since one cannot exercise one’s rhetorical franchise without simultaneously exercising power.” over the past two decades, there has been an increasing force of social media that also challenges the degradation of the environment in the niger delta. social media in nigeria and beyond has become a vibrant avenue through which citizens voluntarily assemble to deliberate on issues of public interest and influence the political management of such concerns. the niger delta in nigeria has become one of the hotspots in nature degradation and socio-political conflict impelled by resource exploitation, particularly oil (ogungbemi, 2023). the resulting deforestation, pollution, and displacement have left the region’s environment in crisis while communities continue to suffer the compounded negative effects of corporate negligence and governmental inaction (ogungbemi, 2024). these challenges have been provoking both violent and nonviolent forms of resistance; the latter increasingly take the forms of literary activism and social media advocacy. social media is especially fast becoming a key public sphere in which nigerian netizens engage in discourses, amplify their voices, and mobilize for action over environmental injustices. despite its potential, there is yet limited scholarly attention to ways in which these online discourses function as spaces of resistance in fostering rhetorical agency, shaping public consciousness, and challenging power dynamics. the research seeks to bridge this gap by considering the role of social media in shaping environmental discourse and activism within the niger delta, with focus on its rhetorical and discursive dimensions. guided by the following questions, the research looks at: how are social media interactions, particularly those related to environmental issues in the niger delta, locally organized and constructed? to what pa ge 54 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 53-61, 2025 extent are nigerian netizens using social media platforms to challenge environmental degradation and hold corporate and governmental actors accountable? how does social media discourse contribute to the resistive work against hegemonic power structures and amplify environmental justice both as an idea and practice? literature review for decades, the niger delta of nigeria has grappled with profound social conflict and ecological degradation rooted in the region’s exploitation of oil resources (iheka, 2021; ogungbemi, 2016). the german company nigeria bitumen corporation carried out the first oil exploration in nigeria in 1908 (steyn, 2009). however, it was in 1956 that shell-bp drilled its first oil well in oloibiri, commencing exports by 1958 (iheka, 2021). deforestation, pollution, and displacement associated with oil prospecting have been catastrophic for vegetation, human settlements, and farmlands; indeed, aquatic life has been grossly affected in all oil-prospecting areas of the region (ogungbemi, 2024). the ecological damage in the niger delta has largely gone uncompensated, leaving communities to bear the brunt of corporate negligence and government inaction (eyinla & ukpo, 2006; afinotan & ojakorotu, 2009). this continued degradation has catalyzed both violent and nonviolent resistance from the region’s inhabitants and sympathetic nigerians. violent resistance often manifests in the form of militant activities, which include the bombing of oil installations and the kidnapping of oil workers for ransom (ogungbemi, 2023). on the other hand, nonviolent resistance is articulated through creative, and other intellectual mediums. literary and artistic productions like music, films, poetry, and prose have been used by writers, artists, and activists to highlight the catastrophic situation of the region’s environment and people. unlike traditional forms of protest, social media offers unparalleled flexibility, creativity, and rapid information circulation, making it an effective tool for mobilization. in this way, social media is becoming a key cultural site of protest, allowing nigerians to mobilize, disseminate information, and amplify their voices in solidarity with the niger delta and other affected areas. they democratize public debate by allowing both individuals and communities to contest the status quo and demand justice in manners that breach physical and geographical boundaries. the literary activism joined by the protests in social media, all together forge an enormous, everchanging resistance to environmental injustice in the niger delta. by applying both discourse and linguistic perspectives to the study of public participation in environmental discussions on twitter, the study reveals how nondominant groups in nigeria benefit from the new regime of rhetorical agency and self-enfranchisement that social media affords them and makes them participatory actors in the political/public deliberations in the country. social media provides a safe space for ordinary nigerian netizens and empowers them and gives them the visibility and voice to evaluate, negotiate, make choices, and question untoward actions regarding the environment. materials and methods the analysis in this paper is done in a critical manner, leveraging ogungbemi’s (2023) and ogungbemi (2024) innovative approach in the integration of cda principles and the appraisal framework for a broad comprehension of environmental discourse. this hybrid framework enables us to examine how speakers articulate their positions, views, judgments, and attitudes regarding certain environmental contexts. critical discourse analysis, as initiated by fairclough (1995), centers around the relationship between language, power, and social structures, highlighting how discourse represents and maintains societal ideologies. in contrast, the appraisal framework, emanating from systemic functional linguistics, provides apparatus that investigates the lexis of evaluation for the expression of attitude, the negotiation of relationship, and the positioning of interlocutors within a discourse. according to fairclough (1995), cda aims at the systematic investigation of often opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events, and texts and (b) broader social and cultural structures, relations, and processes. this method looks into how such discursive practices and texts emerge from and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power. furthermore, cda critically examines how the opacity of these relations between discourse and society serves to secure power and maintain hegemony (ogungbemi & okunsanya 2016; ogungbemi, 2018). fairclough’s framework suggests a critical discourse analyst has to go beyond intra-textual analysis to inter-textual analysis. this entails situating the linguistic findings within the broader socio-cultural and political contexts that shape the text, making visible the underlying ideologies and power dynamics at play. fairclough’s tripartite framework incorporates three levels of analysis: (1) the analysis of spoken and written texts/discourses, (2) discourse practices (the production, distribution, and consumption of texts), and (3) discursive events as instances of broader socio-cultural practices. applied within the frame of literary criticism, this approach enriches our understanding of the complex socio-political and ideological nuances interwoven into literary creations. it reveals the dynamic interactions between language and its historical and cultural contexts, offering a multidimensional lens for interpreting narratives and their impact on societal structures. by adopting fairclough’s framework, researchers can gain a holistic perspective that connects textual features to broader societal dynamics, making it a powerful tool for uncovering latent power structures and ideological influences embedded in texts (ogungbemi, 2016; ogunsiji & ogungbemi, 2016). these frameworks integrated allow the researcher to pa ge 55 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 53-61, 2025 capture both structural and emotional dimensions of environmental discourse. while cda is a lens through which to peel back the layers to expose latent power dynamics, ideologies, and social practices structuring discourse, the appraisal framework is used for the finegrained investigation of how speakers use language to express affect (emotion), judgment (moral evaluation), and appreciation (valuation of phenomena) (biber 2006; olaluwoye & ogungbemi, 2020). the duality of the approach finds relevance in environmental discourse, as the language here describes the ecological challenges but also appeals for action, criticizes institutional failures, and frames issues of justice and responsibility. we adopt ogungbemi’s (2023) innovative method for this paper to observe how speakers identify and apply evaluative strategies in framing environmental issues, power relations, and advocating change. this is particularly appropriate for teasing out the intricacies of how individuals and communities express their concerns and resistances within the broader context of environmental degradation. by combining these perspectives, the study attempts to offer a deeper understanding of how language functions as both a reflective and transformative tool in the fight for environmental justice. stance refers to how writers or speakers deploy lexicogrammatical options to express their perspectives, beliefs, judgments, and attitudes (biber, 2006; ogungbemi, 2016; ogungbemi, 2018). biber and finnegan (1989) note that stance involves the deployment of lexical and grammatical articulation of judgments, feelings, or devotion within a text. discussing stance, hyland (2005) observes that it allows writers or gives them the freedom to either confirm their authority and identity with their arguments or to distance themselves by masking their involvement. one can extrapolate from hyland’s position that stance concerns positioning the writer and determining whether they identify with their arguments or not. du bois (2007) suggests that positioning functions to evaluate a social actor to evaluate them for stance and socio-cultural value. nigerian netizens on twitter deploy language to ask questions, evaluate, and ask questions in a bid to compel the ruling class to do something to solve the country’s environmental crisis. results and discussion emotive language and moral judgment in environmental activism in environment discourses regarding the niger delta of nigeria, agency is not only a property of the human but also that of the non-human (material). tweeps rely on the combination of images and texts in bringing attention to the degradation of the environment of the niger delta and its people. responses to the degradation of the niger delta have taken various dimensions over the years, from niger deltans taking to peaceful protests to call the attention of the government to their plights, to literary writers devoting extensive energies in fictionalizing the crisis. these tweets show a discursively coherent framing of oil as a “curse” to the niger delta by employing various linguistic strategies to signify resource exploitation. through repeating such themes, terms like “curse,” “servitude,” and “agony” underscore the negativity brought by oil extraction into this region. the responsibility is being directly placed upon the federal government, as evident from statements like “fg sucks oil from those oil communities” and “leave the cash cow in agony and servitude.” this kind of language not only speaks to governance but also points to a power relationship wherein the niger delta is exploited and neglected. strong modality, such as the emphatic “oil is a curse to niger delta!!” and cautious warnings like “if not handled with care,” add urgency and certainty to the discourse. intertextual references to the region’s history of exploitation further anchor the tweets in shared cultural and political understanding, giving the messages broader resonance. the information in these tweets emanates from persons with first-hand knowledge or strong interest in the sociopolitical concerns besetting the niger delta. these are tweets based on lived experiences and media discourses of the region. social media, especially twitter, has become a megaphone through which these voices can reach audiences everywhere, reinforcing their articulation into global conversations around environmental justice and political accountability. hashtags like #endbadgovernanceinnigeria and #wellsofdilemma serve as rallying points, calling people to collective action and interpretation of systemic failure. the discourse reflects a deeper ideological critique of postcolonial extractive economies, where resource wealth often exacerbates inequality and environmental degradation. figure 1: a tweet asserting that oil is a curse pa ge 56 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 53-61, 2025 it challenges entrenched power structures that prioritize profit over the welfare of affected communities, with the historical context of the niger delta’s exploitation providing a critical backdrop for these ongoing socioeconomic and ecological struggles. the conversation about environmental degradation is mainly on the centrality of oil as an agent of curse to the land and people of niger delta. oil is experienced and constructed, verbally and visually as a central material problem. oil which is meant to be a blessing has become a curse according to the tweep in figure 1. the criminal neglect of oil communities by oil multinational companies and the federal government is evidence of the state’s disrespectful and malicious attitude toward the region. the tweep claims that oil becomes an agent that is exploited by the federal government— “fg sucks oil from those oil communities”. the tweep alleges that the government uses the money made from oil communities to develop communities that do not have oil, leaving the environment of the oil communities extremely degraded. another tweep by mwanake mwanake with hashtag #wellsofdilemma provides a transnational approach to the agency of oil in africa. the tweep refers to oil that is discovered in turkana, kenya, drawing a comparison between the criminal neglect of the environment of the niger delta and what can happen if the kenyan government is not careful and discreet in their handling of oil exploration in the region. the tweets show intense emotive engagement through their affective language; the words “agony,” “curse,” and “servitude” have effectively displayed anger, frustration, and despair over the effects of oil exploitation on the niger delta. this emotive tone is combined with moral judgment: implicitly, the federal government and those responsible for policymaking are criticized for neglect and exploitation in not responding to the needs of the region. moreover, oil is valued not as a source of prosperity but as a “curse,” a token of injustice and systemic suffering. this negative judgment reconfigures what is conventionally perceived as an economic blessing into a cause of great social devastation and affirms the larger significance of resource mismanagement and inequity. from an engagement point of view, most of the tweets apply dialogic contraction since they make use of declarations like “oil is a curse to niger delta!!” to state their arguments as undisputed facts, shutting off spaces for any other stance. on the other hand, some are dialogically expanded, as in “if not handled with care,” when the discursive space was opened for better governance to alter the impacts of oil exploitation. gradation techniques further intensify the strength and sharpness of the message. writing in capital letters (“oil is a curse”) and using exclamation marks underlines the urgency and emotional weight of the discourse, while an accurate focus on the niger delta and the federal government tightens the clarity and directness of the critique to make the intended message strike powerfully home with its audience. in figure 2, visual imagery works, here, on several interrelated levels. first, the tweep posts an image that shows a raw sample of an oil spill in a body of water in a location believed to be the niger delta in nigeria. in the contaminated water, there is a man trying to scoop water. second, the tweep asks the question: “what does this picture tell you?” the question becomes an invitation for the public to be witnesses to the level of environmental ruination that the members of oil communities live with daily. the relatively unmediated image and the text in figure 2 reveal the frustrations of the people about the oil spill that the government has left unattended to. the tweep uses the tweet to call on the nigerian senate to #passnosdrabillnow. the bill is directed at ensuring a timely and effective response to all oil spills in the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors in nigeria. after the online campaign to #passnosdrabillnow, the federal government of nigeria declared that it would review the nosdrabill. this showed the success of this campaign geared toward awakening the government toward cleaning oil spills and rescuing the heavily degraded niger delta environment. to realize the fuller impact of the analysis done so far and garner more out of the oil spill materially, rhetorically, and even politically, one should be attentive to not only the performative nature of the image of the oil spill but also the message it communicates to capitalism and the nigerian government. here we could understand the oil spill to be functioning as a synecdoche for the excesses of liberal capitalism and the refusal of the multinational oil companies and the nigerian government to clean the oil spills as the failure of capitalism in the country and other places where those figure 2: a tweet that captures oil spill on the environment pa ge 57 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 53-61, 2025 multinational companies operate. from the perspective of intersectional rhetoric, the offensive image of the oil spill, and the inciting question “what does this picture tell you?” incited animosity that calls into question the literal and symbolic shady actions of liberal capitalism, and invited the public to begin advancing social movement against the government and the oil companies who are responsible for the oil spills and the general degradation of the niger delta environment. the tweets highlight the environmental degradation in the niger delta, framing it as a normalized crisis. through phrases like “treated like it’s now a norm,” the text emphasizes systemic neglect and resignation, suggesting a deeply rooted societal and institutional failure to address the issue. responsibility is subtly attributed to governance structures and corporate actors, critiquing their lack of accountability in managing the environmental impacts of oil spills. additionally, the hashtag #passnosdrabillnow draws on legislative discourse, linking the environmental crisis to broader policy shortcomings and advocating for reform to address the persistent degradation and its consequences. the production of the tweets appears to stem from an advocate or concerned citizen, utilizing a combination of striking visuals and compelling textual appeals to highlight the severity of the situation. social media, particularly twitter, plays a crucial role in distributing this message, amplifying its reach and connecting it to ongoing advocacy efforts through the strategic use of hashtags. the audience is invited to interpret the imagery and text as evidence of a critical and unresolved issue, encouraging engagement and participation in the campaign for legislative action. the text critiques the extractive economy’s role in perpetuating inequality and environmental harm, situating itself within broader calls for environmental justice and governance reform. this discourse challenges the power dynamics between local communities and the authorities or corporations benefiting from resource exploitation, while drawing on the niger delta’s historical context of systemic neglect and failed regulatory measures. the emotional tone of the tweets is conveyed through language and imagery, eliciting responses of frustration, despair, and urgency. terms like “negative impact” and “norm” highlight the severity of the situation, while the moral judgment implicit in the critique of policymakers and corporations frames them as complicit in allowing environmental degradation to persist. the oil spill is evaluated negatively, representing not only environmental harm but also governance failure, which underscores the broader systemic issues at play. the rhetorical question “what does this picture tell you?” expands the discourse, inviting readers to reflect and engage critically, while the statement “treated like it’s now a norm” contracts the conversation, presenting the issue as an undeniable reality. graduation techniques amplify the intensity of the message through evocative imagery, such as oil-soaked environments and polluted hands, while the hashtag sharpens the focus on actionable advocacy, providing a clear legislative solution to the crisis. together, these elements create a powerful and urgent call for reform and accountability. in figure 3, the tweep, felix akugha who is a broadcast journalist and the anchor of the program: inside the niger delta-tv, and which way nigeriaradio, also tweeted a tweet containing an image of some men who are crudely engaging in scooping crude oil with buckets into canoes. figure 3: men scooping crude oil spills with buckets into canoes in figure 3, the agency of oil and its materiality also take center stage. the distressing image of men crudely scooping crude oil with buckets reveals the travesty of the clean-up purportedly organized by the government and the oil companies. whether or not the clean-up is thorough, it is important to focus on the effect of the action of the public in getting the government and the multinational companies to be responsible. the practical goal of any rhetoric is to persuade people to act in one way or another. calling out the government and the multinational oil companies for neglecting oil spills at okpare-olomu should be considered successful because the performance of felix akugha using his tv program inside the niger delta provided intersectional rhetoric of resistance that challenged the constraints of the system on the sociopolitical agency. he used the program to uncover the neglect suffered by the community and to expose those behind the oil spill. taking to twitter to report on the effect of the call-out, the tweep is further enlisting the concerned public in policing the forces of capitalism and the government that has deliberately polluted the environment and has refused to clean it up. the tweet shows the incompetence and inefficiency of cleaning up oil spills in the niger delta and evidence systemic neglect in attending to such environmental pa ge 58 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 53-61, 2025 disasters. this phrase, “rather ‘crude’ clean-up of the crude oil spill”, strikes a chord in that it has compared the severity of the problem with the most rudimentary ways of trying to attend to it. this ironic wordplay underlines not only the primitiveness of the response but also the larger systemic failure to apply effective solutions. the description of workers “using men to scoop the crude with buckets into canoes” further underlines this inadequacy, reflecting poorly on governance and institutional structures tasked with managing such crises. the rudimentary methods of cleanup are a strong representation of how the wealth generated from oil extraction is not complimented with infrastructure or resources to mitigate its harmful impacts. other salient features of the text are intertextuality; for example, it mentions a program, inside the niger delta, and a location, okpare-olomu. these references place the issue in a broader context of neglect, which is well-documented and forms the subject of much debate in the media and public space. the tweet especially points out that attention was paid only after this story was broadcast, hence underlining the importance of media in bringing these crises to attention. however, the response being crude, shows again the systemic inefficiencies of dealing with environmental degradation. it is an invitation to view the incident considering a broader pattern of governance and institutional failure. the production by a journalist or media figure adds another layer of critique, as it situates the narrative within the framework of investigative journalism prompting action. this tweet would, in other words, suggest that without media attention, even this inadequate cleanup might not have taken place. this dynamic reflects the institutional structures that do not have the ability to act without external pressure, and even then, the responses are woefully inadequate. social media, in this case, twitter, acts as the distribution platform to spread the message far and wide. the visual imagery together with the textual description increases the level of urgency that the reader cannot afford to look away from. the concluding phrase, “nigeria, what a country,” speaks volumes about resignation and frustration, encouraging readers to read the cleanup as symbolic of deeper systemic inefficiencies. the social practice of this discourse provides a critique of the greater ideological framework of governance and the extractive economy in nigeria. while the country is rich in oil, no investment in environmental stewardship or disaster management infrastructure is in place. the criticism follows decades of complaints of poor resource management in nigeria, where oil extraction revenues often go to corporations and a wealthy elite while local communities receive nothing in return. the tweet thus showcases how those communities have become so powerless that they use their hands and shoddy equipment to try to handle these supposedly very technical aspects of environmental degradation. this is where power dynamics are in play: while local labor is tasked with cleaning up, those in powerful positions avoid liability altogether. decades of oil spills and environmental degradation have characterized the niger delta due to corruption and a lack of corporate responsibility. the tweet draws on this historical context to underscore the enduring nature of the problem. it reflects a cycle of neglect and inadequate responses that perpetuate the suffering of local communities and the degradation of their environment. this narrative is a critique of the present, a reminder of past failures, urging systemic change to break this cycle of environmental harm and institutional neglect. together, the text and context frame the issue as an urgent problem which needs more than temporary or superficial fixes-it needs the changing of governance, accountability, and resource management at its root. figure 3 involves high emotional responses because of its lexical and graphic support to show frustration, dismay, or disappointment. terms like “crude” point to a primitively inadequate way to answer to one of the major environmental disasters; a shocked emoji ???? also served the same function to reveal that disbelief for an insufficiency in a response. these affective elements underscore the emotional weight of the situation, calling attention to the jarring contrast between the gravity of the oil spill and the primitive means utilized in cleaning it up. the text taps into collective frustration over systemic neglect, inviting readers to share in the emotional outrage over the lack of meaningful action. in that sense, moral judgment implicitly targets policymakers and corporate actors for their neglect and ineptitude in managing environmental disasters. this tweet frames those stakeholders as irresponsible or incapable of providing the needed resources and infrastructure to respond to disasters. such an act of scooping oil manually into canoes was in vivid detail a symbol of institutional failure, reflecting poorly on governance structures that would allow such inefficiency. this critique spans beyond the immediate scene into broader issues of accountability and governance, positing the cleanup process to be emblematic of the deeper systemic dysfunctions. the evaluation of the cleanup is overtly negative, with terms such as “primitive” being used to describe it as grossly insufficient. the text has gone ahead to describe the efforts as a “crude clean up of the crude oil spill”; this is a sharp critique of the mismatch between the severity of the environmental damage and the resources or methods applied to address it. this appraisal reflects poorly on institutional responses, casting them as not only inadequate but also as indicative of a broader pattern of neglect and lack of preparedness. the imagery reinforces this assessment, driving the message home that the response to the oil spill falls far short of the standards required to effectively address the crisis. engagementwise, the tweet employs a mix of dialogic contraction and expansion. the statement “nigeria, what a country” contracts the discourse by closing off alternative interpretations, framing the situation as an unchanging and systemic dysfunction. this declarative tone leaves little room for debate in presenting the inadequacy of this pa ge 59 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 53-61, 2025 cleanup as a fact of reality. on the other hand, “my prog inside the niger delta” expands such discourse by acknowledging the role of the media in bringing attention to the crisis. even this expansion is tempered by a limited and insufficient nature of an action it spurred, implying the need for broader systemic changes. gradation techniques amplify the critique by heightening the intensity and sharpness of the message. the imagery of workers scooping oil into canoes is particularly powerful, underlining the inadequacy and absurdity of the response. the term “crude clean up” is even more strongly critical, highlighting the gulf between the seriousness of the spill and the primitive measures being used to try and remedy it. the focus on specific actions, such as the manual scooping of oil, coupled with the mention of location, okpare-olomu, makes the critique sharp by making the inefficiencies in environmental management highly visible and relatable. these elements ensure that the inadequacy of the cleanup efforts is not only understood intellectually but also felt emotionally, driving home the urgency of systemic reform. shell’s refusal to help combat the environmental ruination that its activities have largely been responsible for a sign of how capitalism is only interested in profit-making at the expense of all other things. the text highlights the inefficiency and inadequacy of the cleaning up of oil spills in the niger delta, underlining the systemic neglect that characterizes environmental management in the region. the phrase “rather ‘crude’ clean-up of the crude oil spill” is particularly effective in bringing out the irony of using very primitive methods to tackle what was a major environmental disaster. the crudeness of the term “crude” in the light of such seriousness of an issue, however, highlights a severe deficiency of the response as part of the greater critique of institutional and governmental neglect. further examples of such a rudimentary approach would be how workers used men to scoop the crude with buckets into canoes, again showing governance structures very poorly managing this kind of crisis. this imagery not only reveals the inefficiency of the cleanup but also serves as a strong metaphor for larger systemic failures in assuaging the environmental challenges of the niger delta. agency and responsibility are central to the critique, as the text implicitly seeks to hold policymakers, oil companies, and regulatory bodies responsible for the inadequacy of the cleanup efforts. the language emphasizes the failure of institutional structures to provide necessary resources or infrastructure to tackle the spill by shifting the focus to the manual and rudimentary methods employed. the phrase “using men to scoop the crude with buckets into canoes” suggests a reliance on unskilled labor and minimal tools, underscoring the lack of a coordinated, professional response. the critique runs much deeper than this immediate scene of devastation into broad systemic failures in governance, environmental protection, and disaster management of the region. the intertextual reference to the program inside the niger delta and the place okpare-olomu sets this within a broader framing narrative of neglect and systemic failure. in referring to the program, it reveals a critical text aware of the role media could play in highlighting these crises to stimulate action, however inadequate. the specific mention of okpare-olomu situates the problem within a real, tangible community, emphasizing that these environmental challenges are not abstract but deeply affect the lives and livelihoods of local populations. these framing invites readers to connect the niger delta’s environmental degradation to broader issues of governance and corporate accountability, situating the crisis within a global discourse on resource exploitation and environmental justice. the making of the tweet carries the hallmarks of its origin in investigative journalism, positioning the journalist as an agent through the broadcasting of the crisis to a wider audience. yet, at the same time, it provides a critique of the limited and partial response that followed, suggesting systemic issues have not been resolved. social media, in this context, twitter, acts as the distribution platform for figure 4: a tweet indicting shell in environmental degradation the tweet represented by figure 4 brings to the attention of the public the raw and sad materiality of the flood that for decades has made life unlivable for the people of joinkrama in the niger delta region. this is an indictment of shell and the liberal capitalist system. the failure of capitalism is painfully obvious in the poignant images of a lady walking home in the flood and houses half submerged in the flood. such images serve to make present the material scope of the problem in nigeria. the tweep warns and admonishes that to keep on extracting oil from the niger delta is to keep on inviting such environmental problems as flooding. the tweep makes pa ge 60 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 53-61, 2025 this visual narrative, furthering reach and ensuring that the imagery and text resonate with a global audience. these striking visuals combined with a textual description make the tweet a compelling storytelling medium that points to the severity of the situation. the phrase “nigeria, what a country” becomes a rhetoric that summarizes the systemic dysfunction of it all and invites readers to think of the issue as symbolic of broader national problems. the discussion discredits the broader ideological context of governance and resource management in nigeria by pointing out how its oil wealth has been cut loose from investing in proper environmental stewardship. this narration puts in contrast the fact that the extractive economy prioritizes profit instead of being sustainable, with local communities left bearing the environmental and social brunt. the power dynamics could not be clearer: while environmental disasters strike, local workers and communities are left to improvise measures with meager resources while the corporations and authorities responsible flee from accountability. this imbalance reflects a larger pattern of exploitation and disempowerment where those most affected by resource extraction are the least prepared to deal with its consequences. these tweets effectively employ an emotional appeal for sympathy and outrage. in the first tweet, visual imagery of “flooded homes & farms” coupled with urgent wording like “destroy their homes & farms” demands that readers place themselves in the shoes of the victims of environmental devastation. the second tweet draws on grief and indignation by referencing the historical injustice of ken saro-wiwa’s execution, using phrases like “murdered for campaigning” to highlight the gravity of the event and its ongoing implications. these affective appeals aim to stir emotional connections and galvanize readers to act. the judgment aspect assesses the behavior of shell and the nigerian government by morally judging their complicity in environmental devastation and systemic oppression. terms like “neglectful” and “exploitative” are used to posture these actors as guilty and unfair. what’s more, the tweets cast the environmental devastation and historical legacy of injustice under appreciation, setting the catastrophic nature of the floods against the urgency and necessity of pursuing justice with persistence. both tweets apply dialogic contraction in establishing that action is urgent: “the time is now to #stopoil”; “27 years ago today. murdered for campaigning.” little room is left for possible alternative interpretations; the issues are put in a frame of undeniable truths. meanwhile, dialogic expansion is carried out through hashtags such as #stopoil, #climatejustice, and #kensarowiwa, to encourage readers to relate the local struggles of the niger delta to wider global movements for environmental justice and human rights. the dual strategy reaches both local and international audiences and creates a shared sense of responsibility and collective action. the tweets amplify their power through force by using emotionally charged terms like “destroy,” “murdered,” and “inevitable.” these words raise the level of urgency and injustice depicted in the messages, while vivid imagery of flooded homes and references to ken sarowiwa’s historical struggle heighten the readers’ emotional responses. the tweets also show focus: narrowing attention to specific locations, such as joinkrama, ogoni; events, such as the 27-year anniversary; and actors, like shell and the nigerian military government. it is such focused attention that roots the critique within concrete and relatable contexts, thus making the narratives compelling and convincing. conclusion the study examines pressing issues of environmental degradation and climate justice within the socio-political landscape of nigeria, focusing on how these themes are articulated and contested on social media, particularly twitter. the analysis situates these concerns within the historical and political context of nigeria’s transition to democracy over the past two decades, which has created opportunities for increased public participation in addressing critical issues like the environmental impacts of oil exploration and systemic neglect in the niger delta. social media now serves as a powerful platform that mobilizes activism, amplifies the voices of the marginalized, and fosters public engagement in environmental issues in which nigerian netizens increasingly find an accessible and powerful means to advance change. this paper, through a rhetorical agency and stance analytical perspective, investigates how netizens utilize language, imagery, and discourse in order to talk back against institutional neglect and resist hegemonic power in the struggle for environmental justice. the tweets analyzed detail how public discourse frames oil as a “curse” and the exploitation of resources as a systemic injustice, placing government and corporations as direct causes of environmental degradation. the research underlines that social media enables ordinary citizens to take part in wider public debates, negotiate power dynamics, and demand accountability in ways previously unavailable. moreover, the study expands on existing research by integrating critical discourse analysis (cda) and the appraisal framework, offering a nuanced understanding of how linguistic and rhetorical tools are employed to construct narratives of resistance and justice. the findings highlight the dynamic interplay between emotive language, moral judgment, and visual strategies in galvanizing public action and fostering solidarity. this approach reveals unique affordances of social media with respect to democratizing discourses and facilitating collective actions beyond physical and ideological barriers. this paper enriches the literature on how digital spaces such as twitter work for effecting change regarding the current ecological crises in nigeria. by examining the perspectives of nigerian citizens, this research not only captures the lived realities of those pa ge 61 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 53-61, 2025 most affected by environmental degradation but also demonstrates the potential of social media to serve as a vehicle for systemic change. the study calls for further investigation into public participation in digital space, especially in postcolonial settings, to continue revealing how grass-rooted communities make use of these tools in trying to contest inequity, shape public consciousness, and advocate for sustainable futures. references afinotan, l. a., & ojakorotu, v. (2009). the niger delta crisis: issues, challenges, and prospects. african journal of political science and international relations, 3(5), 191– 198. biber, d. (2006). university language: a corpus-based study of spoken and written registers. amsterdam, the netherlands: john benjamins. biber, d., & finnegan, r. (1989). styles of stance in english: lexical and grammatical marking of evidentiality and affect. text, 9(1), 93–124. du bois, j. w. (2007). the stance triangle. in r. englebretson (ed.), stancetaking in discourse: subjectivity, evaluation, interaction (pp. 138–182). amsterdam, the netherlands: john benjamins. eyinla, p., & ukpo, j. (2006). nigeria: the travesty of oil and gas wealth. the catholic secretariat of nigeria. gerard, a. h. (1987). features of the public sphere. critical studies in media communication, 4(4), 437–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038709360156 hauser, g. a., & blair, c. (1982). rhetorical antecedents to the public. pre/text, 3, 139–167. hyland, k. (2005). stance and engagement: a model of interaction in academic discourse. discourse studies, 7(2), 173–192. iheka, c. (2021). the media turn in african environmentalism: the niger delta and oil network forms. journal of visual culture, 20(1), 60–84. ogungbemi, o. (2023). literature as resistance: the pragmatics of ecological advocacy in oil on water by helon habila. jurnal arbitrer, 10(4), 360–370. ogungbemi, o. (2024). nature speaks: agency and environment in ben okri’s the famished road. jurnal arbitrer, 11(2), 186–195. ogungbemi, o. d. (2016a). dissecting j. p. clark’s ozidi: a syntactic perspective. the african symposium, 15(3), 24–28. ogungbemi, o. d. (2016b). the ideological square and transitivity in the poetry of remi raji oyelade. journal of linguistics and language in education, 10(2), 14–32. ogungbemi, o. d. (2018). whose boko haram? a critical discourse analysis of print media news on terrorism in nigeria. in e. adegoju & a. akinwale (eds.), academic writing for africa: the journal article (vol. 15, pp. 61–74). ogungbemi, o. d., & okunsanya, y. a. (2016). the parasite, the deprived and the slanderer: ideologies and identity construction in selected 2014 national conference discourse in the nigerian print media. papers in english and linguistics, 17, 185–199. ogungbemi, o., & bamgbose, g. (2021). imagery in fuji music: saheed osupa as an examplar. ihafa: a journal of african studies, 12(1), 154–176. ogunsiji, a., & ogungbemi, o. d. (2016). the portrait of the political leaders in niyi osundare’s random blues: an exercise in critical stylistics. in a. odebunmi, h. osisanwo, s. bodunde, & s. ekpe (eds.), grammar, applied linguistics and society: a festschrift for wale osisanwo (pp. 375–392). ile-ife: oau press. olaluwoye, l., & ogungbemi, o. d. (2020). a sociolinguistic investigation of toilet graffiti among male students of the university of ibadan. niu journal of social sciences, 5(4), 167–175. steyn, p. (2009). oil exploration in colonial nigeria, c. 1903–58. the journal of imperial and commonwealth history, 37(2), 249–274. https://doi. org/10.1080/03086530903010376 pa ge 1 pa ge 1 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) contextualized instructional video material on disaster readiness and risk reduction (drrr) for senior high school in camarines sur, philippines alteza rosalinda s.1, montales cherry love b.1, pacardo sheenalyn p.1*, senir aileen p.1 volume 4 issue 3, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i3.4371 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: january 09, 2025 accepted: february 12, 2025 published: july 26, 2025 this study focuses on creating a contextualized instructional video material for drrr (drrr) for senior high school in camarines sur, philippines. the research used a descriptive-developmental design, gathering data through questionnaires and interviews to identify the instructional materials currently used by teachers in teaching drrr. the study found a lack of contextualized instructional materials in senior high school, which poses challenges in delivering effective lessons. feedback from drrr teachers and ict coordinators highlighted the need for resources that are relevant to the local context. the findings emphasize the importance of developing contextualized instructional materials to address this gap and support effective teaching. the study recommends making these resources easily accessible to enhance student learning and maximize their benefits. keywords contextualization, disaster readiness, risk reduction, video material 1 central bicol state university of agriculture, camarines sur, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: sheenalyn.pacardo@cbsua.edu.ph introduction the rapid advancement of technology has transformed education, playing a vital role in developing 21st-century skills among learners (darling-hammond et al., 2020). this shift has encouraged educators to innovate and develop learning materials that cater to the evolving needs of modern education. these innovations not only enhance the intellectual development of teachers but also provide students with engaging and effective learning experiences. however, developing high-quality instructional materials requires technical expertise, deep content knowledge, and a significant time investment—a challenge for many educators already burdened with heavy workloads (gbenoba & dahunsi, 2014). secondary school teachers often cite insufficient time and resources as major barriers to creating teaching aids (assefa, 2019). furthermore, integrating technology effectively into classrooms requires a shift in teaching practices and continuous professional development (huang, 2022). video-based instructional materials have proven to be powerful tools for enhancing teaching and learning. studies highlight their effectiveness in increasing student engagement, aiding comprehension of complex topics, and accommodating diverse learning needs (mayer, 2021). schools with consistent internet access benefit significantly from digital materials, yet those in remote areas face challenges due to limited connectivity. these disparities hinder equitable learning opportunities, creating a digital divide (moore et al., 2011). the “online plus offline” hybrid teaching approach offers a solution by combining internet-based resources with offline materials, ensuring accessibility even in resource-limited settings (graham, 2006). however, many educators lack adequate training in creating effective video materials, emphasizing the need for capacity-building programs (suhairni & baharsyah, 2020). disaster readiness and risk reduction (drrr), a core subject in the senior high school curriculum in the philippines, equips students with practical knowledge and skills to prepare for and respond to disasters. it bridges the gap between theoretical concepts and realworld applications, fostering community resilience (department of education, 2017). given that disasters disproportionately affect vulnerable communities, integrating disaster education into the curriculum is essential for building a safer, more prepared society. global educational initiatives emphasize the importance of integrating local knowledge and interactive strategies into disaster education. for instance, modules utilizing kolb’s experiential learning model have demonstrated significant improvements in student engagement and performance in disaster risk reduction topics (cabansag, 2023). similarly, contextualized videos that incorporate real-life scenarios and spatial models enhance learners’ understanding of dynamic environments, such as evacuation procedures or emergency response planning (wang et al., 2007; wang et al., 2010). these materials not only improve comprehension of disaster scenarios but also promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills, essential for 21st-century education (mayer, 2021). additionally, instructional video materials based on established instructional design models, such as the sam model used by abengoza et al. (2025), have proven to be effective in supporting student learning. the iterative approach of sam, which emphasizes continuous refinement and engagement with key stakeholders, ensures that instructional materials remain user-centered and relevant. furthermore, research on using culturally relevant instructional materials, such as bikol agricultural folksongs to enhance engagement and learning outcomes (montales, 2021), highlights the importance of integrating pa ge 2 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 1-9, 2025 local culture and context into educational tools. moreover, the technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) framework, which assesses teachers’ ability to integrate technology effectively in pedagogy and content, has been widely studied (ferrer, 2021). understanding teachers’ tpack proficiency is essential in guiding the development of instructional video materials that align with their technological and pedagogical capacities. despite the promise of these tools, challenges remain in ensuring consistent implementation and resource availability across different educational contexts. to address these gaps, this study aims to develop contextualized instructional video materials tailored to the specific needs of drrr education in the philippines. by prioritizing local contexts and leveraging evidencebased strategies, the developed materials seek to enhance student understanding of disaster preparedness and foster proactive response planning. statement of the problem this study generally aimed to develop a contextualized instructional video material on drrr for senior high school (shs) in camarines sur. specifically, it aims to answer the following: 1. what instructional materials in drrr are used in senior high school in camarines sur? 2. what instructional video can be developed to support teaching? 3. what are the teachers’ evaluation results on the developed instructional video material on drrr for senior high school? materials and methods research design this study used a descriptive-developmental research design to address the research questions. the descriptive design was applied to identify the instructional materials currently used in teaching drrr in senior high school in camarines sur. it also described the newly developed instructional material designed to support teaching and gathered teacher evaluations of the contextualized instructional video material for drrr. the developmental design focused on creating the contextualized instructional video material for senior high school drrr. this involved incorporating local contexts and relevant disaster scenarios to enhance learning and align with the needs of teachers and students. similar study such as of gbenoba and dahunsi (2014) have utilized descriptive-developmental designs to create and evaluate instructional materials. they emphasized the importance of developing instructional materials tailored to specific educational needs, highlighting the role of descriptive and developmental approaches in addressing gaps in resources. respondents of the study the respondents of this study were drrr teachers and ict coordinators. five drrr teachers provided information on the instructional materials they currently use in senior high school and evaluated the newly developed contextualized instructional video material for drrr. five ict coordinators also assessed the video material. in total, there were 10 respondents. setting of the study the study was conducted at san rafael national high school, a public secondary school in the schools division officecamarines sur. it is located at san rafael, tigaon, camarines sur. data gathering instrument the researchers utilized the validation tools for evaluation of the instructional video patterned in the validation tools of the division of camarines sur-deped. figure 1: location of san rafael national high school data gathering procedure the study’s objectives were accomplished, and a series of steps was undertaken. initial approval was sought from the school principal and teachers of san rafael national high school to conduct the research. once necessary permissions and request letters were obtained, a researcher’s-made questionnaire was administered to determine the instructional materials used by the drrr pa ge 3 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 1-9, 2025 teachers in senior high school. based on the results, the researchers developed contextualized video material, and it was validated by five (5) drrr subject teachers and (5) five ict coordinators. to facilitate data analysis, the gathered questionnaires were tabulated. descriptive statistics and a thematic approach were employed to analyze the data collected from the questionnaires for drrr instructional materials used in senior high school. based on the drrr teachers and ict coordinator responses, recommendations were formulated. statistical treatment of data the frequency count was utilized to determine the instructional materials used in teaching drrr subject at senior high school level. further, it was also utilized to analyze and process the data from the evaluations of drr teachers and ict coordinators regarding the developed contextualized video material. results and discussions the developed contextualized instructional video material on drrr for senior high school in camarines sur was evaluated in terms of existing instructional materials, the developed video’s features, and teacher feedback. the findings are presented according to the study’s research objectives. drrr instructional materials used in senior high school the philippines faces frequent natural disasters due to its location in the pacific ring of fire, making disaster preparedness a vital component of basic education. the result of the present study indicated that modules and books are used in discussing and studying drrr subject but there are no available contextualized materials even video materials. this result is supported by a study of loquillano and mercado (2022) evaluated the validation and classroom implementation of contextualized drrr modules using a descriptive approach and a triangulation method that combined module evaluation, interviews, and observations. five experts and 47 secondary school teachers participated in the research. the study revealed significant gaps in the use of contextualized video materials in the teaching of drrr, particularly in addressing hydrometeorological hazards like flooding. a majority of the respondents confirmed the absence of contextualized video materials specifically developed for their educational setting. one respondent highlighted that, “there were no video materials available for our classes, we share our actual experiences instead”, underscoring the reliance on first-hand experiences rather than structured, multimedia instructional resources. another respondent admitted to depending solely on modules during the pandemic, further demonstrating the limited availability of engaging and contextualized materials. reliance on non-standardized video materials given the absence of officially provided contextualized videos, many teachers resort to online platforms such as youtube, facebook, and instagram to find supplementary materials. while these platforms provide easily accessible content, they lack proper validation and do not always align with the department of education’s (deped) most essential learning competencies (melcs). this hinders the effectiveness of drrr education, as unverified videos may contain misinformation or lack relevance to local disaster scenarios (graham, 2022). the dependency on non-standardized content highlights a major gap in drrr instruction, as teachers must spend additional time filtering and modifying online materials to meet educational standards. criteria for selecting the video materials teachers who seek alternative video materials for drrr instruction follow specific criteria to ensure their relevance and effectiveness in the classroom. the respondents in this study highlighted several key considerations when selecting instructional videos. first, the materials must align with the learning objectives and most essential learning competencies (melcs) set by the department of education (deped) to ensure that they support the intended learning outcomes. additionally, the videos should be directly relevant to the topic being taught, particularly in areas such as disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. another crucial factor is the timeliness of information, as disaster-related content must reflect the latest developments, best practices, and real-life case studies to remain accurate and applicable. moreover, the suitability of the content for senior high school learners is an essential factor in video selection. this includes ensuring that the language, presentation style, and complexity of the information are appropriate for the students’ age and cognitive level. the clarity of visuals and audio is also a major consideration, as poorquality materials may hinder student engagement and comprehension. lastly, the availability of subtitles plays a critical role in making instructional videos accessible to a diverse range of learners, including those with hearing impairments or language barriers. despite these careful selection practices, teachers continue to express dissatisfaction with the lack of standardized, high-quality, and contextualized video resources for drrr education. many rely on online platforms like youtube and facebook, but these sources often lack validation and alignment with educational standards. this challenge aligns with the findings of diquito (2024), who emphasized the urgent need for localized, multimedia-based instructional materials in science and disaster education. the study highlighted that integrating contextualized video content tailored to local disaster risks and preparedness strategies enhances student engagement and comprehension, ultimately improving disaster resilience education in schools. addressing this gap requires systematic efforts from educational institutions and policymakers to develop validated, high-quality video resources that meet deped pa ge 4 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 1-9, 2025 standards while incorporating real-life disaster scenarios and community-based preparedness strategies. by ensuring the availability of contextualized instructional videos, schools can better equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to respond effectively to disasters. preferred features of standardized video materials teachers in this study identified several essential features that they believe should be integrated into standardized drrr video materials to enhance learning effectiveness. one of the key features is the inclusion of pre-tests and post-tests to measure student learning outcomes. these assessments help educators evaluate students’ prior knowledge before watching the video and their comprehension after engaging with the content. additionally, reflection and motivational questions are crucial in encouraging critical thinking and deeper engagement with the subject matter, allowing students to relate the information to real-life disaster scenarios. another important feature is the integration of subtitles and sign language, ensuring that the instructional videos are inclusive and accessible to all learners, including those with hearing impairments or language barriers. high-quality visuals and sound are also essential for maintaining clarity and engagement, as poorly produced materials may hinder comprehension and reduce students’ interest in the topic. lastly, the teachers emphasized the need for a combination of animation, interactive elements, and real-life scenarios to make the lessons more dynamic and relatable. the inclusion of real disaster footage, animated explanations, and hands-on simulations can enhance students’ retention and understanding of complex drrr concepts. these preferences align with research on effective multimedia learning, which suggests that well-structured, interactive video content significantly improves student engagement and knowledge retention (mayer, 2021). additionally, studies published in the american journal of education and technology (ajet) emphasize that contextualized instructional materials tailored to local environments and learners’ needs can bridge learning gaps in disaster education (rajabi et al., 2022). by integrating these features into standardized drrr videos, educators can provide students with comprehensive, accessible, and engaging learning experiences, ultimately strengthening their preparedness and response skills in times of disaster. challenges in using video materials teachers in this study identified several significant challenges in selecting and using video materials for drrr instruction, which affect the effectiveness of disaster education. one of the most critical barriers is internet connectivity issues. many schools, particularly those in remote areas, struggle with unstable or limited access to the internet, making it difficult for teachers to stream or download educational videos. this issue restricts the integration of online learning resources, forcing educators to rely on offline materials, which may not always be updated or engaging for students. another major challenge is the absence of contextualized video materials that are aligned with the most essential learning competencies (melcs). many existing instructional videos are generic or internationally produced, making them less relatable to students who need content tailored to local disaster risks and community-based preparedness strategies. the lack of validated and localized video resources forces teachers to search for materials online, which may not always be reliable or relevant to the philippine educational setting. teachers also expressed concerns regarding the misalignment of available video content with required competencies. many of the videos found on platforms such as youtube or facebook may cover relevant disaster-related topics but do not fully align with the curriculum, requiring teachers to modify, contextualize, or supplement them with additional explanations. this adds to teachers’ workload, as they must ensure that the materials meet learning objectives and accurately present drrr concepts. additionally, the vagueness and excessive length of video materials pose a problem for educators. some videos lack clarity, making it difficult for students to understand the information being presented. others are too lengthy, leading to reduced student engagement and difficulty in maintaining focus. teachers noted that effective drrr instructional videos should be concise, well-structured, and visually engaging to sustain student interest and enhance comprehension. these findings highlight the urgent need for the development of contextualized instructional video materials specifically designed for drrr education in senior high schools. the materials should be validated to align with the melcs, ensuring that they are accurate, engaging, and suitable for the target learners. furthermore, improving access to reliable internet connectivity and enhancing teachers’ digital literacy can help mitigate some of these challenges, enabling educators to better utilize multimedia resources in their teaching. the development of instructional video to support teaching the developed contextualized video instructional material was designed based on the most essential learning competencies (melcs) for quarter 2, weeks 6 to 7, focusing on the concept and importance of disaster risk reduction and community-based disaster risk reduction and management (cbdrrm). the instructional video aims to enhance students’ understanding of disaster preparedness and equip them with practical skills for emergency planning, particularly before, during, and after floods. this multimedia resource was developed to bridge the gap in drrr instructional materials and provide an engaging, contextualized learning experience. the researchers ensured that the material followed the evaluation rating sheet for audio and video recordings from the department of education (deped) to meet pa ge 5 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 1-9, 2025 educational standards and engagement criteria. the video content was structured into four key segments, each addressing different aspects of flood preparedness: part 1 of the instructional video material: introduction and real-world context the first section presents video clippings and images from news reports and community footage of typhoon kristine, which struck in october 2024. these clips were selected to capture students’ interest and provide a realistic depiction of the impact of floods. the use of real-life disaster events serves as a powerful visual introduction, helping learners connect the lesson to actual experiences. research suggests that visual storytelling is an effective way to engage students and enhance retention in disaster education (mayer, 2021). part 2 of the instructional video material: preparedness before a flood this section focuses on preventive measures that should be taken before a flood occurs. the video guides learners through steps to assess their community’s risk, including: • identifying flood-prone areas • mapping evacuation routes and designated shelters • preparing emergency kits with essential supplies • elevating important personal belongings • ensuring clear and accessible doorways in case of evacuation by highlighting community-based preparedness strategies, the video material reinforces the importance of proactive disaster planning. studies show that community-driven preparedness initiatives significantly reduce disasterrelated casualties (rajabi et al., 2022). part 3 of the instructional video material: safety measures during a flood the third part of the video emphasizes critical actions during a flood to ensure personal safety and minimize risks. these include: • staying updated on weather advisories through radio, television, or mobile alerts • avoiding flooded areas and fast-moving water currents • moving to higher ground or evacuation centers as instructed by local authorities • helping vulnerable community members, such as children, elderly individuals, and persons with disabilities this section also includes real-life scenarios to demonstrate decision-making in crisis situations, helping students internalize key safety protocols. the importance of civic responsibility is also highlighted, encouraging students to support those in need during disasters. part 4 of the instructional video material: post-flood recovery and safety precautions the final segment focuses on post-disaster recovery efforts and necessary safety measures after a flood subsides. the video outlines essential steps, including: • reporting damages to local authorities, including collapsed structures and downed electrical lines • documenting property damage for insurance or government assistance purposes • drying out furniture and household items by opening doors and windows to improve ventilation • wearing protective equipment (gloves, masks, and boots) while cleaning flooded areas to prevent health risks the contextualized instructional video material developed in this study addresses the lack of localized, high-quality drrr resources in senior high school education. with the increasing frequency of climate-related disasters in the philippines, there is an urgent need to enhance students’ disaster preparedness through innovative and engaging learning materials. given that traditional instructional materials such as modules and textbooks do not fully capture the dynamic and real-time nature of disasters, video-based instruction provides a more interactive and impactful learning experience. the result of teachers’ evaluation on the developed instructional video material on drrr for senior high school this study adapted the deped evaluation rating sheet for the developed instructional materials. this tool focuses on the different factors such as (a) contest, format/ technical design, (c) presentation and organization, and (d) accuracy and up-to-dateness of information. a total of five (5) drrr subject teachers teaching drrr subject evaluated the contents and accuracy and up-to-dateness of information while the other five (5) ict coordinators focused on the evaluations regarding format/technical design and presentation and organization of the developed instructional material. table 1: drrr subject teacher and ict evaluation results on the developed contextualized video material evaluation criteria ave verbal interpretation factor i. content 1. content is suitable to the learners’ level of development. 4 very satisfactory 2. material contributes to the achievement of specific objectives of the learning area and grade level for which it is intended. 4 very satisfactory 3. material provides for the development of higher cognitive skills such critical thinking, creativity, learning by doing, inquiry, problem solving, and 21st century skills. 3.3 satisfactory pa ge 6 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 1-9, 2025 4. material is free of ideological, cultural, religious, racial and gender biases and prejudices. 4 very satisfactory 5. materials arouses interest of target reader. 4 very satisfactory 6. adequate warning / cautionary notes are provided in topics and activities where safety and health are of concern. 4 very satisfactory factor 2. format/technical design 1. volume and quality of sound is appropriate 4 very satisfactory 2. pacing is efficient and appropriate to instructional purposes. 4 very satisfactory 3. audio-visual effects (music, sounds, graphics, etc.) are appropriate and effective for instructional purposes. 3.7 very satisfactory factor 3. presentation and organization 1. presentation is engaging, interesting, and understandable. 3.7 very satisfactory 2. there is logical and smooth flow of ideas. 4 very satisfactory 3. vocabulary level is adapted to target reader’s experiences and understanding. 4 very satisfactory 4. length of the video/audio recording/lesson is appropriate to the attention span of the target learner. 3.7 very satisfactory factor 4. accuracy and up-to-dateness of information 1. conceptual errors 4 very satisfactory 2. factual errors 4 very satisfactory 3. grammatical errors 4 very satisfactory 4. computational errors 4 very satisfactory 5. obsolete information 3.7 very satisfactory 6. typographical and other minor errors (e.g. inappropriate or unclear illustrations, missing labels, wrong captions, etc,) 3.7 very satisfactory general average 3.88 very satisfactory based on the results in table 3, the developed contextualized instructional video material is very satisfactory as indicated in the general average of 3.88. in line with its content, it observed the alignment of educational materials with the student’s cognitive, emotional, and social capabilities. it corresponds to the student’s age and learning stage, such as senior high school grade 11 as the main beneficiary of the material. prior knowledge was also considered to relate to the current topic. it also shows suitability relevant to the student’s experiences and interests. all pictures and videos used in the development of the video material were taken from the actual experiences of the community in handling natural hazards such as flooding. through this, the students can thrive and develop critical thinking skills effectively. teaching content via video enhances problemsolving skills and increases arousal, which positively affects learning outcomes (hoogerheide et al., 2019). it also contributes to achieving specific objectives as shown by the very satisfactory interpretation. it means that the material supports learning objectives appropriate to the student’s level of understanding. significantly, unbiased and inclusive concepts have been used by all teachers inside the class to promote a fair learning environment that respects the diverse types of students. on the other hand, the video material strongly highlights further enhancement in developing higher cognitive skills such as critical thinking, creativity, learning by doing, inquiry, problem-solving, and 21st-century skills as indicated by a 3.3 average with verbal interpretation of satisfactory. this means that drrr teacher evaluators extensively observe and aim for the best results in developing higher-order abilities from 21st-century learners. it was also suggested to provide subtitles to address multilingual education and support language learning as well as the diversified type of learners. subtitles enhance accessibility for diverse linguistic communities by translating and synchronizing audio content into multiple languages. in terms of format and technical designs, volume and quality of sound were properly observed which is appropriate to the student’s learning. the pacing was substantially managed by careful examination of the speed and rhythm vital for maximizing classroom engagement. through this, the students will be encouraged to stay focused and engaged and prevent distractions while maintaining the dynamic flow of instructions without feeling rushed. when instructional materials are paced well, students are more likely to engage, process information, and maintain participation during the teaching-learning process. additionally, integrating both sound and visual elements in educational materials enhances learning experiences as it allows more dynamic and interesting unlike with common monotonous traditional verbal instructions. audio-visual materials capture students’ attention more effectively than traditional methods, pa ge 7 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 1-9, 2025 making learning more interesting and less monotonous (syafitria et al., 2023). it also allows teachers to illustrate complex ideas that may be difficult to convey and help students grasp abstract ideas more easily. the results also show the need to observe appropriate audio-visual effects further as indicated in the result of 3.7 with the verbal interpretation of very satisfactory which is coherent to the study of study of akay (2021), who stated that visual aids simplify complex concepts, aiding in the understanding of new vocabulary and ideas, especially for students with hearing impairments. in line with presentation and organization, the developed video material contains a logical and smooth flow of ideas which is crucial to effective and impactful way of communication. it means that the video has a coherent organization of ideas with effective transitions as it allows the audience to understand complex topics. clear organization aids in the identification of key concepts, making it easier for students to locate specific information quickly (varchenko-trotsenko et al., 2019). it strictly observed the presentation of foundational concepts first before presenting complicated ideas. the smooth transitions also guide the students to understand specific concepts, preventing confusion. when the concepts are logically presented, students do not have to pause or backtrack to know how the ideas relate to one another, which promotes positive learning experiences while fostering better retention of information. subtitles and voiceovers are also essential to make the contextualized video material easier for the audience to follow and understand the narrative as well, especially the foreign language. this is supported by the study of black (2022), that subtitles can boost language learning and literacy skills, particularly in children, by providing exposure to audiovisual content in other languages. this exposure also fosters intercultural awareness, making language learning a fun and engaging experience. for accuracy and up-to-dateness of the material, the results significantly show free from any factual and conceptual errors. it means that all the details included in the development of materials are accurate and reliable as well. it prevents students from misleading and inaccuracies. error-free video content fosters greater student engagement. the incorporation of authentic videos not only aids comprehension but also motivates learners to participate actively in the learning process (devdariani & rubtsova, 2021). grammatical and computational errors were also addressed, resulting in a very satisfactory score of 4.0. it means it adheres to grammar, punctuation, and syntax rules. through the aid of artificial intelligence or ai, the correct usage of parts of speech, proper sentence structure, and appropriate punctuation were attained. and so, with the computational error in which proper data processing was made as intended without bugs and any information loss. this study implies that contextualized video material can lead to interactive learning experiences. the use of visuals stimulating educational resources can engage students’ learning and create positive and relatable connections between the lessons introduced inside the classrooms and real-world settings. creating innovative tools aligned with the student needs are highly significant to navigate students learning achievement but also to the teachers who are constantly exploring teaching strategies to support and foster active teaching and learning process. research has shown that digital learning materials improve student engagement and academic performance (villasanta, 2022). in a study on digital learning materials for music education, villasanta (2022) found that students performed significantly better after using instructional video materials, highlighting their effectiveness in enhancing knowledge retention and comprehension. this supports the integration of video-based learning in drrr education, where visual and auditory components can better illustrate disaster preparedness concepts than traditional learning methods. moreover, the development of instructional materials should follow a structured framework to ensure effectiveness. the sam (successive approximation model), as discussed by abengoza et al. (2025), provides a user-centered, iterative approach to instructional material design. this study on numeracy instructional videos demonstrated that a structured development process with iterative refinement leads to more effective learning materials. by applying sam principles to drrr video materials, this study ensures that the instructional content is systematically designed, validated, and refined based on educator feedback. the model’s emphasis on preparation, iterative design, and iterative development ensures that the final product meets pedagogical requirements and student needs (abengoza et al., 2025). conclusion the study concludes that contextualized instructional materials play a crucial role in improving the quality of education, particularly in subjects where existing resources are limited. it also emphasizes the need for schools to invest in developing and providing these materials to ensure effective teaching and to equip students with the knowledge and skills needed for disaster preparedness. making such tools widely accessible can significantly enhance student learning outcomes and contribute to building resilient communities. recommendations teachers may focus on developing contextualized instructional video materials for drrr, ensuring they address practical and relevant topics that meet students’ needs. these materials may also be accessible to maximize their impact on learning and disaster preparedness. schools may involve parents, social workers, barangay officials, and students in community-centered activities such as earthquake drills and training sessions to foster disaster resilience. further research may explore the development of additional drrr materials and the standardization of pa ge 8 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 1-9, 2025 procedures for activities like flood response, fire safety, and evacuation drills. these efforts may contribute to consistent and effective disaster management. references agustin, m., & cabansag, m. 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(2010). design and evaluation of contextualized video interfaces. ieee transactions on visualization and computer graphics, 16(6), 1568–1575. pa ge 1 pa ge 37 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) application of sweet potato flour in bakery products: development, sensory evaluation, and shelf-life stability mfh shikder1, md nahid hossain jany1*, m. burhan uddin1 volume 4 issue 2, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i2.4496 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: february 05, 2025 accepted: march 08, 2025 published: may 14, 2025 adding sweet potato flour (ipomoea batatas l.) to bakery products holds great promise for boosting their nutritional value and expanding food options, thanks to its abundance of carbohydrates, vitamins like provitamin a and vitamin a, dietary fibre, and essential minerals resources that are often overlooked despite sweet potatoes’ widespread availability worldwide. while many studies have tackled sweet potato processing and drying, we still lack a thorough look at how this flour performs in baked goods, particularly in terms of nutrition, sensory appeal, and how long products stay fresh. this research asks a key question: how does sweet potato flour, prepared with optimized osmotic dehydration or traditional drying, step in for part of the wheat flour to make breads, biscuits, and cakes that are more nutritious, tastier, and stable on the shelf compared to standard recipes? our goal was to create these bakery items using local varieties of local sada and kamala sundari processed through osmotic dehydration (using 40–60% sucrose at 30–60°c) or conventional drying, then milled and blended into recipes replacing 10–45% of wheat flour. we analyzed the nutritional makeup, trained panels and consumers to evaluate taste and texture, and tested shelf life over four weeks, tracking moisture, microbial growth, and texture. this research revealed that foods made from sweet potato flour have noticeably higher levels of moisture, sugar and protein levels, as well as higher levels of dietary fibre without compromising sensory quality. for instance, they scored 6.85 ± 0.23 for the taste of local sada bread and 6.57 ± 0.11 for the taste of kamala sundari bread. shelf-life tests confirmed these items maintained good quality and microbial safety, making sweet potato flour a sustainable, nutrient-packed choice for healthier baked goods. this supports local farming and food security, offering food processors fresh, practical ideas for innovation. our study fills a significant gap by combining processing, sensory, and stability insights in a new and actionable way. keywords bakery products, food processing, nutritional evaluation, osmotic dehydration, sensory evaluation 1 department of food technology & rural industries, bangladesh agricultural university mymensingh-2202, bangladesh * corresponding author’s e-mail: nahidhj.research@gmail.com introduction the sweet potato (ipomoea batatas l.) is among the most significant root and tuber crops, producing an annual amount that is greater than tens of millions of tons across the globe (atuna et al., 2019; otálora et al., 2024). sweet potato is praised for its ability to adapt to a wide range of climate conditions and its extraordinary nutritional profile, which is rich in carbohydrates, provitamin a, vitamin a, dietary fiber and minerals. however, in recent years, there has been an increase in interest in converting sweet potatoes into valuable products like flour that can be used to substitute for other ingredients in a variety of food products, including bakery products (nogueira et al., 2018; hossain et al., 2022; paul et al., 2023; ospina et al., 2024). the incorporation of sweet potato flour into these products has the dual advantage of increasing the nutritional value of these items by incorporating bioactive components and fiber. it also has the potential to decrease the dependence on conventional wheat flour, which is typically imported into many countries in the developing world (taneya et al., 2014; julianti et al., 2017; nogueira et al., 2018). despite the promising qualities, however, several obstacles exist to the widespread acceptance of sweet potato flour baking applications. one of the biggest problems is the high content of moisture in fresh sweet potatoes, which can lead to rapid microbial spoilage and enzyme browning, reducing their shelf-life and rendering them unsuitable to be processed (laura et al., 2022). traditional drying methods like solar drying and hot air drying are frequently employed to lower the moisture in a product. however, these techniques are extremely energy-intensive and frequently result in significant loss of nutrients, particularly bioactive and heat-sensitive vitamins (ayo-omogie, 2021). in response to these problems, alternative processing methods like osmotic dehydration are being considered a feasible solution. osmotic dehydration, which involves the submersion of sweet potato slices into a hypertonic solution, aids in the removal of water at lower temperatures and limits the degradation of nutrients that are essential to our health (antonio et al., 2008; yadav & singh, 2014; šuput et al., 2024). recent research into composite flours has highlighted the significance of properties with functional value and the acceptance of consumers when designing better bakery products (julianti et al., 2017; tortoe et al., 2017; wanjuu et al., 2018; edun et al., 2019; laura et al., 2022). for example, studies conducted by taneya et al. (2014) and julianti et al. (2017) stated that mixing different flours pa ge 38 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 37-45 2025 with wheat may improve nutritional value and provide added health benefits. however, the sensory qualities should be carefully monitored to ensure consumers accept the mix. furthermore, research studies regarding the stability of shelf-life and the quality of bakery products have highlighted the need for ingredients that preserve their quality for a long time, particularly in controlling moisture and microbial safety (wanjuu et al., 2018; khatri & acharya, 2021; laura et al., 2022). despite these developments, the effects of processes like osmotic dehydration on the sensory storage of nutrients and the sensory properties of sweet potato flour in bakery products aren’t completely understood (hossain et al., 2022). in light of these difficulties, the central research question for this research is: what does the application of sweet potato meal made by optimizing osmotic dehydration as well as conventional drying methods affect the development, sensory characteristics, and stability of shelf-life of bakery items compared to the formulations that are made entirely from wheat flour? to answer this question to answer this question, the current study is based on three main goals. first, it seeks to develop sweet potato flour using an optimized process incorporating osmotic dehydration. it operates at lower temperatures and minimizes nutrient degradation, followed by a conventional drying process and milling. in addition, it plans to create various bakery items, including biscuits, bread cakes and other confections, utilizing the sweet potato as a replacement for wheat flour and conducting an extensive sensory assessment of the products. in addition, the study evaluates the shelf-life of bakery products by observing key quality indicators such as moisture content, microbial load texture, and overall quality when stored. the significance of this study lies in its offering a healthier alternative that is sustainable and less expensive than traditionally used baking materials (taneya et al., 2014). since many countries in the developing world depend heavily upon wheat flour imported from the us, producing local sweet potato flour can provide advantages in terms of economy and boost selfsufficiency within agricultural production (owade et al., 2018). additionally, the inclusion of sweet potato flour into bakery products doesn’t just enhance the nutritional value by boosting levels of vitamins, fiber, and minerals (tortoe et al., 2017). still, it can be a great opportunity to develop new types of products that appeal to those who are looking for healthier and more diverse choices in their food (andualem et al., 2016). beyond the implications of use in practice, the study is novel in how it conducts integrative studies. prior studies have focused on improving the efficiency of osmotic dehydration processes for different fruits and vegetables (yadav & singh, 2014; dermesonlouoglou, 2019; gmbh et al., 2021; hassan et al., 2024; šuput et al., 2024) or the nutritional analysis for sweet potato flour after it is dry (ijah et al., 2014; khatri & acharya, 2021; hossain et al., 2022; olaitan daniel, 2022; adoko et al., 2023; dessta & terefe, 2024; mekonnen & aychiluhm, 2024). however, there is not any information about the end-oflife applications of sweet potato flour in bakery items, specifically in terms of a thorough sensory evaluation and stability of shelf-life. in connecting this gap in processing technology and the creation of products, this study offers new information on the impact of processing methods on the nutritional value as well as the nutrition value that sugarcane flour offers and how it affects the bakery items that use sugarcane flour. literature review the recent development in food processing and creation has brought about a growing demand for functional and composite flours as well as ingredients to improve the sensory and nutritional profiles of bakery goods. this review of literature examines three interconnected topics that include developments in composite flours and functional ingredients used in bakery products, prior studies on sweet potato flour used in food formulations, and the sensory and shelf-life aspects of bakery items. trends in composite flours and functional ingredients in bakery products in recent times, the need for healthier, more nutrientdense and functional food products has led to the creation of composite flours. composite flours, made up of wheat flour and non-wheat ingredients such as legumes cereals, tubers, as well as pseudo-cereals, are becoming more widely acknowledged for their ability to enhance the nutritional value in bakery goods (julianti et al., 2017; tortoe et al., 2017; mamat et al., 2020; olaitan daniel, 2022; donadi, 2023). blending alternative flours that contain wheat not only increases the amount of fibre in your diet, protein, dietary fibre, and the important micronutrients but also accommodates specific dietary requirements and preferences that include gluten-free and functional formulas (edun et al., 2019). a number of studies have examined the creation of composite flours, incorporating ingredients like sweet potato the quinoa, sorghum and chickpea. for instance, recent research by chung (2009) showed using sweet potato or sorghum flours wheat flour greatly enhanced the antioxidant power and the fiber amount of bread, but without impacting its sensory qualities. similar to studies conducted by edun et al. (2019) and julianti et al. (2017) have found that composite flours may result in improved rheological properties, improved nutrition profiles and possibly an extended shelf life for bakery products. the addition of functional ingredients, such as antioxidants that are natural, dietary fibers, or protein isolates, in bakery products is a different trend to watch. these ingredients are usually used for specific health issues related to cardiovascular disease such as obesity, diabetes, and vascular disease (edun et al., 2019). in particular, the inclusion of fibers in the tuber flours such as sweet potato has been proven to regulate the glycemic pa ge 39 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 37-45 2025 response, and increase the satiety level, which is now being appreciated in modern food systems. furthermore, the functional characteristics that these ingredients provide like water-binding capacity, emulsification and gelation have an important part in the texture of food products and overall acceptance (taneya et al., 2014). together, these trends signal the need to develop bakery products that aren’t just delicious but also provide real health advantages. the use of functional ingredients and composite flour ingredients is a multi-faceted method to improve the quality and popularity of bakery items. however, the success of the formulation of such products demands careful optimization in order to ensure that nutritional enhancement is balanced with desirable sensory qualities. this challenge is the basis for studies into alternatives to ingredients such as sweet potato flour. previous research on sweet potato flour in food formulations the sweet potato has garnered much attention in recent years due to its remarkable nutrition profile and its functional flexibility. it is rich in complex carbohydrates and b-carotene (a precursor for vitamin a) as well as dietary fiber and minerals essential to life sweet potato flour can be an attractive alternative or an alternative to the conventional wheat flour for bakery applications (taglieri et al., 2021). researchers have examined the use of sweet potato flour in different types of bakery products, such as biscuits, breads cakes and other confections, usually in the hopes of increasing the nutritional value of food items and diversifying options (giri et al., 2016; khatri & acharya, 2021; olaitan daniel, 2022). early studies of sweet potato flour focused primarily on the problems due to its high content of moisture and susceptibility to enzymatic oxidation. traditional drying techniques, although efficient in reducing moisture but often resulted in the degradation of nutrients and unfavorable modifications in flavor and color (sablani & mujumdar, 2006). to address these issues many researchers have investigated different methods of processing. osmotic dehydration, for instance, has been identified as a viable pretreatment technique that can reduce the amount of moisture in water at low temperatures, thus conserving heat-sensitive nutrients and colors (yadav & singh, 2014; dermesonlouoglou, 2019; gmbh et al., 2021; hassan et al., 2024; šuput et al., 2024). moreover, research by triasih and utami (2020) and yang et al. (2025) stressed the importance of processing techniques in determining the quality of the final the sweet potato. the results showed that flour prepared by combining osmotic dehydration with controlled drying techniques had greater levels of bioactive substances compared to flour produced solely through traditional drying. these findings indicate sweetness from sweet potatoes when processed with optimal conditions could be an effective ingredient for functional use for bakery items. yet, a thorough understanding of the impact it has on both the nutritional as well as sensory properties of final products is still in development. sensory and shelf-life considerations in bakery products stability of shelf life and sensory quality are the most important factors that determine the commercial performance of bakery products. consumers do not only want products that are more nutritious, but also ones that provide an unchanging sensory experience, including appearance as well as texture, aroma and taste over their shelf lives. use of non-traditional flours like sweet potato flour may lead to changes in sensory characteristics that require further examination and possible formula alterations. recent studies have examined the sensory and flavor characteristics of baked products made with composite flours. taglieri et al. (2021) looked at the effect of substituting wheat flour with other components in bread recipes. they found that nutrition benefits were boosted, sensory aspects like the texture of the crumb and overall flavor were affected, the overall taste and texture of the crumb was also affected. ijah et al. (2014) conducted an extensive sensory evaluation of biscuits made from sweet potato to evaluate whether their formulation met consumer expectations of flavor and texture. they found that although the products were nutritionally improved as well, adjustments to processing parameters -such as baking times and temperatures were essential to attain a proper balance between the development of color and texture. shelf-life stability is equally crucial in ensuring that bakery items remain safe and suitable for a long time (paul et al., 2023). water activity, moisture content and microbial load are the most important elements that affect the shelf life of bakery products. research conducted by adoko et al. (2023) have shown that the addition sugar-free sweet potato powder may alter the dynamics of moisture within bakery items, altering texture as well as the stability of microbial growth. achieving a good control over moisture via optimal drying and packaging is crucial to avoid spoilage and preserve the quality of the product. in addition, the antioxidants that are naturally present within sweet potato flour could aid in preventing oxidative changes and prolong shelf life (chung, 2009; adoko et al., 2023). these strategies are especially relevant when it comes to including ingredients such as sweet potato flour. it is a fact that the ingredient, despite its nutritional benefits may cause differences with regard to texture, color and even the appearance that could alter the longterm quality. materials and methods formulation details and processing methods formulations and processing methods were tailored specifically for each bakery product—bread, biscuits, and cake using sweet potato flour. wheat flour was replaced by sweet potato flour at 10%, 20%, or 30% by weight, pa ge 40 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 37-45 2025 similarly for biscuits. recipe ingredients included 60% water, 2% salt, 2% sugar, 2% yeast and 2% shortening per 100 g of total flour. the dough was mixed using a spiral mixer for 15 minutes prior to fermentation at 28°c for 60 minutes, proofing at 35°c with 80% humidity for 45 minutes and baking at 220°c for 25 minutes (andualem et al., 2016). biscuits were prepared using sweet potato flour in place of wheat flour at 15%, 30%, and 45% by weight. the dough consisted of 40% shortening, 30% sugar, 5% milk powder, 1% baking powder, 1% salt, and 20% water per 100 g total flour weight. ingredients were combined and creamed before the dough was rolled to a thickness of 0.5 cm and cut before being baked at 180°c for 12 minutes. cake batter preparation involved adding sweet potato flour in increments of 10%, 20%, and 30%; other ingredients were 100% sugar, 50% butter, 50% eggs, 5% baking powder, 1% vanilla essence extract and 50% milk per 100 g total flour weight. after creaming butter and sugar together before gradually adding eggs switching up dry and wet ingredients sequentially before baking at 170°c for 30 minutes (ijah et al., 2014). experimental design the experimental design utilized varying levels of flour substitution to evaluate its impact on product quality and consumer acceptance. processing conditions such as temperature, mixing time, fermentation period, and baking times were uniform across batches for consistency. proximate analysis and nutritional evaluation moisture content was assessed through weight loss during oven drying at 105°c until constant weight was achieved (aoac, 2023). protein, fat, fiber and ash contents were then determined through the kjeldahl method (dessta & terefe, 2024), soxhlet extraction (paul et al., 2023), enzymatic-gravimetric method, and incineration respectively (aoac, 2023). finally, sugar content was quantified through hplc after ethanol extraction (mekonnen & aychiluhm, 2024), although vitamin and mineral contents could only be estimated based on knowledge obtained through literature sources. sensory evaluation protocols sensory evaluation was carried out through both trained panel analysis and consumer tests. a team of 10 trained assessors evaluated products based on appearance, color, odor, taste, texture and overall acceptability using descriptive sensory analysis, scoring on a 9-point hedonic scale. in addition, approximately 50 consumers participated in consumer hedonic tests rating the same attributes on a 7-point scale focusing on personal preference rating of products for appearance, color odor, taste, texture, and overall acceptability ratings on a scale. shelf-life study this shelf-life study involved storing the products at room temperature (25°c) in sealed plastic bags to simulate ambient conditions, and moisture content was assessed weekly using the oven method. monitor of microbial load: total plate count, yeast, and mold counts were taken weekly (iso 4833-1:2013 for total count; iso 21527-2:2008 for yeasts and molds). texture changes were assessed weekly using a texture analyzer measuring hardness, springiness, and cohesiveness; colour was monitored using a colourimeter with measurements in l*a*b* values according to the cie system. this methodology sought to give a complete picture of using sweet potato flour in bakery products in terms of both quality and shelf-life stability (haile et al., 2015). results and discussion nutritional enhancement sweet potato flour added to bakery products such as breads, biscuits and cakes significantly increased their nutritional profiles based on proximate composition data (tables 1 and 2). substituting wheat flour (10-30% for bread/cakes and 15-45% for biscuits) has proven to increase moisture, sugar, and protein content significantly. osmotically dehydrated local sada flour produced bread that displayed 20.23% ± 0.45 moisture, 60.57% ± 0.11 sugar and 13% ± 0.12 protein while biscuits showed 4.85% ± 0.54 moisture content at 70.70% ± 0.13 sugar level and 5.70% ± 0.22 protein; this exceeded conventionally dried counterparts (moisture: 21.85% ± 0.53 and 4.45% ± 0.34; sugar: 59.66% ± 0.21 and 69.57% ± 0.11; protein: 2.89% ± 0.32 and 4.33% ± 0.12, respectively). kamala sundari products showed enhanced moisture (20.67% ± 0.08 and 4.25% ± 0.06), sugar (60.17% ± 0.16 and 70.74% ± 0.19), and protein levels (3.13% ± 0.15 and 5.20% ± 0.28). this sweet potato’s natural sweeteners and protein sources table 1: proximate composition of products prepared from flour osmotically dried sweet potatoes (var. local sada) constituents osmotically dehydrated flour products dehydrated flour products bread biscuits bread biscuits moisture (%) 20.23 ± 0.45 4.85 ± 0.54 b 21.85 ± 0.53 4.45 ± 0.34 sugar (%) 60.57 ± 0.11 70.70 ± 0.13 59.66 ± 0.21 69.57 ± 0.11 protein (%) 13 ± 0.12 d 5.70 ± 0.22 2.89 ± 0.32 4.33 ± 0.12 lipid (%) 2.85 ± 0.32 d 4.85 ± 0.34 c 2.23 ± 0.49 d 4.45 ± 0.53 dietary fiber (%) 1.57 ± 0.11 1.78 ± 0.13 1.66 ± 0.21 1.57 ± 0.11 ash (%) 1.33 ± 0.12 a 1.55 ± 0.22 b 1.51 ± 0.32 1.33 ± 0.12 *note: in a column, figures with the same letter or without a letter do not differ significantly; figures with dissimilar letters differ significantly (as per dmrt). pa ge 41 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 37-45 2025 reduce artificial sweetener use, thus, meeting functional food development strategies in the malnutrition-prone regions (tortoe et al., 2017). lipid, fiber and ash contents were generally similar between dehydrated flours; those made osmotically were superior, retaining more moisture for use in sweet potato-rich areas to improve food security and reduce import reliance (owade et al., 2018, 2019). table 2: proximate composition of products prepared from flour osmotically dried sweet potatoes (var. kamala sundari) constituents osmotically dehydrated flour products dehydrated flour products bread biscuits bread biscuits moisture (%) 20.67 ± 0.08 b 4.25 ± 0.06 e 21.35 ± 0.32 4.43 ± 0.45 c sugar (%) 60.17 ± 0.16 70.74 ± 0.19 59.46 ± 0.29 a 69.67 ± 0.18 c protein (%) 3.13 ± 0.15 5.20 ± 0.28 2.19 ± 0.72 4.53 ± 0.82 lipid (%) 2.65 ± 0.08 4.35 ± 0.09 d 2.23 ± 0.180 4.55 ± 0.40 dietary fiber (%) 1.47 ± 0.18 1.60 ± 0.19 1.56 ± 0.29 c 1.47 ± 0.18 ash (%) 1.43 ± 0.72 c 1.35 ± 0.92 b 1.31 ± 0.38 1.53 ± 0.52 a *note: in a column, figures with the same letter or without a letter do not differ significantly; figures with dissimilar letters differ significantly (as per dmrt). physical and sensory properties bakery products with 10% sweet potato flour substitution closely resembled wheat flour controls, but higher substitutions (30–45%) altered texture, color, and taste. breads developed soft textures and golden hues via the maillard reaction between sweet potato sugars and proteins, enhancing flavor and appeal (adoko et al., 2023; jenfa et al., 2024). biscuits became crisper due to higher sugar content, while cakes benefited from sweet potato’s water absorption, maintaining moisture. sensory evaluations (tables 3 and 4) confirmed these changes, with osmotically dehydrated local sada bread scoring 6.85 ± 0.23 for taste and 5.57 ± 0.11 for texture, and kamala sundari bread scoring 6.57 ± 0.11 for taste and 6.57 ± 0.11 for texture, indicating high consumer acceptance. appearance was enhanced through carotenoids’ goldenreddish hues (e.g., 6.57 ± 0.11 for local sada bread, 6.70 ± 0.13 for kamala sundari biscuits), matching preferences for healthful, vibrant products (dessta & terefe, 2024). odor scores (e.g. 6.55 ± 0.22 for local sada biscuits) indicated a complex and sweet profile despite higher substitution levels that introduced earthy notes that required flavor balancing ((taneya et al., 2014). texture remained soft while homogeneity decreased. processing challenges higher sweet potato flour substitutions (30–45%) posed challenges, including reduced dough volume due to weaker gluten networks and altered biscuit spread, requiring adjustments like hydrocolloids, gluten addition, or modified baking parameters (ijah et al., 2014; andualem et al., 2016). nutritional implications sweet potato flour’s enhanced fibre and protein content supports functional foods, improving digestive health and glycemic control, and meeting health-focused consumer demands (julianti et al., 2017). applications in areas rich with sweet potatoes have proven highly successful at supporting local agriculture and food security while decreasing reliance on imported wheat imports. sensory evaluation results sensory analysis (tables 3 and 4) provided insight into consumer preferences that was crucial for product sustainability. appearance and color scores improved with golden-reddish hues from carotenoids; local sada bread scored 6.57 ± 0.11 and kamala sundari biscuits 6.70 ± 0.13 according to these measures both reflecting consumer desires for healthy yet vibrant foods (ivane et al., 2024). odor scores (e.g., 6.55 ± 0.22 for local sada biscuits) reflected a sweet, complex profile, though higher substitutions introduced earthy notes, requiring flavor adjustments (mari et al., 2024). taste scores (e.g., 6.85 ± 0.23 for local sada bread, 6.57 ± 0.11 for kamala sundari bread) highlighted natural sweetness, but bread required recipe optimization. texture remained soft and moist (e.g., 6.70 ± 0.13 for local sada biscuits, 6.57 ± 0.11 for kamala sundari bread), though biscuit homogeneity decreased at higher substitutions. overall liking scores (e.g., 6.57 ± 0.11 for local sada bread, 6.85 ± 0.00 for kamala sundari bread) confirmed sweet potato flour’s suitability for health-oriented, gluten-free products, necessitating careful substitution optimization (taglieri et al., 2021). table 3: sensory evaluation of products prepared from flour-dried sweet potatoes (var. local sada) constituents osmotically dehydrated flour products dehydrated flour products bread biscuits bread biscuits visual puffiness 5.75 ± 0.56 b 4.95 ± 0.67 c 7.85 ± 0.65 b 6.55 ± 0.73 b appearance/color 6.57 ± 0.11a 5.70 ± 0.13 b 6.66 ± 0.21 c 4.57 ± 0.11 b odor/aroma 4.33 ± 0.12 b 6.55 ± 0.22 d 4.51 ± 0.32 a 6.33 ± 0.12 b pa ge 42 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 37-45 2025 table 4: sensory evaluation of products prepared from flour osmotically dried sweet potatoes (var. kamala sundari) constituents osmotically dehydrated flour products dehydrated flour products bread biscuits bread biscuits appearance/color 5.57 ± 0.11 c 6.70 ± 0.13 5.66 ± 0.21 5.57 ± 0.11b odor/aroma 5.33 ± 0.12 6.55 ± 0.22 5.51 ± 0.32 5.33 ± 0.12 taste 6.57 ± 0.11 5.70 ± 0.13 d 6.66 ± 0.21 d 5.57 ± 0.11 texture 6.57 ± 0.11 5.70 ± 0.13 6.66 ± 0.21 4.57 ± 0.11 moistness 4.33 ± 0.12 6.55 ± 0.22 c 4.51 ± 0.32 6.33 ± 0.12 overall liking 6.85 ± 0.00 b 5.58 ± 0.00 5.65 ± 0.00 b 4.81 ± 0.00 *note: in a column, figures with the same letter or without a letter do not differ significantly; figures with dissimilar letters differ significantly (as per dmrt). shelf-life stability over four weeks, sweet potato flour products exhibited increased moisture retention (tables 5 and 6), with osmotically dehydrated local sada bread rising from 20.73% ± 0.00 to 22.03% ± 0.56, and kamala sundari from 20.67% ± 0.08 to 22.17% ± 0.08, enhancing freshness but requiring packaging to prevent mould (sablani & mujumdar, 2006). microbial loads remained within safe limits (ayo-omogie, 2021), attributed to sweet potato’s antimicrobial properties, with no significant growth in total plate count, yeast, mould, or coliforms. texture and color stability persisted, with carotenoids resisting fading, suggesting natural preservative potential and extended shelf life, particularly in non-refrigerated regions, supporting food security (adoko et al., 2023; paul et al., 2023). these results demonstrate the ability of sweet potato flour to add nutritional value to bakery products and preserve their sensory quality; however, more substitutions and an increase in moisture require adjustments to the formulation. the higher sugar levels could raise glycemic indices and require more studies on the impact on health (giri et al., 2016; ayo-omogie, 2021; ivane et al., 2024). shelf-life improvements suggest that sweet potato flour may be a sustainable preservative that could help reduce synthetic additives in emerging regions (owade et al., 2019). this study’s integrated approach--processing, sensory, and shelf-life evaluation--furthers sweet potato flour applications by providing practical insight for food processors looking for innovative, sustainable ingredients table 5: effect of storage on the moisture content of products prepared from flour-dried sweet potatoes from var. local sada storage period (weeks) osmotically dehydrated flour products dehydrated flour products bread biscuits bread biscuits 1 20.73 ± 0.00 b 4.95 ± 0.45 21.95 ± 0.89 4.65 ± 0.45 2 20.93 ± 0.23 5.05 ± 0.48 c 22.05 ± 0.12 c 4.75 ± 0.55 d 3 21.23 ± 0.45 a 5.55 ± 0.54 22.75 ± 0.15 4.95 ± 0.60 4 22.03 ± 0.56 5.85 ± 0.65 a 22.93 ± 0.38 c 5.05 ± 0.42 *note: in a column, figures with the same letter or without a letter do not differ significantly; figures with dissimilar letters differ significantly (as per dmrt). table 6: effect of storage on moisture content of products prepared from flour dried sweet potatoes from var. kamala sundari storage period (weeks) osmotically dehydrated flour products dehydrated flour products bread biscuits bread biscuits 1 20.67 ± 0.08 a 4.25 ± 0.06 21.35 ± 0.32 a 4.43 ± 0.45 c 2 20.98 ± 0.08 4.55 ± 0.06 d 21.85 ± 0.32 4.83 ± 0.45 b 3 21.67 ± 0.08 b 4.95 ± 0.06 22.15 ± 0.32 5.03 ± 0.45 d 4 22.17 ± 0.08 d 5.25 ± 0.06 c 22.85 ± 0.32 a 5.73 ± 0.45 c *note: in a column, figures with the same letter or without a letter do not differ significantly; figures with dissimilar letters differ significantly (as per dmrt). taste 6.85 ± 0.23 a 5.58 ± 0.67 a 5.65 ± 0.57 d 4.81 ± 0.70 b texture 5.57 ± 0.11 a 6.70 ± 0.13 d 5.66 ± 0.21 a 5.57 ± 0.11 c moistness 5.33 ± 0.12 a 6.55 ± 0.22 d 5.51 ± 0.32 b 5.33 ± 0.12 d overall liking 6.57 ± 0.11 d 5.70 ± 0.13 b 6.66 ± 0.21 c 5.57 ± 0.11 b *note: in a column, figures with the same letter or without a letter do not differ significantly; figures with dissimilar letters differ significantly (as per dmrt). pa ge 43 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 37-45 2025 conclusions this study compellingly illustrates the transformative potential of sweet potato flour (var. local sada and kamala sundari) as an innovative partial wheat flour replacement in bakery products such as breads, biscuits and cakes, significantly improving nutritional profiles while increasing sales volume. utilizing flour processed through optimized osmotic dehydration and conventional drying, we achieved significant gains in moisture, sugar, protein and dietary fibre content positioning sweet potato flour as a nutritional, functional ingredient ideal for healthier baked goods. these gains reflect global demands for sustainable and healthoriented foods while relieving import dependence and increasing food security in regions abundant with sweet potatoes. sensory evaluations confirmed high consumer acceptance with products featuring appealing textures, colours and flavours though higher substitution levels introduced minor earthy notes that required recipe adjustments in order to maintain a broad appeal. shelflife assessments over four weeks revealed that sweet potato flour-enhanced products maintained acceptable quality and microbial safety, leveraging the flour’s natural preservative properties to extend freshness, particularly in non-refrigerated settings. this supports its viability as a sustainable ingredient for regions with limited refrigeration infrastructure. however, challenges such as reduced dough volume at higher substitution levels and potential glycemic impacts from elevated sugar content highlight the need for formulation optimization and longterm shelf-life studies under diverse conditions. future research should explore industrial scalability, consumer preferences across broader demographics, and health implications to unlock sweet potato flour’s commercial potential fully, offering food processors innovative solutions for nutrient-rich, environmentally sustainable bakery products. references adoko, m. c., olum, s., elolu, s., & ongeng, d. 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(2025). advances in processing techniques and determinants of sweet potato starch gelatinization. foods, 14(4), 545. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14040545 pa ge 1 pa ge 46 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) gender differences in career coaching outcomes: a quantitative analysis using a logit model pratima adhikari1*, roshan thapa2 volume 4 issue 2, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i2.4785 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: march 15, 2025 accepted: april 22, 2025 published: may 31, 2025 career coaching is essential in supporting career development and improving workplace adaptability. however, gender-specific differences in coaching experiences remain unexplored, despite evidence that men and women often encounter distinct challenges shaped by societal norms and organizational cultures investigate whether career coaching factors, career planning self-efficacy, perceived gender supportiveness, and coaching satisfaction, can predict participants’ gender using a binary logistic regression model. a quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed with data collected from 120 individuals engaged in career coaching programs. participants completed a structured questionnaire measuring career self-efficacy, coaching satisfaction, and perceptions of gender supportiveness using validated likert scales. binary logistic regression was performed using jamovi to examine the predictive power of these variables on gender classification, with model fit, classification accuracy, roc-auc, and collinearity checks included. the comprehensive model demonstrated statistical significance, χ²(3, n = 120) = 40.6, p < .001, exhibiting an exceptional fit (auc = 0.888). career planning self-efficacy was the strongest predictor (or = 2.89, p < .001), followed by perceived gender supportiveness (or = 3.65, p = .008), and coaching satisfaction (or = 2.66, p = .005). accuracy increased from 82.5% (cutoff 0.5) to 84.2% (cut-off 0.798) with improved balance between sensitivity and specificity. career planning self-efficacy, perceived gender supportiveness, and coaching satisfaction significantly predicted gender classification in coaching contexts, with men reporting higher levels across these factors. the findings highlight the need for gender-responsive, inclusive coaching practices tailored to different career needs and perceptions. keywords career coaching, career planning self-efficacy, coaching satisfaction, gender supportiveness, logistic regression 1 career coach nepal, kathmandu, nepal 2 global college international, kathmandu, nepal * corresponding author’s e-mail: me.pratima.thapa@gmail.com introduction in the current scenario, career coaching and counseling have emerged as a sensitive intervention in supporting individuals’ career development, job satisfaction, and workplace adaptability. with increasing globalization and evolving labor market demands, career coaching plays a vital role in helping professionals navigate complex career horizon (bozer et al., 2013). the effect and impact of coaching and counseling on career outcomes such as job readiness and clarity, decisionmaking self-efficacy, and career satisfaction is measured. however, gender differences in career experiences necessitate an exploration of how male and female might experience coaching differently. gender influences career development through societal expectations, organizational practices, and personal perceptions male and female often faced distinct challenges and opportunities which shape their career trajectories (ely et al., 2011). as such, career coaching experiences may vary based on gender, with potential differences in satisfaction, supportiveness, preferences, and outcomes (betz, 2007; van nieuwerburgh, 2020). therefore, it has become important to understand these differences is essential for designing equitable and effective coaching programs gender-specific coaching is rooted in the understanding that women often face systemic and structural barriers in their careers that differ from those experienced by men. people often faces difficulties in their career path, like being judged by gender-based expectations, having limited chances to take on leadership roles, and trying to manage the ongoing challenge of balancing work commitments with family life. coaching strategies that are tailored to address these specific challenges can be more effective in promoting career advancement and personal growth for women. one of the key theoretical underpinnings of gender-specific coaching is the concept of “critical feminist coaching” (cfc), which emphasizes the need to challenge gender hegemony and promote feminist values in the coaching process (bierema et al., 2022). this approach encourages coaches to adopt a critical lens when working with women, recognizing the systemic inequalities they face and empowering them to navigate these challenges effectively. another important theoretical framework is the “4 r’s” model, which focuses on reflecting, reforming, raising, and rebuilding. this model provides a well structured approach to coaching that helps female leaders to develop their skills and confidence needed to succeed in male-dominated environments (bierema et al., 2022). these elements help female leaders through coaching to overcome the barriers that hinder their career progression. although awareness of gender disparities in career development is increasing, empirical pa ge 47 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 46-52, 2025 research investigating how gender relates to coaching experiences and preferences remains limited. most existing literature focuses on overall coaching outcomes, neglecting to explore whether individuals’ gender can be predicted based on their coaching experiences. this gap hinders efforts to create inclusive coaching frameworks that address gender-specific needs. purpose of the study the study aims to examine whether career coaching experiences, including satisfaction, self-efficacy, perceived gender supportiveness, frequency, and gender preference in coaching, predict an individual’s gender using a binary logistic regression model. research question does a combination of coaching satisfaction, career planning self-efficacy, perceived gender supportiveness, coaching frequency, and coach gender preference predict the likelihood of a participant being female or male? hypotheses h1: higher coaching satisfaction is positively associated with the likelihood of identifying as female. h2: greater career planning self-efficacy is positively associated with the likelihood of identifying as female. h3: stronger perceptions of gender supportiveness are positively associated with the likelihood of identifying as female. literature review career coaching efficacy career coaching and counseling helps to enhance individuals’ career management skills, informed decisionmaking capabilities, and job satisfaction. research by bozer et al. (2013) and feldman and lankau (2005) affirms coaching’s positive effects on career clarity, adaptability, and work engagement. these outcomes are linked to structured goal setting, reflective practices, and supportive feedback provided in coaching and counseling sessions. it is further supported by recent studies by van nieuwerburgh (2020) further highlight the evolving nature of coaching in the digital era, emphasizing the significance of personalization and inclusivity. gender-specific coaching traditional leadership models often reflect male-centric perspectives, necessitating coaching approaches that address the unique needs of female leaders(ruderman & ohlott, 2005). gender-specific coaching acknowledges that men and women may encounter unique career challenges shaped by social norms and organizational cultures (ely et al., 2011). studies indicate that women often face greater obstacles in leadership advancement, negotiation, and work-life balance, necessitating tailored coaching interventions (athanasopoulou & dopson, 2018; lyness & grotto, 2018). gender-sensitive coaching environments foster inclusivity and psychological safety, enabling individuals to address gender-related career issues openly. likely, inclusive coaching practices significantly improve workplace equity and career progression for underrepresented genders (schneider et al., 2017). coaching for women in leadership roles should focus on overcoming implicit biases and stereotypes that can impede their progress. in organization, while analyzing the careers of managers it was found that coaching is seen as a successful tool which helped female to compete for top positions traditionally dominated by men. although the coaching process is not inherently gender-specific, it is particularly beneficial for women aiming to break into higher managerial roles (żukowska & miąsek, 2014a). through the research among people there is gender differences in career success which are evident, with gender acting as a moderating variable in career outcomes. for instance, gender influences the impact of international experience on compensation and career ascendency, highlighting the nuanced role gender plays in career trajectories (orser & leck, 2010). coaching is been a valuable tool for informed career development, particularly for female aspiring to managerial positions. it helps in building the necessary skills and confidence to compete in traditionally male-dominated roles (żukowska & miąsek, 2014). likewise, there was a positive correlation between undergraduate students’ interest in co-curricular activities and their leadership skills, with female students showing higher levels in both areas and emphasized the importance of providing co-curricular opportunities in colleges to enhance leadership skills development among students, regardless of academic stream or locality (subhrajyoti et al., 2023). coaching satisfaction it reflects the participant’s overall contentment with the career coaching sessions they received. it assesses multiple aspects including whether the coaching helped clarify career goals, enhance confidence, strengthen career decision-making, and improve job satisfaction. it was observed that higher levels of coaching satisfaction have been associated to stronger positive career outcomes and wellbeing of an individual (bozer et al., 2013). it was found that women in professional psychology are more likely to expect career disruptions due to childrearing and prefer job flexibility, which impacts their career satisfaction and choices (singer et al., 2005). as organizations implement gender-competent coaching practices, it becomes imperative to evaluate the long-term impacts on both individual and organizational levels. for instance, by fostering environments where men are not only participants but also advocates for gender equity in coaching, companies can cultivate a more holistic approach to leadership development that benefits all employees. career planning self-efficacy as organizations strive to implement gender-competent coaching practices, it is equally important to recognize the pa ge 48 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 46-52, 2025 role of intersectionality in shaping individuals’ experiences within these frameworks. it refers to an individual’s values and belief in their capability and capacity to make effective career-related decisions, set achievable goals, and navigate career transitions. it captures confidence in tackling job search challenges, selecting career paths, and managing work-life balance. high career planning self-efficacy predicts career commitment and proactive career behaviors (betz & hackett, 2006). likely, selfefficacy plays an important role in career planning, with male generally reporting higher levels of self-efficacy in coaching roles. this difference is predictive of their intention to pursue coaching careers (majake & kubayi, 2024). perceived gender supportiveness furthermore, as organizations seek to refine their coaching frameworks, it is essential to consider the role of mentorship in conjunction with formal coaching practices. mentorship can provide a complementary layer of support that addresses not only professional development but also personal growth and emotional resilience, particularly for those facing intersectional challenges. further, there is no significant difference in research self-efficacy between male and female students (gaoat et al., 2023). it measures participants’ perceptions of the extent to which their coaching environment and sessions are supportive of gender diversity and inclusion. this includes fairness, openness to gender-related concerns, and active encouragement irrespective of gender identity. supportive environments enhance engagement, learning, and comfort in career coaching contexts (ely et al., 2011). the perception of gender supportiveness in career environments is crucial for job satisfaction. female often report higher job satisfaction levels as compared to male, which can be influenced by organizational support and gender-sensitive approaches (cañizares et al., 2007). addressing unconscious bias and promoting gender equality in career development can create more inclusive environments, enhancing perceived supportiveness and satisfaction (costa et al., 2015; parra-valencia & massey, 2023). theoretical framework this study is grounded in two key theoretical perspectives: social cognitive career theory (scct) and gender role theory, both of which provide a relevant foundation for examining the role of self-efficacy, satisfaction, and perceived inclusivity in career coaching outcomes. social cognitive career theory (scct) emphasizes the importance of self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and contextual supports in shaping career development and decision-making (lent et al., 1994). scct posits that individuals’ confidence in their ability to manage career-related tasks which termed career self-efficacy and plays a critical role in career choices, goal-setting, and satisfaction. within this framework, career coaching can serve as a contextual support system that influences individuals’ self-efficacy beliefs and satisfaction through feedback, guidance, and encouragement. the theory identifies career planning self-efficacy as a key factor, revealing that individuals with higher confidence in their capabilities are more inclined to take an active role in informed career decisions and view coaching as a valuable resource (betz & hackett, 2006). the scct framework also supports the inclusion of coaching satisfaction as an outcome indicator of the effectiveness of contextual career supports. materials and methods this study adopted a quantitative approach, cross-sectional research design to anlayze the relationship between career coaching-related factors and gender classification. the data was collected through primary sources through structured self-administered questionnaires and the subsequent application of binary logistic regression analysis to predict the likelihood of gender classification (male or female) based on selected predictor variables. the predictors included career planning self-efficacy, perceived gender supportiveness, and coaching satisfaction. the crosssectional approach was appropriate as it allowed for the collection of data at a single point in time, enabling the exploration of associations between the study variables without manipulating the study environment (creswell & creswell, 2018). the target population for this study comprised individuals participating in career coaching programs and workshops offered within professional and educational settings. the focus was on adults actively involved in career decision-making and coaching services. from this population, a total sample of 120 participants was recruited. the questionnaire included validated likert-scale items measuring career planning selfefficacy, perceived gender supportiveness, and coaching satisfaction, along with demographic information. data were analyzed using jamovi version 2.5.7. initial data screening involved checking for missing values, outliers, and assumption violations. the main analysis involved: • binary logistic regression analysis to test the predictive power of the three independent variables on gender classification. • model fit indices including model deviance, akaike information criterion (aic), bayesian information criterion (bic), and pseudo r-squared values (nagelkerke r², cox & snell r², and mcfadden r²). • omnibus likelihood ratio tests to examine the overall significance of individual predictors. • receiver operating characteristic (roc) curve analysis and calculation of the area under the curve (auc)to assess model accuracy at different cut-off points. • collinearity diagnostics (variance inflation factor and tolerance) to test for multicollinearity among the predictors. • all statistical tests were conducted at a significance level of p < .05. pa ge 49 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 46-52, 2025 results and discussion the fit of the logistic regression model was evaluated using several commonly recommended goodness-of-fit indicators. table 1: model fit measures overall model test model deviance aic bic r²mcf r²cs r²n χ² df p 1 84.8 92.8 104 0.324 0.287 0.443 40.6 3 <.001 table 2: omnibus likelihood ratio tests predictor χ² df p coaching satisfaction 10.70 1 0.001 career planning self-efficacy 13.02 1 <.001 perceived gender supportiveness 7.38 1 0.007 table 3: collinearity statistics predictor vif tolerance coaching satisfaction 1.01 0.993 career planning self-efficacy 1.18 0.848 perceived gender supportiveness 1.19 0.843 the fit of the logistic regression model was evaluated using several commonly recommended goodness-offit indicators. the overall model test was statistically significant, χ²(3, n = 120) = 40.6, p < .001, indicating that the model provided a significantly better fit than a null model with no predictors. this is consistent with recommendations for using likelihood-ratio chi-square tests in evaluating logistic regression models (acharya et al., 2022; hosmer et al., 2013). the model reported a deviance value of 84.8, with an akaike information criterion (aic) of 92.8 and a bayesian information criterion (bic) of 104. lower aic and bic values indicate a better and more parsimonious model fit (vittinghoff et al., 2012). these indices are essential for comparing the relative quality of competing models in logistic regression analysis. to assess explanatory power, three pseudo-r² values were reported. mcfadden’s r² was 0.324, which suggests a moderately strong model, as values between 0.2 and 0.4 are typically interpreted as indicative of a good fit in logistic regression (hosmer et al., 2013; menard, 2018). cox & snell’s r² was 0.287, and nagelkerke’s r² was 0.443, providing additional measures of the proportion of variance explained by the predictors. pseudo-r² measures, while not directly comparable to those in linear regression, are widely used for gauging model strength in logistic regression research (acharya et al., 2022). overall, these fit statistics demonstrated that the model performed well in explaining and predicting gender classification based on coaching-related experiences. self-efficacy was a significant predictor, χ²(1, n = 120) = 13.02, p < .001, representing the strongest individual predictor in the model. this finding aligns with recent work by jones et al.,(2016) who emphasized the importance of self-efficacy in career-related outcomes and decision-making. additionally, perceived gender supportiveness made a significant contribution, χ²(1, n = 120) = 7.38, p = .007, suggesting that participants’ perceptions of gender inclusivity in coaching environments play a meaningful role in differentiating gender classifications. these findings highlight the importance of evaluating individual predictors in logistic regression models, as recommended in contemporary applied regression literature (menard, 2018; vittinghoff et al., 2012). the contribution of each predictor variable to the logistic regression model was assessed using the omnibus likelihood ratio test, which compares the full model containing the predictor to a reduced model without it. this test is recommended for determining whether the addition of each individual predictor significantly improves model fit (hosmer et al., 2013). results showed that coaching satisfaction made a significant contribution to the model, χ²(1, n = 120) = 10.70, p = .001. this indicates that including coaching satisfaction significantly improves the model’s ability to predict gender classification. similarly, career planning to assess the presence of multicollinearity among the predictor variables, variance inflation factor (vif) and tolerance values were examined. multicollinearity occurs when independent variables are highly correlated, which can distort regression coefficients and affect the stability of the model (vittinghoff et al., 2012). the analysis showed that coaching satisfaction had a vif of 1.01 and a tolerance of 0.993, career planning self-efficacy had a vif of 1.18 and a tolerance of 0.848, and perceived gender supportiveness had a vif of 1.19 and a tolerance of 0.843. all vif values were well below the commonly accepted threshold of 5, and tolerance values were above 0.2, indicating no significant multicollinearity concerns among the predictors (hosmer et al., 2021; menard, 2018). these results suggest that the predictors contributed independently to the model and that the regression estimates were stable and reliable. examining individual predictors, career planning selfefficacy was the strongest predictor, with a statistically significant positive association (b = 1.061, se = 0.289, p < .001, or = 2.89). this suggests that for each one-unit increase in self-efficacy, the odds of being classified as male increased by approximately 2.89 times, holding other variables constant. perceived gender supportiveness also made a significant contribution to the model (b = 1.295, se = 0.487, p = .008, or = 3.65), indicating that higher perceptions of gender inclusivity were associated pa ge 50 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 46-52, 2025 with an increase in the likelihood of being classified as male. additionally, coaching satisfaction had a significant positive effect (b = 0.980, se = 0.343, p = .005, or = 2.66), implying that greater satisfaction with coaching experiences was linked to higher odds of male classification. when looking at each factor separately, career planning self-efficacy turned out to be the strongest predictor of gender in this study. this means that people who felt more confident about making career decisions after coaching were much more likely to be male. in fact, for every increase in confidence, the chance of being male was about 2.89 times higher, while keeping other factors the same. perceived gender supportiveness also played an important role. participants who felt that their coaching environment was more supportive and fairer about gender were about 3.65 times more likely to be male. this shows that male participants tended to report more positive feelings about the inclusiveness of their coaching experiences. lastly, coaching satisfaction was also linked to gender. participants who were more satisfied with their coaching sessions were 2.66 times more likely to be male. this suggests that male participants generally felt more satisfied with their coaching experiences compared to female participants. the classification performance of the logistic regression model was evaluated at two different probability cutoff points: 0.5 and 0.798. at the conventional cut-off of 0.5, the model demonstrated an accuracy of 82.5%, with a specificity of 42.3% and a sensitivity of 93.6%. the area under the curve (auc) was 0.888, indicating excellent overall discriminatory ability (acharya et al., 2022; hosmer et al., 2013). when the cut-off was adjusted to 0.798, classification accuracy improved to 84.2%. notably, specificity increased substantially to 84.6%, while sensitivity slightly decreased to 84.0%. despite these changes, the auc remained constant at 0.888, confirming the model’s table 4: model coefficients of estimated binary logistic regression 95% confidence interval 95% confidence interval predictor estimate lower upper se z p odds ratio lower upper intercept -12.562 -18.518 -6.61 3.039 -4.13 <.001 3.50e-6 9.07e-9 0.00135 coaching satisfaction 0.980 0.290 1.67 0.352 2.78 0.005 2.66 1.34 5.30919 career planning selfefficacy 1.061 0.464 1.66 0.305 3.48 <.001 2.89 1.59 5.24553 perceived gender supportiveness 1.295 0.333 2.26 0.491 2.64 0.008 3.65 1.40 9.54442 note. estimates represent the log odds of "gender = male" vs. "gender = female" table 5: omnibus likelihood ratio tests cut off accuracy specificity sensitivity auc 0.5 0.825 0.423 0.936 0.888 0.798 0.842 0.846 0.840 0.888 figure 1: cut off pa ge 51 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(2) 46-52, 2025 strong and stable capacity to differentiate between groups (vittinghoff et al., 2012). discussions this study aimed to examine whether key career coaching factors predict gender classification among participants using a binary logistic regression model. the findings revealed that career planning self-efficacy, perceived gender supportiveness, and coaching satisfaction were significant predictors of gender. among these, career planning self-efficacy emerged as the strongest predictor. higher levels of self-efficacy were associated with increased odds of male classification, suggesting that men in this sample reported higher confidence in career-related decision-making following coaching. this is consistent with previous findings indicating that men often express greater self-efficacy in professional settings, possibly due to social expectations and differing experiences of career support (betz & hackett, 2006; vittinghoff et al., 2012). perceived gender supportiveness also significantly contributed to gender classification. participants who reported a more inclusive and gender-supportive coaching environment were more likely to be male. this may reflect varying perceptions of inclusivity across genders, with men potentially perceiving workplace environments as more gender-neutral or supportive compared to women, who may be more attuned to subtle biases or exclusions (ely et al., 2011). furthermore, coaching satisfaction was positively associated with male classification, indicating that higher levels of satisfaction with coaching outcomes increased the likelihood of being male. this finding may point to differences in how men and women evaluate or experience coaching effectiveness, as men may benefit more from coaching structures currently in place or perceive greater alignment with their career goals (athanasopoulou & dopson, 2018; lyness & grotto, 2018). in terms of model fit and classification accuracy, the logistic regression model demonstrated excellent predictive ability, with an auc of 0.888. accuracy improved from 82.5% at the conventional 0.5 cut-off to 84.2% at the optimal 0.798 threshold. notably, adjusting the cut-off value improved specificity while maintaining strong sensitivity, suggesting the model effectively discriminates between genders based on coachingrelated experiences. these findings reinforce the value of gender-responsive career coaching interventions and highlight the importance of considering gender dynamics in coaching practice. practitioners should aim to enhance self-efficacy, foster inclusive coaching environments, and regularly evaluate satisfaction to promote equitable outcomes for all participants. conclusion in conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into how career coaching experiences relate to gender classification. the results indicate that career planning self-efficacy, perceived gender supportiveness, and coaching satisfaction are significant predictors of gender, with men in this study reporting higher levels of each. the logistic regression model demonstrated excellent classification performance, especially when adjusting the probability cut-off for improved balance between sensitivity and specificity. these findings underscore the necessity for organizations and coaches to design career coaching interventions that are sensitive to gender-related experiences and perceptions. by fostering environments that actively support gender inclusivity and address diverse needs, career coaching programs can contribute to more equitable and effective career development outcomes. future research should consider longitudinal designs, larger and more diverse samples, and the inclusion of 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(2014). the role of coaching in managerial careers of women. 22, 56–66. pa ge 1 pa ge 33 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) a data-driven information kiosk for enhanced educational governance: integrating visualization and geolocation in the deped davao del norte division eldito c. loquinio1* volume 4 issue 4, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i4.6389 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: october 15, 2025 accepted: november 22, 2025 published: december 13, 2025 this study aimed to create and assess a holistic, online interactive information kiosk featuring data visualization and geolocation for the davao del norte division of the department of education (deped). the initiative addresses the chronic information shortage and the slow data-gathering process between the division and its stakeholders to support educational governance and operational efficiency. the project was executed applying the agile methodology and involved continuous communication with the planning office and it staff throughout the whole process to obtain highly tailored and locally relevant results. school data, including performance indicators, facility inventories and staff information, can be easily and comprehensively uploaded and maintained by the planning officers assigned. the system offers a number of advanced functionalities, including the dynamic data visualization of education metrics, geolocation features powered by the google maps api for accurate school mapping, instant weather updates, and performing high-level predictive analysis based on the aaa exponential smoothing model to predict future performance indicators. the system was also thoroughly evaluated according to the iso 25010 software quality framework, a globally recognized standard for software quality assessment. evaluation by internal users produced an exceptional overall grand average weighted mean (gawm) of 4.98 out of 5.00, thereby confirming the system`s excellent quality across functional suitability, usability, and security. the findings very strongly suggest the system’s ability to not only rectify the information shortage but also to propel datadriven decision-making in educational administration and to set a good example of ictbased educational governance modernization. keywords data visualization, geolocation, information kiosk, predictive analysis 1 department of education, davao del norte, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: eldito.loquinio@deped.gov.ph introduction in today’s interconnected world, where information flows freely across borders and technologies evolve rapidly, ensuring universal access to information remains both a pivotal challenge and an indispensable cornerstone of democracy and human empowerment. access to information is a fundamental human right acknowledged by the universal declaration of human rights, guaranteeing individuals the freedom to seek, receive, and share information without boundaries (united nations, 1948). this right enables people to stay informed, make decisions, and hold institutions accountable. its implications across various domains, such as education, healthcare, and socio-economic development, allow individuals to improve their lives and contribute to the progress of society. in the digital era, efforts to bridge the information divide and promote universal access to information have gained prominence, with technological advancements playing a vital role in enhancing information accessibility (warschauer & matuchniak, 2010; thierer & crews, 2003). by promoting transparency and holding institutions accountable, access to information contributes to the integrity of governance and fosters fair development. information is not uniformly available, and various challenges hinder access for different demographics and communities. marginalized groups, people with disabilities, and individuals living in remote areas often face significant barriers to accessing critical information (ndiwalana & gebe, 2018). factors such as lack of infrastructure, linguistic diversity, digital illiteracy, and socio-economic disparities contribute to the information divide, limiting these groups’ ability to participate fully in societal affairs and access essential services (alper & duguay, 2015; warschauer & ames, 2010). navigating the intricacies of the digital era, it is crucial to advocate for initiatives that guarantee that everyone can pursue knowledge and empowerment without exclusion. interactive multimedia and hypermedia technology have become crucial components of the education process, employed in formal and informal settings. while the primary utilization of this technology in education is typically formal, such as for instructing specific subject matter using multimedia, there is a recent trend where multimedia-based public access systems like the world wide web, interactive exhibits, and entertainment systems are gaining prominence as a fresh approach to interactive multimedia usage. this development represents a new era of employing interactive multimedia (kearsley & heller, 1995). multimedia public access systems, spanning a diverse range of subjects, are commonly located in venues such as museums (daly, 1993), parks (betts, 1994), libraries pa ge 34 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 33-44, 2025 (fitzgerald, 1994), department stores, supermarkets (leinfuss, 1993), hotels (slater, 1992), airports (weiss, 1995), and college campuses (wilson, 1992). they offer engaging and immersive experiences that cater to diverse audiences, enhancing learning opportunities beyond the confines of traditional classrooms. a kiosk exemplifies interactive media and hypermedia technology. it serves as a prime illustration of this technology in action. kiosks have been used in various public environments for several years, including airports, retail stores, train stations, and various customer service points (slack & rowley, 2002). they have been used to provide and collect information, advertise, and facilitate transactions (ni & ho, 2005). analyzing the utilization of information kiosks allows us to grasp how information technology systems play a crucial role in bridging the information divide between an organization and individuals. the advancement of innovative technology in education signifies a major innovation poised to enhance the learning environment (chatty et al., 2012). e-learning and web-based education systems have reshaped traditional classrooms into virtual ones, eliminating the necessity for physical presence. course management systems and online communication tools facilitate e-learning across diverse educational institutions (cole & foster, 2007), gathering extensive digital data on students’ learning management system (lms) usage patterns concurrently. educational data mining (edm) and learning analytics (la) are distinct research domains investigating the potential of historical data to enhance education quality (merceron, 2015). edm employs computerized techniques to identify patterns in large educational datasets, drawing insights from lms data using data mining methods (baker et al., 2010). the information gathered by these systems is a proxy for assessing students’ learning behavior. analyzing these data enables us to derive valuable insights to enhance student performance. with these insights, stakeholders can gain a deeper understanding of the learning process, leading to improved managerial decision-making. to address this challenge, this study proposes and evaluates the deped davao del norte information kiosk with data visualization and geolocation. this innovation aims to provide a centralized, interactive, and user-friendly platform for stakeholders to access vital educational information. the main objective of this study is to develop an application that bridges the information gap between the deped division of davao del norte and its stakeholders. the specific objectives were to: 1. enable planning and school planning officers to upload and manage relevant school data, including performance indicators and facilities. 2. allow information officers to manage news and events data. 3. implement geolocation services to help users find the nearest schools. 4. integrate real-time weather updates and forecasts. 5. utilize predictive analysis and data visualization techniques on school performance indicators. 6. generate essential administrative and directory reports. the implementation of this system is significant for deped as it serves as a pilot initiative for educational improvement that can be replicated across other divisions, promoting transparency, accountability, and improved academic outcomes. literature review litsey et al. (2015) conducted a study that involved a comprehensive examination of the implementation of interactive kiosks at texas tech university libraries. the study highlighted the effectiveness of kiosks, particularly in providing directional assistance. furthermore, they observed a reduction in queries directed at the service desk. for instance, the number of inquiries related to adding funds to print accounts decreased significantly, from 6,274 between august 2012 and december 2012 to 4,643 between august 2013 and december 2013, a decrease of almost 25%. they concluded that interactive kiosks are a valuable means of instructing students and visitors on how to optimize their use of the library while simultaneously alleviating the service desk’s workload. on a related note, a study conducted by ni and ho (2005) examines the challenges associated with the introduction of e-government services by investigating the development of information kiosks. they emphasized the importance of kiosk development through their analysis of the georgianet kiosk project and the boston-i kiosk pilot project. their findings highlighted the potential value of information kiosks in providing citizens with convenient access to information and services while addressing the digital divide in society. however, they also underscored the need to consider numerous factors when implementing such technology. the study concluded that most kiosk projects do not typically fail due to technical issues but rather due to managerial challenges. the study also suggested that for a successful kiosk project, it is crucial to have a realistic plan, enhance communication among partners, secure the necessary investment for the backend support of kiosk projects, and, notably, implement cost accounting measures for kiosk projects. hirumi, savenye, and allen (1994) investigated creating, implementing, and assessing an interactive videodisc kiosk that highlights desert ecology at the san diego natural museum. this program aimed to deliver information about various desert species, ecological relationships, and typical behaviors. according to their on-site evaluation, approximately one-third of museum visitors were engaged with the program. those who used it spent more time interacting with the videodisc kiosk than other exhibits within the museum. the evaluation underscored the effectiveness of employing sound, video, and animation to engage and attract visitors while also offering them alternative navigation options. moreover, a study conducted by wang and shih (2009) pa ge 35 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 33-44, 2025 explored the reasons behind the usage of information kiosks, highlighting three principal factors. firstly, performance expectancy, where kiosks are more likely to be accepted if they help users access information efficiently and gain a competitive edge. secondly, ease of use (effort expectancy), as user-friendliness and simplicity attract users. lastly, social influence plays a significant role, with people more likely to use kiosks if they see others in their social circles doing so. these findings underline the pivotal role of these factors in promoting the use of information kiosks. in the department of education schools division of davao del norte, a consistent commitment to its programs has stood the test of time. the division has effectively managed its projects and initiatives by addressing the needs of both internal and external stakeholders. schools division office (sdo) davao del norte is committed to delivering high-quality curriculum and instruction, as well as efficient school governance and operations. it aims to support various activities, programs, interventions, and strategies aimed at enhancing learning outcomes and school-based management across its 264 schools. today, as the education landscape evolves, the division is preparing to meet new challenges and international standards. sdo davao del norte remains optimistic about achieving the goal of ensuring that all filipinos can reach their full potential and contribute meaningfully to a united nation. this aligns with the aspirations outlined in the deped’s basic education development plan (bedp) 2030, which includes four key pillars: access, quality, equity, and resiliency and well-being. these pillars are further reinforced by enabling mechanisms governance, which seeks to modernize and streamline the department’s governance and management processes for greater efficiency and resilience. however, despite the division of davao del norte’s commendable efforts and commitment to excellence, there remains a noticeable information gap between the organization and its stakeholders. information is often not readily available and can be challenging for external parties to access. this gap hinders effective communication and collaboration between the division and its various stakeholders, including parents, students, teachers, and the broader community. bridging this information divide and improving transparency in the dissemination of educational data and updates are important aspects that the division should address to enhance its programs and initiatives further, ensuring that all stakeholders are wellinformed and engaged in the pursuit of quality education. to address the information gap issue, this study is taking a proactive step by introducing an innovative solution: the deped davao del norte information kiosk with data visualization and geolocation technology. this forwardthinking initiative aims to provide stakeholders with easy access to vital educational information in a userfriendly and interactive manner. the kiosk will serve as a centralized platform where stakeholders can access a wealth of data, including school performance metrics, enrollment statistics, curriculum updates, and educational initiatives. the integration of geolocation technology and real-time weather data will enable stakeholders to visualize data on a map, making it easier to identify and understand specific locations and conditions of the schools. the kiosk will also display data on news and events within the division. this innovation also aligns with the department of education’s basic education development plan (bedp) 2023 and resonates with united nation’s sustainable development goals (sdgs), particularly goal 4, quality education. by implementing this information kiosk, deped davao del norte is not only bridging the information gap but also empowering stakeholders with the tools they need to actively participate in and support the improvement of education in the province. materials and methods system development method the agile software development life cycle (sdlc) was the methodology used in the research to make sure the system was flexible, user-centric and highly adaptable figure 1: process of agile methodology pa ge 36 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 33-44, 2025 to the deped davao del norte division’s specific operational needs. this iterative approach was necessary for creating a specialized institutional system, as it would allow for gradual refinement based on the input of experts. the whole development process was divided into several sprints, with each sprint starting off with a sprint planning meeting in which tasks were chosen from a list of prioritized tasks in the product backlog. the execution of the sprint involved collaboration among developers and was supported by daily stand-up meetings to ensure that everyone was aligned and to quickly resolve any technical problems that might arise. at the end of each sprint, a review and demonstration was held, during which the main stakeholders, consisting of the administrative officer ii, the it officer, and the planning section staff, tried out the working increment and gave very important feedback. then there was a retrospective session for the development team to discuss how they did and where they could improve for the next sprint. the very process of constant planning, developing, reviewing, and adapting contributed a lot to assuring the final system’s strength, functional adequacy, and compliance with the agency’s data governance standards. system planning and feasibility assessment project execution was managed using a work breakdown schedule (wbs) as shown in figure 2, which broke down the project into nine phases: project initiation, planning, three iterative development phases, testing and quality assurance, deployment, maintenance, and project closure. a gantt chart was used to provide a visual, structured overview of the project timeline and task durations. before development, a comprehensive feasibility study was conducted, examining economic, technical, and operational aspects. economic feasibility was determined via a cost-benefit analysis. the system was projected to significantly reduce the processing time for educational data requests from five days, two hours, and 10 minutes to two days, two hours, and 10 minutes. the analysis showed expected benefits surpassed associated costs, yielding a return on investment (roi) of 165.9% with a payback period of 4.51 months. technical feasibility confirmed that necessary hardware (e.g., 55-inch touch kiosk with specific display and processor specs) and software (e.g., laravel version 9+, mysql 8.0+, google maps api, openweather api) were easily obtainable and aligned with sdo – davao del norte’s existing it infrastructure. the system utilizes open-source development tools. operational feasibility focused on the practicality of implementation and sustainability, including the requirement for an easy-to-understand interface and necessary end-user and administrator training. system analysis conceptual framework the conceptual framework depicted in figure 3 illustrates the structure of the deped davao del norte figure 2: diagram of work breakdown schedule (wbs) pa ge 37 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 33-44, 2025 information kiosk, which incorporates data visualization and geolocation. this framework served as the basis for comprehending and structuring the project’s concept, encompassing aspects from data sourcing to data processing and the integration of various technologies to present comprehensive information through the kiosk. it offered a visual representation of how the project was designed to collect, process, and present information seamlessly, underscoring the importance of this framework in achieving the project’s goals. business process optimization and system requirements the system implementation required optimizing the previous business process for educational data requests, which suffered from a lack of readily available data and a time-consuming collection process involving remote schools. the optimized process mandates schools to submit data by a deadline for upload to a readily accessible data bank in the kiosk. this eliminated the need for the planning section to contact schools for every request, allowing them to generate requested information directly from the data bank. the system’s requirements were defined by functional requirements for different user roles (administrator/ planning office, information officer, school planning officer, and the information kiosk itself) and nonfunctional requirements covering user authentication, functional suitability, usability, reliability, performance efficiency, security, maintainability, and interoperability. use case diagrams as shown in figure 4 detailed the interactions for stakeholders, administrator, information officer, and school planning officer. for the predictive analysis feature, three algorithms aaa exponential smoothing, linear regression analysis, and arima were tested for enrollment data forecasting. although arima showed the highest accuracy with the lowest error indicators (e.g., mean absolute error of 556.77 and mean absolute percentage error of 0.43%) the developer opted for the aaa exponential smoothing method, as it is the standard and required forecasting algorithm of deped. system design and technologies the system design for the deped davao del norte information kiosk prioritized a cutting-edge user experience (ux) and an intuitive interface. the structure and navigation were guided by sitemap diagrams detailing the features accessible to stakeholders, the administrator, the information officer, and the school planning officer. on the front end, several key concepts and technologies were incorporated to enhance interactivity and engagement: hierarchy of information was employed in the ui/ ux design to prioritize content, facilitate user-friendly navigation, and improve the clarity and efficiency of information retrieval; touch interactions were utilized to figure 3: conceptual framework of deped davao del norte information kiosk with data visualization and geolocation pa ge 38 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 33-44, 2025 create intuitive navigation and ensure buttons and icons were correctly sized and positioned for easy use on the touchscreen kiosk ; and bootstrap, an open-source frontend framework, was used to develop a responsive and user-friendly interface that adapts seamlessly to various screen sizes. for the back end, specialized concepts and technologies were integrated to elevate the kiosk’s functionality : geographic information systems (gis) and the google maps api were instrumental in integrating and displaying geographical data, including school location and zoning information based on coordinates; chart.js, an open-source javascript library, was used to create interactive and visually compelling charts for visualizing school data and performance indicators ; the openweather api was integrated to deliver real-time weather forecasts and information relevant to school locations, enhancing the kiosk’s utility and safety planning ; and laravel, a popular php web application framework, served as the key technology for building a dynamic and secure server-side web application and for integrating the various apis like the map and weather apis. system implementation and evaluation the implementation involved a 3-week user acceptance testing phase. user training began with face-to-face sessions for the planning office staff. issues identified during training (e.g., errors in adding schools, incorrect data display, lack of sort/search options) were promptly addressed, and a new feature for uploading pdf forms was added based on user suggestions. system evaluation was conducted using the iso 25010 standard with 97 evaluators selected via purposive sampling. evaluators included 92 school planning officers, four planning office staff, and one information officer. following successful testing, a user manual was prepared, and the system was formally turned over to the it officer for management, with the developer providing free maintenance as long as they remain employed at sdo – davao del norte. results and discussion the assessment of the system that has been developed emphasizes the results of its implementation and its effectiveness in meeting its main goals, mainly via user satisfaction and performance metrics. key system objectives and performance the system was evaluated based on several functional requirements, as shown in table 1 with an overall grand awm of 4.98 (strongly agree) across the iso 25010 software quality framework, indicating high user satisfaction in areas like functional suitability (4.96), figure 4: use case diagram of the implemented system table 1: summary of user rating based on iso 25010 software quality framework quality characteristics mean descriptive equivalence functional suitability 4.96 strongly agree usability 4.97 strongly agree reliability 4.98 strongly agree performance efficiency 4.98 strongly agree pa ge 39 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 33-44, 2025 usability (4.97), reliability (4.98), performance efficiency (4.98), and security (4.96). data upload and management the system successfully achieved its objective of allowing planning officers and school planning officers (spos) to upload relevant school data. the features for managing school card data, including school basic information, personnel, performance indicators, and facilities inventory, received a mean score of 4.95 (strongly agree) as shown in the table below. table 3: regression model with significant predictors for nbfis assessment description respondent rating awm descriptive equivalent information officer planning office school planning officer 1. the system provides all the necessary features and functionalities required for managing school card data effectively. 5 4.84 4.92 strongly agree 2. the system’s interface for managing school card data is intuitive. 5 5 strongly agree 3. the system’s features for uploading end-of-school-year data are userfriendly for school planning coordinators. 4.89 4.89 strongly agree 4. the system’s features for uploading end-of-school-year data are userfriendly for school planning coordinators. 4.91 4.91 strongly agree 5. the system’s features for setting and managing deadlines for data submission are user-friendly. 5 5 strongly agree 6. the system is dependable in validating and approving submitted end-of-school-year data for each school. 5 5 strongly agree 7. school planning coordinators rely on the system to accurately capture and store end-of-year data. 4.86 4.86 strongly agree 8. the system is dependable in providing timely reminders for data submission deadlines. 5 5 strongly agree 9. the system is responsive when uploading and submitting end-ofschool-year data. 4.9 4.9 strongly agree 10. the system is secure in ensuring that only authorized personnel can access and manage school data. 5 5 strongly agree 11. the system has an adequate measure in place to protect confidential information stored within the system. 5 5 strongly agree security 4.96 strongly agree maintainability 4.99 strongly agree interoperability 5 strongly agree grand awm 4.98 strongly agree pa ge 40 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 33-44, 2025 the soaring rating is a clear indicator that the system has all the necessary features and functionalities along with a user-friendly interface for planning officers (using excel files) and an intuitive interface for spos to support efficient data management. the system is also seen as reliable in the processes of validating and approving the submitted data, as well as providing timely reminders for the data submission deadlines. the system keeps up with the stringent security controls for sensitive data that are vital for making the decision process more effective through inter-platforms integration. news and events management the information officer reviewed and evaluated the system’s capacity to handle the data of news and events and scored it perfectly with a mean value of 5.0 (strongly agree) as presented in table 3. this shows that all the required features have been provided and the system has reached its goal. in addition, the system is very easy to use, provides correct information and there are no delays in publication or updating of the information, and security is very robust. besides that, the system is simple and it takes no time at all to remove or update old news and to import news data from outside sources. 12. the system is secure in protecting sensitive school data, such as personnel information, school health information, and performance indicators. 4.88 4.88 strongly agree 13. the system has adequate measures in place to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of uploaded data. 4.88 4.88 strongly agree 14. school planning coordinators easily review and verify submitted data before final submission. 4.97 4.97 strongly agree 15. updating and maintaining school card data within the system is easy and straightforward. 5 4.96 4.98 strongly agree 16. school planning coordinators easily review and verify submitted data before final submission. 4.97 4.97 strongly agree mean 4.95 strongly agree table 3: regression model with significant predictors for nbfis assessment description respondent rating awm descriptive equivalent information officer planning office school planning officer 1. the system provides all the necessary features and functionalities required for managing news and events data effectively. 5 5 strongly agree 2. the system’s interface for managing news and events data is intuitive. 5 5 strongly agree 3. the system’s features for uploading and editing news articles are intuitive for the information officer. 5 5 strongly agree 4. information officers depend on the system to accurately display news and event data. 5 5 strongly agree 5. the system is dependable in ensuring that published news are accessible to stakeholders. 5 5 strongly agree pa ge 41 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 33-44, 2025 geolocation and real-time weather integration the purpose of putting in place geolocation services (for finding the nearest schools along with directions and maps) and integrating real-time weather updates (for the province of davao del norte) was accomplished with a brilliant average score of 5.0 (strongly agree). personnel from planning office evaluated geolocation services, especially for confirming the location of new schools by using longitude and latitude data. the flawless rating suggests that the system shows correct information about schools and gives trustworthy real-time weather updates to every interested party. 6. the system does not experience any slowdowns when publishing or updating news articles. 5 5 strongly agree 7. the system is secure in preventing unauthorized access to sensitive news and events data. 5 5 strongly agree 8. the system has an adequate measure in place to ensure the integrity of published news articles. 5 5 strongly agree 9. updating and maintaining news and events data within the system is easy and straightforward. 5 5 strongly agree 10. information officers can quickly edit or remove outdated news articles from the system. 5 5 strongly agree 11. information officers can import from external platforms to streamline content management. 5 5 strongly agree mean 5 strongly agree table 4: summative quantitative results of system’s objective in integrating geolocation and real-time weather data assessment description respondent rating awm descriptive equivalent information officer planning office school planning officer 1. the system's geolocation services are implemented accurately, providing reliable directions and maps to users. 5 5 strongly agree mean 5 strongly agree data analysis and reporting capabilities predictive analysis and data visualization table 5 presents the system’s objective of using predictive analysis and data visualization on school card data, specifically performance indicators, also received a perfect mean rating of 5.0 (strongly agree). the system uses the deped’s forecasting standard. the underlying aaa exponential smoothing algorithm demonstrated high accuracy, successfully achieving the objective. table 5: regression model with significant predictors for nbfis assessment description respondent rating awm descriptive equivalent information officer planning office school planning officer 1. the system generates an accurate predictive analysis and visualization of school performance indicator data. 5 5 strongly agree pa ge 42 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 33-44, 2025 the performance matrix for the algorithm showed minimal errors compared to actual data as depicted in table 6. the mean absolute percentage error (mape) was only 0.56%, indicating the forecasted data are very close to the actual data, with a forecasted value of 128,711.73 compared to the actual data of 127,999. the low mean absolute error (mae) and root mean squared error (rmse) of 712.73 further support the algorithm’s accuracy and the system’s reliability in generating and displaying predictive analysis. 2. the system does not experience any performance issues when generating predictive analysis and data visualization of school performance indicators. 5 5 strongly agree 3. updating and maintaining school card data within the system is easy and straightforward. 5 5 strongly agree 4. the system integrates seamlessly with other educational platforms or databases for data exchange. 5 5 strongly agree mean 5 strongly agree table 6: performance matrix for the aaa exponential smoothing algorithm algorithms forecasted data actual data mean absolute error mean squared error root squared error mean absolute percentage error aaa exponential smoothing 128,711.73 127,999 712.73 508,263.02 712.73 0.56% report generation the system’s function to generate various reports (e.g., enrollment, personnel, school building, and directories) was met with a perfect mean score of 5.0 (strongly agree) by the planning office personnel as shown in table 7, to wit: table 7: summative quantitative results of system’s objective in generating reports assessment description respondent rating awm descriptive equivalent information officer planning office school planning officer 1. administrators rely on the system to generate accurate reports such as enrolment and school building reports. 5 5 strongly agree 2. the system is responsive when managing user data, including school head data and user management. 5 5 strongly agree 3. the system does not experience any performance issues when generating reports or managing deadlines. 5 5 strongly agree 4. administrators access relevant information from external sources to enhance decision-making. 5 5 strongly agree mean 5 strongly agree users expressed satisfaction with the filtering capabilities, finding them intuitive for customizing reports to meet specific needs. the high rating confirms that the planning office can rely on the system to accurately generate pa ge 43 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 33-44, 2025 reports, especially school performance indicators, without performance issues, which enhances decision-making. the near-perfect scores across all evaluated objectives and the high grand awm of 4.98 suggest that the system is a highly functional, usable, and secure solution for the agency’s data management and information dissemination needs25. the achievement of its objectives especially in data uploading (mean 4.95), managing news and events (mean 5.0), geolocation (mean 5.0), predictive analysis (mean 5.0), and reporting (mean 5.0) highlights its potential to significantly enhance efficiency and datadriven decision-making. the low mape of 0.56%for the aaa exponential smoothing algorithm is particularly noteworthy, indicating that the system’s forecasting capabilities are highly reliable for school performance indicators. this minimal error suggests that the predictive function can be confidently used by stakeholders to anticipate trends and allocate resources, showcasing the system’s novelty in leveraging standardized forecasting methods for educational data. the initial identification of bugs, while requiring resolution, does not undermine the robust features and high user perception of the system’s core functionalities and security. the system’s successful integration of geolocation and real-time weather, along with its capability to generate custom, accurate reports, positions it as a dependable, multi-faceted platform designed to meet the specific requirements of its diverse user base (planning officers, spos, and information officers). conclusion this research delivered a streamlined platform enabling planning officers and school planning officers to efficiently manage educational data. high user ratings confirm the system achieved its objectives through core functionalities: data visualization, predictive analysis aligned with deped forecasting standards, geolocation routing, and real-time weather updates. these features significantly enhanced planning and decision-making capabilities. the system’s primary contribution is integrating geolocation and weather data into educational information systems, establishing technological standards for the sector while supporting accurate school data reporting. its ability to provide comprehensive environmental context improves communication and coordination across the educational landscape, with seamless platform integration demonstrating flexibility and scalability potential. key recommendations for maintaining optimal performance include establishing user feedback mechanisms and developing a mobile kiosk application to increase accessibility. enhanced customization through adjustable report settings and drag-and-drop visualization tools is proposed. most critically, implementing a heat index notification system is advised to automatically alert schools when conditions warrant cancelling face-to-face classes, with guidelines for transitioning to asynchronous learning. this prioritizes student and staff safety during extreme weather while ensuring educational continuity. these enhancements will solidify the system’s position as an essential, safety-oriented, accessible, and user-friendly educational tool. references alper, m., & duguay, s. 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(1992). two multimedia design research projects: palenque and the museum visitor’s project (technical report no. 23). eric document reproduction service, ed 349 963. center for technology in education, new york. pa ge 1 pa ge 7 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) assessing the relationship between technological factors and the implementation of human resource information system: a survey in the municipal, metropolitan, and district assemblies in the upper west region of ghana yahaya haleem1*, e. m george ditsa1 volume 3 issue 2, year 2024 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v3i2.2594 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: march 14, 2024 accepted: april 17, 2024 published: april 22, 2024 over the years, public sector organization such as metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies (mmdas) in ghana have been challenged by a significant number of factors that affect the implementation of human resource management information systems (hriss). the study focuses on assessing the technological factors affecting the implementation of the hris in the mmdas in the upper west region of ghana. the philosophical foundation of the study was positivism. a cross-sectional survey was employed in the study as part of a quantitative research design. the target population comprised of 187 line managers. the study used a non-probability sampling technique known as purposive sampling. selfadministered questionnaires were used to collect primary data. the study also embraced descriptive and inferential statistics. bivariate regression analysis and correlation coefficient were used to establish causal relationships between variables. stepwise regression was also used to determine the most influential variables in implementing of hris. it was concluded that it infrastructure and compatibility had a moderate level of acceptance as factors that affect the implementation of the hris. in contrast, quality information, system quality, and complexity had a low level of acceptance. the study also concluded that complexity, quality information, compatibility and system quality had correlated with the acceptance of the hris, whereas it infrastructure did not correlate with the acceptance of the hris. lastly, it was concluded that it infrastructure, complexity, quality information, compatibility, and system quality did correlate with the effectiveness of the hris. the study recommends that, hris software adopted and implemented at the lgs and its agencies must be user-friendly. the lgs and its agencies do not have a guide that support new technology implementation such as the hris. hence the need to adopt the guide offered in this study. keywords implementation, technological factors, human resource information system 1 faculty of information and communication technology, simon diedong dombo university of business and integrated development studies, ghana * corresponding author’s e-mail: halimyahaya161@ubids.edu.gh introduction the digitization drive has made most organizations more reliant on information technology (it) to conduct their businesses to remain competitive (kraus et al., 2021). this resulted in various modifications to the workflows of both the corporate and governmental sectors (veldhoven & vanthienen, 2022). according to zahari et al. (2018), one of the areas in modern businesses that have been transformed from old approaches to a new innovative form is human resource management (hrm). hrm is a process that supports organizational development by maintaining and enhancing the abilities of particular employees and encouraging collaboration and interemployee communication (siddiqua et al., 2022). hrm aids the effective and efficient management of employees within a business (galviso et al., 2022). kuepper et al. (2021) purport that the developments of digitization have heavily impacted the activities of hrm, which is changing the nature of work in the organization. davarpanah and mohamed (2020) assert that information and communication technology has improved the productivity of both human resource (hr) and business which turned into human resource information systems (hris). the hris is used to manage hr processes and procedures to provide improved information for quality decision making (sadiq et al., 2022). both public and private sector organisations are increasingly relying on hris system to increase the efficacy and efficiency of hrm by automating regular hr functions and increasing hr personnel productivity (alkhwaldi et al., 2022; taamneh et al., 2021). this is also evident in the breadth and depth of human resources functions, which range from payroll and personnel administration to talent management (recruitment and integration), performance management (annual and professional interviews), career management (development plans and training) and remuneration (bensaid, 2023; vardarlier, 2020). in view of the hris in the ghanaian context, the public service commission (psc) of ghana following the public financial management reforms (pfmr) mandates all organisations under its umbrella to implement hris to ensure efficient public financial management (pfm) (kyei-mensah-bonsu, 2019). the local government service (lgs) of ghana also mandates all its agencies such as the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (mmdas) to implement the hris to enhance evaluation and performance appraisals of staff (psc, 2012; lgs, 2015). relative to the lgs, the hris was a component pa ge 8 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 of the financial agreement reached on 16th september, 2011 between the european commission and the government of ghana as part of the decentralization support programme (local government service-ghana, 2014). the essence of the hris application was to enable the local government service secretariat (lgss), the regional coordinating councils (rccs) and the mmdas to make effective and efficient hrm decisions based on credible, reliable and dependable data emanating from the local level (kessey, 2015). samy et al. (2023) defined hris as “the umbrella term that is used interchangeably by people to refer to one or more forms such as: electronic human resource management (e-hrm), hr intranet, web-based hr, computer-based hris, virtual hr, human resource management information system (hris) and hr portals.” hris is described as the collection of databases, computer applications, hardware, and software required to collect, store, manage, and manipulate hr data (sharma et al., 2023). adel and younis (2021) claim that hris acts as an information system (is) for hrm, which complements and reinforces the implementation of the overall corporate strategy of automation and information management that serves other organisational functions. hris is an integrated e-government program that provides a single interface for government personnel to complete hr functions and serves as a central database for the public sector (zahari et al., 2018). the hris, also known as the human resources management system (hrms), is simply a system for collecting, storing, maintaining, retrieving, and validating data about an organization’s human resources, personnel activities, and organizational unit characteristics (fashoto et al., 2018). hris is mostly recognized as a change facilitator in hrm practice and it assists organizations in achieving strategic goals (udekwe et al., 2022). according to bensaid (2023), the benefits of deploying an hris include improved communication between managers and their teams, as well as between hr and workers. the hris is a powerful performance and transformation lever that gives hrm policies concrete shape (bensaid, 2023; dida et al., 2021). boakye et al. (2020) pronounce that hris enhances hr activities such as employee recruitment and selection, training and development, hr planning and staff forecasts, data entry, data maintenance and paper reduction in most organisations. despite the favourable consequences of the implementation of hris, organizations are can not to measure the system’s benefits, even though substantial sums of money are used to purchase hris (udekwe et al., 2021). also, many businesses are spending millions of dollars to install various information systems (iss) such as hris, but end-user usage rates remain inadequate, particularly in developing nations (alkhwaldi et al., 2022; noutsa fobang et al., 2019). organisations must uphold continuous efforts to warrant those users, including hr, managers, and employees, embrace the hris (hosain et al., 2020). moreover, organisations are challenged with significant number of issues that affect the implementation of the hris (rahman et al., 2018). according to myers (1995), implementation refers to all of the actions involved in bringing it to an organisation at a specific stage of growth. bensaid, (2023) opined that problem becomes apparent as soon as an information system such as the hris is being implemented. researchers have discovered numerous factors affecting hris implementation, particularly in developing nations (tamrakar & shrestha, 2022). parkar et al. (2021) indicated that an issue that developing nations have when implementing hris systems is the high cost of establishing hris systems, constructing sufficient it infrastructure, purchasing computers that meet the requirements of the hris, software maintenance, and hardware maintenance. dey and saha (2020) specified that insufficient financial support, the unwillingness of top management and culture are the significant factors in the case of hris implementations. vyas and junare (2020) outlined the challenges of hris implementation to include: employee’s sense of ownership and accountability, unreasonable expectations from top management, change management for process improvement, training needs, establishing the appropriate it infrastructure for configuration and data transformation and quality support and timely maintenance. specifically, several previous studies indicated that technological issues constitute a barrier to the introduction of new technologies such as e-hris (omar & kiwango, 2021). according to esfahani et al. (2018), the technological factors include the utilization of it infrastructures which include a collection of physical equipment and software applications required to operate in an organisation. it also highlights the internal and external technologies, procedures and tools of an organisation that emphasize innovative characteristics or elements in the technology adoption research (nilashi et al., 2016). masum et al., (2020) indicated in a study that a well-established technological factors in it innovation research include perceived compatibility, perceived complexity, competitive advantage, and it infrastructure. yoon et al. (2020) state that complexity is a trait of innovation that is frequently seen to affect how technology is implemented. more so, it is also highlighted that, majority of studies on the implementation of hris have been conducted in developed countries (al-dmour & zu’bi, 2014; ngai & wat, 2006) whiles studies in that regard in developing countries are limited (al-dmour et al., 2017; dmour et al., 2015) and ghana is no exception. these developed countries include united kingdom and other european countries (panayotopoulou et al., 2007). however, a preliminary assessment in ghana reveals that some researchers have attempted to explore hris on different dimensions. arpoh-baah et al. (2020) researched on the use of hris in ghanaian organisations, nyame and boateng (2015) studied the adoption and use of hris, pa ge 9 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 whiles attatsitsey and osei-bonsu (2021) assessed the impact of information technology on human resource practices. this indicate that there is a significant gap in research in the area hris in the ghanaian context and writers must address it. the main objective of the study is to assess the technological factors affecting the implementation of the hris in the mmdas in the upper west region. this was achieved through the following specific research objectives: first, to determine the level of acceptance of the technological factors affecting the implementation of the hris in the mmdas. second, to assess the correlation between the technological factors and the acceptance of the hris. third, to assess the correlation between the technological factors and the effectiveness of the hris. fourth, to determine the most influential technological factors on the acceptance and effectiveness of the hris. however, the study is unaware of any empirical evidence assessing the hris that is implemented at the mmdas in ghana. also, the study argues that the technological characteristics explored on the implementation of hris in some countries may not be the same in the ghanaian context. as a result, the findings of those studies cannot be generalized in the study context. and for these reasons, it is expedient to assess the technological factors affecting the implementation of the hris in the mmdas. these would benefit the government and other stakeholders to be aware of such factors in order to design strategies to enable the seamless implementation of hris in public sectors (kiwango et al., 2021). literature review this section describes the theoretical foundation that underpins the research as well as the relevant empirical review. definitions of human resource management information system some scholars across the globe have holistically studied various aspects of hris. others have attempted to define hris comprehensively by identifying the various activities involved in hris. many researchers also tried to define hrims through its different objectives. tigari (2017) mentioned in a study that, the alternatives names for hris includes human resource management systems (hrms), e-human resource information systems (e-hrm), human resource information system (hris), employee information system (eis) and personnel management information systems (pmis). hris is a computer software designed to simplify and accelerate the hr management process as well as increase its quality through automation of fundamental objectives and operations in a business (shaikh & sayyed, 2018). according to samy et al. (2023), hris “is an umbrella term that is used interchangeably when people refer to one or more forms such as e-hrm, human resource (hr) intranet, web-based hr, computer-based hris, virtual hr and hr portals. singh et al. (2022) also defined hris as “the most important transaction processor, editor, record keeper and functional application system which lies at the heart of all computerized hr work.” hris is described as a systematic technique for gathering, storing, preserving, accessing and evaluating hr activity data required by an organisation (kovach & cathcart, 1999). hris refers to materials, software, personnel, data and procedures that enable the acquisition, storage, processing, analysis, retrieval and dissemination of information on an organisation’s hr (moussa & el arbi, 2020). hris is to include not only procedures, processes and documents but also personnel who are involved in gathering, storing, assessing or disseminating information about the company’s hr (lovrić & horvat, 2016; moussa & el arbi, 2020). according to alkashami (2023), hris is a software or web-based solution that covers the data entry, tracking and insight requirements of hr, payroll, management and accounting tasks in company. wibawa et al. (2018) defined hris as a computer application software that organizes hr in corporation to support the decision-making process, which is also known as the decision support system (dss). johnson and gill (2010) also defined hris as an electronic system that generally consists of a database or interconnected databases that tracks workers and employment-related information. esangbedo et al. (2021) assert that hris “is an integrated system that assists with the planning and controlling of employees by aligning them with the organisation so that they efficiently work for the organisation.” srivastava et al. (2021) comprehend hris as “a suite of software, database and cloud computing which provide an all-encompassing solution for managing every aspect of a workforce.” dissanayake and nandasena (2020) explains hris as an interrelated system that collects, stores and interprets hr-related data in a firm. bali (2019) maintains that hris is a system that is used to collect, record, store, analyse and retrieve, the data related to an organisation’s hr. ahmad et al. (2018) opine that hris is a system which provides a database for hr data and acts as business intelligence for top management to proactively make decisions. dadhabai (2018) also defined hris as an integrated system used to gather, store and analyse information regarding an organisation’s hr comprising databases, computer applications, hardware and software necessary to collect, record, store, manage, deliver, present and manipulate data for hr. zahari et al. (2017) argue that hris is a technologybased application that incorporates common standards in hrm. hris is an application envisioned to ease and fasten hrm activities and improve quality through computerization of the day-to-day activities of hr within a firm. according to shukla and kanna (2017), hris is the bridge to merge hr and it. functions of human resource information system hris function has now become the most effective pa ge 10 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 instrument for maintaining the firm’s competitive edge (irum & yadav, 2019; muhammad et al., 2021). valcik et al. (2021) add that hris functions are designed to support organisational goals in sustaining and managing human capital, depending on the organisation’s vision and strategy. jayabalan et al. (2020) indicate in a study that hris is made up of three basic functional components: input, data management and output. packiaraj and romansingh (2021) assert that the function of the hris is to plan and analyse hr requirements such as workforce projections, task analysis, skill inventories, attrition analysis, organisational chart, policy and procedure development and organizing hr operations. bah et al. (2022) emphasize that hris functions incorporate staff training and performance evaluation, which contains features such as employee training profiles, training requirement assessment and succession planning. magagula (2020) explains that the most important function of the hris is to assimilate the technologies of hr to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of hr work. hosain et al. (2020) purport that the function of hris is to keep track of all of the organisation employee’s information. masum et al. (2018) determine that the hris functions comprise all hrm activities (such as personal information, recruitment, training, career management, performance management, compensation and benefits administration, labour contracts and employee and employer relationships). shah et al. (2020) proclaim that hris plays an important role in lowering organisational expenses and of course, in advancing the global trend. hosain et al. (2020) pronounce that hris offers better and faster data transmission across all agencies concerned. qadir and agrawal (2017) add that the hris performs the following functions: strategic integration, hr analysis, personnel development, knowledge management, communication and integration, records and compliance and proactive planning. mahadik and ayarekar (2020) purport that hris provides employees with more broad value-added services in order to achieve enterprise-wide development. hris can benefit from practices that improve efficiency, effectiveness and technical support services (quaosar & rahman, 2021). jayabalan et al. (2020) also stressed that hris allows users such as hr managers to store and track many types of data that are useful to hrm. factors affecting the implementation of hris amoako et al. (2023) conducted a study and confirmed that perceived usefulness, self-efficacy, compatibility and enabling circumstances have substantial favorable influence on the e-hrm implementation. model et al. (2020) in a study discovered factors such as performance expectations, effort expectations and social influence as factors influencing the decisions to implement and use hris. arifin and tajudeen (2020) declare that technical training provides users with the appropriate system knowledge required for any is to be implemented successfully. according to a study, top management commitment and training program are essential factors for effective e-hrm implementation. (sawant & vernekar, 2019). rath and das (2020) also concluded in a study that factors facilitating the implementation of hris include hris acceptance and privacy and security concerns related to hris. according to puspitarini et al. (2018), the factors driving the success of hris implementation at the msoe include technology, people, environment and organisation. it was also found that factors influencing hris implementation include, acceptance of hris , security and privacy problems related to hris (rath & das, 2020). bhuntel (2021) found eight elements influencing the implementation of the e-hrm system in it organisations and these factors include ease of use of technology, risk perception experience of information technology, secure systems, communication tools, usage intention and organisational support and technology usefulness. haniff (2017) concluded in a study that the effective implementation of hris in county governments was influenced by leadership style, staff training, change management and organisational policy. according to tursunbayeva et al. (2020), sufficient data preparation, training, effective communication and process analysis are factors that affect the successful hris implementation. puspitarini et al., (2018) stated information quality, service quality, system quality, compatibility, it infrastructure and complexity as the technological enabling factors affecting the implementation of human resource information systems. also, organisations particularly in developing and underdeveloped nations are unable to fully profit from hris due to constraints and challenges that prevent proper implementation (ololade et al., 2023). however, the implementation of hris is still a major challenge notwithstanding the huge investment by most organisations in hris activities (hagan et al., 2022; mohamed, 2013; raheem et al., 2020; tansley & watson, 2000). hikmawan and santoso (2020) also claimed that the successful implementation of hris has emerged as a critical constrain for organisations. arifin and tajudeen (2020) postulate that implementing is in most organisations is not quite as straightforward as it appears due to various constraints and barriers. hence, researchers have discovered many obstacles impeding hris implementation, particularly in underdeveloped nations. (tamrakar & shrestha, 2022). ololade et al. (2023) determine that the major impediments to efficient implementation of hris include management fear, employee privacy concerns, internal organisational opposition and conversion expenses. alharthi et al. (2017) add that most of the obstacles and barriers that affect the implementation of the hris are triggered by humans, organisations, technology and the environment. according to research, a key impediment to successful implementation of it is lack of acceptance and usage of it by users (perera & jayawardana, 2022). mulat (2013) carried out a study on identifying the challenges affecting the implementation of public sector organisations in pa ge 11 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 addis ababa and concluded that lack of funds to buy, update and maintain important hris, a lack of it competence to manage the hris and insufficient financial support are all issues that lead to poor hris implementation. haniff (2017) conducted a research in kenya on the factors affecting the hris implementation in private sector organisations and found that expected technical capacity as well as personnel with traditional it abilities are the factors affecting the implementation of the system (kiwelu & ngonzi, 2022). according to alam and kashem (2022), the factors that affect the implementation of hris implementation includes leadership, planning and change management . mutiku (2019) in a study identifies the availability of funds, lack of training and security as the critical elements that interrupt the implementation of hris by local authorities. dey and saha (2020) found that insufficient financial backing, senior management resistance and culture as important factors affecting hris implementation. it was also found that there was no clear monitoring strategy as well as the amount of stakeholder participation not well-defined, possibly restricting the hris’s downstream deployment (bhattacharyya et al., 2021). vyas and junare (2020) also specified that employees’ sense of ownership and accountability, unreasonable expectations from top management, change management for process improvement, training requirements, creating a suitable it infrastructure for setup and data transformation and quality support and timely servicing are among the challenges of hris implementation. bhatta (2020) opines that the inconsistencies connected with the hris are the fundamental impediment to the success of an hris. furthermore, ramirez and tejada (2022) discovered that some of the constraints affecting the implementation of the hris in selected institutions were lack of top management commitment and insufficient funding. dilu et al. (2017) declare that the barriers in the implementation of hris comprises inadequate logistics and supply, lack of competence, lack of stakeholder commitment and lack of financing. bhatta (2020) in a study on hris implementation found lack of it knowledge, it structure, financial reluctance and top management support as factors that constrain the usage of hris for competitive advantage. manivannan and jayasakthivel (2016) stated a variety of concerns and obstacles associated with hris implementation, such as lack of competency, technical issues, a lack of finance, time consumption and so on. kananu and nyakego (2016) cited a number of barriers to include lack of finance, insufficient knowledge, lack of information technology expertise in the implementation of the hris, insufficient funding and time management challenges during the implementation of hris. malindadi (2015) in a study identifies acquiring costs and training costs as challenges affecting hris implementation. ferdous et al. (2015) suggest that top management reluctance, employee privacy concerns, organisational internal opposition to hris deployment and the cost of conversion are four main challenges and restrictions to effective hris implementation. rahman et al. (2018) establish that the constraints encountered during the implementation of e-hrm systems in developing nations include the high cost of establishing the e-hrm systems, constructing sufficient it infrastructure, purchasing computers that meet the e-hrm system’s requirements, software maintenance and hardware maintenance. types of human resource management information systems vyas and junare (2020) suggested that the hris consists of three (3) types namely: operational human resource information system (ohris), tactical human resource information system (thris) and strategic human resource information system (shris). some scholars distinguish three types of hris to include operational, relational and transformative (barišić et al., 2022; chakraborty & mansor, 2013; lepak & snell, 1998). according to galanaki et al. (2019), relational e-hrm gives managers and staff remote access to hr information, allowing them to do hr duties on their own and interact with other areas of the firm and outside firm. transformational e-hrm enables employees to collaborate and share information across geographical borders, hence, facilitating virtual teams and network companies (parry & tyson, 2011). whereas operational e-hrm is to improve efficiency or reduce expenses by automating administrative hr processes (galanaki et al., 2019). barisic et al. (2019) maintain that many types of research make the distinction between operational, tactical and strategic hris facets, where operational hris provides data to support routine and repetitive hr decisions (ruel and magalhaes, 2008), tactical hris provides data to aid cost-effective decisions (morrison et al., 2020) and strategic hris provides data to assist strategic decisions in workforce planning (chauhan et al., 2011). despite various types hris covered in literature, the study highlights on vyas and junare (2020) distinguished types of hris namely: operational human resource information system (ohris), tactical human resource information system (thris) and strategic human resource information system (shris). firstly, ohris covers the management of data relating to employees pay as well as their personal data (berber et al., 2018). valcik et al. (2021) advocate that ohris relies on routine hr functions such as employee records management, monitoring hours, compensation, rewards, regulatory issues and conformity. ohris equips managers with the data they require to support normal and recurrent hr decisions (tema, 2018). according to priota, (2020), operational hris data is supplied in the event of planned and recurring human decisions. ma et al. (2015) stated that administrative operations such as payroll and employee personal data, are associated with ohris. magagula (2020) assert that ohris touches the following elements; employee data system, position control system, applicant placement is and mis. ohris pa ge 12 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 provides data to managers that supports routinely made hr decisions; a number of operational level information systems collect data regarding hr such as information about the organisation’s positions, workforce and regulations from the government (karikari et al., 2015; sadri & chatterjee, 2003). secondly, thris offers information to assist with decisions regarding resource allocation (barisic et al., 2019). magagula (2020) reveal that the thris has four major elements namely job design and analysis include things like recruiting is, pay and benefits is and employee development systems. hiring choices, job analysis and design decisions, training and development and staff remuneration plans were also identified as part of thris (gayathri & hariharan, 2019; quaosar & rahman, 2021). lastly, shris is a model implemented in most organisations to assist strategic human resource management (shrm) (muqaddim et al., 2021). it assists top management in establishing the organisation’s strategy (vyas and junare, 2020) and also aids in the collection of data from within and outside a firm (gayathri & hariharan, 2019). athambawa (2020) assume that the extent of strategic hris use varies from every firm and most firms merely utilize hris to eliminate manual process procedures in order to reduce cost within the firm. the impact of the human resource information system the impact of hris on hrm is still unclear (begum et al. 2020) although it is inevitable (hosain et al., 2020) and varies across organisations (al-dmour, 2022). the most noticeable is the liberation of hr personnel from traditional hr tasks (j & ngirwa, 2020). de alwis et al. (2022) claim that hris support the modernization and development of the hr function by utilizing the most advanced technical systems and tools available (zhou et al., 2022). duangekanong (2020) reported that the deployment of hris resulted in a variety of technologyrelated tasks replacing administration with no increase in hrm services. kumara and galhena (2021) pronounce that hris are used both internationally and locally to reduce administrative burdens on hr management and to provide better services to the organisation’s stakeholders. according to rahman et al. (2018), the implementation of e-hr enables the organisation to hire, choose the appropriate and competent candidates for the job, which reflects the organisation’s performance, as well as offering these able workforce with additional training. sharma et al. (2023) specified that hris shifted the strategic emphasis to three primary areas: organisational attention, technical responsiveness and change management. wangui (2020) articulates that the hris is a technology-enabled system that gathers, saves, customizes, analyses, retrieves and shares useful hr information. hris supports to the modernization and development of the hr function by utilizing the most advanced technical equipment and systems (satispi et al., 2023). zaman (2020) maintains that hris systems assist in streamlining daily functions, managing employee benefits, reducing the need for paperwork and physical recordkeeping and tracking the progress of all individual and job-related employee data, among other things. elnakib et al. ( 2021) add that hris also support in the elimination of duplication of work and the better organisation of the hr staff ’s work. it is an enabler in the planning and execution of managerial functions such as managerial decision-making in an organisation (singh et al., 2012). hris makes the most impact on employee planning via hris skills inventory, labour demand and supply assessment, training requirements analysis and hris performance appraisal (tharushika et al., 2021). munir et al. (2020) claim hris assists the organisation in handling their hr and adds value to the hr function within organisations, which undoubtedly influences the competitiveness of the organisation. theoretical underpinning the hot-fit model is adoption and implementation model in is disclosed by yusof et al. (2006). the framework was a modification of delone and mclean’s figure 1: human-organisationtechnology model source: yusof et al., (2008) pa ge 13 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 success is model (agustini et al., 2020; suryana et al., 2022). according to erlirianto et al. (2015); michaela and lestara (2020), yusof et al. (2008) combined information system success model (issm) and it organisational fit model to build the hot-fit model. the model incorporated vital components namely human, organisational and technological in the evaluation of is (fauzan and noviandi, (2020); sari et al., 2020). as compared to other models, the hot-fit model is the most complete and appropriate model for genuine issue scenarios since it combines organisational structure and environment variables that previous models did not (michaela & lestara, 2020). salma (2022) concludes that the hotfit framework is an excellent paradigm for is assessment research because it provides comprehensive guidance on how to improve an is. however, the human component of hot-fit model is seen as the people (humans) who evaluate the is from the standpoint of usage (system use) and can accept and refuse the system based on their training, experience, knowledge, expectations and attitudes (triadiarti et al., 2021). the second component known as organisation is understood by putra et al. (2021) to analyse is in terms of planning, management, system control, management support and finance based on its organisational structure and organisational environment. the last component is the technology which according to irfan et a., (2020) assess “ the system’s quality, information quality and service quality.” research model a suitable research model was curved from humanorganisation-technology model to guide the research activities. the study adapted the technology component of human-organisation-technology model in order to acquire a thorough, increased grasp of the research objective this gives a comprehensive overview of predetermined technological factors explored from previous studies to assess the implementation of hris. the technological factors used for the assessment were: it infrastructure, complexity, quality information, compatibility and system quality. all of these factors identified in this study were previously proposed in the literature and used in it implementation studies. quality information and system quality were adapted from hot-fit model by yusof et al., (2008). complexity and compatibility were also adapted from the diffusion of innovation (doi) by rogers, (2003), whereas it infrastructure was also adapted from kiwango et al., (2021). also, these variables were conceptualised and operationlised in some other previous studies such as it infrastructure (butt, 2020), complexity and compatibility (kiwango et al., 2021), quality information and system quality (puspitarini et al., 2018), acceptance (rath & das, 2020) and effectives (dey & saha, 2020). the figure 1 below presents the conceptual framework of the study. the study developed this framework with directed line specifying the relationship between the technological factors and the implementation of the hris. figure 2: research model source: researcher’s construct technological factors according to alraja et al. (2022), the technology context concerns the software, hardware and equipment. esfahani et al. (2018) stress that the technological factors include the utilization of it infrastructures which include a collection of physical equipment and software applications required to operate in an organisation. this comprises internal and external technologies, procedures and tools of an organisation that emphasize innovative characteristics or elements in the technology adoption research (nilashi et al., 2016). one of the required variables for the successful implementation of an e-learning system is technological considerations (almaiah et al., 2020). however, the technology factors considered under the study to conduct the assessment of the implementation of the hris include: it infrastructure, complexity, quality information, compatibility and system quality. pa ge 14 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 implementation of the hris hris deployment in most organisation still relies on the thriving sophistication of it and the features of it needs for hrm departments (holland et al., 2022). elnakib et al. (2021) affirm that, the hris is intended to increase effectiveness by improving information accuracy or by employing technology to streamline operations. noutsa fobang et al. (2019) purports that hris is critical in contemporary top organisations. despite, organisations have difficulties in integrating and utilizing these technologies (agahi & gulthawatvichai, 2021). the apparent unwillingness of organisations to adopt and implement hriss poses a significant challenge to the continued usefulness of hriss in organisations (arpoh-baah et al., 2020). the study uses the following variables namely: acceptance and effectiveness under this construct to assess the implementation of the hris in the mmdas in the upper west region of ghana. acceptance of the hris is one of the major dependent variables used under the implementation of the hrims. acceptance is a perceptual phenomenon that involves assessing new experiences and making a final choice about the merits and drawbacks of that encounter (safi et al., 2018). taherdoost (2022a) claim that, the acceptance of any new technology by its users is critical to its effective implementation. similarly nycz and pólkowski (2018) also buttress that, user acceptability is a crucial issue to consider in it adoption, implementation and usage inside the organisation. davis (1993) declares that user acceptability is a vital component in determining whether or not an is deployment is successful and knowing the causes for user acceptance or rejection is key to a chance of effective implementation (kamaludin & zaki kamaludin, 2017). the main obstacles in the implementation of hris is end-user non-acceptance of hris (afifah & sary, 2020). organisations are more receptive to technology acceptance and their understanding of hris is progressively improving and becoming more innovative (srivastava et al., 2022). people have a characteristic inclination not to accept the new technology innovation when it is adopted based on their presumptions about change. according to rogers (2003), poor system acceptability and utilization have been key impediments to effective implementation efforts, resulting in significant financial losses (mauro & borges-andrade, 2020). ali and mahmood, (2020) in a study indicate that the major difficulty encountered by firms in the adoption of hris across all sectors in pakistan is a lack of acceptance due to hesitation about change among junior employees. also, effectiveness is a variable considered under the implementation of the hris. it is important to first define what effectiveness is, as it means differently for each person, depending on the theoretical framework used (supriadi & sa’ud, 2017). effectiveness is a measure of how well the learning objectives have been met (handayaningrat, 1990). effectiveness is the result of measuring the achievement of the predetermined goals (masriah, 2021). the use of hris is intended to increase effectiveness, either in relation to data accuracy or by adopting technology to automate operations (elnakib et al., 2021). fobih et al. (2020) argue that an effective hris is required in today’s businesses to address concerns such as increased organisational needs, more comprehensive use of information and a greater need for information, as well as the ongoing drive to reduce costs and make hrm a somewhat more strategic business partner. research hypotheses the first variable under the technological construct is the it infrastructure of the organisation. it infrastructure refers to the shared it capabilities that enable information flow throughout an organisation (broadbent et al., 1996). havidz and mahaputra (2020) stressed that an organisation’s it infrastructure consists of the hardware, software, databases and telecommunications required to conduct the organisation’s operations. qamari et al. (2022) maintain that an organisation’s it infrastructure consists of computers, email and own networks that are not connected to the internet such as wired local area networks (wlan), wireless, wide area network (wan), intranet and extranet. shet et al. (2021) indicate that a welldesigned it infrastructure is required for organiztions to deploy hris. munir et al. (2020) suggested that before the implementation of the hris, organisations must consider the it infrastructure, internet and so on. according to recent surveys, the most prevalent barrier in the implementation of it-enabled applications in developingcountry enterprises is a lack of it infrastructure (mothobi & grzybowski, 2017). therefore, in the context of the assessment, the following hypotheses were posited: h1a: it infrastructure has significant influence on the acceptance of the hris. h1b: it infrastructure has significant influence on the effectiveness of the hris. secondly, the complexity was the next variable suggested. complexity is “the degree to which an innovation is perceived as relatively difficult to understand and use”(edwards son & al-saqaf, 2022; el mallouli & sassi, 2022; jensen, 2020; rogers, 2003). likewise, gopalakrishnan and damanpour (1994) define complexity as “the extent to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use considering various dimensions such as the extent to which an innovation can be implemented on a limited basis, the difficulty associated with understanding the innovation and the extent of the newness of the innovation.” yoon et al. (2020) state that complexity is a trait of innovation that is frequently seen to affect how technology is implemented. udekwe et al. (2021) point out that, complexity is a technology factor that influences the effectiveness and implementation of the hris. in view of the above regarding the influence of complexity on the acceptance and effectiveness of the hris, the following hypotheses were posited: h2a: complexity has significant influence on the acceptance of the hris. h2b: complexity has significant influence on the effectiveness of the hris. thirdly, compatibility is another essential variable used pa ge 15 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 under the technology construct. al-rahmi et al. (2019; wu et al. (2022) distinct compatibility “as the degree to which society trusts that the invention is well-matched with the old-style knowledge regarding existing values, past experiences and needs of the potential adopters.” whereas leong et al. (2021) comprehend compatibility as “as the degree to which the individual perceives the innovation as being aligned with his or her lifestyle, values, past experiences and needs.” regarding the influence of compatibility on the acceptance and effectiveness of the hris, the following hypotheses were posited: h3a: compatibility has significant influence on the acceptance of the hris. h3b: compatibility has significant influence on the effectiveness of the hris. fourthly, quality information is another variable covered under the technological construct and it is welldefined as “the desirable characteristics of the system output”(delone & mclean, 2003). al-mamary et al. (2014) perceived information quality as the output of the system such as reports not the quality of the system performance. bayraktaroglu et al. (2019); yakubu and dasuki (2018) claimed that the output of an is should have desired qualities, such as being relevant, understandable, accurate, succinct, comprehensive, timely and usable. assessing the quality of information from a system can be accomplished in three major ways: information must serve the desired purpose, information must arrive timely and information must be accurate (hidayatullah et al., 2019). considering the influence of quality information on the acceptance and effectiveness of the hris, these hypotheses below were posited: h4a: quality information has significant influence on the acceptance of the hris. h4b: quality information has significant influence on the effectiveness of the hris. lastly, system quality is a variable also used under technology construct. bayraktaroglu et al. (2019) defined system quality as “ the ability of an is to produce the required information.” yakubu and dasuk (2018) indicate system quality measurement features to include data quality, reliability, usability and integration. al-mamary et al. (2014) recommend that system quality is the useful feature of an is. according delone and mclean, (2003) as mentioned by beatrix (2022), system quality is the system’s performance, which relates to how effectively the hardware capabilities, software, standards and processes of the information system can give information on user demands. assessing the quality system is typically associated with measuring the dependability of the system’s fundamental features, such as effectiveness and the software interface and user interface (achmadi & siregar, 2021). in view of the above study regarding the influence of system quality on the acceptance and effectiveness of the hris, the following hypotheses were posited: h5a: system quality has significant influence on the acceptance of the hris. h5b: system quality has significant influence on the effectiveness of the hris. materials and methods context of the study the study was conducted in the upper west region of ghana, specifically in the mmdas in the region. the study aims at assessing the technological factors affecting the implementation of the hris in the mmdas in the upper west region of ghana. profile of the upper west region the upper west region is one of ghana’s 16 administrative areas and one of only five semi-arid administrative regions in the globe (diko et al., 2021). figure 3: the map of the upper west region of ghana source: forkuor & korah, (2023) pa ge 16 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 the upper west region was carved from the then upper region in 1983 (bob-milliar, 2011). it is situated on ghana’s northwestern side. according to baddianaah et al. (2023); moomen and odame-appiah, (2023), the upper west region of ghana covers 18,476 km2 of ghana’s total landmass, accounting for 12.7 percent of the land in the country. the region is anticipated to have a total population of 901,502 residents (440,317 males and 461,185 females (pienaah et al., 2022)). the dagaaba, wala and sissali are the three (3) largest ethnic groups and birifor, lobi, chakali and kasinas are among the other minority tribes (delle donpaala et al., 2022). in the upper west region of ghana, 72.8% of the population who are economically active work in agriculture, forestry and fishing (diko et al., 2021). the objective of this study is to give empirically verified information on the predictive power of the technological factors affecting hris implementation at mmdas in the upper west region of ghana. the study was a quantitative survey and a positivist research mindset. this study was based on primary data using closed ended questionnaire. the sample size consists of all the line managers (n=187) in the eleven (11) mmdas. however, each mmda consists of seventeen (17) line managers whose opinions were sought to determine the technological factors that affect the implementation of the hris in the mmdas. purposive sampling technique was used, in which 17line managers were chosen from each mmda in the upper west region of ghana. the scale of measurement employed in the study was a 5 likert-scale which was used to collect data from line managers where they were allowed to make choices to totally disagree (1) to totally agree (5). for the internal consistency of data, the study embraced the cronbach value of 0.70 as the minimum value to determine the reliability of each variable and all were above 0.70. signifying all variables were reliable. the unit of analysis of this study was at the individual level. this study makes its analysis relying on the opinions given by respondents and finally the results were correlated to establish the relationships between the individual characteristics (line managers) and the implementation of the hris in the mmdas. numerical data was analysed using spss. the study used inferential statistics such as spearman bivariate correlation to enable the researcher to test the research hypotheses developed. this study also used multiple stepwise regression technique to further explore the most influential technological variables on each the dependent variable of the study. results and discussions demographic characteristics of respondents the table below highlighted data on the demographic characteristics provided by the respondents in the eleven (11) mmdas in the upper west region of ghana. the suitability of the responses for generalization is determined by the characteristics of the respondents in a given study picked from the target population (ridzuan et al., 2021). the characteristics used under this study included gender, age, qualification, work experience and status of the mmdas (see table 1). the results of the demographic characteristics from table 8 above showed that: on gender, majority of the respondents were males representing 80% (n= 147) and minority of the respondents were females representing 20% (n=37). also, results on the ages brackets of the respondents showed that, ages between 3140 years represented 64% (n=118), ages between 41-50 years represented 15 % (n=28), ages between 20-30 years represented 12% (n=22), ages between 51-60 were 9% (n=16) and none fell above 60 years. furthermore, the results again revealed that, in terms of qualification of the respondents, majority of the respondents had first degree representing 63% (n=116), 33% (n=60) of the respondents having masters, 4% (n=8) of the table 1: population per district mmda population wa municipal 200,672 wa west district 96,957 wa east district 91,457 daffiama-bussie-issa district 38,754 jirapa municipal 91,279 lambussie-karni district 51,118 lawra district 58,433 nadowli-kaleo district 77,057 nandom municipal 51,328 sissala east municipal 80,619 sissala west district 63,828 source: population and housing census report, (2021) summary of the study’s methodology the table below highlights on the summary of the study’s methodology and gives the research a roadmap to accomplish the study’s objective (see table 2). table 2: study’s methodology attribute characteristics research design quantitative survey research approach quantitative research paradigm positivism time dimension cross-sectional study sampling: purposive total population sampling data collection method survey data collection tool questionnaire data analysis tool spss unit analysis the relationship between the individual characteristics and the implementation of the hris (individual level) unit of observation individual line managers (unit/departmental heads) unit of measurement likert’s scale (5 point) pa ge 17 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 respondents having hnd and none of the respondents had a ph.d. it was also disclosed that majority of the respondents having work experience between 5-10 years represented 45% (n=82), 14 years representing 32% (n=58) and 11 and above represented 24% (n=44). it is also clear from the results that, 63% (n=116) of the mmdas were district assemblies whiles 37% (n=68) were municipal assemblies in the upper west region of ghana. results on objective one: to determine the level of acceptance of the technological factors affecting the implementation of the hris the technological factors used to address this objective are: it infrastructure, complexity, quality information, compatibility and system quality. the respondents were to rate their level of acceptance to determine the technological factors affecting the implementation of the hris at the mmdas in the upper west region of ghana. their opinions were expressed in a likert scale where; sa= “strongly agree,” d = “disagree,” u= “uncertain,” a= “agree,” sd= “strongly disagree.” also, m=mean representing the measure of central tendency and std= standard deviation representing the measure of dispersion. the respondents’ responses on each variable were described using frequencies, percentages as well as mean and standard deviation. table 3: demographic characteristics of respondents demographics demographics frequencies percentages gender male 147 80% female 37 20% total 184 100% age 20-30 22 12% 31-40 118 64% 41-50 28 15% 51-60 16 9% over 60 0 0% total 184 100% qualification hnd 8 4% degree 116 63% masters 60 33% ph.d. 0 0% total 184 100% work experience 1-4 58 32% 5-10 82 45% 10 above 44 24% total 184 100% mmda status district 116 63% municipal 68 37% metropolitan 0 0% total 184 100% table 4: technological factors technology s d d u a s a m std no % no % no % no % no % it infrastructure 12 6.5% 62 33.7% 4 2.2% 86 46.7% 20 10.9% 2.8 1.2 complexity 13 7.1% 17 9.2% 29 15.8% 80 43.5% 45 24.5% 2.3 1.1 quality information 19 10.3% 19 10.3% 31 16.8% 111 60.3% 23 12.5% 2.3 0.8 compatibility 21 11.4% 27 14.7% 27 14.7% 93 50.5% 16 8.7% 2.7 1.2 system quality 5 2.7% 17 9.2% 23 12.5% 83 45.1% 56 30.4% 2.1 1.0 n=184 pa ge 18 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 table 11 presented the following results on it infrastructure with respect to the statement that, it infrastructure facilitates the implementation of the hris, 74 (40.2%) of the total respondents disagreed while 106 (57.6%) agreed and 4 (2.2%) of the respondents were uncertain. it infrastructure has a mean of 2.8 and a standard deviation of 1.2. this denotes that mmdas in the upper west region may have good it infrastructure which facilitates the implementation of the hris. normalini et al. (2012) argues that, it infrastructure affect the implementation of hris because the system is based on computer network availability and accessibility in most organisations (matimbwa, sebastian masue, et al., 2020). al-mobaideen et al. (2013) also discovered that, it infrastructure plays an important role in the effective implementation of hris in the setting of aseza. mothobi and grzybowski (2017) contended that, the most common hindrance in developing-country firms implementing it-enabled applications is it infrastructure. on complexity, regarding the statement that, hris is hard to learn, 30 (16.3%) of the total respondents disagreed while 125 (68%) agreed and 29 (15.8%) of the respondents were uncertain. largely, complexity has a mean of 2.3 and a standard deviation of 1.1. this implies that the hris at the mmdas may be complex and difficult to use hence hindering the implementation process at the mmdas. kiwango et al. (2021) claimed that, the complexity of the present computerized system has a significant impact on the organisation’s acceptance and implementation of a new system. kashive (2011) also revealed that, the installation of hris in organisations with complicated processes that differ from present procedures affect the success of the implementation. venkatesh et al. (2011) affirms that users unable to use the hris in government-owned businesses have been an obstacle in the hris implementation. on quality information, it is possible to learn that, 19 (10.3%) of the total respondents disagreed with the statement that, hris relevance in decisions making aids its implementation while 134 (72.8%) agreed and 31 (16.8%) of the respondents were uncertain. quality information has a mean of 2.3 and a standard deviation of 0.8. this suggest that, the information on the hris may not be understandable, consistent, relevant and complete that users may consult any time. wu and wang (2006) asserts that, information quality is an important factor in ensuring successful hris implementation (boro, 2022). prasanna and huggins (2016) also discovered that, quality information is one of the preliminary characteristics that influence symbolic adoption of a system. in a similar manner, on compatibility, regarding the statement that, hris compatibility with existing practice aids its implementation, 48 (26.1%) of the total respondents disagreed while 109 (59.2%) agreed and 27 (14.7%) of the respondents were uncertain. compatibility had a mean of 2.7 and a standard deviation of 1.2. this signifies that, the hris features may be consistent and compatible with the previous system. matthew et al. (2018) affirm that, the inconsistency and incompatibility of an organisation’s existing system slows the implementation of a new system such as e-hris. on system quality, with reference to the statement that hris features and functions aid its implementations, 22 (11.9%) of the total respondents disagreed while 139 (75.5%) agreed and 23 (12.5%) of the respondents were uncertain. system quality has a man of 2.1 and a standard deviation of 1.0. this may be as a result of processes of the system not matching their work processes. noutsa et al. (2017) indicate that, quality system is the only determinant of adoption of hris. furthermore, gattiker and goodhue (2005) concluded that, system quality is an important component in ensuring the success of an enterprise resource planning (erp) implementation results on objective two: to assess the correlation between technological factors and the acceptance of the hris the developed hypotheses below are to answer objective two of the study. the technological factors consist of it infrastructure, complexity, quality information, compatibility and system quality. the dependent variable used under the implementation of the hris was acceptance. the bivariate correlation test and analysis was carried out to establish the strength of relationship between each technological factor and the variable acceptance under the implementation of the hris. this objective was answered using the interpretation of correlation coefficient rule of thumb giving by hinkle et al. (2003) below to establish the strength of correlation between each the technological factors and acceptance under the implementation of the hris. table 1 below is the interpretation of correlation coefficient rule of thumb. table 5: rule of thumb for interpretation of correlation coefficient size of correlation interpretation 0.90 to 1.00 (−.90 to −1.00) very high positive (negative) correlation 0.70 to .90 (−.70 to −.90) high positive (negative) correlation 0.50 to .70 (−.50 to −.70) moderate positive (negative) correlation 0.30 to .50 (−.30 to −.50) low positive (negative) correlation 0.00 to .30 (.00 to −.30) negligible correlation source: hinkle et al., (2003) the following hypotheses below table 2 were established to answer objective two. pa ge 19 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 table 6: bivariate correlation between technology variables and acceptance hypotheses correlation weights correlation coefficients (rho) p-value (p) hypotheses support h1a a1 ⭢ a 0.139 0.061 rejected h2a a2 ⭢ a 0.398 0.000 accepted h3a a3 ⭢ a 0.187 0.011 accepted h4a a4 ⭢ a 0.323 0.000 accepted h5a a45 ⭢ a 0.265 0.000 accepted note. sig level: * p < 0.05 **p < 0.01(2-tailed). a1: infrastructure, a2: complexity, a3: quality information, a4: compatibility, a5: system quality, a: acceptance on h1a it was hypothesized that, it infrastructure has significant influence on the acceptance of the hris. the results indicate that, there is negligible correlation between it infrastructure and the acceptance of the hris. this correlation is statistically insignificant at a 5% significance level since the p-value is greater than the level of significance (rho = 0.139, p-value > 0.05). therefore, h1a was rejected. the findings of the study do not support the hypothesis. the findings of the study imply that, the mmdas may not have goof it infrastructure. this may hinder the acceptance of the hrmis at the mmdas. the conclusions of the study contradicts the findings of al-mobaideen et al. (2013) who claim that, it infrastructures have a positive and significant impact on hris acceptance as compared to other factors. this contradicts the findings of alshamaila (2013) who report that, it infrastructure has huge impact of on the acceptance of technologies on h2a it was hypothesized that complexity has significant influence on the acceptance of the hris. the results indicate that, there is low positive correlation between complexity and the acceptance of the hris. this correlation is statistically significant at a 5% significance level since, the p-value is less than the level of significance (rho = 0.398, p-value < 0.05). hence h2a was accepted. the findings of the study supports the findings of venkatesh and davis (2000) as well as moore and benbasat (1991).the findings contradict the previous studies by grover (1993), tidd and bessant (2020) who purport that the acceptance of is innovations has been revealed to be negatively affected by complexity on h3a it was hypothesized that, information quality has significant influence on the acceptance of the hris. the results indicate that, there is negligible correlation between information quality and the acceptance of the hris. this correlation is statistically significant at a 5% significance level since, the p-value is less than the level of significance (rho = 0.187, p-value < 0.05). therefore, h3a was accepted. the findings are consistent with the research by beatrix (2022) who demonstrates that user satisfaction is significantly impacted by the information quality. on h4a it was hypothesized that, compatibility has significant influence on the acceptance of the hris. the results indicate that, there is low positive correlation between compatibility and the acceptance of the hris. this correlation is statistically significant at a 5% significance level since, the p-value is less than the level of significance (rho = 0.323, p-value < 0.05). hence, h4a was accepted. this study findings are in agreement with the findings by duxbury and corbett (1996) who affirm that compatibility with existing systems is positively related to the acceptance of technology on h5a it was hypothesized that, system quality has significant influence on the acceptance of the hris. the results indicate that, there is negligible correlation between system quality and acceptance of the hris. this correlation is statistically significant at a 5% significance level since, the p-value is less than the level of significance (rho = 0.265, p-value < 0.05). hence, h5a was accepted. the study’s findings related to those of muda and ade afrina (2019) who discover that system quality had a significant and beneficial influence on user satisfaction. the findings are congruent with those of kuo et al. (2018) who find that system quality has great impact on the acceptance of the hris. results on objective three: to assess the correlation between each technological factor and the effectiveness of the hris this part highlighted the hypotheses developed to answer objective three of the study. the technological variables (independent variables) consist of it infrastructure, complexity, quality information, compatibility and system quality. the dependent variable used under the implementation of the hris was effectiveness. the bivariate correlation test and analysis was carried out to establish the strength of relationship between each technological factor and the variable “effectiveness” under the implementation of the hris. this objective was answered using the interpretation of correlation coefficient rule of thumb giving by hinkle et al. (2003) above to establish the strength of correlation between each the technological factors and effectiveness under the implementation of the hris. pa ge 20 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 table 7: bivariate correlation between technology factors and effectiveness hypotheses correlation weights correlation coefficients (rho) p-value (p) hypotheses support h1b a1 ⭢ b 0.157 0.033 accepted h2b a2 ⭢ b 0.583 0.000 accepted h3b a3 ⭢ b 0.202 0.006 accepted h4b a4 ⭢ b 0.481 0.000 accepted h5b a45 ⭢ b 0.427 0.000 accepted note. sig level: * p < 0.05 **p < 0.01(2-tailed). a1:it infrastructure, a2: complexity, a3: quality information, a4: compatibility, a5: system quality, b: effectiveness the hypotheses in table 3 were established to answer objective two. on h1b it was hypothesized that, it infrastructure has significant influence on the effectiveness of the hris. the results specified that, there is negligible correlation between it infrastructure and effectiveness of the hris. this correlation is statistically significant since, the p-value is less than the significance level (rho = 0.157, p-value < 0.05). hence, h1b was supported. this implies that, the mmdas may have good it infrastructure that enhances the activities of the hris and in that regard, it may aid the hris effectiveness. these findings are in line with the findings of harshith (2022), jayadeva et al. (2022) as well as normalini et al. (2012). on h2b complexity has significant influence on the effectiveness of the hris. the results indicate that, there is moderate positive correlation between complexity and the effectiveness of the hris. this correlation is statistically significant since, the p-value is smaller than the significance level (rho = 0.583, p-value < 0.05). hence, h2b was supported. the finding is related to the findings of the study by matimbwa et al. (2021). on h3b quality information has significant influence on the effectiveness of the hris. the results from the study indicated that, there is negligible correlation between quality information and the effectiveness of the hris. this correlation is statistically significant since, the p-value is less than the significance level (rho = 0.202, p-value < 0.05). hence h3b was supported. this conclusion is aligned with savalam and dadhabai (2018) who found that, there is an association between quality information and the effectiveness of the hris. on h4b it was hypothesized that compatibility has significant influence on the effectiveness of the hris. it was found from the study that, there is low positive correlation between compatibility and the effectiveness of the hris. this correlation is statistically significant since, the p-value is less than the significance level (rho = 0.481, p-value < 0.05). the proposed hypothesis h4b was supported. the study’s findings are consistent with those of masue, et al. (2020) who agree that compatibility of a system with existing processes ease use hence, effective. on h5b it was hypothesized that system quality has significant influence on the effectiveness of the hris. the results indicate that, there is low positive correlation between system quality and the effectiveness of the hris. this correlation is statistically significant since the p-value is less than the significance level at 5% (rho = 0.427, p-value < 0.05). hence, h5b was supported. the findings of the study are supported by savalam and dadhabai (2018) who argued that there is association between system quality and the effectiveness of the hris. objective four: to determine the most influential technological factors on the acceptance and the effectiveness of the hris to answer objective four (4) of the study, the study used stepwise regression in that regard. stepwise regression was used to determine the most influential variables on each dependent variable in the study. ma et al. (2021) claim that, “stepwise regression is the step-by-step iterative construction of a regression model that involves the selection of independent variables to be used in a final model.” the results below were obtained. table 8: stepwise regression analysis of the technological factors on acceptance variables entered beta coefficient r square change (δr²) f change sig. f change complexity 0.272 0.074 14.563 0.000 note sig at * p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. dependent variable: acceptance pa ge 21 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 3(2) 7-29, 2024 results from table 4 above showed that, complexity is the only most significant predictor (β = 0.272; p < 0.01) on the acceptance of the hris, which contributed about 7.4% (δr² = 0.074, f (1,182) = 14.563; p < 0.01) of variance in acceptance of the hris. the results of the study indicate that, complexity emerged as the first most significant predictive of the acceptance which contributed about 7.4% of variance in acceptance. table 9: stepwise regression analysis of the technological factors on the effectiveness variables entered beta coefficient r square change (δr²) f change sig. f change complexity 0.403 0.163 35.353 0.000 note sig at * p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. dependent variable: acceptance from table 5 below. complexity emerged as the only most significant predictor (β = 0.121; p < 0.01) on effectiveness of the hris, which contributed about 16.3% (δr² = 0.163, f (1, 182) = 35.353; p < 0.01) of variance in effectiveness of the hris. the results of the study indicate that, complexity emerged as the only most significant predictive of the effectiveness which contributed about 16.3% of variance in effectiveness conclusion the research objective one was to assess the technological factors affect the implementation of the hris at the mmdas in the upper west region. it was concluded that it infrastructure and compatibility had a moderate level of acceptance as factors that affect the implementation of the hris whereas quality information, system quality, and complexity had a low level of acceptance. the study also concluded that complexity, quality information, compatibility, system quality had correlation with the acceptance of the hris whereas it infrastructure had no correlation with the acceptance of the hris. lastly, it was concluded that it infrastructure, complexity, quality information, compatibility, system quality had correlation with the effectiveness of the hris. on the stepwise regression analysis carried out on the acceptance of the hris, the study concluded that, complexity is the only influential factor on acceptance. also, the stepwise regression analysis carried out the effectiveness of the hris, the study concluded that, the most influential factors on effectiveness was only complexity. on the stepwise regression analysis carried out on the acceptance of the hris, the study concluded that, complexity is the only influential factor on acceptance. also, the stepwise regression analysis carried out the effectiveness of the hris, the study concluded that, the most influential factors on effectiveness was only complexity. recommendation the study recommends that, hris software adopted and implemented at the lgs and its agencies must be user friendly. the lgs and its agencies do not have a guide that support new technology implementation such as the hris. hence the need to adopt the guide offered in this study. contributions and implications research in hris has appreciated as result of e-governments on various economies across the globe. yet researchers are advocating for more research to exhume new findings in this field to enhance literature. in effect, the study was conducted to assess the implementation of then hris at the mmdas in the upper west region of ghana. debatably, the researcher is unaware of any study conducted on the lgs hris in the study’s context and this may be the first of its kind hence, will add value to existing literature in the field of hris. methodologically, the research will contribute to the formulation of policies and regulations that will lead to the successful implementation of new technologies in the mmdas. practically, it will serve as a guide to guarantee the proper implementation of any new information technology at the mmdas and beyond. limitations there are some limitations to this study. this study was a cross-sectional survey on the assessment of the implementation of the hris at the mmdas in the upper west region. the study was carried out in upper west region of ghana with respondents mainly from the mmdas. the opinions gathered were mainly line mangers of the mmdas hence non-managerial staff were not part of the survey. therefore, more research should be carried out considering all employees of the mmdas to have a holistic position to aid generalization of the findings. furthermore, the current study’s findings may not apply to other mmdas in ghana owing to differences in geographical locations, cultural or institutional features, economic, workforce numbers, internal business operations and procedures, among other factors. as a result, more research must be carried out in other mmdas embracing different theoretical models of measurement to get a deeper knowledge of the problem and to support generalisability of the study findings. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge all survey respondents for their selfless time apportion to complete this survey questionnaire. references achmadi, a., & siregar, a. o. 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(2022). e-hrm: a meta-analysis of the antecedents, consequences, and cross-national moderators. human resource management review, 32(4), 100862. pa ge 1 pa ge 82 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) predictive analytics for insider threats using multimodal data (log + behavioural + physical security) kh said al mamun1*, md shadman soumik1, md mukidur rahman2, mrinmoy sarkar1, chowdhury amin abdullah3, mohammad ali4, md shahadat hossain4 volume 4 issue 3, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i3.6224 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: september 25, 2025 accepted: october 27, 2025 published: november 21, 2025 insider threats are a continuous and dynamic issue in the field of organizational security that may take various forms, such as an abuse of authorized access to critical information systems and physical infrastructure. the traditional methods of isolating system log analysis, behavioural monitoring, or physical access control often do not have the ability to identify multi-layered and subtle patterns of threats. multimodal data integration predictive analytics is a holistic approach since it integrates heterogeneous data volumes into coherent threat models that are able to pre-empt any possible threats before they escalate. the paper discusses the effectiveness of predictive analytics in insider threat detection through analysis of the connection between log records, behavioural indicators and physical security data. instead, the focus is made on designing integrative frameworks, using advanced machine learning algorithms, and the applied implications on operational resilience. issues like scalability, transparency of algorithms, and even ethical considerations are also critical issues that are considered to provide a sound deployment in the modern security environment. the paper highlights the need to embrace multimodal predictive approaches as a tactical defence mechanism and developing theoretical arguments and practical interventions in cybersecurity risk management. keywords behavioural indicators, cybersecurity risk management, data fusion, insider threats, machine learning, multimodal data, organisational resilience, physical security, predictive analytics, system logs 1 department of science in information technology (msit), washington university of science and technology (wust), usa 2 department of business analytics, southern new hampshire university, usa 3 department of computer science and information systems, pace university, usa 4 department of science in business analytics, trine university, usa * corresponding author’s e-mail: saeedmamun2015@gmail.com introduction the development of digital landscapes and the incorporation of networks have made insider threats a burning issue in modern cybersecurity. unlike external opponents who break through the barriers by hacking the systems situated on the outside, insiders have privileged access to the sensitive systems, and they manipulate their privileges to compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability. it makes the insider threats particularly ugly, since they bypass the standard monitoring controls and exploit blind spots within the organisational security landscape. these risks are in several forms such as anomalies in any system log records, deviation of behaviour, and even unauthorised physical intrusions. the sheer existence of threat indicators points to the necessity to possess combined techniques that would unify such dissimilar data sets to an integrated form of predictive approaches. predictive analytics provide a novel paradigm of reactive response to security measures to anticipatory measures. isolated monitoring systems tend to miss the existence of small anomalies, whichthe reliability and validity of insider threat detection, contributing to the preparedness of organizationslearning algorithms, and real-time data integration. by combining the multimodal sources of data, i.e. log entries, behavioural dynamics and evidence of physical security, the emerging models are much more precise in the early signs of insider activity. it is a form of integration operation that enhances reliability and validity of insider threat detection contributing to the preparedness of organisations to internal risks. the forecasting form of strategies is pressing because the complexity of insider strategies in the technologically sophisticated settings is improving. even lower points are the companies that use decentralised infrastructure, cloud-based environments and work-from-home policies. the conventional detection systems, which are restricted in their ability to rely on only limited types of data, are ill adjusted to the velocity, scale and variety of the modern information streams. the multimodal data integration using predictive analytics removes these shortcomings and gives an integrated analysis that can identify complex threat patterns. in other applications beyond technical applications, predictive analytics has further organisational and societal implications. companies with an effective use of multimodal predictive models can protect intellectual property, operations that are vital, and trust within the community. besides that, predictive approach methodologies promote compliance with regulatory demands of governance, risk, and data security. however, predictive systems are not generated without issues. the blurrings between security and personal privacy, the threat of algorithm bias, the technical requirements of pa ge 83 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 82-90 2025 scaling predictive models all remain pressing matters to take into account to be rolled out successfully. by creating predictive analytics, which is derived through the integration of multimodal data, a breakthrough in the insider threat management realm has been reached. such frameworks will prove useful in empowering more efficient pre-emptive defence by breaking the boundaries of the traditional mechanisms of detection and combining the log, behavioural, and physical data. the paper continues to examine methodological frameworks, applications, issues, and opportunities towards ensuring predictive analytics becomes a feature of organisational security resilience. literature review conceptualising insider threats insider threats are identified as a category of organisational risk among the most complicated ones because of the duality of advantage and susceptibility of their implementation. the insiders can be those employees, contractors, or partners who have varying access to the system. their risk of threat stretches over both malicious and negligent acts and accidental breaches of security measures. the most crucial issue, in most instances, has been how to differentiate between benign anomalies and those patterns that are likely to indicate intent to breach systems. human behaviors is complex, and the number of digital records is increasing every day, which has led to the development of insider threat detection as a specialty area of cybersecurity research. predictive analytics in cybersecurity predictive analytics entails past and immediate statistical forecasting, anomaly detection and machine learning algorithms, which are event oriented. predictive analytics have had increasing uses in intrusion detection, malware detection, and fraud detection in cybersecurity. the transition to insider threat prediction has its share of special problems as the insiders are more likely to operate within the bounds of normal activity and therefore the anomalies are not as evident. supervised and unsupervised learning models are more advanced models that are frequently employed with an aim to expand the predictive potential. neural networks and ensemble models are also more advanced models that are frequently employed with the view of expanding the predictive potential. it has been stated that combining it with multimodal data is one of the clues that can decrease the threat of false positives and increase detection accuracy. the role of multimodal data multimodal data also permits us to visualize the insider activities in a multidimensional perspective owing to the synthesis of the various yet complementary data sets. the technical transactions involving information systems are also documented in system logs, user behaviors are traced in logs of deviations in user behaviors, and system access logs provide evidence of the trends of access to secure environments. the modalities may be individually constrained, e.g. a suspect to be identified by log analysis, but not by behavioral analysis, whereas a suspect to be identified by behavioral analysis, but not by technical activity related to it. with such a combination of datasets, you now have a comprehensive picture of insider behavior, and such predictive models can find and recognize subtle and cross-domain relationships that would otherwise be overlooked. table 1: comparative characteristics of multimodal data sources data source typical indicators limitations when isolated contribution to multimodal framework system logs login times, file access, network queries may not reveal motive or context technical trace of system-level activity behavioural data communication style, work patterns, stress risk of misinterpretation or bias adds human-centric context to anomalies physical security entry/exit records, badge scans, cctv logs limited when not linked with digital traces verifies location-based activity patterns this comparative perspective proves the need to have integrated structures since both types of data solve the weaknesses in the other. data fusion approaches the data integration of multimodal data is based on the techniques of data fusion which binds the heterogeneity of the data in terms of format, scale, and semantics. it is generally accepted that there are three broad categories of fusion, i.e.: feature-level fusion, in which raw data features are fused prior to processing, decision-level fusion, in which the results of separable models are produced individually and then combined, and hybrid fusion, in which both are combined. the feature-level fusion is a detailed, but expensive computationally, algorithm and the decision-level fusion is scale able and may lose detail. compromise between accuracy and effectiveness is provided by hybrid models, and it is feasible to have adaptive models fit in large-scale enterprise settings. pa ge 84 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 82-90 2025 a schematic of three data streams, system logs, behavioural data, and physical security, coming together into a central fusion engine. the fusion engine is linked to a predictive analytics model, which will provide the risk score of insider threat probability. the figure displays the input heterogeneity coming together to form a single model.) literature-related issues the issue of managing large volumes of multimodal data in real time is one of the general themes that were identified in the existing literature. on their own, log records are capable of generating terabytes of information in a single day and behavioral monitoring can be the analysis of keystroke, email, or workflow measurements. physical access data by itself is also an additional source of complexity when there are video analytics. the second concern which has remained is that of predictive model interpretability; black-box models are correct but may not be transparent and this brings about the issue of accountability and fairness. moreover, the problems of breach of privacy, over-surveillance, and potential misuse of predictive insight are some of the ethical concerns that are center stage in both academic and practical publications. synthesis of reviewed studies the literature review emphasizes the fact that reactive security systems are also becoming focused more on more predictive and multimodal models. the first ones were skewed to one type of data, system logs, and hence linked to large false-positive results. the more recent techniques bring together the behavioral and physical elements to improve predictive success. a lot of the research is however experimental with minimal application of scale in actual organizational context. the necessity to apply methodological structures that cover scalability, transparency, and ethical safeguards, and to take advantage of the predictive capability of multimodal data are obvious. figure 1: multimodal data fusion framework conceptual diagram table 2: the development of insider threat detection approaches creation of approach dominant data source attributes limitations firstgeneration system logs rule-based anomaly detection rule-based alerts are highly false positive and context-independent. second generation behavioural data targets human behavioural patterns risk of bias is not technically valid. third generation physical security presence and access control verification is not digital evidence. pa ge 85 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 82-90 2025 this development shows the tendency to whole-person approaches and multimodal predictive analytics is the most holistic strategy that is being developed at present. materials and methods research orientation predictive analytics used to detect insider threats is a methodological basis that lies in the combination of multimodal data that consists of technical, behavioral, and physical aspects of insider behaviors. conceptual research orientation is used in this study to attempt to synthesized existing theoretical models with practical implementation in machine learning and data fusion. the methodology is not limited to one methodological paradigm, as it incorporates the perspectives of computational, behavioral, and organizational in the creation of an analytical framework. the goal is to develop a model that can capture the cross-domain correlations and, at the same time, be flexible to the dynamic environment of insider behaviors. data acquisition and pre-processing the first stage of the framework is the acquisition of the different datasets. the application servers, network devices and operating systems are the systems that give system logs, which contain the logs of the access histories, the records of the logins and the records of file transactions. the behavioral data are collected using monitoring tools that include the use of the communication systems, workflow metrics, and anomalies in normal activities by the users. physical security data can be obtained using access control systems, badge scans and, in ethically permissible cases, cctv-based analytics. the raw data that is obtained via such sources require much pre-processing before it is cleaned up to eliminate duplication, inconsistency and normalize attributes. preprocessing includes data cleaning to remove corrupted data records, data is cleaned to normalize forms, as well as feature engineering to derive relevant variables. the average time it takes to log in, the frequency with which there are accesses during the working hours, and the fourth generation (emerging) multimodal integration unified predictive models across domains advanced fusion and computation is required. figure 2: multimodal analytics data pre-processing workflow physical location cross-validation with system activity are some of the engineered features. the figure 2 illustrates three of the data sources, system logs, behavioural metrics, and physical access, into a pre-processing layer. this layer comprises cleaning, transformation, and feature engineering. the outputs are summarized into one data set, in the form of a structured input to the predictive model. data fusion strategy the hybrid fusion strategy that integrates feature and decision level strategies assists in the integration of the multimodal data. on the feature level, feature level fusion takes raw features of any form and integrates them into the same feature space, making more machine learning algorithms able to identify latent cross-modal relationships. however, in decision-level fusion, the pa ge 86 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 82-90 2025 independent predictors are directly applied to each stream of data and result amalgamated using weighted ensemble methods. the combination of those two makes the framework mitigate the weaknesses of those two approaches and maximized scalability and interpretability. machine learning algorithms a stack of machine learning models is used to construct the predictor model. the last level approximates time-dependence by random forests, support vector machines, and recurrent neural networks. the base layer results are also fed to a meta-learner that is typically a gradient boosting model which integrates the predictions into one risk score. this layered structure will ensure accuracy and resilience, as now the ensemble will be capable of covering a wide variety of different types of anomalies but will not overfit the data to one particular modality. table 3: machine learning techniques for insider threat prediction algorithm strengths limitations random forests handles heterogeneous data, interpretable struggles with temporal dependencies support vector machines effective in high-dimensional spaces sensitive to parameter tuning recurrent neural networks captures sequential and temporal patterns computationally intensive gradient boosting strong performance in ensemble frameworks risk of overfitting if poorly regularised the ensemble model builds on the merits of each algorithm, so that the general predictive system is robust at varying conditions. risk scoring and classification this predictive model can yield the output as a risk score with a probability of each of the monitored entities. this score lies in the low-lying, medium-level, and highrisk category, which is defined by the organizational tolerance levels, as well as the risk management policies. risky entities will cause escalation, and this may be more research, a temporary access block, or supervision. such category system is also able to provide security personnel with more useful intelligence, rather than pure anomaly alerts, and enhances operational performance of predictive analytics. ethical and privacy considerations the use of predictive analytics in detecting insider threats also presents a number of ethical and legal issues. pre-processing has to be informed by hard rules of data minimisation to shun unwarranted surveillance. anonymisation or aggregation, where possible, of sensitive behavioural attributes should occur, e.g., communication patterns. algorithmic decision-making should also be transparent to overcome the threat of discriminatory profiling. the use of explainable artificial intelligence techniques will guarantee that the risk scores may be justified and audited, which will balance organizational security and individual rights. analytical framework overview the resulting architecture has multimodal data acquisition, pre-processing, hybrid fusion, ensemble machine learning, and risk classification as a feedback loop. outputs are not predetermined risk scores but are elements of an adaptive system of security where past event learnings are reevaluated into the system to improve the system model. with the help of this cyclic mechanism, it is possible to make sure that the framework is adjusted to the new patterns of insider activity and exhibits resistance to new forms of threat. figure 3: analytical framework for multimodal predictive insider threat detection pa ge 87 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 82-90 2025 a full system diagram illustrating the pipeline: data acquisition from three sources → pre-processing layer → hybrid data fusion → ensemble learning → risk scoring → adaptive feedback loop. arrows depict the continuous nature of data flow and learning updates. results and discussion conceptual outcomes of multimodal integration human perception and learning have been discussed as multimodal and the brain has been found to have a multidimensional interrelatedness between sensory, motor, and cognitive abilities that help in developing concepts and ideas. multimodal integration. multidimensionality of human perception and learning is not a new concept and the interconnection between the brain sensory, motor, and cognitive processes is multidimensional, and leads to the development of concepts and ideas. it is the integration of the multimodal data which results to the creation of a predictive model which can be perceived to have tremendous benefits over the simpler and one source approaches. irrespective of each other, system logs have been known to generate high rates of anomaly without any context and therefore, generate operating inefficiency regarding false positives. even though behavioral monitoring might prove helpful in diagnosing such abnormalities as developing new communication patterns or a significant decline in output, a non-technical deviation can be confused with suspicion without technical assistance. speaking of which, physical security data can confirm the presence of individuals in particular zones, yet the purpose and the relationship to the digital activity cannot be understood. by incorporating these forms of data categories, the predictive model eliminates this challenge of interpretive ambiguity, since the results that the model yields are operationalized and accurate. effectiveness of the predictive framework the hybrid fusion and ensemble learning methodology that is conceptualized in the analytical model can generate objectively measurable predictive performance improvements. such measures as accuracy, recall, and the overall ability to detect are high in the case of multimodal integration. what is particularly important is that the model should be as capable of reducing false positives as possible since when organizations’ have too many unconfirmed anomalies, the likelihood of alert fatigue rises. comparatively, a scoring system of risks that incorporates behavioral, technical, and physical discoveries creates fewer but more workable notifications, which improves the process of choice-making among security professionals. resilience and operational benefits of organisations the implementation of predictive analytics on insider threat management is a contributor to organisational resilience. with early warning signs, institutions are able to act before the insider practices become harmful, like data breaches, stealing intellectual property, or sabotaging the vital infrastructures. in addition, continuity planning is supported by predictive frameworks, which enable organisations to model the possible threat situations and modify the controls to suit. this operational advantage has the added benefit of resource optimisation, where the security teams are able to prioritize the investigations according to the high-risk categories, in contrast to casting the net far and wide into alerts that have not been verified. such strategic alignment allows the better functioning of efficiency and allows the security functions to work more closely with the broader risk management structures. ethical and governance dimensions even though the technical advantages of predictive analytics are not disputed, there are problematic ethical aspects in its application in organizations’. multimodal monitoring is a process of collecting and processing sensitive information, some of which may contain the personal features that do not have any connection to malicious actions. in this connection, the discussion refers to the dual responsibility of organizations’ in ensuring the security of critical assets in addition to privacy and rights of employees. ethical governance structures, which guarantee the compliance with the laws of data protection and development of fair-use policies, should then be implemented with the usage of predictive systems. initiating the transparent communication on monitoring practices is needed to maintain the sense of trust, explainable artificial intelligence, and facilitate the sense of non-invasive surveillance. interpretability and practical deployment problems among the recurring themes of findings of any study of predictive analytics, the conflict of accuracy versus interpretability is among the most common ones. modern models, in particular those founded on deep learning architecture often result in a high predictive score and are opaque in the process of risk scores generation. an organization can find it hard to justify interventions or disciplinary actions taken based on predictive outputs with such an issue of a black box. practical deployment issues are also related to the computational scalability that multimodal systems must have the capacity to handle large data volumes in real time without compromising the performance of the system. to address these concerns, the complexity of the models needs to be considered against their readability and cloud-based solutions, and edge computing should be deployed to distribute the computing burden. wider implications to cybersecurity practice its findings show that predictive analytics of insider threat detection cannot be viewed as an easy technical upgrade but a change in the field of cybersecurity. organizations’ can re-align their deface position by making the retrospective method of detecting less vital to more concern with the prepetition of the threats which are in line with the current threats. this implication is pa ge 88 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 82-90 2025 broader than that of an individual enterprise to a critical national infrastructure where insider risks may affect the safety of the general population and stability of the economy. in the meantime, the predictive methodologies are supposed to be adaptable to emerging technologies, i.e. the incorporation of biometric signals or federated learning models, which might make it less private and less predictive. results and discussion synthesis the conceptual findings demonstrate that multimodal data combination and predictive analytics yield important improvements in the accuracy, operational viability and organisational sustainability in contrast to the traditional system of insider threat detection. nevertheless, scalability, interpretability, and ethical governance problems are also raised by the consequences. it has been established in the discussion that though predictive frameworks have a promise of transformational effect, their successful implementation should be founded on deliberated governance constructs, sustained technological investment, and progressive process of development through adaptive feedback. the findings provide the foundation of considering the limitations and the future paths that these findings can be developed to, so that predictive analytics can be an organisational and technological innovation. limitations and future directions methodological constraints despite the huge potential of multimodal predictive analytics, there are still various methodological limitations. the quality and reliability of the results is reliant on the availability of full datasets that adequately model both normal and unknown behaviours. in practice, the number of examples of insider events is difficult to accumulate, as they are not numerous, and in many cases, they go unreported due to reputational or legal concerns. this scarcity leads to an unequal distribution of classes in training data thereby undermining machine learning models. moreover, cleaning, normalising, and feature engineering of data requires a lot of resources as pre-processing steps, and a single oversight of the pre-processing steps is likely to become propagated into faulty risk forecasting. computational and scalability problems the second weakness is that working with multimodal data on a large scale has computational demands. organisations generate vast volumes of log records, behavioral measures and physical access information on a daily basis. they may be intensive of processing, sophisticated storage structures and exclusive algorithms to accomplish them in real time to handle the high-speed streams. cloud infrastructures and distributed systems, although they may hold some potential solutions, also introduce other threats, including the dependency on the services of the external provider and vulnerability to the attacks on the cloud. scalability has equally been a thorn in the flesh as not every organisations particularly the small medium sized enterprises can have the technical and financial capacity to implement such intricate arrangements effectively. ethics and privacy issues the adoption of predictive analytics in the detection of insider threats is not decided in terms of ethical dilemmas, either. monitoring the user behaviour, communication style and physical activities can be considered intrusive and can harm the trust between the organisations and the employees. the perception of constant monitoring may be a barrier to implementation, even where the employment contracts are implied consent. moreover, predictive models would be prone to making biases particularly when training data show inequalities or miscategorisations that occurred in the past. these ethical limitations underscore the topicality of open governance, algorithms that take into account the concept of fairness and continuous audits to ensure that predictive models protect the organisational resources along with the rights of the employees. interpretability and accountability one of these weaknesses that is closely associated with the issue of ethics is the problem of interpretability of the model. complex algorithms especially those built using a deep learning architecture or an ensemble architecture can be a black box, the outputs of which cannot be described by a layperson stakeholder. where predictive systems come up with high-risk categorisations which have consequences (career/reputation), organisations must be able to justify it with justifications which are backed by apparent, auditable reasons. the absence of interpretability would undermine accountability, thereby increasing the possibility of disputes and even legal issues. the future work must therefore aim at developing more explicable artificial intelligence models that may produce right predictability in addition to insight in their defence. future research trajectories the studies should address such limitations in the future and enhance methodology, technical and ethical issues. regarding the methodology, there is the need to formulate balanced datasets out of synthesizing simulated cases of insider threats, thereby eliminating the constraint of the real world cases. technically speaking, a comparative research should be done on light machine learning models that are powerful and can be executed using small computing capabilities without the loss of accuracy. the federated learning can also be used in such innovations to avoid centralisation of sensitive information to train predictive models and improve privacy and scalability. morally, it will be vital to introduce an aspect of fairness, accountability systems and human control over monitoring which will see predictive analytics improve security without compromising on trust. pa ge 89 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 82-90 2025 strategic implications the future of predictive analytics in insider threat detection would probably be more tightly linked to wider organisational strategies. predictive systems will also start to be placed not only as technical solutions but also as part of an integrated risk management infrastructure that will cut across cyber, physical, and human environments. further development of multimodal analytics and advancements in the interpretability and ethical protection will allow organisations to find a balance between security requirements and individual rights. finally, whether this evolution is successful will be determined by the ability of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and ethicists to engage in long-term cooperation to guarantee that predictive frameworks will be technologically sound and socially acceptable. conclusion in this paper, the concept of predictive analytics to identify the presence of insider threats by using multimodal data that incorporates system logs, behavioural patterns, as well as physical security indicators have been examined. it is concluded that the traditional approaches, which address the single sources of information, are not sufficient to address the complexity and subtleties of insider behaviours. multimodal frameworks provide a more comprehensive, more precise and more useful method of early warning signals detection when combined with advanced data fusion methods and machine learning approaches. there is indicative evidence that predictive systems reduce false positives, enhance organisational resiliency, and are components of proactive risk management. still, some limitations remain, particularly in regards to the challenge of computational scalability, predictive results interpretability, and data privacy and ethics. to eliminate these problems, there is need to continuously advance the methodology techniques, develop a demystified form of artificial intelligence, and develop ethical systems of governance that would balance the demands of organisations with the rights of individuals. lightweight 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(2021). insider threat detection using context-aware anomaly detection. journal of cybersecurity, 7(1), taab004. https://doi. org/10.1093/cybsec/taab004 pa ge 1 pa ge 10 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) a deep reinforcement learning approach to optimizing cloud workload migration qi xin1* volume 4 issue 3, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i3.5429 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: may 23, 2025 accepted: june 30, 2025 published: july 26, 2025 cloud data centers consume a significant amount of energy worldwide, prompting the need for intelligent resource management. dynamic workload migration (moving virtual machine workloads between servers or to the cloud) can improve resource utilization and reduce energy consumption by consolidating loads onto fewer machines. however, live migration incurs performance overhead; migrating too frequently or at suboptimal times can degrade application performance. this paper proposes a novel ai-driven approach to optimize cloud workload migration decisions. we leverage deep reinforcement learning (rl) to autonomously learn when and where to live-migrate workloads in order to minimize energy use and operational costs while respecting performance constraints. the proposed method uses publicly available cloud workload traces to train and evaluate the rl agent’s decisionmaking. we design and implement the solution within a simulation environment, and extensive experiments show that our method significantly outperforms baseline heuristics in reducing energy consumption (by over 20%) and lowering service-level agreement (sla) violations. keywords cloud workload migration, deep reinforcement learning, energyefficient computing, resource optimization, virtual machine placement 1 university of pittsburgh, united states * corresponding author’s e-mail: qix29@pitt.edu introduction modern cloud computing infrastructures host thousands of virtual machines (vms) in large-scale data centers. these data centers can consume enormous amounts of electrical energy, estimated around 1–1.5% of global electricity usage as of 2010, leading to high operating costs and carbon emissions. cloud workload migration, which involves live-migrating vms between physical hosts or from on-premises to cloud platforms, has emerged as a key technique for optimizing resource allocation in these environments. by dynamically consolidating workloads onto fewer servers during low-demand periods, providers can shut down idle machines to save energy. migration can also alleviate hotspots by moving vms away from overloaded hosts, thus preventing performance degradation. however, vm live migration is a double-edged sword: while it offers benefits of flexibility and improved resource utilization, it also introduces downtime and performance overhead. if migrations are triggered too often or at the wrong times, applications may suffer reduced efficiency and users may experience sla violations. a pressing challenge is deciding when and which workloads to migrate in order to maximize benefits (like energy savings and load balancing) while minimizing the costs (such as downtime and migration overhead). traditional humandefined policies (e.g., migrating whenever cpu usage exceeds a threshold) are often suboptimal in complex, dynamic cloud environments with unpredictable workload patterns. recent advances in artificial intelligence offer a promising avenue to tackle this decision-making problem. ai techniques can learn from data and past observations to make intelligent migration decisions that adapt to changing conditions. in particular, reinforcement learning allows an autonomous agent to learn an optimal policy through trial-and-error interactions with the environment. by observing system state (e.g., server utilizations, workload demands) and taking migration actions, an rl agent can be trained to achieve long-term objectives like minimizing energy consumption or meeting performance targets. the learned policy can implicitly capture complex trade-offs that are hard to encode in static rules. this paper proposes a deep reinforcement learning approach for cloud workload migration that enables automated, optimal decision-making for vm placement and movement in cloud data centers. to evaluate our proposed method, we leverage a realistic public dataset of cloud workload traces and implement a simulation testbed. we compare our ai-based strategy against baseline methods including a static threshold heuristic and a state-of-the-art metaheuristic approach. experimental results demonstrate that our approach significantly improves on energy–performance trade-offs, reducing energy usage and sla violations compared to baselines. we also analyze the agent’s behavior to provide insights into when migrations are beneficial. our key contributions are as follows: novel ai migration strategy we develop a new deep reinforcement learning algorithm for deciding vm migration and placement in cloud environments. to our knowledge, this is one of the first approaches to integrate workload prediction with deep rl for proactive migration decisions. open-source dataset integration we utilize real cloud traces (google cluster data) to drive simulations, ensuring that our experiments reflect realistic pa ge 11 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 10-15 2025 workload variability. the data and preprocessing code are released for reproducibility. implementation and evaluation we design and implement the proposed method in a cloud simulation environment (based on cloudsim). we conduct extensive experiments, comparing our approach against baseline heuristics and reporting results on key metrics (energy, sla violation, number of migrations). we include an online appendix with our code and detailed configurations to facilitate reproducibility. performance analysis we present a thorough analysis of the results, demonstrating that the learned policy effectively balances energy savings and performance. we provide a comparative figure illustrating the improvements over baseline methods and discuss the implications of our findings for cloud resource management. the remainder of this paper is organized as follows. the related work section reviews existing approaches to cloud workload migration and management, highlighting the gap that our method addresses. the methodology section describes the proposed deep rl approach, including the system model and learning algorithm. next, the dataset and experiments and results sections detail the experimental setup, evaluation metrics, and performance results. we then provide a discussion of the findings and their significance. finally, the conclusion summarizes the work and outlines future directions. literature review optimizing vm placement and migration in cloud data centers has been the focus of extensive research. early works proposed heuristic and rule-based strategies for dynamic vm consolidation. for example, beloglazov and buyya introduced adaptive heuristics such as a poweraware best-fit decreasing (pabfd) algorithm that sorts vms by cpu utilization and places them to minimize active servers. these threshold-based policies (e.g., migrating vms out of an overloaded host when its cpu usage exceeds 80%, and consolidating vms when usage falls below 20%) are simple and fast, but they often rely on static parameters that may not adapt well to varying workloads. to improve on basic heuristics, researchers have explored metaheuristic and evolutionary algorithms for vm placement optimization. recent work by rashmi (2024) proposed an ai-powered vm selection approach combining the dragonfly optimization algorithm with a modified best-fit decreasing heuristic (dambfd) to minimize power consumption. their results showed reduced energy usage and fewer sla violations compared to traditional greedy algorithms, although the method incurred a higher number of migrations. other metaheuristics like genetic algorithms, ant colony optimization, and particle swarm optimization have also been applied to the vm placement problem, aiming to find near-optimal solutions for balancing load and energy. while these approaches can yield improvements, they often require careful tuning and may struggle with the high-dimensional, dynamic nature of real cloud environments. machine learning techniques have started to gain traction in this domain. some studies applied supervised learning or forecasting models to predict future resource usage, which can then inform migration decisions. for instance, khaleel and zhu (2021) used a neural network to adaptively select vm consolidation algorithms based on current performance-to-power ratios. others have looked at fuzzy logic and rough set based decision systems to handle uncertainty in migrations. these approaches incorporate data-driven intelligence but typically operate in a limited scope (e.g., predicting load but not directly optimizing the sequential decision process). most relevant to our work are reinforcement learning (rl) based strategies. rl allows a cloud management agent to learn when to migrate vms by maximizing a reward function that captures desired objectives (such as energy efficiency and sla adherence). zhu (2024) developed an intelligent vm migration decision system using q-learning enhanced by rough set theory. by confining the rl exploration space with rough set boundaries, their method dynamically adjusted migration thresholds and demonstrated improved energy-performance tradeoffs over baseline strategies. q-learning is a tabular rl method, however, which may become inefficient when state spaces are large or continuous. other researchers have explored deep reinforcement learning: for example, a policy gradient method was used in some studies to optimize task scheduling in clouds, showing that rl agents can reduce energy usage by predicting workload trends and reacting proactively. in summary, prior works establish a foundation for automated cloud resource management using both heuristics and ai. yet, there remains a need for a robust solution that can handle the scale and variability of modern cloud workloads. our approach differentiates itself by leveraging deep neural networks to approximate the policy, enabling it to scale to large state spaces (many servers and vms) and generalize across different workload patterns. moreover, we integrate a shortterm workload prediction into the state representation, allowing the agent to be proactive (anticipating overloads) rather than purely reactive. this combination of deep rl with predictive features, evaluated on real-world traces, is a novel contribution beyond the current state-of-the-art. materials and methods to evaluate the proposed method with realistic scenarios, we use publicly available workload traces from a google data center. the google cluster-usage trace (november 2011) is a well-known open dataset that contains information about tasks and machine usage in a google compute cluster over a roughly one-month period. from this large trace, we extract a representative 24-hour pa ge 12 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 10-15 2025 segment to drive our simulation. this segment includes thousands of tasks running on hundreds of machines, with detailed timestamped records of cpu and memory usage for each task. the trace data captures real-world characteristics such as diurnal load patterns, transient spikes, and varying job durations. data preprocessing the raw google trace is complex, so we perform preprocessing to map it into our simulation framework. first, we aggregate task usage by vm and by host. in the google trace, tasks can be thought of as analogous to vms (each with a certain cpu requirement). we reconstruct the total cpu utilization of each host over time by summing the usage of tasks assigned to that host. since the trace includes scheduling events, we replay those events to simulate workload changes (tasks starting, ending, or being evicted). we focus on cpu utilization as the primary resource constraint for migration decisions, since cpu was often the bottleneck in the traces. memory and other resources are considered in placement feasibility but not in the reward directly (no severe memory contention was observed in our chosen trace segment). we normalize cpu usage values relative to each host’s capacity (e.g., a host’s usage going above 1.0 indicates overload). we also utilize the trace to derive the short-term prediction features for the rl state. for each host, at each 5-minute interval, we compute the cpu usage trend (e.g., slope of utilization over the past 15 minutes) and use it to forecast the next interval’s usage. this simple predictor is included to give the agent a hint of near-future demand. public dataset and reproducibility the google trace data is publicly accessible, and we provide our processed subset (24-hour period csv files for host utilizations and task placements) as part of the supplementary material. additionally, we tested our method on a second dataset – the bitbrains vm workload traces (from the grid workloads archive) – to ensure the approach generalizes. the results were qualitatively similar, and due to space constraints we present detailed results on the google trace only. all datasets used are open-source, and we include instructions in the appendix for obtaining and using them. in this section, we detail the design of our ai-based cloud workload migration system. we first define the problem setup and then describe the deep reinforcement learning approach, including state representation, actions, reward design, and the training algorithm. problem formulation we consider a cloud data center with a set of physical hosts (servers) h= h1, h2,...., hm and a set of virtual machine workloads v= v1, v2,...., vn running on these hosts. each host hi has a certain capacity in terms of cpu, memory, etc., and each vmvj demands some fraction of those resources. the workload migration problem involves deciding, at discrete time intervals, whether to migrate any vms to different hosts (and which target hosts to choose) in order to optimize some objective. we focus on two primary objectives: energy efficiency (minimizing the number of active servers and total energy consumption) and performance assurance (avoiding overloads that lead to sla violations). we model this as a sequential decision-making problem suitable for reinforcement learning. at each time step t, the system is in a state st capturing the current utilization of hosts and distribution of vms. the agent (cloud manager) can take an action at from an action space a, which we define as the set of possible migration decisions. an action could be a specific migration (e.g., migrate vmvk from host hi to host hj ) or a no-migration decision (idle action). after the action, the system transitions to a new state st+1 as workloads evolve and possibly migrate, and the agent receives a reward rt reflecting the immediate benefit of that action. the reward function is designed to incentivize energy savings and penalize performance loss. in our design, we define the reward at time t as: where energyt is the power or energy consumed by active hosts during the interval (we use an empirical power model that converts cpu utilization to energy), and sla_ violationt is a penalty term (e.g., the total cpu overload above capacity across hosts, indicating any sla breaches). the coefficients α and β weight the importance of energy vs. performance in the optimization. by minimizing energy and sla violations, a high (less negative) reward is achieved. state representation a crucial aspect of the rl design is how to represent the environment state to the agent. we encode the state st as a vector of features that capture the load on each host and the distribution of vms. this includes the current cpu utilization of each host (as a percentage of capacity) and memory usage. to enable the agent to anticipate near-future load, we also include a short-term cpu load forecast for each host (e.g., predicted utilization in the next time window, derived from recent trends in the workload trace). including predictive features helps the agent learn a proactive migration policy: e.g., it might migrate a vm from a host that is not overloaded yet but is predicted to spike soon. we normalize all inputs to the range [0,1] for stable learning. in practice, because the number of hosts m can be large, we employ a neural network that can handle a variable number of inputs – specifically, a multi-layer perceptron that processes the concatenated state vector for all hosts. (in future work, a graph neural network could be used to better capture relationships, but here we treat the state as a flat vector of metrics.) action space directly considering all possible migration combinations is intractable for large n and m. we simplify the action space by limiting actions to single-vm migrations at any pa ge 13 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 10-15 2025 decision step. thus an action at can be represented by a tuple (vk, hj) meaning “migrate vm vk to host hj“. if no migration is beneficial, the agent can also choose a noop (no operation) action. we reduce the action space by filtering out obviously bad actions: for example, migrating a vm to a host that doesn’t have enough free capacity is not allowed. similarly, migrating to the same host it’s already on is invalid. at each step, we generate a list of feasible actions based on current state constraints. the action space is therefore dynamic (depending on state), but the agent’s policy network will implicitly consider only those presented actions (we handle feasibility outside the neural network decision). deep rl algorithm we employ deep q-network (dqn) as the learning algorithm, which is a value-based reinforcement learning method. our dqn agent uses a neural network q(s, α; θ) parameterized by θ to estimate the q-value of each stateaction pair – essentially predicting the long-term cumulative reward of taking action α in state s and following the policy thereafter. the network architecture consists of an input layer matching the state dimension (e.g., 2 metrics × m hosts), two hidden layers with relu activation (we found 128 neurons each worked well), and an output layer producing a q-value for each possible action. because the number of actions can vary, we adopt a common approach of masking invalid actions and only outputting q-values for the feasible ones at each decision step. the dqn is trained using experience replay and target networks for stability. we simulate the data center operation in discrete timesteps, using the real workload traces (described in the next section) to update host utilizations. at each step, the agent observes state st, selects an action at using an ∈-greedy policy (to balance exploration and exploitation), applies the migration (if any), and observes reward rt and new state st+1. this experience (st, at, rt, st+1) is stored in a replay buffer. we periodically sample batches of experiences from the buffer to perform gradient descent updates on the dqn parameters. the loss is ζ(θ)= e(s, a, r, s’) [(r + γ max a’ q (s’, a’; θ-) q (s, a; θ))2], where θare the parameters of a target network (a delayed copy of θ-) and γ is the discount factor (we used γ= 0.95). over training episodes, the q-network converges towards optimal q-values, and the resulting policy π(s)= arg maxa q(s, a; θ) dictates the migration decisions. integration of workload prediction: to further enhance the agent, we integrate a workload prediction module that forecasts each host’s resource usage in the next interval. we used a simple linear autoregressive model for cpu utilization forecasting on each host (which is sufficient for short-term prediction on our dataset). these predictions are included in the state as mentioned. while not a learning algorithm contribution per se, this integration is important to allow the rl agent to foresee upcoming overloads and migrate proactively. without prediction, an rl agent might learn to react only after an overload has occurred; with prediction, it can learn to act just before the overload, thereby avoiding sla violations more gracefully. results and discussion we implemented our cloud environment simulator and the deep rl agent in python. the simulation uses a time-step of 5 minutes, matching the granularity of the google trace. we built the simulator akin to cloudsim: it maintains a representation of each host’s available resources and each vm’s resource usage, and it processes migration actions by updating which host a vm is assigned to. when a vm is migrated, we impose a migration overhead in the simulation (e.g., a cpu overhead for a short duration to model live migration cost, and a brief pause in the vm’s execution to model possible downtime). these parameters (migration bandwidth, downtime) are configurable and set to values typical from literature (e.g., 1 gb/min migration speed, resulting in a few seconds downtime for a vm with 256mb memory). baselines we compare our deep rl approach against two baseline strategies: static threshold heuristic this baseline uses simple rules similar to those in prior work. if a host’s cpu utilization exceeds 85%, it flags it as overloaded and migrates one vm (the one with highest cpu usage) to the least utilized host. if a host’s utilization falls below 20% (underutilized) and it’s hosting vms, it tries to migrate all its vms out to other hosts (if they have capacity) and then shuts down the host to save energy. this approach represents a conventional threshold-based policy without ai. metaheuristic (da-mbfd) we implement a variant of the dragonfly algorithm + modified best fit decreasing approach inspired by rashmi . in our implementation, at each interval we run a simplified swarm optimization (with a small population of candidate solutions for vm placements) to minimize a weighted cost (energy + sla violation). this gives a more powerful baseline that tries to optimize globally, albeit with limited iterations for practicality. it’s not identical to the heliyon paper’s full algorithm due to complexity, but it captures the essence of a metaheuristic search. evaluation metrics we evaluate the methods on the following key metrics: energy consumption the total energy used by all active hosts during the simulated period. we compute this by integrating power usage over time. we assume an idle power draw for each server (e.g., 100w when idle) and a linear model where a fully utilized server draws 300w, scaling linearly with cpu usage. this yields energy in kwh over 24 hours. pa ge 14 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 10-15 2025 sla violation rate the percentage of time that any vm experiences cpu shortage due to host overload. practically, we measure the fraction of time steps in which any host’s utilization exceeded 100%, indicating that the demand could not be fully met (which would correspond to performance degradation for vms on that host). number of migrations the total count of vm migration operations performed. this is a measure of overhead – migrations cause transient downtime and use network resources, so fewer is generally better if the same objectives can be achieved. average active hosts the average number of physical hosts that remained powered on. this indirectly reflects consolidation efficiency (fewer active hosts means more hosts could be turned off to save energy). we trained the deep rl agent over multiple simulation episodes (each episode simulated 24 hours of the trace). training took about 200 episodes for convergence (~1000 time steps per episode, 200k steps total) using an $\epsilon$-greedy schedule (epsilon decayed from 1.0 to 0.1 over the first 50 episodes). for fairness, after training, we run the learned policy on the same 24h scenario (fresh simulation) without exploration to record its performance. the baselines do not require training. results the proposed deep rl approach achieved notable improvements over both baselines. figure 1 summarizes the performance on two primary metrics, energy consumption and sla violation percentage. figure 1: performance comparison of migration strategies. the left bar chart shows total energy consumption (kwh) over 24 hours (lower is better). the right bar chart shows the sla violation rate (percentage of time with overload, lower is better). the gray bars represent a no migration scenario (as a reference), blue bars represent the static threshold baseline, and orange bars represent our deep rl approach. our method significantly reduces energy usage by consolidating workloads (using ~310 kwh vs. 400 kwh for the heuristic, a 22.5% reduction) while also achieving the lowest sla violation (3.0% vs. 4.5% for the heuristic). the metaheuristic baseline (not shown in figure) achieved energy around 330 kwh with sla violations ~3.5%, which is better than the static threshold but still underperformed compared to the deep rl agent. notably, the deep rl agent learned to migrate vms in anticipation of load spikes, resulting in fewer overload incidents. the static threshold policy did maintain safe performance in most cases (only 4.5% sla violation), but it was conservative in consolidating, leading to higher energy usage (400 kwh). it would often leave many servers running at low utilization because of the fixed 85% upper threshold – it migrated only when absolutely necessary, thus missing some opportunities to turn off more machines. the metaheuristic (da-mbfd) baseline, by searching for a global placement, performed closer to our rl agent. it reduced energy consumption compared to the threshold method, but it tended to make many migrations (we recorded 45 migrations in 24h, compared to 30 for rl and 20 for the simple heuristic). the higher migration count of da-mbfd aligns with observations by prior work that aggressive optimization can cause frequent vm moves. in our experiments, this led to diminishing returns: the extra migrations gave only slight additional energy savings and even caused a bit more sla disturbance due to short migration-induced downtimes. our deep rl approach struck a favorable balance, using an average of 30 migrations over 24 hours. it actively consolidated vms during low load periods (typically early morning hours in the trace) and spread them out just before peak load times to avoid overload. this dynamic behavior – learned automatically from the reward signal – is something hard-coded policies struggled to emulate. quantitatively, rl achieved the lowest average active hosts (about 60 out of 100 hosts active, whereas the heuristic kept ~75 active on average). this translated to the lowest energy footprint. simultaneously, rl kept sla violations to 3.0%, the lowest of all methods, indicating it rarely allowed overloads. most violations in rl happened only briefly when unpredictable rapid spikes occurred faster than the 5-minute decision interval. overall, rl improved the energy-efficiency metric (kwh per useful work) by ~25% over the no-migration scenario and ~15% over the next best baseline. the experimental results demonstrate the potential pa ge 15 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 10-15 2025 of deep reinforcement learning to automate cloud workload migration effectively. our rl-based approach learned a policy that is adaptive to workload conditions: it performs consolidation when beneficial but avoids over-consolidation before high load intervals, something that static heuristics typically cannot do. this adaptivity comes from the agent’s ability to learn the pattern in the workload trace – effectively capturing time-of-day effects and transient behaviors through the state representation (including the predictive features). the metaheuristic baseline, while more flexible than the static policy, lacked a mechanism to anticipate future load beyond the current state, which may explain why our approach yielded slightly better sla outcomes. one interesting observation is the way the rl agent utilized the no-op action (choosing to not migrate). in the beginning of the simulation, when loads were moderate, the agent consolidated aggressively. but during peak hours, the agent often chose no-op, preferring to tolerate some moderate host underutilization rather than trigger migrations that could risk a temporary performance hit. this suggests the reward function successfully encoded the trade-off – migrations are only done when the long-term energy savings outweigh the short-term performance cost. in contrast, the threshold heuristic has no notion of this trade-off; it either always migrates above a threshold or never migrates below another threshold, without regard to timing or frequency. the rl agent effectively learned an implicit threshold that varied over time depending on context (for example, it allowed higher utilization on a host if it predicted the load would drop soon, instead of migrating immediately). despite the positive results, there are important considerations and potential limitations. we trained and tested on a specific trace from one data center. while the agent did generalize to a second dataset (bitbrains) reasonably well with minor retraining, real cloud environments can vary. in production, the rl model might need periodic retraining or fine-tuning as workload patterns change or new types of workloads appear. transfer learning or meta-learning techniques could be applied in future to enable quicker adaptation to new environments. our current state representation scales linearly with the number of hosts. for very large data centers (thousands of servers), this could become unwieldy for a single neural network to process. in such cases, a possible extension is to use a hierarchical approach (clustering hosts or using multiple agents for different clusters of the data center). similarly, our action space of single-vm migrations might become insufficient if, for instance, a coordinated multi-vm migration is needed to avoid a chain reaction of overloads. hierarchical or multiagent rl could address this by orchestrating complex actions composed of several basic moves. in practice, cloud operators might be cautious to entrust an ai with live migration control because of the risk of instability (e.g., oscillating migrations or unforeseen interactions). our approach mitigated this by penalizing excessive migrations (implicitly through the downtime costs in reward), but additional safety checks could be incorporated. for example, one could integrate rules that if an rl action is too drastic (migrating a large number of vms at once), the system could fall back to a conservative strategy. fortunately, reinforcement learning allowed our agent to learn a balanced behavior without explicit hard constraints, as evidenced by the reasonable number of migrations it performed. conclusions this paper proposes a deep reinforcement learning (drl) approach to optimize cloud workload migration, aiming to improve energy efficiency and reduce sla violations. by modeling the vm migration problem as an rl task, a deep q-network agent is trained to make intelligent, context-aware migration decisions. unlike static, rule-based heuristics, the agent proactively adapts to workload patterns using state representations that include workload predictions. the method was evaluated using the google cluster trace dataset, and results show it significantly outperforms traditional threshold-based and metaheuristic approaches in minimizing energy consumption and sla breaches. key contributions include integrating workload forecasting into the rl framework and conducting extensive comparisons with real-world data. future directions include applying multiagent rl for multi-objective optimization, testing in production-like cloud environments, and enhancing policy interpretability using explainable ai techniques. overall, this work demonstrates the potential of drl to automate complex decisions in cloud resource management, paving the way for more efficient and adaptive systems. references beloglazov, a., & buyya, r. (2012). optimal online deterministic algorithms and adaptive heuristics for energy and performance efficient dynamic consolidation of virtual machines in cloud data centers. concurrency and computation: practice and experience, 24(13), 1397–1420. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.1867 calheiros, r. n., ranjan, r., beloglazov, a., de rose, c. a. f., & buyya, r. (2011). cloudsim: a toolkit for modeling and simulation of cloud computing environments and evaluation of resource provisioning algorithms. software: practice and experience, 41(1), 23– 50. https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.995 rashmi, s., siwach, v., sehrawat, h., brar, g. s., singla, j., jhanjhi, n. z., & shorfuzzaman, m. (2024). aipowered vm selection: amplifying cloud performance with dragonfly algorithm. heliyon, 10(9), e37912. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e37912 reiss, c., wilkes, j., & hellerstein, j. l. (2011). google clusterusage traces: format + schema (white paper). google inc. https://github.com/google/cluster-data zhu, x., xia, r., zhou, h., zhou, s., & liu, h. (2024). an intelligent decision system for virtual machine migration based on specific q-learning. journal of cloud computing, 13(1), article 122. https://doi. org/10.1186/s13677-024-00601-w pa ge 1 pa ge 16 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) social and emotional learning (sel) of students: effective sel programs and how they increase academic success benjamin obeng konadu1* volume 4 issue 3, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i3.5591 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: july 05, 2025 accepted: august 11, 2025 published: august 23, 2025 students’ ability to learn well is influenced by a variety of elements, including the school atmosphere, a sense of belonging among classmates, positive connections with teachers, and the feedback they receive. one approach is to develop successful sel programs in our schools. sel is essential for the development of competencies that are essential for students to succeed in both academic and professional environments, in addition to their academic content knowledge. therefore, this study seeks to provide a systematic review on effective sel programs and how they increase students’ academic success. the study employed the prisma guidelines for selecting the articles. 11 articles that delved into effective sel programs and their impact on the long-term academic success of students were involved in the review. the study revealed two main findings. firstly, student success skills-sel classroom manual, social-emotional learning foundations intervention program, second step program, ready for success program, and spark program have been evaluated as effective sel programs for student success. secondly, social and emotional learning (sel) programs have a significant impact on students’ academic performance, emotional and social well-being by nurturing crucial abilities such as emotion awareness, emotional regulation, empathy, and the formation of meaningful relationships. therefore, stakeholders and policymakers should provide resources to teachers who are the primary implementers of students’ sel to enable them to facilitate sel instruction within students. also, teachers must tailor their instructional approaches to accommodate sel in the classroom. keywords academic success, effective sel programs, social and emotional learning (sel), students 1 school of teaching and learning, illinois state university, usa * corresponding author’s e-mail: benjaminobengkonadu@gmail.com introduction according to research, social and emotional learning (sel) improves academic performance by an average of 11 percentile points, promotes prosocial behaviors (such as compassion, sharing, and empathy), improves student attitudes towards school, and reduces student sadness and stress (durlak et al., 2011). studies indicate that throughout the pandemic, there was a marked increase in the prevalence of learning difficulties, academic performance concerns, and mental health disorders. students necessitate substantial support from their parents, educators, and classmates to surmount these hurdles. the pandemic-induced stress, social isolation, absence of in-person classroom interaction, technology-based online education, disruption of routines, and limited public engagement resulted in a decline in conventional socio-cognitive activities within the teaching-learning framework and contributed to peripheral learning. considering that more than fifty percent of public-school students have reported experiencing anxiety or depression, social-emotional learning (sel) is a crucial element of the post-covid educational framework. the pandemic impacted many nations. for instance, schools throughout the united states have the pressing challenge of their students mitigate the repercussions of pandemic-induced educational disruptions. while much discourse among policymakers and the media has focused on deteriorations in academic performance (barnum, 2022), numerous young individuals have faced declines in mental health and have been deprived of both in-school and extracurricular opportunities to develop interand intrapersonal skills such as teamwork, leadership, and self-regulation (centre on reinventing public education, 2023). in addressing this complex array of challenges, education scholars have promoted a whole-child approach to education, recognizing the interconnection of academic, social, and emotional learning as essential for future student success (darling-hammond et al., 2020; knudson & cantor, 2020), which includes instruction commonly referred to as social and emotional learning, or sel (collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning [casel], n.d.). the processes through which people acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and abilities necessary to understand and control their emotions, create and achieve positive goals, develop and maintain positive relationships with peers and adults, and make wise and healthful decisions are all included in the field of social and emotional learning (sel) (casel, 2013; greenberg et al., 2003; weissberg et al., 2007). the study therefore aims to address two main objectives. firstly, to find effective sel programs for students in schools. also, the study determines the impact of sel on long term academic success of students. the study therefore sought to find answers to the questions: what are the sel programs that are effective for students pa ge 17 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 16-25, 2025 in schools? and how does sel impact the long-term academic success of students? literature review theoretical framework vygotsky’s socio-cultural learning theory underscores the significance of empathy and self-expression in students’ educational experiences (moore, 2011). according to this theory, social interaction and learning are based on the connections between children’s language and cognitive abilities and those of their peers. socio-cultural learning influences students’ interest and involvement in class activities by highlighting the importance of social experiences in the acquisition of concepts. teachers’ and students’ interactions both within and outside of the classroom can improve social and emotional learning (sel). teachers are in charge of teaching students social-emotional skills, and educational authorities are in charge of providing a nurturing atmosphere for teachers to develop their own social-emotional skills. these objectives yield favourable academic results at educational institutions, as they align with one of their primary aims. conceptual framework social and emotional learning (sel) was founded in 1994 via the collaboration of specialists in bullying prevention, preventative science, emotional intelligence, public health, and child development. their objective was to ascertain essential abilities and competencies that facilitate student achievement in both academic and life contexts. these professionals developed sel as a unified framework to consolidate many initiatives aimed at addressing kids’ social and emotional challenges. to integrate policy, research, and practice in promoting students’ social and emotional development, they founded the collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning (casel). social-emotional learning (sel) was established as a formal framework in the mid-1990s, recognizing that emotional intelligence and social skills are essential for students’ success in both academic and real contexts. the notion of sel was influenced by several study domains such as emotional intelligence, child development, public health, and bullying prevention. the collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning (casel), founded in 1994, significantly contributed to the formalization of sel as an educational framework by delineating essential abilities for emotional and social development. social emotional learning (sel) is an educational methodology aimed at enhancing students’ capacity to engage with and apply five fundamental core competencies. these competencies are intended to facilitate student success in diverse life contexts, including education, employment, and familial relationships. the five fundamental skills are self-awareness, selfmanagement, responsible decision-making, social awareness, and relationship skills. self-awareness enables pupils to recognise their strengths and shortcomings, enhance decision-making, and cultivate good relationships (pratheesh & zita, 2024). social and emotional learning (sel) includes the cultivation of healthy identities, emotional regulation, empathy demonstration, formation of supportive connections, and the execution of responsible decision-making. social and emotional learning (sel) strategies at the institutional level are often executed via policies, practices, or frameworks aimed at cultivating a constructive school environment and a culture that promotes development in academic, personal, and social spheres (cohen, 2006; meyers et al., 2015: jones & bouffard, 2012). these policies and practices may include the formulation of a code of conduct that specifies the social, emotional, and behavioural norms, values, and expectations for students and staff at the school, the execution of equitable disciplinary policies, the creation of anti-bullying prevention protocols, and the offering of professional development opportunities in social and emotional learning (sel). it is essential that teachers and personnel at all levels of the school are sufficiently prepared and trained to implement sel practices both within and outside the classroom. this can be achieved by teaching prospective teachers during their in-service training and by offering high-quality professional development programs for current educators (schonert-reichl et al., 2015; schonert-reichl, oberle, et al., 2015). figure 1: sel integration in schooling (american institute for research, 2014) pa ge 18 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 16-25, 2025 alongside classroom and school-based methods, family and community initiatives can integrate social-emotional learning (sel) into the home and neighbourhood environments, which are the primary developmental contexts for children outside of school (albright & weissberg, 2010; catalano et al., 2010; gullotta, 2015). school-family connections are crucial for supporting socio-emotional learning in early children, as their primary influence in defining values, social objectives, and acceptable behaviours remains the home. community partners can enhance school-based social-emotional learning (sel) by offering children supplementary opportunities to implement acquired sel skills in diverse practical contexts, such as after-school programs and other community initiatives (fagan et al., 2015) when sel is properly integrated in the schooling process, this is to say, state and district initiatives are to favour the development of teachers both professionally and emotionally as they are the central point to effect changes in students, this goes a long way to positively affect students sel and learning as shown in figure 1. sel skills in the classroom; how to build these skills it is vital to educate and model social and emotional skills in order to nurture social and emotional development in all students. additionally, it is necessary to give chances for students to practice and enhance their sel abilities, and it is necessary to allow students to execute these sel skills in a range of contexts. train teachers to deliver explicit lessons that teach social and emotional skills and then identify opportunities for students to reinforce their use throughout the day. this is one of the most common sel approaches. a different curricular approach involves the integration of sel instruction into content areas, including english language arts, social studies, and math (jones & bouffard, 2012; merrell & gueldner, 2010; yoder, 2013; zins et al., 2004). from preschool through secondary school, there are numerous researchbased social and emotional learning (sel) programs that improve students’ behaviour and competence in developmentally appropriate ways (collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning, 2013, 2015). teachers can inherently cultivate abilities in students through their interpersonal and student-centered instructional engagements during the school day. interactions between adults and students enhance social-emotional learning (sel) by fostering positive student-teacher connections, allowing instructors to exemplify social-emotional abilities, and encouraging student participation (williford & sanger wolcott, 2015). teachers’ strategies that offer emotional support and foster student voice, autonomy, and mastery experiences enhance student involvement in the learning process. the relationship between academic and socio-emotional skills is evident, as learning in the school context is inherently a social activity (vandeboncoeur & collie, 2013; zins et al., 2004a, 2004b). learning is a process that transpires in diverse social contexts and entails collaboration, negotiation, and cooperation among peers, educators, and staff members. elias and haynes (2008), payton et al. (2000), and zins & elias (2006) assert that students proficient in social and emotional competence are more adept at managing their emotions, making responsible decisions, navigating challenging situations, and understanding their own and others’ emotions during stressful circumstances. consequently, children with social and emotional competence experience greater comfort in school and classroom settings, enabling them to focus more effectively on assigned academic tasks compared to those who face social and emotional challenges (welsh et al., 2001). according to recent empirical research, adult achievement is predicted by children’s social and emotional skills. a seminal study found a significant correlation between kindergarten teachers’ evaluations of their students’ prosocial abilities and both steady, full-time work and high school and college graduation rates. on the other hand, the length of time children spent in special education programs and the number of years they repeated grades were inversely connected with these abilities (jones et al., 2015). additionally, early prosocial abilities were linked to fewer mental health problems, less substance use, and fewer interactions with the criminal justice system in early adulthood, according to the authors. in summary, the implementation of high-quality socialemotional learning (sel) in the classroom benefits educators by fostering a positive classroom environment and equipping students with fundamental socialemotional skills that enhance and motivate their academic progress. a safe, well-managed, and compassionate learning environment with opportunities for rewards and positive behaviours is the result of evidence-based sel programming. students can more effectively manage their emotions and relationships and exhibit fewer negative and more positive behaviours when they become competent in fundamental sel skills. additionally, students develop a stronger sense of attachment to their school, which results in an increase in their engagement and commitment to the institution. zins et al. (2004) have demonstrated that these factors collectively have a beneficial impact on academic learning and contribute to the academic success of students. supporting sel in school settings sel strategies are often implemented at the school level via policies, procedures, or structures related to student support services and climate (meyers et al., in press). safe and supportive school climates and cultures improve students’ academic, behavioural, and mental health results (thapa et al., 2013). school leaders play an important role in the establishment of school-wide programs and policies that promote positive school environments. this entails forming a team to address the building atmosphere, adults modelling social and emotional competency, and establishing clear standards, values, and expectations for students and staff members. pa ge 19 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 16-25, 2025 bear et al. (2015) assert that bullying prevention practices and fair and equitable discipline policies are more effective than solely behavioural methods that rely on reward or punishment. structures such as routinely scheduled morning meetings or advisories that offer students the opportunity to connect with one another can be organized by school leaders to foster positive relationships and a sense of community among students. integration into multi-tiered support systems is a critical aspect of schoolwide sel. the services offered to students by professionals such as counsellors, social workers, and psychologists should be consistent with the universal initiatives implemented in the classroom and structure. frequently, students support professional reinforce and supplement classroom-based instruction for students who require early intervention or more intensive treatment through small-group work. however, there are several teaching strategies that support sel in schools. figure 2 presents these strategies that foster the development of sel in our schools. figure 2: strategies that support sel in schools (american institute for research, 2014) the essence of sel in our schools assessing the long-term and short-term advantages of sel in educational institutions is crucial for improving its efficacy. students achieve more success in academic and everyday endeavours when they: • exhibit self-awareness and self-regulation • comprehend others’ viewpoints and engage with them effectively • make judicious decisions about personal and social matters social and emotional competencies represent several immediate student outcomes fostered by sel programs (durlak et al., 2011; farrington et al., 2012; sklad et al., 2012). additional advantages encompass: • improved self-perception, interpersonal relations, and engagement in tasks, characterized by heightened selfefficacy, confidence, perseverance, empathy, connectivity, dedication to education, and a feeling of purpose • enhanced social conduct and connections with peers and adults • mitigated conduct issues and risk-taking behaviours • alleviated mental distress • enhanced test scores, academic performance, and attendance pa ge 20 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 16-25, 2025 over time, enhanced social and emotional competence can elevate the probability of high school graduation, preparedness for post-secondary education, career achievement, constructive familial and professional relationships, improved mental health, diminished criminal activity, and active citizenship (hawkins et al., 2008; jones et al., 2015) sel and students’ positive outcomes a plethora of research has substantiated the effectiveness of sel programs. durlak et al. (2011) performed the most extensive meta-analytic assessment to date, incorporating 213 school-based universal sel programs and involving 270,034 children from kindergarten through high school, published between 1970 and 2007. the authors found that, unlike students who did not participate in a sel program, those who did demonstrated significantly improved social-emotional skills and attitudes, an increase in prosocial behaviours, a decrease in antisocial behaviours, and an 11-percentile-point rise in standardized academic achievement test scores. two moderating variables that predicted the positive enhancement in student outcomes were the degree of fidelity in the implementation of the sel program and the quality of the sel program (durlak & dupre, 2008). a meta-analysis of 75 universal school-based social and emotional learning programs evaluated by experimental or quasi-experimental research published between 1995 and 2008 was carried out by sklad et al. (2012). the authors found that participation in a social-emotional learning (sel) program predicted significant improvements in students’ prosocial behaviour, social-emotional skills, and academic achievement as well as significant reductions in antisocial behaviour, mental health problems, and mental disorders. effect sizes were much reduced at follow-up (6 months or more after program completion), but they were still positive. the effects were most noticeable in the near term (up to 6 months post-program completion). weare and nind (2011) conducted a review of prior meta-analytic and narrative evaluations of sel programming. the authors incorporated 46 reviews in their study, encompassing hundreds of individual program evaluations and almost half a million students. the authors concluded that school-based universal promotion programs yielded beneficial effects on mental health promotion, social-emotional skills, and academic achievement soon after the treatments. the authors emphasized the necessity of investigating the long-term impact of such interventions as a critical subsequent step. materials and methods i conducted a systematic review using the guidelines of prisma. prisma is a framework and guideline employed to assess systematic reviews and meta-analyses (zarate et al., 2022). the reading material may include articles, books, transcripts, notes, periodicals, newspapers, inscriptions, agendas, and meeting minutes (arikunto, 2016). the review aimed to find effective sel programs for students in schools and to determine the impact of sel on long term academic success of students. eric (ebsco), jstor, google scholar and web of science were used as search databases to retrieve the required articles for the study. the search terms employed in the databases were “sel and students’ academic success” or “sel and students’ long term academic success” or “sel programs and students’ success”. figure 3: prisma flow diagram of the systematic literature review search adapted from moher et al. (2009). pa ge 21 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 16-25, 2025 the search retrieved journals published within the last 10 years between the period frame of 2015-2025. the inclusion criteria included articles with a focus on sel of students, effective sel programs and sel impacts on students’ long term academic success. since studies in this area remain limited, the internet databases used were broader. additionally, papers published between 2015 and 2025 were considered. articles published beyond the designated time frame were excluded. furthermore, articles that were published in other language apart from english were excluded. figure 3 presents the flowchart illustrating the mapping of the selection of relevant articles for systematic review. a total of 12,345 articles were obtained from the database searches (figure 3). the articles identified from the searches were evaluated for duplicates using mendeley’s “check for duplicates” method, and the proposed duplicates were subsequently eliminated manually. the remaining 959 articles were subsequently evaluated for eligibility. the articles were assessed based on their titles, resulting in the acquisition of 850 articles. however, 250 were eliminated after evaluating the titles and then remained 600 articles. i subsequently rejected 485 papers through abstract screening, as they did not concentrate on sel programs and their effects on students’ longterm academic success, leaving 115 articles for eligibility assessment. complete articles were evaluated by two separate reviewers. microsoft excel served as a data management instrument for the classification and analysis of full-text articles. the 115 studies were further deliberated until unanimous consensus was achieved over the analyses to be incorporated into the review. consequently, 104 items were omitted according to the exclusion criteria. a total of 11 articles were ultimately incorporated into this systematic review. results and discussion the search retrieved 12,345 articles and by assessing the articles (figure 3), 11 of them were considered and presented in table 1. the remaining were excluded. among the 11 articles included, the first two emphasized the historical overview of sel instruction in education, the need for supporting sel development and its effectiveness in enhancing development in children and youth. the remaining articles focused on the impact of sel on the long academic success of students and the various sel programs that have resulted in positive learning outcomes among students. figure 4 shows the various number of articles that were obtained in the time frame (2015-2025). two articles were retrieved from 2017, 2021, 2023 and 2024 (figure 4). one article was also retrieved from 2016, 2020 and 2022. however, no article on students sel in relation to the constructs of the present study was retrieved in 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2025 as indicated in figure 4. table 1 demonstrates that when properly implemented, sel advantages students across all age groups. numerous studies have demonstrated that sel programs are advantageous for students. for instance, as illustrated in table 1, sel facilitates students in cultivating robust social lives, forging connections within their communities, and fostering enduring skills and habits that promote diligence and advancement figure 4: number of articles retrieved by publication year pa ge 22 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 16-25, 2025 table 1: overview of the articles retrieved s/n author and year study’s purpose findings 1. o be rle a nd s ch on er t-r ei ch (2 01 7) the review of the state of research on the effectiveness of sel instruction in enhancing positive developmental outcomes in children and youth, as well as the historical overview and the status quo on sel instruction in elementary through high schools, outlined critical areas of future development for going to scale with sel. a significant transition from the total lack of formal social and emotional learning (sel) in schools at the close of the twentieth century to a surge of interest in sel, the creation of numerous school-based sel programs, enhanced sel implementation in educational institutions, and the emergence of recent frameworks that direct schools and districts in systemic sel. 2. k im et a l. (2 02 4) promoting the social and emotional growth and learning of students. the authors offered a thorough understanding of the subject. the integration of a versatile theoretical framework with emerging technologies presents new opportunities and should foster optimism for the future of sel interventions. 3. ph am (2 02 4) the impact of social and emotional learning on academic achievement, emotional health, and implementation approaches enhancing students' academic performance, emotional control, and interpersonal connections requires the five fundamental skills of socio-emotional learning: selfawareness, self-regulation, social awareness, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills. 4. m ar ia ni et al. (2 02 2) the impact of the student success skills sel curriculum the study demonstrates students evidenced self-reported gains in some sel skills. 5. d au ni c et al. (2 02 3) the impact of social-emotional learning programs on students’ development and success the self intervention provided a proactive strategy to assist pupils in acclimating to school, particularly those at risk of internalizing behavioural problems. the study emphasized the significance of student self-regulation and the utilization of sel language, together with improvements in social-emotional competence and their impact on long-term performance 6. w al le nd er et a l. (2 02 0) the disparity in reported selfregulation competency levels between elementary and middle school students receiving formal instruction in social and emotional topics through the second step program. students believed they possessed elevated levels of self-regulation, social skills, and problem-solving abilities due to their lack of understanding of these concepts. the study examined the significance of self-regulation and students' autonomy in managing their social-emotional development through a validated curriculum. 7. c ha nc e et al. (2 02 3) the impact of the ready for success program on the social-emotional skills and competencies of thirdgrade students rfs enhanced students' self-awareness, self-regulation, and social-emotional proficiency. their findings indicated that these skills persisted for up to three months post-intervention, with results being more pronounced at the three-month mark than immediately thereafter. furthermore, they identified self-awareness and social-emotional competence as significant domains of development for students in the long run. pa ge 23 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 16-25, 2025 in content knowledge. it also exhibits a medium to substantial effect size on communication, decisionmaking, and problem-solving abilities, in addition to the enhancement of social-emotional competencies, self-regulation, and students’ autonomy in their socialemotional learning. social-emotional learning (sel) aids students in acclimating to school by validating their self-reported improvements and cultivating essential social-emotional competencies. others illustrate its effect on students’ long-term academic advancement (table 1). schools must therefore create an appropriate environment for teachers to instruct and promote socialemotional learning in their students. presentation of results by objectives sel programs that are effective for students in schools to determine the effective sel programs for students in schools, the various studies were further analysed and the sel interventions employed in the studies identified and presented in table 2. 8. g re en et a l. (2 02 1) the spark program was examined as a potentially efficacious socialemotional initiative. the study indicated substantial improvement in students' content knowledge and a medium to high effect size in communication, decisionmaking, and problem-solving skills. students experienced reduced challenges in emotional regulation and resilience following the spark intervention. 9. ja ck so n (2 02 1) linking social-emotional learning to students' long-term success. certain high schools were more proficient in facilitating students' development of good social lives, community connections, and enduring skills and habits that foster diligence. furthermore, educational institutions that implement a comprehensive and purposeful social-emotional curriculum get more favourable long-term outcomes for students. 10. lo w et a l. (2 01 6) the impact of effective implementation of social-emotional learning. the engagement of educational professionals was essential to guarantee student achievement. approximately fifty percent of the educators conducted classes with high-quality implementation. these courses exhibited superior involvement, exceptional adherence to lesson and integration activities, and robust student engagement. this group demonstrated student achievement and development across multiple facets of the social-emotional curriculum. 11. d un ca n et al. (2 01 7) the correlation between the positive action program and socio-emotional advantages. all students benefited from the universal program, and behaviour trajectories improved in positive action schools. additionally, the fidelity with which sel programs were taught aligned with their long-term impacts. table 2: sel programs effective for students in schools s/n author purpose of the study sel programs employed/intervention results of the intervention 1. m ar ia ni et al. (2 02 2) the impact of the student success skills sel curriculum. student success skills-sel classroom manual the study demonstrates students evidenced self-reported gains in some sel skills 2. d au ni c et al. (2 02 3) the impact of socialemotional learning programs on students’ development and success social-emotional learning foundations intervention program the self intervention provided a proactive strategy to assist pupils in acclimating to school, particularly those at risk of internalizing behavioural problems. the study emphasized pa ge 24 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 16-25, 2025 table 2 illustrates that various research has substantiated the effectiveness of sel programs for students. the review revealed that the student success skills-sel classroom manual, social-emotional learning foundations intervention program, second step program, ready for success program, and spark program have been applied to students in various instances, yielding positive and favourable results. students exhibited an enhancement in their development of social-emotional competences and social-emotional learning (sel) skills. moreover, students demonstrated the ability to acclimatize to their educational surroundings. moreover, the execution of several intervention within the students’ settings led to the enhancement of self-regulation, social skills, problemsolving capabilities, and emotional regulation (table 2). sel impact on long-term academic success of students the outcomes of the various studies were analysed and those with emphasis on academic success were presented in table 3. table 3 revealed that numerous areas of pupil performance were enhanced through the implementation of sel programs. most individuals formed positive relationships with the communities in which they resided, enhanced their social lives, developed positive habits, and acquired long-term skills that were pertinent to academic success and diligent work. this clearly illustrates that the successful implementation of sel programs has a positive impact on the long-term academic success of students. the significance of student selfregulation and the utilization of sel language, together with improvements in social-emotional competence and their impact on long-term performance. 3. w al le nd er et a l. (2 02 0) the disparity in reported self-regulation competency levels between elementary and middle school students receiving formal instruction in social and emotional topics through the second step program second step program students believed they possessed elevated levels of self-regulation, social skills, and problemsolving abilities due to their lack of understanding of these concepts. the study examined the significance of self-regulation and students’ autonomy in managing their social-emotional development through a validated curriculum. 4. c ha nc e et al. (2 02 3) the impact of the ready for success program on the social-emotional skills and competencies of third-grade students ready for success program rfs enhanced students’ selfawareness, self-regulation, and social-emotional proficiency. their findings indicated that these skills persisted for up to three months post-intervention, with results being more pronounced at the three-month mark than immediately thereafter. furthermore, they identified selfawareness and social-emotional competence as significant domains of development for students in the long run. 5. g re en et a l. (2 02 1) the spark program was examined as a potentially efficacious socialemotional initiative. spark program the study indicated substantial improvement in students’ content knowledge and a medium to high effect size in communication, decision-making, and problemsolving skills. students experienced reduced challenges in emotional regulation and resilience following the spark intervention. pa ge 25 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 16-25, 2025 from the study, student success skills-sel classroom manual, social-emotional learning foundations intervention program, second step program, ready for success program, and spark program were among the effective sel programs that reported a positive impact on students, according to the present study. the student success skills-sel classroom manual was observed to demonstrate that students self-reported improvements in certain sel skills (mariani et al., 2022). the socialemotional learning foundations intervention program provided a method that facilitated students’ adjustment to school. again, the program guaranteed their longterm success and promoted their development of social-emotional competence, as well as their use of self-regulation and sel language (daunic et al., 2023). additionally, the second step program allowed students to regulate their own social-emotional learning and assume responsibility for it (wallender et al., 2020). similarly, the ready for success program resulted in the development of self-awareness, self-management, and social-emotional competence in students, which was evident in their long-term capacity (chance et al., 2023). following the adoption of the spark program, green et al. (2021) noted a significant enhancement in students’ content understanding and a medium to large impact size for their communication, decision-making, and problemsolving abilities. this unequivocally illustrates that the varied sel programs were conducive to students, hence enhancing their capacity for critical thinking and content interpretation. as a result, this yields advantageous outcomes for the kids. these findings align with the studies undertaken by durlak et al. (2011). durlak et al. (2011) give evidence that the adoption of sel programs, such as paths, in economically disadvantaged institutions leads to significant increases in emotional regulation and academic achievement. secondly, students have reaped several benefits from sel programs. the review indicated that students developed healthy social lives, community connections, and enduring skills and habits that fostered diligence following the introduction of sel (jackson, 2021). furthermore, low et al. (2016) conducted a study revealing that children exposed to social-emotional learning (sel) exhibited success and growth across several domains of the social-emotional curriculum. duncan et al. (2017) noted that sel programs produced enduring impacts and modified behavioural trajectories in pupils. this indicates that the students participated in the sel activities in a way that ensured lasting and substantial learning. social and emotional learning (sel) was instituted to create favourable circumstances for students to internalize the topics being taught. this discovery is congruent with the findings of taylor et al. (2017), who underlined that educational institutions that used sel frameworks observed significant improvements in students’ focus and overall learning efficacy, which led to improved academic achievement. this study’s finding corroborates konadu’s (2025) research, which indicated that the implementation of sel programs by teachers improves student outcomes. implications of the study sel contributes to the academic success and achievement of students in numerous ways. initially, the investigation demonstrated that students acquire sel competencies, which encompass self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills, through the effective implementation of sel programs. these competencies are essential for the enhancement of their academic performance, emotional management, and interpersonal relationships (pham, table 3: the impact of sel on students’ long term academic success s/n author and year purpose of study participants findings 1. ja ck so n (2 02 1) linking socialemotional learning to students' long-term success 157,630 students certain high schools were more proficient in facilitating students' development of good social lives, community connections, and enduring skills and habits that foster diligence. furthermore, educational institutions that implement a comprehensive and purposeful social-emotional curriculum get more favourable long-term outcomes for students. 2. lo w e t a l. (2 01 6) the impact of effective implementation of social-emotional learning. 3,586 students in the fall and 3,277 students in the spring. 157 teachers the groups exhibited student success and development in a variety of areas within the social-emotional curriculum. 3. d un ca n et a l. (2 01 7) the correlation between the positive action program and socio-emotional advantages 1,130 children all students benefited from the universal program, and behaviour trajectories improved in positive action schools. additionally, the fidelity with which sel programs were taught aligned with their long-term impacts. pa ge 26 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(3) 16-25, 2025 2024). the academic success of students is not solely dependent on the teaching and learning of subject content, but rather on the inclusiveness of sel in the teaching and learning process. sel creates conducive conditions for both students and teachers to engage with and derive meaning from the content. the rate at which students learn is influenced by their emotions; positive emotions guarantee effective learning. in addition, for sel to be effective in schools, stakeholders and policymakers should prioritize the implementation of sel programs to improve the capabilities of both students and instructors. consequently, the present review provides stakeholders with the necessary information to ensure that in-service and pre-service teachers receive ongoing training, while also fostering collaboration with families and community groups and investing in highquality training. students have the opportunity to apply and reinforce their social-emotional learning (sel) skills in a variety of contexts when the school, family, and community work together, which can lead to enduring and significant learning. finally, the study will improve the effectiveness of sel programs for teachers and offer insight into the beneficial effects of sel on the academic performance of students. teachers can more effectively model and instil sel skills in their students when they are provided with the appropriate training. this will foster a more positive and conducive classroom environment that will benefit all students. limitations the study focused on students receiving sel programs without taking into consideration the perspective of sel of teachers, parents or other stakeholders. the study reviewed articles on students sel from 2015 to 2025. articles beyond 2015 would have been beneficial to the study objectives however they were not considered. also, the review focused on exploring effective sel programs and determining sel impact on students’ longterm academic success and did not consider potential challenges in the implementation of sel in schools. conclusions the study has demonstrated that social and emotional learning (sel) is crucial for students in the realm of education. the student success skills-sel classroom manual, social-emotional learning foundations intervention program, second step program, ready for success program, and spark program have been assessed as effective in enhancing student success. the advantages of sel surpass the enhancement of individual talents, leading to ripple effects that impact classroom dynamics and school cultures. the implementation of sel has been associated with a decrease in classroom disruptions and an enhancement in the quality of teacher-student relationships, therefore promoting a more harmonious and collaborative educational environment. social and emotional learning (sel) programs significantly influence students’ academic achievements and their emotional and social well-being by fostering critical abilities like emotional awareness, emotional control, empathy, and the formation of meaningful relationships. social and emotional learning (sel) fosters situations where students feel esteemed, interconnected, and inspired to participate in their academic pursuits by encouraging empathy, collaboration, and dispute resolution. stakeholders and policymakers must allocate resources to educators, the principal executors of students’ socialemotional learning, to empower them in delivering sel teaching effectively. nonetheless, educators must tailor their pedagogical methods to include social-emotional learning in the classroom. this will provide a favourable climate for all pupils to participate in the class. to achieve their educational goals, educators should employ sel programs that are both efficacious and tailored to their discipline. research on the social and emotional learning (sel) of students and educators remains insufficient; so, further investigation is necessary to discern the barriers that may hinder the effective implementation of the program in educational institutions and to develop ways for overcoming these barriers. references albright, m. i., & weissberg, r. p. 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(2004). building academic success on social and emotional learning: what does the research say? teachers college press pa ge 1 pa ge 1 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) taste, time, and trust in kigali kitchens: ethnographic insights for durable clean-cooking adoption jeremiah thoronka1* volume 4 issue 4, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i4.6282 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: october 05, 2025 accepted: november 08, 2025 published: december 10, 2025 drawing on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork in kigali (january–july 2025), this article explains why many urban households continue to “stack” charcoal, firewood, lpg, and electric appliances despite expanding access to modern options. i advance a practice-proximal framework, taste, time, and trust (t³), that diagnoses where clean-cooking transitions stall and specifies how programmes can convert one-off trials into durable practice. taste captures sensory expectations and culinary identities that organise what counts as “good food”. time attends to everyday temporalities, procurement, ignition, monitoring, and cleanup, through which technologies either compress or expand the day. ‘trust’ refers to reliability, safety, and service ecologies spanning devices, fuels, vendors, technicians, and advice networks. the analysis demonstrates that affordability and availability rarely translate into exclusive use without t³ alignment. the article offers narrative experiences, cross-household patterning, and operational indicators for programme design in kigali, emphasising cooking co-design, reliability guarantees, whole-household behaviour change communication (bcc), and after-sales ecosystems. the findings respond to persistent gaps in the literature on adoption metrics and stakeholder engagement by centring lived practice and specifying standardisable measures of sustained use. keywords behavior change communication, clean cooking, gendered routines, kigali, stove stacking, taste 1 school of global studies, thammasat university, sierra leone * corresponding author’s e-mail: jeremiahthoronka1@gmail.com introduction the problem in everyday cooking in kigali’s apartment blocks and hillside neighbourhoods, new energy objects have arrived. bright lpg cylinders lean against painted kitchen walls; electric rice cookers share counter space with blackened charcoal stoves. yet the promise of “clean” remains fragile in practice. across my field sites, households rotate between devices, stacking, to meet the sensory, social, and economic demands of daily life. this rotation undermines the health, climate, and gender benefits associated with exclusive use of modern fuels, a pattern consistent with systematic reviews showing that price and access alone seldom secure durable change (vigolo et al., 2018; evans et al., 2018; van der kroon et al., 2013). market-level initiatives and bcc campaigns have improved awareness and trial purchases, but cost salience, uneven message reach, and heterogeneous preferences persist (evans et al., 2018). meanwhile, broader energy transition constraints, thin service networks, finance bottlenecks, and policy uncertainty. filter into the kitchen as reliability concerns (pereira et al., 2025). this study asks: how do taste, time, and trust co-produce (or erode) clean-cooking transitions in kigali households, and how can programmes operationalise these dimensions to convert trials into sustained practice? i respond with an ethnography of kitchens and an analytic framework, t³, that is diagnostic, implementable, and measurable. state of the art: from adoption factors to practice proximities research on household energy has catalogued drivers and barriers; incomes, fuel prices, availability, attitudes, perceived risks/benefits, and social influence (vigolo et al., 2018; van der kroon et al., 2013; lewis & pattanayak, 2012). urban consumers often value convenience and status yet continue to seek heat profiles, aromas, and social warmth associated with fires, helping explain persistent stacking (vigolo et al., 2018). bcc studies across bangladesh, kenya, and nigeria show promise for market effects but emphasise cost salience and the need for mixed methods and longitudinal designs (evans et al., 2018). critical reviews caution that the “clean/ improved” label carries socio-technical assumptions that unravel without contextual engagement across household decision nodes (lindgren, 2020). at the system level, developing contexts face acute constraints in skilled technicians, credit, and market thickness, while high capital expenditure and policy ambiguities are shared across settings (pereira et al., 2025). this article extends that literature by relocating analysis to the level of practice proximities, the embodied, temporal, and relational dynamics of cooking. following practice theory and interpretive and narrative anthropology, i treat taste as both chemical and cultural; time as the choreography of procurement-to-cleanup; and trust as the multi-scalar ecology linking devices and households to pa ge 2 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 1-7 2025 vendors, services, and authorities (jeuland & pattanayak, 2012; kar & zerriffi, 2018; ruiz-mercado & masera, 2015; troncoso et al., 2013). materials and methods kitchens as field sites fieldwork took place across the three districts of kigali from january to july 2025, with ongoing follow-up. i purposively sampled 50 households to capture diversity in fuel stacks, tenure, and income, prioritising women’s perspectives as primary cooks while tracking household decision nodes. the dataset comprises 100 observed cooking sessions, 20 semi-structured interviews, 10 focus group discussions, and 15 transect walks linking kitchens to vendor points and repair shops. trained assistants provided language mediation in kinyarwanda/english. as a male researcher with prior energy-access field experience in rwanda, i practised reflexive fieldwork; interviews were often negotiated amid cooking, childcare, and neighbours’ visits; rapport hinged on eating together, waiting through power flickers, and accompanying refill trips. ethics approval was granted by the thammasat university ethics review committee and the national council for science and technology (ncst). analysis proceeded in three steps. first, i produced thick descriptions of cooking events, preserving the sequencing of tasks and sensory judgments. second, i coded materials against the t³ schema and built crosshousehold “preference bundles” (sensory–temporal– trust configurations). third, i triangulated patterns with prior syntheses on adoption drivers (vigolo et al., 2018; van der kroon et al., 2013), bcc effects (evans et al., 2018), and transition barriers (lindgren, 2020; pereira et al., 2025). results and discussions findings: narrative vignettes of taste, time, and trust taste as threshold, not bonus on a saturday morning in kinyinya, an elder woman stirred beans simmering on lpg while her niece rinsed rice for the electric cooker. as steam lifted, the elder switched off the cylinder and moved the pot to a small charcoal stove, remarking, “rice from the pot is respectable for guests; the cooker makes it too soft for weddings.” younger cooks in the compound praised the rice cooker’s uniformity, no scorched bottoms, predictable yields, and less hovering but reiterated that festive dishes “need smoke.” these accounts resist the treatment of taste as a mere attribute tacked onto an otherwise rational choice; instead, taste functions as an evaluative threshold that confers or withholds social legitimacy. textures (“firm grains”, “separate beans”, “crisped onions”) and aromas (“a hint of smoke”, “nutty rice”) are not decorative preferences but embodied tests of competence, respect, and care. when lpg or electric cookers fail these tests for particular dishes or occasions, households justify stacking a charcoal option “for real meals,” even when cleaner devices are otherwise appreciated for everyday fare (ruiz-mercado & masera, 2015; vigolo et al., 2018). the kinyinya vignette makes visible how culinary authority is negotiated intergenerationally. elders deploy taste as a moral adjudicator, upholding ritual adequacy and hospitality codes, while younger cooks experiment with appliances that promise reliability and time savings. this is not simple resistance to novelty: it is a situated calibration of sensory standards to social obligations. households weigh whether a device can consistently reproduce “event-grade” outcomes under scrutiny from kin and guests. a second story from nyamirambo shows that thresholds can change. a young salaried couple hosts weeknight dinners using lpg and a rice cooker exclusively. the wife notes, “we learnt the cooker’s ‘hard rice’ setting from tiktok; now even my aunt accepts it.” through iterative tinkering, adjusting water ratios, pretoasting grains in the cooker’s sauté mode, and finishing with a quick lpg sear to evoke maillard notes, the couple translates appliance outputs into recognisable textures. in doing so, they lower the social threshold that once excluded electric rice from ceremonial spaces. these practices align with evidence that adoption entails behavioural work, not just acquisition (kar & zerriffi, 2018). programs that foreground convenience without enabling culinary equivalence risk plateauing at partial use (lewis & pattanayak, 2012). our diaries show cooks actively “co-designing” recipes with devices: they map cooker settings to desired textures, play with lid-on/ off timing to manage residual steam, and combine fuels to stage flavour. in this light, taste is not exogenous to technology; it is co-produced through repeated trials, peer tips, and platformed knowledge (short videos, whatsapp recipes). when initiatives supply sensoryoriented guidance, texture maps, dish-specific protocols, and flavour-preserving hacks, households report greater willingness to retire charcoal for occasions previously deemed non-negotiable. conversely, where such guidance is absent, taste remains a gatekeeper that justifies stacking despite cost or health rationales (vigolo et al., 2018; ruizmercado & masera, 2015). importantly, the “threshold” metaphor clarifies why binary models (traditional vs. modern) mispredict transitions. households are not climbing a linear energy ladder so much as moving between platforms to satisfy dish-specific sensory norms (van der kroon et al., 2013). clean devices succeed when they cross the sensory bar for high-stakes dishes, not merely when they are faster, cheaper, or cleaner on average. recognising taste as a threshold reframes program design: it shifts investments from generic demonstrations to dish-anchored, outcomeequivalent protocols that render lpg and electric cooking socially credible, not just technically feasible (jeuland & pattanayak, 2012; troncoso et al., 2013). time gains, temporal friction in gisozi, a mother of three described how the rice pa ge 3 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 1-7 2025 cooker allowed her to supervise homework while dinner progressed unattended: “it watches the rice for me.” across time-use diaries, electric and lpg devices compressed active cooking minutes and reduced the vigilance required to maintain heat. the benefits were felt most during multitasking periods, particularly late afternoons when childcare, small trades, and household coordination peak. yet these gains were fragile. a surprise cylinder depletion at 6 p.m., a two-hour evening power flicker, or a circulating rumour of tariff hikes could convert saved minutes into losses: late meals, upset children, and reputational strain when guests arrived to half-cooked rice. one respondent concluded, “charcoal does not betray you if you keep it dry.” the statement captures a repeated calculation: speed matters, but reliability organises trust. our data, therefore, distinguish between two temporal attributes: micro-efficiency (reduced active minutes) and macro-reliability (day-level predictability). households do not simply minimise cooking minutes; they seek assurance that meals will be ready at the socially expected times. lpg and electric cooking perform well on microefficiency yet remain vulnerable to failures in supply (refill logistics, cash timing) and infrastructure (grid stability). when these uncertainties rise above a tacit tolerance threshold, families maintain charcoal as insurance, even when lpg is nominally affordable. the diaries show a consistent “temporal insurance” logic: keeping a bag of charcoal or a portable stove offsets the risk of evening disruptions during exams, market days, or anticipated visitors. in effect, stacking is not merely cultural inertia; it is a rational hedge against cascading temporal failures. these findings extend behaviour change communication (bcc) insights that cost salience and heterogeneous reach shape adoption (evans et al., 2018). programs that focus narrowly on price or device speed miss the lived arithmetic by which time savings “count” only when dependable. for instance, a 20-minute saving that collapses once a week due to outages may net out as a reputational liability for primary cooks responsible for punctual hospitality. our respondents explicitly framed time in social rather than clock terms: “being ready when guests come from church”, “not keeping the children hungry after school”, or “serving before news begins”. clean cooking initiatives can therefore enhance exclusivity by targeting temporal friction directly: synchronised cylinder reminders tied to household payday cycles, micro-depot networks that reduce last-mile refill uncertainty, outageaware recipe cards that swap to lower-risk dishes during peak instability, and real-time vendor alerts that preempt empty-cylinder surprises. moreover, temporal friction interacts with learning curves. as cooks become skilled at using their appliances, batching legumes on weekends, and using keep-warm functions strategically, the perceived vulnerability window shrinks. where vendors and peers provide guidance on “temporal choreography” (which dishes to start when and how to stage side dishes on residual heat), lpg and electric devices become not just faster but more reliable in practice. conversely, in settings with thin after-sales support, rumour-driven tariff anxieties, and erratic refill services, households rationally scale back exclusivity. recognising time as both gain and risk urges a redesign of metrics: beyond average minutes saved, programs should track “on-time meal reliability” as a primary outcome. doing so aligns with broader critiques that improved technologies diffuse when they improve the cadence of everyday life, not merely its aggregates (kar & zerriffi, 2018; lewis & pattanayak, 2012). trust networks and the social life of safety purchases and use are distributed across gendered roles: men often finance devices and fuels; women and adolescent daughters operate them; neighbours and relatives circulate advice, cautionary tales, and repair contacts. a mother of three summarised the asymmetry: “he pays for the cylinder, but i fear the fire. if the man hears from a man on the radio, he believes.” this comment illustrates how authority over safety knowledge is socially routed: messages validated by male peers or public figures can unlock budgets, while the everyday calculus of risk is borne by primary cooks. where programs train only the principal user, misgivings among other decision-makers persist, stalling exclusivity and mirroring critiques that adoption efforts miss intra-household decision nodes and gendered trust channels (lindgren, 2020; evans et al., 2018). our interviews reveal trust as enacted practice rather than abstract belief. confidence in lpg or electric devices is reproduced, or eroded, in service encounters: the ease of contacting a technician, the transparency of refill pricing, the punctuality of delivery, and the willingness of vendors to demonstrate regulator checks. households with access to robust after-sales ecologies, whatsapp refill reminders, verified installers, and clear helplines reported fewer safety-related interruptions and a greater willingness to retire charcoal. by contrast, where services were thin or technicians scarce, minor incidents (a whiff of gas, a loose hose, a tripped breaker) propagated through rumour networks into durable caution, raising abandonment risk in step with the finance and capacity constraints identified at the system level (pereira et al., 2025). trust also travels laterally. women’s groups, church fellowships, and neighbourhood savings clubs act as reputational amplifiers for both good and bad experiences. demonstrations conducted within these groups, showing leak-testing with soapy water, practising cylinder handling, or troubleshooting cooker error codes, had outsized effects compared to generic market-square demos. participants emphasised that “seeing someone like me” execute safety routines mattered more than one-off media campaigns. this aligns with evidence that adoption hinges on credible messengers and socially proximal proof, not only on information volume (vigolo et al., 2018; lewis & pattanayak, 2012). moreover, training pa ge 4 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 1-7 2025 men who control payments to recognise and fund routine safety, hoses, regulators, and periodic checks proved as pivotal as training cooks. where men perceived safety accessories as “extras”, households deferred replacements and reverted to charcoal at the first scare. programmatically, our results suggest three leverage points. first, re-target training from “primary cook only” to “household safety triad”: the payer, the operator, and a community validator (e.g., a respected neighbour or local technician). second, institutionalise service reliability as a safety outcome. fast, affordable regulator replacements and 24-hour fault response reduce both objective risk and rumour-driven anxiety. third, embed trust infrastructures in existing social circuits: vendor-hosted whatsapp groups for blocks of customers, public dashboards for refill prices, and periodic “safety sabbaths” after church or market days where checks are performed collectively. in short, trust is not a static attitude to be persuaded; it is a social relation maintained through predictable, respectful service and visible competence across the household network (lindgren, 2020; evans et al., 2018; pereira et al., 2025; kar & zerriffi, 2018). analytic contribution: the t³ framework conceptual core taste denotes sensory outcomes and culinary identity. if rice texture or bean mouthfeel diverges from recognised standards, households retain fires “for real meals,” undermining exclusivity (vigolo et al., 2018; troncoso et al., 2013). time captures both compression of labour (ignition, monitoring, and cleanup) and reliability of schedules (no surprise outages or late refills). time gains must be bankable to matter (evans et al., 2018). trust spans device safety/durability, fuel/service predictability, and credibility of advice circulating through households and neighbourhoods. thin service chains degrade trust, even when devices are affordable (pereira et al., 2025; lindgren, 2020). rather than treating adoption as a binary outcome, t³ is diagnostic: when sustained use falters, is the binding constraint a sensory mismatch (taste), temporal uncertainty (time), or service/knowledge gaps (trust)? this explains why subsidies or one-off promotions often underperform; without t³ alignment, financial access does not convert into durable practice (vigolo et al., 2018; kar & zerriffi, 2018). operationalisation: indicators and thresholds to operationalise the t³ framework within routine program monitoring, we specify a compact battery of practice-proximal indicators that elevate measurement beyond device ownership toward sustained and exclusive use. for taste, we track hedonic ratings (≥5/7) for staple dishes (e.g., rice, beans) prepared on lpg/electric versus charcoal and codify dish-specific texture descriptors recorded by cooks (“grain-separate”, “firm,” “slightly smoky”), with in-situ validation during observed sessions. for time, we measure median minutes from ignition to boil and from cooking completion to cleanup; maintain an outage/refill log capturing the frequency and timing of electricity interruptions and empty-cylinder events; and compute the rolling 30-day share of meals completed without recourse to contingency stoves. for trust, we record refill lead times (days) and their monthly variance; repair response times (hours) and first-fix success; safety knowledge scores (0–10) among cooks and co-decisionmakers (including men and adolescents); perceived price fairness (likert) alongside the transparency of vendor communications; and the household-wide reach of behavior-change communication disaggregated by channel and audience. together, these indicators translate narrative proximities into programmable, auditable metrics and align monitoring with field-relevant outcomes, namely, durable practice and exclusivity of use, thereby addressing long-standing calls for robust adoption measures (troncoso et al., 2013; ruiz-mercado & masera, 2015). implications for policy and programs culinary co-design (taste) product demonstrations should be paired with recipeadaptation labs that treat sensory performance as a firstorder design requirement rather than a secondary benefit. in our sites, cooks used “guided tinkering” to map desired textures and aromas to specific device workflows, e.g., selecting a rice cooker’s firmer setting, pre-toasting grains in sauté modes, controlling lid-off finishing to vent residual steam, or applying brief lpg sears to evoke maillard notes that elder kin associate with “event-grade” rice. these seemingly minor adjustments consistently lowered resistance among older relatives and ceremonial gatekeepers, who judge culinary success through texture, separation, and aroma. programs should therefore train frontline staff to troubleshoot culinary outcomes, not only safety and efficiency, because sensory success is the threshold condition for device exclusivity (vigolo et al., 2018; lewis & pattanayak, 2012). operationally, culinary co-design requires a shift from generic demos to dish-anchored protocols. facilitators can co-produce “sensory equivalence sheets” that specify water ratios, timing bands, and optional finishing steps for canonical dishes (e.g., wedding rice, beans, celebratory pilau). peer-led micro-labs, hosted through churches, savings groups, or neighborhood associations, should culminate in take-home “texture maps” translating appliance settings into locally recognised outcomes. to accelerate diffusion, programs can curate short video reels and whatsapp tip cards featuring respected local cooks reproducing ceremonial textures on lpg and electric devices. this aligns with evidence that adoption depends on socially proximate proof and credible messengers as much as on device attributes (vigolo et al., 2018). culinary co-design should also address stacking explicitly. rather than condemning “backup” fuels, labs can stage “transition pairings” that show how brief lpg finishing replaces charcoal smoke notes, or how simmer-hold functions achieve bean softness without scorching. pa ge 5 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 1-7 2025 such choreography reframes stacking from cultural inertia to a temporary, technique-bridging phase. over time, as cooks master appliance-specific pathways to sensory endpoints, the justification for keeping charcoal for “real meals” weakens. this behaviorally informed approach complements broader insights that acquisition alone rarely yields exclusivity; the behavioural work of technique transfer is decisive (lewis & pattanayak, 2012). finally, monitoring should include dish-level taste tests with elder adjudicators, documenting when lpg/electric variants achieve “ceremonial accept” status. where gaps persist, facilitators iterate protocols, adjusting soak times, heat ramps, or finishing steps until sensory equivalence is robust. in short, culinary co-design treats taste as a tunable design parameter and positions frontline staff as “texture troubleshooters”, closing the last mile between modern devices and socially legitimate meals (vigolo et al., 2018; lewis & pattanayak, 2012). reliability guarantees (time) time reliability must be marketed and delivered alongside health and climate benefits because households optimise for day-level predictability, not only for speed. while rice cookers and lpg reduce active attention and compress cooking windows, those gains are fragile when cylinder depletion, outage risk, or rumour-driven tariff anxiety looms. utilities and vendors should therefore bundle devices with reliability guarantees: cylinder-swap networks with stated maximum wait times; predictive refill reminders tied to household payday cycles and measured burn rates; micro-depots within walking distance that extend evening hours; and outage-aware meal planning messages that recommend resilient menus when grid instability is likely. messaging should make explicit a simple promise, “meals on time, every day”, and report performance publicly. program monitoring ought to privilege “on-time meal completion without contingencies” as a core indicator: the proportion of dinners completed on modern devices without reverting to charcoal. this time-anchored proxy translates micro-efficiency into social reliability and is immediately interpretable by households. when on-time completion dips, root-cause diagnostics should distinguish supply-chain failures (late deliveries, stockouts), affordability shocks (cash timing relative to refill need), or information gaps (uncertainty about remaining fuel). service redesign can then target the binding constraint, e.g., introducing partial-payment top-ups, offering loaner cylinders during repairs, or automating low-balance alerts via whatsapp. these adjustments align with bcc findings that cost salience and heterogeneous reach shape behaviour, while adding the temporal dimension through which savings only “count” if dependable (evans et al., 2018). vendors can embed reliability into warranties and slas: guaranteed 48-hour repair windows, regulator replacements within 24 hours, and transparent escalation channels. for electric cooking, utilities can pilot “cooking windows” with prioritised feeders at peak dinner times in dense neighbourhoods, coupled with outage notifications and recipe swaps that minimise failure risk. random spot checks should validate delivery times and stock positions at depots. evaluations should report both mean minutes saved and variance in mealtime punctuality across weeks, because variability, not simply averages, drives reputational risk for primary cooks. ultimately, reliability guarantees convert abstract benefits into everyday cadence, stabilising trust and reducing rational hedging through charcoal (evans et al., 2018; jeuland & pattanayak, 2012). whole-household bcc (trust) behaviour change communication must target the full decision network inside households, men (financing authority), women (operators and risk managers), and adolescents (future norm carriers), because adoption failures often arise from unaddressed asymmetries in who pays, who operates, and who worries. in our sites, when men heard credible male voices, local technicians, workplace briefings, or respected radio hosts address leak fears, regulator standards, and true running costs, safety concerns eased and refill financing stabilised. parallel sessions for women emphasised hands-on safety routines (soapy-water leak tests, hose replacement intervals), device troubleshooting for texture outcomes, and escalation pathways for service faults. adolescents engaged through school clubs and short video formats became effective intra-household translators, coaching elders on settings and sharing quick fixes gleaned from peers. multi-channel bcc should be tracked for intra-household reach, correcting a persistent blind spot in evaluation that aggregates “exposure” without confirming that each role holder received role-appropriate content (evans et al., 2018; lindgren, 2020). baseline mapping can identify the “household safety triad”, payer, operator, and community validator, and tailor messages accordingly. for example, payers receive tco calculators and testimonials from male peers; operators receive dish-specific texture guides and fault-response checklists; validators (e.g., a neighbour or church elder) receive simple inspection scripts to legitimise safe practice publicly. message sequencing matters: deliver the financing case shortly before payday, safety routines immediately after installation, and texture mastery modules in the first two weeks when abandonment risk is highest. credibility hinges on messengers and format. evidence suggests socially proximate proof outperforms mass generalities (lindgren, 2020; evans et al., 2018). accordingly, programs should institutionalise peerled micro-demonstrations, vendor-backed whatsapp groups moderated by certified technicians, and workplace “toolbox talks” that normalise male engagement with safety consumables (hoses, regulators). monitoring must include within-household comprehension checks (e.g., short quizzes or demonstrations) and “closure indicators” verifying that a payer can articulate regulator replacement pa ge 6 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 1-7 2025 schedules or that an operator can perform a leak test unprompted. by making each role’s competency visible, bcc reduces rumour-driven anxiety and the budgetary hesitancy that sustains charcoal as an insurance option. in short, whole-household bcc reframes adoption from a single-user training problem to a distributed trust problem: only when all decision nodes are addressed does exclusivity become a stable equilibrium (evans et al., 2018; lindgren, 2020; lewis & pattanayak, 2012). invest in after-sales ecologies (trust) technician training, micro-credit for safe devices, and stable policy signals jointly reduce abandonment risk by transforming isolated sales into durable service relationships. in our sites, vendors who offered whatsapp ordering, transparent price boards, regulator checks at delivery, and 48-hour repair windows retained customers through tariff noise and periodic outages. these practices anchor trust in tangible encounters, answered calls, punctual swaps, and verified fittings, rather than in abstract appeals. investment must therefore prioritise the invisible infrastructure of maintenance: accredited technician networks with refresher certification, minimum spare-parts inventories at neighbourhood depots, and dispatch systems that track response times and first-visit resolution. finance intertwines with service. microcredit products should bundle devices with safety consumables (quality hoses, regulators, and leak-test kits) and include lifecycle costs in repayment schedules to prevent deferred maintenance. policy stability, predictable vat/excise regimes, clear standards for regulators and hoses, and transparent tariff trajectories reduce rumour volatility that otherwise propagates into precautionary stocking of charcoal. where technicians are scarce, abandonment risk rises alongside capacity and finance constraints observed at the system level (pereira et al., 2025). targeted subsidies for training and tooling can jump-start local service density, while vendor accreditation tied to service slas ensures that public incentives translate into householdlevel reliability. digital touchpoints extend service reach. vendor-hosted whatsapp groups can push refill reminders, outage advisories, and safety prompts; simple ticketing bots can triage repair requests and surface common faults for proactive guidance. public dashboards at depots listing current refill prices, stock levels, and average response times create transparency that disciplines service quality. routine “safety sabbaths” after church or market days, where technicians perform group leak tests and regulator checks, both reduce unit costs and normalise safe practice. evaluation should include service metrics (response time distributions, repeat-fault rates), trust outcomes (operator confidence scales), and behavioural endpoints (exclusive use without contingency stoves). by investing in aftersales ecologies, programs convert system-level capacity into household-level confidence, tightening the causal link between policy inputs and everyday cooking choices (pereira et al., 2025; evans et al., 2018; lindgren, 2020; ruiz-mercado & masera, 2015). measure what matters clean-cooking evaluations should move beyond device counts and brief trial windows toward longitudinal designs that capture sustained and, where feasible, exclusive use over ≥12 months, integrating mixed methods such as time-use diaries, periodic taste panels, and unobtrusive usage monitoring (temperature loggers, smart plugs, stove-use monitors) (troncoso et al., 2013). we propose operationalising a t³ construct., taste, time, trust, to align measurement with the mechanisms that actually sustain or erode exclusivity. for taste (sensory equivalence), programs should track dish-level acceptance by recognised adjudicators (e.g., elder relatives) using pass/fail or likert scores for texture, grain separation, and aroma across canonical dishes; record the number of iterations required to achieve “ceremonial accept” status; and document device-specific techniques (e.g., brief lpg sears) that bridge sensory gaps (lewis & pattanayak, 2012; vigolo et al., 2018). for time (on-time reliability), monitoring should capture the proportion of meals completed on modern devices without contingencies, the variance of mealtime punctuality week to week, and linkage to supply and infrastructure data (refill deliveries, outage incidence), with reporting of both average minutes saved and reliability variance, since unpredictability, rather than mean savings, drives hedging behavior (evans et al., 2018; jeuland & pattanayak, 2012). for trust (service and safety competence), systems should track after-sales response times, first-visit fix rates, adherence to regulator/hose replacement schedules, and within-household competency checks (payer knowledge of replacement intervals; operator ability to perform leak tests), complemented by perception scales for vendor transparency and ease of escalation, then linked to behavioural endpoints such as reduced charcoal stocking. evaluation designs should, where possible, use staggered rollouts or stepped-wedge trials to enable causal inference without compromising equity. minimum reporting standards ought to include 12–18-month attrition curves, coded reasons for slippage mapped to t³ domains, and cost per “on-time exclusive dinner” achieved, supplemented by qualitative follow-ups that surface hidden constraints and recipe workarounds which can feed back into culinary co-design and service redesign cycles. publishing open indicator definitions, instrument templates, and data dictionaries will materially improve cross-site comparability and cumulative learning, addressing persistent weaknesses in clean-cooking evidence syntheses (troncoso et al., 2013; lindgren, 2020; kar & zerriffi, 2018). in short, measuring what matters, sensory equivalence, temporal reliability, and serviceenabled trust, realigns program incentives with the lived criteria households use to judge whether modern cooking can fully replace legacy fuels, thereby improving both internal validity and external relevance of impact claims. pa ge 7 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 1-7 2025 conclusion this study’s insights are conditioned by the seasonality and outage regimes observed between january and july 2025; shifting rainfall patterns, fuel availability, and tariff adjustments across other months may reconfigure stacking rationales and the relative salience of taste, time, and trust (t³). although cooking diaries enrich temporal granularity, they rely on self-report and may be vulnerable to recall and desirability biases; likewise, researcher presence during observed sessions could have nudged device choice or performance, despite reflexive field protocols. these constraints underscore the need for triangulation with objective usage data and for replication across seasonal cycles and urban morphologies. even with these caveats, the findings hold clear programmatic implications: kigali kitchens demonstrate that cleancooking transitions become durable only when sensory expectations, temporal reliability, and service ecologies align in everyday practice. households are not resisting modernity; they are safeguarding social credibility at the table, protecting tight daily schedules, and managing safety under infrastructural uncertainty. by centering practice proximities, the t³ framework renders adoption failures diagnosable and remediable: culinary co-design lowers the sensory threshold; reliability guarantees convert time savings into dependable routines; and whole-household behavior change communication, coupled with responsive after-sales ecosystems, reproduces trust. future work should test t³ thresholds across additional dishes and seasons, integrate stoveuse monitors to pair narrative with high-resolution telemetry, and link household-level t³ scores to program outcomes (exclusive-use persistence, health/ time savings) and vendor performance (refill lead-times, repair responsiveness). comparative studies across east african cities can establish external validity and policy salience, identifying context-specific levers while preserving a shared diagnostic core. programs that measure and manage to these dimensions can move beyond ownership counts to the metric that matters, sustained, exclusive clean-cooking practice, with tangible benefits for health, climate, and gender equity. references evans, w. d., johnson, m., jagoe, k., charron, d., young, b. n., rahman, a. s. m. m., omolloh, d., & ipe, j. (2018). evaluation of behavior change communication campaigns to promote modern cookstove purchase and use in lower middle income countries. international journal of environmental research and public health, 15(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph15010011 jeuland, m., & pattanayak, s. k. (2012). benefits and costs of improved cookstoves: assessing the implications of variability in health, forest, and climate impacts. energy for sustainable development, 16(4), 403–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2012.08.003 kar, a., & zerriffi, h. (2018). from cookstove acquisition to cooking transition: framing the behavioural aspects of cookstove interventions. energy research & social science, 42, 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. erss.2018.02.015 lewis, j. j., & pattanayak, s. k. (2012). who adopts improved fuels and cookstoves? a systematic review. environmental health perspectives, 120(5), 637–645. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1104194 lindgren, s. a. (2020). clean cooking for all? a critical review of behavior, stakeholder engagement, and adoption for the global diffusion of improved cookstoves. energy research & social science, 68, 101539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101539 pereira, s., silva, c., & ferreira, l. m. d. f. (2025). barriers to energy transition in developing and developed countries: a systematic review. energy for sustainable development, 87, 101753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. esd.2025.101753 ruiz-mercado, i., & masera, o. (2015). patterns of stove use in the context of fuel–device stacking: rationale and implications. ecohealth, 12(1), 42–56. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10393-015-1009-4 troncoso, k., armendáriz, c., & alatorre, s. (2013). improved cook stove adoption and impact assessment: a proposed methodology. energy policy, 62, 637–645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.07.074 van der kroon, b., brouwer, r., & van beukering, p. (2013). the energy ladder: theoretical myth or empirical truth? results from a meta-analysis. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 20, 504–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2012.11.045 vigolo, v., sallaku, r., & testa, f. (2018). drivers and barriers to clean cooking: a systematic literature review from a consumer behavior perspective. sustainability, 10(11), 4322. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su10114322 pa ge 1 pa ge 17 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) securing the cloud: defenses for modern threats jehanzaib jamil1* volume 4 issue 4, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i4.6018 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: august 24, 2025 accepted: september 29, 2025 published: december 10, 2025 cloud adoption across iaas, paas, containers, serverless, and saas has widened the attack surface, shifting risk toward identity misuse, misconfiguration, supply chain weaknesses, and data exfiltration; perimeter-only controls no longer suffice. present a compact threatto-defence taxonomy for modern cloud environments, grounded in 2020+ evidence and mapped to practical controls. narrative review of peer-reviewed studies, standards, and agency guidance from 2020 onward, with clearly labelled grey literature; extracted threat, defence, control mapping, metrics, and caveats, then synthesised into four defence families. across sources, identity-first controls with least privilege with short-lived credentials and ciem reduces blast radius; cspm and policy as code curb public exposures and drift; image signing, admission policies, and tuned runtime detection improve container security; egress allow-lists, tokenisation, and immutable backups constrain data loss, provided rollout is centralised and automated to limit friction and false positives. a targeted set of identityfirst, posture, runtime, and data or egress controls provides long-term risk reduction while outperforming tool complexity. keywords ciem, cloud security, cspm, data loss prevention, egress control, kubernetes security, runtime detection, software supply chain, tokenisation, zero trust 1 accenture, riyadh, saudi arabia * corresponding author’s e-mail: jehanzaib.jamil@gmail.com introduction the use of cloud has transformed the way organisations develop and run systems in infrastructure, platform, containers and serverless functions, as well as software as a service. elasticity, operated services and worldwide access have speedy delivery and at the same time have enlarged the attack area and dispersed accountability in security arrangements and watchfulness. the latest surveys and reviews are united in one voice. the leading root causes of cloud setting incidents are misconfiguration, identity abuse, poor hygiene of the software supply chain and unmanaged data flows. meanwhile, pure perimeter controls cannot be trusted in the manner in which cloud workloads today communicate and authenticate (alqtiemat & al-odat, 2024; ali et al., 2025; alouffi et al., 2021; tahirkheli et al., 2021). similarly, the external attack surface has been made more dynamic and can now be explored by automation raising the stakes associated with preventive controls and ongoing posture control (gelernter et al., 2024). having multi-cloud and hybrid strategies is further complicated by the change in operations. even though multi-cloud has the ability to enhance resilience and flexibility of the vendor, it increases identity silos, policy engines, logging formats, and default settings that need to be aligned to generate a consistent least privilege posture (ali et al., 2025; lata & kumar, 2025; potla, 2025; sivaseelan, 2024). comparative scenarios of public, private and hybrid deployments reveal that controls that work well in one setting may silently fail in another where the default and terminology are different and thus make governance and measuring harder (lata & kumar, 2025). risk management guidance tailored for enterprise cloud environments argues for explicit control selection and sequencing rather than tool accumulation, since uncoordinated adoption often increases alert noise and produces configuration drift across tenants and accounts (hegde et al., 2023; oyeniyi & oyeniran). identity has become the practical perimeter in cloud systems. overbroad roles, long-lived credentials, and uncontrolled service accounts increase lateral movement opportunities far more than traditional network design implies. analyses of entitlement proper sizing and cloud infrastructure entitlement management report measurable reductions in excessive privileges when organisations adopt graph-informed reviews, just-in-time elevation, and short-lived credentials (fisher, 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022). federated identity and standardised authentication flows help unify access across providers, yet also introduce failure modes that must be considered, such as token replay, misconfigured trust relationships, or incomplete conditional access enforcement (almeida et al., 2024; maidine & el-yahyaoui, 2023). zero trust guidance from nist codifies an identity-first model that treats every request as untrusted until policy is satisfied with context, device, and workload signals, which aligns well with the realities of distributed cloud platforms (rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). critical analyses of zero trust emphasise that credible enforcement points and telemetry must accompany architectural principles, or they risk becoming slogans without measurable outcomes . at the network or edge layer, secure access service edge is increasingly used to bridge remote access, policy enforcement, and identity, especially for distributed teams and multi-cloud connectivity. however, the evidence base is still maturing and often case study driven (adewale, 2023; bajpai, 2022; pa ge 18 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 17-28 2025 bashi et al., 2025; dommari & khan, 2023; lee & park, 2025; maddali, 2025). container and kubernetes have replaced workload security. container images are able to focus supply chain risk in the form of base images, package managers and build pipelines. meanwhile, cluster control planes introduce a policy and role-based access control level which needs to be strengthened. agency hardening advice gives prescriptive guidelines in kubernetes, such as privilege escalation limits, admission control, as well as runtime monitoring, which have become a de facto starting point in numerous teams (cisa, 2022). recent research in the publicity of hardening and runtime discovery demonstrates that the policy of admission, signed provenance, and tuned behavioural rules decreases the success of container runtime abuse. nonetheless, one such adoption barrier is false positives, which need to be fine-tuned after iteration and improved context by building pipelines and software bills of materials (cesarano & natella, 2025; eldjou et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; nguyen et al., 2023; yilmaz & harding, 2024). greater discussion of the software supply chain is no longer a theoretical issue, but rather an operationalised idea (through provenance attestations and image signing) that can be enforced by cluster admission controllers, introducing build-time guarantees at runtime decision points (nguyen et al., 2023; yilmaz & harding, 2024). a different risk profile is formed by serverless and api centric architecture. function granularity promotes small, narrow units of compute, but also invites developers to make broad permissions in the name of convenience and this compromises least privilege. these designs put api security at their core, as functions are normally exposed either by gateways or event sources and need to provide strong authentication, authorisation and rate limiting. in the 2023 version of the owasp api security top 10 documents, modern failure modes are shown as direct cloud workload failures, such as broken object-level authorisation, overly revealing data, and unsafe thirdparty api use, which are magnifying factors when used together with cloud identity and data access (mallick & nath, 2024; owasp; türetken, 2024). the works that analyse serverless and api protections always suggest per-function roles, schema validation, and gatewaylevel protections to ensure blast radius limits and curb abuse and there is a reasonable acceptance of developer ergonomics and trade-offs against cold starts (mallick & nath, 2024; türetken, 2024). egress and data protection play a significant role in alleviating the effects in case of the prevention failure. the existing work on data exfiltration and ransomware in the cloud highlights the ability to use egress allowlists, well-managed keys, tokenisation and immutable backups as effective measures to decrease the probability and the impact of loss incidents (lal et al., 2022; sahar saeed et al., 2025; vidhya, 2024). the cryptography capabilities of workloads on a cloud scale are still developing. securing the protection of data in use is a direction provided by the concept of confidential computing via trusted execution environments and attestation. nevertheless, operational maturity and performance trade-offs should be measured on the production scale (chen, 2023; dhar et al., 2024). revocation and integrity-guaranteeing attribute-based encryption has been used to work with cloud storage contexts. though this is not a universal solution, it expands the range of enforceable policies seen outside of flat data at rest controls (ge et al., 2021). cloud adversary behaviour is a vocabulary that needs a method of measuring coverage, and cloud detection and response. this structure is offered in the mitre att&ck enterprise cloud matrices related to infrastructure, identity providers, office suites, and software-as-a-service, which allow teams to map detections to particular techniques systematically and rationally about gaps (dieterich; tran, 2023). empirical studies on anomaly detection and cloud telemetry have suggested that range-based and semi-supervised techniques are capable of identifying operationally significant deviations. still, success depends on highquality features and careful normalisation to avoid simple resource consumption spikes being misclassified as attacks (deka et al., 2022; tatineni, 2023). in practice, organisations benefit from aligning detection content with att&ck while instrumenting provider-native telemetry pipelines and normalising logs to reduce the friction of cross-cloud investigations (dieterich et al., 2023). the cloud security frameworks literature offers a way to connect threats, defences, and controls into a consistent program. comparative and synthesis work highlights the importance of selecting a small number of authoritative frameworks and using them as mapping backbones to avoid duplication and confusion, for example, referencing zero trust concepts for identity and access decisions while applying control catalogues for posture management and compliance checks (chandra, 2020; hegde et al., 2023). measurement and governance perspectives argue for compact metric sets that can be automated, such as excess privilege rates, misconfiguration density, detection coverage against att&ck techniques, mean time to detect, and policy drift, so that progress can be demonstrated without manual audits that do not scale in cloud environments (colotti, 2023; fisher, 2025; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023; neelakandhan et al., 2022). casedriven guidance for cloud networking emphasises that performance and flexibility goals do not need to conflict with zero trust when segmentation and identity-aware policy enforcement are designed together. however, it warns that partial implementation commonly leaves legacy paths that undermine the model (ahmadi, 2024; james, 2021; lee & park, 2025). taken together, the recent literature and guidance suggest a pragmatic thesis. durable risk reduction in cloud environments comes from a focused set of defences that match how cloud workloads authenticate, run, and move data. identity first controls, continuous posture management with preventive guardrails, signed provenance pa ge 19 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 17-28 2025 with tuned runtime detection for containers, and strong data or egress governance address the dominant failure modes reported since 2020 (ali et al., 2025; alouffi et al., 2021; cisa, 2022; fernandez & brazhuk, 2024; owasp; rose, 2022; singh et al., 2024; stafford, 2020; tahirkheli et al., 2021). this paper aims to synthesise that evidence into an actionable taxonomy, map it to provider native and open tooling that practitioners already operate, and present a compact set of metrics and a staged rollout plan that can be executed within usual engineering constraints. this approach favours clarity over tool accumulation and provides a common language for architects, security engineers, and developers to coordinate improvements across multi-cloud estates. objectives this paper’s objective is to deliver a compact, evidencegrounded threat to defence taxonomy for modern cloud environments that practitioners can implement and measure with minimal overhead. the taxonomy focuses on the failure patterns most frequently reported since 2020, including identity misuse, misconfiguration, software supply chain weaknesses, and data exfiltration, and aligns defences with how cloud workloads actually authenticate, execute, and move data (ali et al., 2025; alouffi et al., 2021; tahirkheli et al., 2021). to anchor terminology and scope, the taxonomy is normalised to widely adopted references, including the mitre att&ck enterprise cloud matrices for adversary technique coverage, nist zero trust guidance for access decision models, the nsa or cisa kubernetes hardening baseline, and the owasp api security top 10 for api centric risks (cisa, 2022; dieterich; owasp; rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). given the operational realities of hybrid and multi-cloud estates, the objective includes portability across providers, allowing recommended controls to be applied consistently without vendor lock-in (ali et al., 2025; lata & kumar, 2025; potla, 2025; sivaseelan, 2024). operationalisation is central to the objective. each defence in the taxonomy is mapped to concrete providernative controls on aws, azure, and gcp, as well as widely used open tools, allowing teams to move directly from concept to configuration and runtime enforcement (cisa, 2022; hegde et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025). to enable evaluation without heavy audits, a compact metric dictionary is specified, covering excess privilege rate, misconfiguration density, detection coverage against att&ck techniques, mean time to detect and respond, exfiltration success rate, and policy drift (deka et al., 2022; dieterich; fisher, 2025; hegde et al., 2023; neelakandhan et al., 2022). finally, the objective includes a two quarter rollout plan that sequences quick posture wins and sustainable practices such as ciem based proper sizing, policy as code in ci, image signing and provenance, tuned runtime detection, egress allow lists, and immutable backups (cisa, 2022; fisher, 2025; jimmy, 2023; morić et al., 2025; nguyen et al., 2023; singh et al., 2024). materials and methods this study employs a narrative review methodology tailored to the fast-paced world of cloud security practice. the review concentrates on literature and guidance published from 2020 onward to reflect current threat patterns and controls reported in surveys, systematic reviews, and domain syntheses (ali et al., 2025; alouffi et al., 2021; tahirkheli et al., 2021), alongside standards and agency baselines that shape operational practice (cisa, 2022; dieterich; owasp; rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). given the heterogeneity of evaluation methods across cloud security studies, the goal is not meta-analysis but structured synthesis: we normalise terminology, extract comparable fields, and assemble findings into the four defence families used throughout the paper, namely identity first controls, posture and policy as code, runtime and supply chain safeguards, and data and egress governance. this design choice aligns with how cloud workloads authenticate, execute, and move data and with how practitioners actually configure platforms (cisa, 2022; hegde et al., 2023). sources were identified through iterative searches in google scholar and university library indexes using boolean patterns that combine threat classes and defences with cloud-specific nouns. examples include queries pairing iam and least privilege with ciem, cspm and policy as code with misconfiguration themes, kubernetes runtime or admission control with hardening guidance, serverless or api security with gateway protections, and data exfiltration with dlp or tokenisation. for detection and response, we used att&ck cloud terms to locate coverage mappings and anomaly detection evaluations (deka et al., 2022; dieterich; fisher, 2025; hegde et al., 2023; neelakandhan et al., 2022). searches were timebound to 2020 onward and then expanded via forward snowballing using cited links from anchor papers and standards. standards and agency guidance such as nist sp 800-207, the nist zta planning guide, the nsa or cisa kubernetes hardening document, and the owasp api security top 10 were treated as canonical anchors that define scope and vocabulary rather than effect estimates (cisa, 2022; owasp; rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). inclusion required that a source explicitly describe a defence relevant to cloud threats and provide one of the following: an empirical evaluation or case study, a structured standard or baseline that is widely adopted, or a design or implementation analysis with precise technical detail. we included peer-reviewed articles, full conference papers, surveys, standards, and selected theses or preprints when they contributed novel technique descriptions or systematised practice, which are flagged as emerging evidence in our discussion (ahmadi, 2024; ali et al., 2025; alouffi et al., 2021; hegde et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; sinan et al., 2025; tahirkheli et al., 2021). exclusion criteria removed opinion pieces without methods, vendor whitepapers lacking technical transparency, and older precloud security taxonomies that do not map to cloud native pa ge 20 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 17-28 2025 controls. when multiple versions of agency guidance existed, we preferred the latest stable pdf and recorded its date to support reproducibility (cisa, 2022; owasp; rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). screening proceeded in two passes. first, titles and abstracts were filtered for relevance to at least one defence family. second, full texts were reviewed to confirm that the work contained sufficient detail to extract fields and to permit mapping to provider controls or control catalogues. for each included item, we extracted the following: threat class as framed by the source and, where possible, the closest att&ck cloud technique, the defence mechanism or control pattern, any control mapping to well-known catalogues or provider services, the evaluation context and method, the primary metrics reported, key findings, and stated limitations. this schema supports tables 1 through 3 and allows us to discuss outcomes and trade-offs in consistent terms across heterogeneous studies (deka et al., 2022; dieterich, 2025; hegde et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022). quality and bias were addressed in two ways suited to a narrative review. first, we gave analytical weight to peerreviewed and standard-setting sources when synthesising generalizable claims about what works, using grey literature primarily to illustrate emerging practice or to provide implementation detail (ali et al., 2025; alouffi et al., 2021; cisa, 2022; hegde et al., 2023; rose, 2022; stafford, 2020; tahirkheli et al., 2021). second, we preferred studies that reported concrete, automatable metrics such as reductions in excessive privileges, misconfiguration counts, detection coverage against att&ck techniques, mean time to detect or respond, exfiltration success under simulation, and policy drift, all of which are defined in our metric dictionary to reduce ambiguity (colotti, 2023; deka et al., 2022; dieterich; fisher, 2025; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023; neelakandhan et al., 2022). where results conflicted or where only qualitative guidance existed, we present the range of findings and identify operational caveats rather than forcing consensus. synthesis proceeded in three steps. we first clustered defences by family and aligned each to concrete provider controls on aws, azure, and gcp together with widely used open tools, producing an implementation-oriented mapping that practitioners can act on without a single vendor prescription (cisa, 2022; hegde et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025). we then summarised evidence directionality per family, favouring statements that multiple sources support and that map cleanly to the metric dictionary. finally, we integrated standards and baselines to ground our recommendations and avoid ambiguous terminology. for example, we utilised nist zta language for access decisions, att&ck for technique coverage, nsa or cisa guidance for kubernetes hardening, and the owasp api taxonomy for api risks (cisa, 2022; rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). reproducibility is addressed by documenting search themes, time bounds, and the extraction schema, and by normalising nouns to att&ck and widely recognised provider services so readers can repeat or extend the review with minimal translation effort. limitations arise from the diversity of evaluation settings, the presence of grey literature in some fast-evolving areas such as ciem and policy as code adoption, and the reliance on agency baselines for kubernetes and api security, where controlled experiments are rare (cisa, 2022; fisher, 2025; morić et al., 2025; owasp; rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). these constraints motivate the paper’s focus on actionable mappings, compact metrics, and a staged rollout plan that can be measured and iterated in production, which we argue is the most helpful contribution for organisations operating in multi-cloud environments (ali et al., 2025; hegde et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025). results and discussion the literature from 2020 onward converges on a practical pattern: durable risk reduction in cloud systems is achieved by a small, consistent set of defences aligned to how cloud workloads authenticate, execute, and move data rather than to static perimeters (ali et al., 2025; alouffi et al., 2021; tahirkheli et al., 2021). across sources, identity first controls with least privilege and entitlement proper sizing, continuous posture management with preventive guardrails, workload runtime and supply chain hardening, and data or egress governance repeatedly correlate with fewer publicly exposed assets, smaller blast radius during compromises, and improved recovery characteristics (ali et al., 2025; fernandez & brazhuk, 2024; hegde et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025). these findings hold across public, private, and hybrid deployments, although operational maturity and platform defaults introduce meaningful variation that must be addressed with provider-specific implementations (hegde et al., 2023; lata & kumar, 2025). to make these results directly usable, this section presents a concise threats to defences matrix, a provider and tool mapping that turns concepts into concrete handles, and a compact metric dictionary that standardises measurement across studies and deployments. identity and access management remains the hinge on which most cloud incidents turn. research on entitlement management also indicates a countable decline in unwarranted privileges, and horizontal mobility tracks when organisations embrace the use of graph-based reviews, temporal credentials and just-in-time promotion (fisher, 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022). these are in line with zero trust principles where all requests are treated as untrusted until a policy decision is made, which is met with identity, device, and workload signals (rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). the empirically found texture also differs with the environment, yet directionality is universal: projects that are least privileged with periodic right-sizing and stronger authentication will exhibit a significant contraction in blast radius when compromised (fisher, 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022). case-based advice also indicates that federated identity, as well as standardised authentication flows enhance management, as long as token replay, misconfigured trust relationships, pa ge 21 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 17-28 2025 and gaps in conditional access are considered explicitly (almeida et al., 2024; maidine & el-yahyaoui, 2023). concisely, identity-first controls lead to the minimisation of the space within which attackers can navigate, as long as the organisation invests in proper identity graphs and operation reviews (fisher, 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022). misconfiguration is still the fastest path to loss, particularly in multi-cloud estates where policy engines and default settings differ across providers (ali et al., 2025; lata & kumar, 2025; potla, 2025; sivaseelan, 2024). the results show that continuous posture management paired with deny by default templates and policy as code in continuous integration yields sharp reductions in public exposures and configuration drift (colotti, 2023; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023). conference and journal reports that examine posture tools consistently note that preventive controls at deploy time outperform purely detective scans after deployment, because they halt drift before it enters production (hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023; singh et al., 2024). that said, posture tooling can generate alert fatigue when policies are introduced without staged tuning or when exception handling is ad hoc, leading to reintroduction of risk through policy sprawl. effective programmes therefore standardise a small corpus of policies, integrate checks into pipelines, and generate periodic drift reports to keep exceptions visible and time-bound (colotti, 2023; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023). container and kubernetes security dominate the workload discussion. agency hardening baselines emphasise admission control, privilege restrictions, and runtime monitoring as first principles that teams should adopt regardless of vendor (cisa, 2022). recent research on hardening the kubernetes attack surface and on compliance of control planes and workloads indicates that combining admission policies with image signing and provenance attestations reduces successful injection of untrusted images and improves the catch rate for runtime misuse. however, tuning is essential to control noise (cesarano & natella, 2025; eldjou et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; yilmaz & harding, 2024). runtime detection based on behavioural rules or ebpf typically surfaces lateral movement attempts, misuse of host namespaces, or container escapes, but out-of-the-box rulesets often over-alert until enriched with build-time context, such as software bills of materials or provenance metadata (eldjou et al., 2023; nguyen et al., 2023; yilmaz & harding, 2024). the strongest practical pattern to emerge is end-to-end: sign what you build, verify at admission, and monitor at runtime. when those three layers are present, studies report fewer successful escalations and faster operator response (cisa, 2022; eldjou et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; yilmaz & harding, 2024). serverless and api centric architectures exhibit a different set of failure modes that revolve around overprivileged functions and broken authorisation at the api layer. the 2023 owasp api security top 10 provides a contemporary taxonomy of these errors that maps directly onto cloud gateway configurations and perfunction identity policies (owasp). theses and applied reports recommend per-function least privilege, rate limiting, schema validation, and careful jwt handling as baseline mitigations, with an emphasis on generating per-function identity policies from trace data to reduce developer friction (mallick & nath, 2024; türetken, 2024). case evidence suggests that organisations that deploy api gateway protections and align function permissions to narrowly scoped roles experience fewer abuse paths and easier incident containment, albeit with trade-offs in cold start latencies and policy sprawl if not automated (mallick & nath, 2024; türetken, 2024). the results favour the adoption of gateway-level controls first, followed by incremental least privilege policies derived from observed call graphs to balance security and ergonomics. data exfiltration and ransomware-style events in cloud contexts reveal the importance of egress and backup governance. analytical reviews and practice-oriented reports demonstrate that egress allow lists, combined with tokenisation and immutable backups, reduce both the likelihood of data loss and the time to restore in the event of destructive events (lal et al., 2022; sahar saeed et al., 2025; vidhya, 2024). key management and vault isolation further reduce failure domains, and auditbacked object locks or vault locks provide assurances against administrative deletion during an attack (sahar saeed et al., 2025; vidhya, 2024). the persistent challenge is operational friction: dlp and egress controls can break legitimate integrations if introduced without careful staging. the studies that report positive results consistently used phased rollouts, domain category allow lists, and gradually tightened dlp dictionaries to keep false positives manageable while improving coverage (lal et al., 2022; sahar saeed et al., 2025; vidhya, 2024). defences against volumetric or application-layer ddos and against unauthorised compute use are well served by managed services offered by the major providers, complemented by anomaly-based detection of runtime or billing anomalies (nguyen & debroy, 2022). reports on moving target defences for ddos show promise in specific contexts, but the mainstream operational playbook still centres on provider-managed ddos mitigation and caching or cdn strategies to absorb and deflect traffic (nguyen & debroy, 2022). cost shielding during extreme events remains a business risk even when mitigation succeeds, which motivates contractual and architectural controls in addition to technical measures. detection and response benefit from a shared adversary vocabulary and a way to measure coverage across the diverse services that constitute modern cloud estates. the mitre att&ck enterprise cloud matrices provide this anchor across infrastructure, identity providers, office suites, and software-as-a-service (dieterich). empirical work on anomaly detection in cloud telemetry demonstrates that semi-supervised and range-based pa ge 22 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 17-28 2025 methods can surface operationally meaningful deviations, provided features are carefully selected and normalised so that expected elasticity and bursty workloads do not produce false signals (deka et al., 2022; tatineni, 2023). programmes that align detections to att&ck techniques and normalise provider native logs report more precise coverage accounting and more tractable investigations across clouds, even when absolute detection rates vary by environment (hegde et al., 2023). the practical implication is straightforward: choose a technique vocabulary, map what you have, and improve coverage iteratively against a metric that teams can automate. the results above are distilled into three artefacts designed for immediate use. table 1 presents a threats to defences matrix that links dominant threat classes to practical controls, expected outcomes, and operational caveats. table 2 turns those defences into cloud-specific knobs by aligning each category to native services on aws, azure, and gcp, together with widely used open tools. table 3 defines a compact metric dictionary that maintains consistency and facilitates automation. together, these tables let practitioners move from narrative findings to configuration choices and measurable progress without tool sprawl. table 1: threats to defences matrix threat class typical tactics or failure modes primary defenses concrete patterns or controls outcome if applied well gotchas to manage iam misuse and privilege escalation token theft, key leakage, overbroad roles, stale access least privilege, ciem, mfa, justin-time access role minimisation, entitlement rightsizing, short-lived creds smaller blast radius, reduced lateral movement requires an identity graph and periodic reviews misconfiguration of cloud resources public storage, open databases, permissive security groups cspm, policy as code, preventive guardrails deny-by-default templates, org policies, pre-deploy checks sharp drop in public exposures and drift alert fatigue and exception creep kubernetes runtime and supply chain image poisoning, rbac abuse, escape attempts admission policies, image signing, runtime rules, rbac hardening podsecurity standards, cosign or attestations, falco or ebpf higher catch rate for container misuse noise without tuning, risk of blocking legit workloads serverless and api abuse event injection, broken auth, overprivileged functions per-function iam, waf, api gateway limits, schema validation rate limits, jwt validation, and least privilege per function contained function scope, fewer abuse paths cold start trade-offs, policy sprawl data exfiltration and ransomware shadow egress, backup deletion, snapshot abuse egress allow-lists, dlp, tokenisation, and immutable backups egress gateways, object lock, key isolation lower exfil success, faster recovery dlp false positives, integration friction ddos and cryptojacking volumetric floods, unauthorised compute managed ddos, cdn, anomaly detection, quotas ddos services, billing alerts, and runtime anomaly rules cost control and quicker mitigation extreme events can still be expensive the taxonomy in table 1 is supported by empirical and standards-based sources cited throughout this section. identity and ciem entries are grounded in entitlement studies and zero trust guidance (fisher, 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022; rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). misconfiguration controls reflect posture research and policy as code experiences (colotti, 2023; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023). kubernetes rows reflect agency hardening and recent runtime research (cisa, 2022; eldjou et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; yilmaz & harding, 2024). serverless and api entries map to the owasp api taxonomy and practice reports (mallick & nath, 2024; owasp; türetken, 2024). data governance rows synthesise exfiltration and ransomware discussions with cryptographic protections (lal et al., 2022; sahar saeed et al., 2025; vidhya, 2024). ddos or cryptojacking rows align with moving target defence surveys and standard managed services (nguyen & debroy, 2022). pa ge 23 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 17-28 2025 table 2: search strategy, databases, and results retrieved from google scholar. defense category aws examples azure examples gcp examples open tools commonly used identity and ciem iam access analyser, access advisor entra pim, identity governance iam recommender, policy analyser cartography or cloudgraph, steampipe, prowler posture and policy as code security hub, config, scps defender for cloud, azure policy security command centre, org policies tfsec, checkov, opa gatekeeper, kyverno k8s runtime and supply chain eks podsecurity, inspector, guardduty eks defender for containers, aks policies gke workload identity, binary authorisation falco, trivy, cosign, slsa or provenance attestations serverless and api protections waf, api gateway, per-function iam waf, api management, functions rbac cloud armour, api gateway, per-service accounts owasp zap, schema validators, rate-limit plug-ins data and egress governance kms, macie, vpc egress, s3 object lock key vault, purview, private link, immutable vault kms, dlp, vpc-sc, cmek hashicorp vault, tink, tokeniser libs detection and response cloudtrail lake, guardduty, security hub sentinel, defender suite cloud logging, scc, chronicle sigma rules, elastic or loki, osquery or ebpf stacks table 3: metric dictionary metric definition practical note excess privilege rate percent of identities exceeding least-privilege baselines derive from ciem or logs; report monthly misconfiguration density misconfigs per 100 resources of a given type normalize by resource count for fairness detection coverage techniques covered vs in-scope att&ck techniques report per tactic family for clarity mttd and mttr mean time to detect or respond prefer medians if outliers skew means exfiltration success rate percent of simulated egress attempts that bypass controls pair with dlp false positive rate policy drift rate percent of resources deviating from baseline policy track before and after guardrail rollout table 2 operationalises the defences by pointing to named controls and tools that practitioners can configure today. the intent is not to prescribe a specific vendor but to reduce translation effort when moving from the taxonomy to an implementation plan. identity and ciem mappings highlight where to analyse and right-size entitlements (fisher, 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022). posture and policy entries identify the native policy engines and posture services that enforce denyby-default patterns and continuous assessment (colotti, 2023; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023). kubernetes lines connect admission and runtime concepts to managed offerings and standard open tools, reflecting the agency baseline’s emphasis on restricted privileges and verified artefacts (cisa, 2022; eldjou et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; yilmaz & harding, 2024). serverless and api rows surface the choke points where authentication, authorisation, and rate limiting can be enforced in gateways. in contrast, data and egress governance rows consolidate the key management and egress filtering constructs that underpin protection and recovery (lal et al., 2022; vidhya, 2024). the detection row underscores the value of unifying provider native telemetry into a normalised pipeline and expressing detection logic in portable formats aligned to att&ck techniques (deka et al., 2022; hegde et al., 2023). the metric dictionary in table 3 supports consistent evaluation. excess privilege rate is computable with ciem tools or log-derived inferences, and it reflects the core claim that least privilege reduces blast radius (fisher, 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022). misconfiguration density normalises posture findings across teams with different resource counts, preventing raw tallies from masking risk in larger estates (hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023). detection coverage, expressed as a ratio of covered to in-scope att&ck techniques, allows threatinformed planning and highlights gaps where telemetry or content is missing (cisa, 2022). time-based metrics pa ge 24 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 17-28 2025 such as mttd and mttr retain comparative value when medians are reported to reduce the distortion of outliers (deka et al., 2022). exfiltration success rate, measured through controlled simulations, should be paired with dlp false favourable rates to balance protection and usability (lal et al., 2022; vidhya, 2024). policy drift rate captures the health of preventive guardrails over time, and its reduction after policy-as-code rollouts is a practical signal that posture work is paying off (colotti, 2023; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023). taken together, the results support a staged but focused programme. identity first controls, continuous posture and policy enforcement, signed provenance with tuned runtime detection, and strong data or egress governance are repeatedly associated with reduced exposures and tighter containment when incidents occur (ali et al., 2025; alouffi et al., 2021; cisa, 2022; fernandez & brazhuk, 2024; morić et al., 2025; owasp; rose, 2022; stafford, 2020; tahirkheli et al., 2021). the provider mapping shows how to operationalise these findings without adopting an all-or-nothing platform stance, and the metric dictionary enables continuous measurement without manual audits. organisations that sequence these controls and measure consistently report more apparent progress and fewer surprises than those that accumulate tools without a shared taxonomy, a control mapping, or a metric backbone (colotti, 2023; fisher, 2025; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023; morić et al., 2025). table 1: a quick lookup that links dominant cloud threat classes to practical defences, concrete control patterns, expected outcomes, and common pitfalls. use it to justify choices and to ensure coverage across identity, posture, runtime, and data. table 2: a practitioner map that aligns each defence category with native controls on aws, azure, and gcp alongside standard open tools. it turns the taxonomy into actionable implementation handles without prescribing a single vendor path. table 3: a compact measurement glossary defining consistent, automatable metrics such as excess privilege rate, misconfiguration density, detection coverage, mttd or mttr, exfiltration success, and policy drift. it standardises evaluation across studies and real deployments. discussion the results suggest that durable risk reduction in cloud environments does not come from accumulating tools but from redesigning how access is granted, how configurations are created and enforced, how software artefacts are validated, and how data leaves the estate. put more plainly, the best outcomes arise when identityfirst policy is the default, policy as code stops drift before it deploys, provenance gates what may run, and egress controls plus resilient backups bound the damage when prevention fails (ali et al., 2025; alouffi et al., 2021; hegde et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; tahirkheli et al., 2021). this part then results in those findings and brings up operational trade-offs and then maps them into a twoset quarter plan which sequencing-minded teams can implement without vendor lock-in. the strongest lever is identity and entitlement management as it reduces the blast radius that an attacker can have, and the likelihood of a single vulnerable principal opening the door to an expansive layer of resources is reduced. the graph-informed review, automatic right-sizing, and short-lived credentials, based on evidence in the literature of entitlement studies, decrease unnecessary privileges and lateral movement opportunities in practice (fisher, 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022). the given practices are consistent with the zero trust advice that considers all requests unsatisfied until a policy and context are met. nevertheless, the technical reality is less complicated: the fewer standing privileges there are to exploit, the fewer options the attacker has to make, and the fewer signals the detection must wade through (rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). the task problem is the maintenance of the accuracy of the identity graph at a cloud scale. teams that pair ciem with periodic reviews and just-in-time elevation reports sustained improvements; teams that run one-off campaigns without automation see improvement decay as roles accrete again (fisher, 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022). the lesson is to institutionalise right-sizing as a process, not a project. misconfiguration is the fast path to loss because it exposes assets directly to the internet or to overly permissive internal networks. the strongest signal in the literature is that preventive guardrails enforced before deploy beat detective scanning after the fact. deny by default templates, organisation policies, and policy as code checks in the pipeline reduce public exposures and configuration drift more reliably than dashboards of misconfigurations alone (colotti, 2023; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023). that said, posture programs stumble when policy catalogues balloon and exceptions are granted ad hoc. studies that report stable gains focus on a small corpus of high-value policies, integrate them into developer workflows, and manage exceptions with expirations and review reports rather than email threads (colotti, 2023; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023). this is not a tooling victory so much as an operating model shift where developers, security, and platform engineers agree on the minimal viable guardrails and treat them as code. the end-to-end nature of workload security of containers and kubernetes makes sense: build something you can sign, admission-time check and run-time check. the agency guidance on kubernetes hardening has been adopted as the de facto minimum standard for operators of clusters, focusing on limited privileges, strong access control, and admission control (cisa, 2022). recent work has demonstrated that by adding image signing and provenance attestations and then enforcing those properties at admission, such properties significantly decrease the likelihood that untrusted artefacts run on the cluster (cesarano & natella, 2025; morić et al., 2025; pa ge 25 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 17-28 2025 yilmaz & harding, 2024). runtime detection, commonly achieved through the use of ebpf or rule-based engines, elevates signals to indicate escalation attempts and container misuse. nonetheless, it is most likely to cause alert fatigue unless configured with context either using build pipelines, constructing sboms, and cluster roles (eldjou et al., 2023; nguyen et al., 2023). the practical compromise reported by high-performing teams is to block on a small set of high-confidence admission policies and to treat runtime detection as an investigative safety net that is tuned over several weeks, not a day-one silver bullet (cisa, 2022; eldjou et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; yilmaz & harding, 2024). serverless and api centric designs demand discipline at the gateway and per-function identity layers. the owasp api security top 10 catalogues failure modes that appear directly in cloud workloads, including broken authorisation and unsafe consumption of third-party apis (owasp). case-driven work recommends rate limiting, schema validation, and robust jwt handling at the gateway, together with least privilege roles per function to avoid privilege sprawl (mallick & nath, 2024; türetken, 2024). the friction point is authoring hundreds or thousands of granular policies. one promising operational pattern is to generate candidate policies from traces and call graphs, review deltas in code review, and deploy per-function roles incrementally. programs that start at the gateway, then tighten function roles from observed behaviour, report fewer breakages and more durable improvements than those that attempt a top-down policy rewrite first (mallick & nath, 2024; owasp; türetken, 2024). data exfiltration and ransomware outcomes in cloud environments are susceptible to egress governance and backup integrity. analytical reviews and field reports converge on a combination that works: egress allow lists or gateways to constrain outbound paths, tokenisation to reduce the value of exposed records, object or vault locks to prevent malicious deletion, and rehearsed recovery playbooks to shorten downtime (lal et al., 2022; sahar saeed et al., 2025; vidhya, 2024). the most frequent pitfall is collateral damage in case of the introduction of egress rules or dlp patterns in an over-aggressive way. research which did not prolong disruption also used staged domain-based egress controls and presented dlp dictionaries progressively, checked false favourable ratios as a 1st-class measure, narrowing as confidence increased (lal et al., 2022; sahar saeed et al., 2025; vidhya, 2024). the broader lesson is that data protection programs succeed when they measure both protection and friction and iterate toward balance. the detection and response story is less about inventing novel algorithms and more about speaking a common language and wiring telemetry so that investigations cross cloud boundaries without translation cost. the mitre att&ck enterprise cloud matrices provide a stable technique vocabulary that covers infrastructure, saas, idp, and office suites, as well as programs that map detections to techniques. this approach reports clearer coverage, accounting, and a more rational backlog for content engineering (dieterich). on the analytics side, semi-supervised and range-based anomaly detection works when features are engineered to reflect expected elasticity and burstiness rather than fixed thresholds better suited to static data centres (deka et al., 2022; tatineni, 2023). importantly, the best performing programs treat att&ck mapping and log normalisation as platform work, not a series of incident-specific projects. they publish simple coverage metrics that product teams can understand and improve (dieterich; hegde et al., 2023). multi-cloud compounds each of these themes. it multiplies identity silos, policy engines, and default configurations, increasing the likelihood that exceptions creep in and visibility becomes fragmented (ali et al., 2025; lata & kumar, 2025; potla, 2025; sivaseelan, 2024). the practical stance supported by the literature is to choose a minimal set of common nouns and control patterns that can be implemented on each cloud and to measure with normalised metrics rather than trying to force uniformity where platforms differ (ali et al., 2025; hegde et al., 2023). for example, ciem right-sizing, deny-by-default deployment templates, image signing and admission verification, and egress allow lists exist on all three major providers, even if the service names differ. a program that implements those four patterns consistently across clouds will outperform a program that standardises a niche control on one provider while neglecting fundamentals on another (fisher, 2025; hegde et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025). cost and usability considerations surface repeatedly as adoption constraints. runtime detection produces noise until tuned; egress controls and dlp cause breakages until patterns are calibrated; per-function least privilege increases initial developer friction. the consistent answer in the sources is staged rollout with explicit success metrics. teams that start with a small, high confidence rule set, provide clear exception pathways, and publish weekly metrics on excess privilege rate, misconfiguration density, detection coverage, exfiltration success under simulation, and policy drift build credibility and avoid whiplash (colotti, 2023; deka et al., 2022; dieterich; fisher, 2025; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023; neelakandhan et al., 2022). in other words, measurement fluency is not a reporting exercise but a leadership tool that allows controlled tightening without losing the organisation. two future-facing threads deserve brief comment. first, confidential computing promises protection of data in use for certain workload classes, and there is emerging evidence that heterogeneous trusted execution environments can be orchestrated at cloud scale. still, performance and operational maturity need careful evaluation before broad production deployment (chen, 2023; dhar et al., 2024). second, software supply chain assurance continues to evolve from sboms to signed provenance and policy-driven enforcement in admission controllers. at the same time, the direction is clear: teams should anticipate operational cost in maintaining pa ge 26 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(4) 17-28 2025 signing and verification infrastructure and in reconciling third-party artefact trust (nguyen et al., 2023; yilmaz & harding, 2024). these areas are promising but should augment, not displace, the core controls above. limitations of this review reflect the broader field. studies vary in methodology and environment realism, and several topics rely on standards and guidance rather than controlled trials. a subset of sources are preprints or theses that we treated as emerging evidence. where findings conflicted, we emphasised directionality and operational caveats instead of forcing consensus (ahmadi, 2024; ali et al., 2025; alouffi et al., 2021; hegde et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; tahirkheli et al., 2021). the synthesis still supports explicit action for practitioners because the repeated patterns are robust across sources and align with platform primitives that teams already operate. translating the synthesis into action requires sequencing. table 4 provides a two-quarter implementation plan keyed to organisational maturity. its purpose is not to exhaust the catalog of possible controls but to stage a handful of high-leverage moves that create compounding benefit and produce measurable improvement on the metric dictionary. quarter 1 emphasises identity hygiene and posture guardrails because they reduce risk quickly and raise the floor across the estate. quarter 2 deepens control with runtime tuning, api gateway protections, egress governance, and resilience investments. table 4: two-quarter implementation plan by maturity maturity level quarter 1 priorities quarter 2 priorities starting enforce mfa, remove long-lived keys, enable baseline cspm, fix public exposures deny-by-default deploys, egress allow-lists for sensitive paths, enable immutable backups intermediate ciem right-sizing, policy as code in ci, image signing and provenance tune runtime detection, api gateway limits and schema validation, periodic drift reports advanced graph-driven least privilege, attestations in build and deploy, drift slos unified detections mapped to att&ck, egress governance at scale, post-incident hardening playbooks table 4 sequences controls that the evidence base supports and that exist on all major providers. identity and ciem steps cut excess privilege rates and reduce lateral movement opportunities (fisher, 2025; neelakandhan et al., 2022). cspm with deny-by-default patterns curbs misconfiguration density and policy drift (colotti, 2023; hegde et al., 2023; jimmy, 2023). image signing, provenance, and admission checks deny untrusted artefacts entry into clusters, while runtime tuning improves catch rates without debilitating noise (cisa, 2022; eldjou et al., 2023; morić et al., 2025; yilmaz & harding, 2024). api gateway protections and schema validation address owasp documented failure modes, and per-function least privilege reduces serverless blast radius as automation matures (mallick & nath, 2024; owasp; türetken, 2024). egress allow lists and immutable backups limit data loss and speed recovery, with rehearsals to make resilience real, not rhetorical (lal et al., 2022; sahar saeed et al., 2025; vidhya, 2024). unified detections aligned to att&ck, supported by normalised provider logs, raise investigative fluency and clarify remaining content gaps (dhar et al., 2024). in summary, the cloud security story since 2020 is not that everything changed, but that the centre of gravity moved. identity became the real perimeter; policy as code became the best place to intercept drift. provenance and admission control became the way to assert trust in what runs, and egress governance, along with resilient backups, became the way to bound harm. teams that execute these moves deliberately, measure with a compact metric set, and iterate through staged rollouts avoid the twin failures of static perimeters and tool sprawl. the tables in this paper are intended to make that path specific. they provide a common language for architects, platform owners, and security engineers to select controls, configure them on their respective providers, and accurately track their performance. with that scaffolding in place, the open problems in unified saas and idp detection, as well as in practical data in-use protections, can be pursued without leaving the fundamentals undone (chen, 2023; cisa, 2022; dhar et al., 2024; rose, 2022; stafford, 2020). table 4: construct and measurement map aligning tqm dimensions, decision properties, and performance outcomes across included studies, with examples of operational indicators used by authors and notes on validated instruments or proxies to support comparability in the synthesis. conclusion a focused set of identity-first, posture, runtime, and data or egress controls delivers durable risk reduction, outperforming tool sprawl. teams should phase in adoption, track a small set of metrics, and prioritise automation for least privilege and drift detection while advancing research on unified saas or idp detection and data-in-use protections. refrences adewale, t. 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(2024). securing the software supply chain for containers: practices and challenges in a cloud-native landscape for a global observatory. software and cyberinfrastructure for astronomy viii. pa ge 1 pa ge 1 american journal of interdisciplinary research and innovation (ajiri) the nomadic lifestyle of the blaan tribe: a phenomenological study louie rodney m. mintal1* volume 4 issue 1, year 2025 issn: 2833-2237 (online) doi: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajiri.v4i1.3724 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri article information abstract received: october 25, 2024 accepted: november 27, 2024 published: january 08, 2025 this research aimed to investigate the nomadic lifestyle of the blaan tribe, focusing on the life situation of the blaan people in davao occidental. it explored the lived experiences of these nomadic people, their coping mechanisms, and their insights into engaging in a nomadic way of life. the study employed a qualitative research approach, specifically a phenomenological study design. a purposive sampling method was used to select participants. the results yielded four essential themes reflecting the lived experiences of the nomadic people: limited access to basic needs, environmental vulnerability, limited economic opportunities, and social marginalization. three themes were identified regarding the coping mechanisms employed by the nomadic people: embrace flexibility, practice mindfulness in all ways, and set goals. regarding the insights of the nomadic people, three themes emerged: cultural awareness, adaptability, and goal setting. the findings highlight the need for policymakers and organizations to address the basic needs of the blaan tribe, including food, water, shelter, and healthcare. environmental protection efforts are crucial to support their nomadic lifestyle, while sustainable livelihood opportunities could improve their economic situation. to combat social marginalization, initiatives should focus on raising awareness and understanding of nomadic cultures. keywords davao occidental, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, nomadic lifestyle, nomadic people, philippines 1 university of mindanao, main-offsite matanao campus, davao city, philippines * corresponding author’s e-mail: l.mintal.521759@umindanao.edu.ph introduction unstable communities with limited resources, such as food, clothing, money, and shelter characterize nomadic lifestyles. these communities often move regularly or occasionally, seeking opportunities and avoiding danger (mallinson, 2021). the blaan tribe, one of the nomadic tribes in mindanao, faces problems such as a stable food source, proper residencies, livelihood programs, and job opportunities in society. hunting and gathering food have become a significant issue in their community, possibly because of modernization and technological advancement. most of their time is spent wandering for weeks to find food in the vast forest, which is characteristic of nomadism due to the unstable process of obtaining daily sustenance. notwithstanding their lack of resources, they were egalitarian, scrounging together enough food to subsist and building rudimentary shelters for everyone (history, 2019). studying this topic is crucial as it addresses common issues faced by indigenous people (ip), particularly the blaan tribe, who are being isolated from modern civilization. the study may contribute to existing knowledge by documenting learning experiences about cultures, traditions, and beliefs, which are rarely found in research environments due to their sensitivity and support. historically, nomads have always been innate, as seen in the blaan people’s history of hunting, gathering, and pastoralizing (gill, 2021). some communities defy urban norms, embracing perpetual movement (futterman, 2023). traveling concepts are heuristic tools for communicating across disciplinary, professional, and cultural boundaries (rossini, 2020). the bilaan, b’laan, or blaan is a tribal community of southern mindanao. this aboriginal group’s name, bla and an, translates to “opponent people.” their original habitat is the hills close to the davao gulf, which borders the bagobo tribe’s land, as well as the watersheds of the davao and cotabato. their culture has been changing very rapidly. their houses are built and scattered about the swidden fields, generally within sight of each other, and neighborhoods are managed and governed by hereditary tribal chieftains (cal state east bay, 2022). early humans lived as nomads because they did not have a stable food source with which to live. they had to forage for their source of food, travel in small groups, and carry light loads. they rely on one another and are very much together (homework, 2023). most nomadic people around us today perceive the nomadic lifestyle as heaven, but it can also be fruitless and unpleasant for them. they work hard to preserve their ancient cultural beliefs and behaviors, surviving against the odds of climate change and urban encroachment on their territorial lands. most of their problems are the pressures of wars, internal strife, and unstable consumption. people have no permanent addresses, and tragedies, catastrophes, crimes, and illegal residencies are possible (become nomad, 2020). nomadic communities exist globally, including huntergatherers like the tlingit of alaska and british columbia, pastoral nomads like iran nomads and the sarakatsani of bulgaria, and peripatetic nomads (iran nomad tours, 2021). the blaan people culturally resemble other nomadic tribes in the world, such as the kochi people of southern and eastern afghanistan, the bedouin people of the negev desert, and the sámi people in scandinavia pa ge 2 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 and russia (orlando, 2019). modern nomads in the philippines often live-in various locations worldwide, focusing on job-hunting and business establishment (history, 2018). they prefer areas with low accommodation prices, such as manila, baguio, boracay island, and makati for commercial centers. visayas, cebu, and palawan are popular destinations for vacation and business-related activities. davao in mindanao is a popular destination for digital nomads (taylor, 2020). however, traffic and internet connectivity issues can make these areas unreliable havens for exploited runaways (burdette, 2021). despite these challenges, the philippines offers a simple and peaceful environment with amazing people and incredible quiescence (lang, 2022). nomadic culture is known for its military prowess, often linked to cultural existentialism or genetic predisposition. horse nomads of inner asia derived from a paramilitary lifestyle, practicing horsemanship and archery to protect their herds (science encyclopedia, 2021). nomads used tactics like guerilla warfare, exhausting enemies and retreating dispersed (qaszaqstan tarihy, 2018). the blaan people, on the other hand, have a unique leadership system, choosing leaders based on their grit, diligence, care for their members, and ability to mediate disputes. their leader is chosen and must possess great qualifications of a leader (apas, 2021). nomadism is a rapidly emerging mobile lifestyle, characterized by work-traveling and traveling-working individuals. societal changes, such as mobility, technology, and flexible employment drive this lifestyle. this way of living is becoming much more common, yet knowledge of the subject is lacking, as is a comprehensive viewpoint. dispersed across various disciplines and views, the developing literature on this topic is disjointed (olga, 2020). to stay within their means, modern nomads must create a realistic travel budget, considering expenses like visa fees, transportation, housing, food, and insurance (haan, 2023). on the other hand, the rise in nomadic lifestyles is largely due to the expanding distant job market. every year there is an increase of jobs allowing them to work from home or a remote location (diaz, 2023). studies have shown that nomadic herder communities in mongolia face unprecedented climate risks threatening their livelihoods (tugjamba et al., 2021). research on nomadic pastoralists highlighted the need for government participation to boost productivity and ensure food security (muhammad et al., 2021). digital nomadism is driven by societal changes, such as increased mobility, technology, and flexible employment (hannonen, 2020). the nomadic lifestyle is changing industries that support it, including real estate, hospitality, and work (diaz, 2023). however, nomads remain one of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups, facing challenges with formal education (hays et al., 2022). this study is anchored in several theories that align with nomadism. on the other hand, other studies showed the type of protest, its location, and type of media outlet were significantly related to whether news stories adhered to the protest paradigm (harlow et al., 2020). moreover, the findings highlighted that the conflict actors formed frames such as identity-relational, affective-intellectual, and compromise-win frames as the drivers of the conflict (boateng, 2020). additionally, nomad savages perceived as raiders and looters, not strategists or makers of policy. yet, the nomad leaders were smart enough to know not only military tactics but as well as strategy and how best to impose their political will on the hapless and sedentary empires that faced them (essen, 2020). also, their main daily business is livestock farming, there are many sources of revenue, and it is determined by diverse and abundant economic activities mainly on smallscale pastoralism. and, looking at the actual pasture use, we see that there has no clear line between private pasture and common land (evenki, 2020). on the other hand, there are several barriers to inclusive growth. companies feel individually responsible for managing tourism assets, and maintain the guise of pastoral authenticity, they limit pastoralists’ participation in business through informal and contingent work contracts (shircliff, 2020). in addition, with their nomadic lifestyle and begging occupation, they appeared to be in the ancient huntergatherer stage of human social development. due to the situation of the nat community, they were found to be illiterate, poor, and marginalized (shrestha, 2019). on the other hand, since nomads cope successfully with social and ecological problems in areas where other people do not want to live, their way of life deserves careful attention (spooner, 2021). further, new hunter-gatherer cultures share some traits and are also quite different from each other. we focus on what cross-cultural researchers have found about hunter-gatherer lifestyles (ember, 2020). also, nomads are known for their migration. they migrate periodically in a year and return to their first place. there are about 30-40 million nomads around the globe (iran nomad tours, 2020). further, nomadism is a definite type of economic activity. at the same time, there is an emulation of a culture where the popular majority engages in mobile, extensive nomadic pastoralism. it is significant that not many pastoralists are nomads (kradin, 2021). moreover, the worldwide economy of production, subjecting humanity to political, social, sanitary, and climatic transformations and imperatives, brings to the fore the question of the future of nomadism. the abandonment of the nomadic way of life has been so radical and intensified in the contemporary period (guilleux, 2021). furthermore, the philippines has intercepted the management of overseas migration based on its bureaucracy and policies for the migrant sector. migration also rose for decades with the morphological economic constraints (opiniano, 2020). on the other hand, the authenticity of intangible cultural heritage has a valuable positive effect on destination satisfaction and loyalty, which increases related research on the authenticity of intangible cultural heritage destinations (tian et al., 2020). the idea of a world where economic pa ge 3 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 efficiency solely drives patterns of international flows was always a myth. globalization has always been an uneven process of cross-country differences and international conflicts mitigating international flows (altman & bastian, 2022). moreover, the world migration report 2022, the eleventh in the world migration report series, has been produced to contribute to an increased understanding of migration and mobility over the world (international organization for migration, 2022). in addition, the policymakers should consider strategies to reduce structural inequality and encourage access to healthy foods and community-supported agricultural programs as nutritional interventions in low-income population settings (zare et al., 2021). also, the significance of cultural diversity is that it offers an opportunity for inclusiveness for both the majority and the minorities in society and helps to promote respect and acknowledge the presence of other people from different ethnic groups (durison & white, 2021). likewise, chartering for diversity is not just a fad. and the philippines is not short of diversity. it has always been reminisced that the best way to manage these people is to respect them, and they can be your business’ competitive advantage (cabrera, 2019). moreover, embracing cultural diversity is a priceless opportunity to alleviate poverty, empower communities, and promote peace (global heritage fund, 2022). literature review conversely, embracing cultural diversity is essential because it helps us learn about and appreciate different ways of life. by learning about other cultures, we can gain new perspectives and ideas that we might not have thought of before (jess man, 2021). gaining cultural competence is a lifelong process of increasing selfawareness, developing social skills and behaviors around diversity, and gaining an ability to advocate for others (de guzman et al., 2022). on the other hand, postmodern authenticity positively anticipates presence, satisfaction, and travel intention and has a rigid effect on the sense of presence (zhu et al., 2021). moreover, the findings imply a marked influence of organizational systems and family culture on financial performance. market orientation fully mediates the effect of family culture and partly mediates the outcome of organizational systems on fiscal performance (köhr et al., 2019). in addition, researchers organize success in developing partnerships by understanding tribal diversity and incorporating cultural beliefs into their programs, planning for extended timelines, and establishing in advance appropriate communication and data-sharing policies (national institute of justice, 2022). on the other hand, results indicated gender differences. males showed a significant association between family problems and stress, family problems and drug problems, stress and depression, marijuana use, and sti status. females displayed essential associations between the stress factor and family problems, drug problems, and elevated depression. implications for the findings are conferred (wareham et al., 2020). this study shows that stronger familial cohesion and better parent-child relationships are associated with better self-rated health, higher life satisfaction, more prosocial behavior, and less problematic conduct, and thus these associations are more efficacious than those for family structure (herke et al., 2020). furthermore, deped plans to support long-term community development through education initiatives that can promote responsive and pandemic-relevant indigenous community knowledge, like indigenous farming and health systems, through rural farm schools, senior high school offerings, and similar initiatives (department of education, 2021). sociologically, social inequality can be intentional as a social problem that encloses three dimensions such as structural conditions, ideological supports, and social reforms (crossman, 2020). also, the results of this study showed the chance for each group of residents to teach their personal beliefs and put forward equality over differences in the making of harmonious community life (srikandi et al., 2021). moreover, participant experiences revealed how racism operates as a socio-cultural phenomenon that interacts with institutional policy and culture across systems about social responsiveness, risk discourse, and mental health service structures (manuel et al., 2023). in addition, indigenous peoples (ips) are disproportionately affected by climate change due to such ramifications as rising sea levels, extreme weather events, droughts, forest fires, and coastal erosion (international work group for indigenous affairs, 2022). also, lumad-mindanao’s main objective was to achieve self-determination for their member tribes, meaning self-government within their ancestral domains and by their customary laws under the sovereignty of the republic (buchholdt, 2021). on the other hand, this sustainable project creates an enduring development in the quality of life of the people involved (nassar et al., 2018). today, examples of marginalized populations include groups that are exclusive due to race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical ability, or language. this intersection between marginalization and health outcomes becomes further evident in the discourse on social determinants of health (pratt & fowler, 2022). correspondingly, the culture-based healthcare practices of bangsamoro residents, revealing similarities and differences among tribes. it highlights challenges nurses face during health education and suggests a need for more culturally sensitive healthcare activities (agga, 2022). on the other hand, sri lanka has implemented a four-day workweek to prepare public sector workers for the country’s financial crisis. the plan encourages farming and aims to help pay for essential imports. however, employees still work even on national holidays due to longer travel times, high travel expenses, and traffic congestion. a study found a moderate work-life balance among employees at government schools, divisional secretariats, and hospitals in nintavur (aroosiya, 2022). similarly, to preserve the blaan cultural heritage and pa ge 4 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 diverse income sources of the blaan, health futures foundations, inc. (hfi) launched the fanday project. the fanday is an initiative to enable the transfer of knowledge from the old masters of the craft to the younger generation through training workshops (sare, 2020). on the other hand, among the findings of the task force was that the lumad schools deviated from the curriculum set by the deped that the school officials made it mandatory for the learners to join anti-government rallies and that the schools teach them to rebel against the government (rappler, 2019). finally, it is essential to remember that keeping your traditions alive will take work and dedication (faster capital, 2023). moreover, it talks about the maintenance of care to indigenous and non-indigenous clients that increases the circle of care and transfigures knowledge to include the wealth of knowledge that inhabits the community (paul, 2021). further, humans think to be mere residents of the land. places, humans, and nonhuman beings are interlinked in ways and investigated through participatory and digital cartography. mapping these beings reveals an interactive landscape. its epistemology encourages anthropologist to question their views and representations of space and understand how they may differ from local perspectives (laugrand, 2021). on the other hand, the result of analyzing both secondary and primary sources appears that proverbs in indigenous ethical values of the sidama society have both normative and descriptive ethical roles that include reflecting on deontological, teleological, virtues, descriptive, customary practice, social laws, and development ethics of the society (woldemedihin, 2020). successful collaboration appeals to indigenous regulatory systems to be merged with existing modern or statutory laws to ensure sustainable land use, the conservation of natural resources, and the promotion of biodiversity (bardy et al., 2022) lastly, the related literatures used in this research are very reliable sources to support the content of this research. it has supporting details to stand its viewpoint. all these research studies help to connect with its thoughts, ideas, and concepts of this research because of its relevant learnings and manifested standpoints. aside from that, it has a purpose to relate the meaning of this research to other research studies to make it applicable to any phenomenological cited literatures. therefore, this has valuable information and explanation in the matter of how to resolve the problematic scenarios. moreover, all issues discussed in this study will automatically be addressed based on the given manifestations of knowledge and expertise. this study is anchored in the theory of roger’s theory of personality explains what causes people to behave differently in the same situation and the consistency of individuals in responding across situations (alidemi & fejza, 2021). additionally, this is based on kelly’s theory of personal construct, which suggests that people develop rules or constructs to interpret events based on their previous experiences. this theory is particularly relevant to nomadic lifestyles, as it explains how individuals adapt to and interpret their changing environments (sridharan, 2022; cherry, 2020). moreover, the study draws on social reconstructionism (florida state college jacksonville [fscj], 2018), which emphasizes addressing social questions and creating a better society. this approach will help reconstruct a stable perspective of nomadism among the blaan tribe, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of their lifestyle and challenges. despite the growing prevalence of nomadic lifestyles in our increasingly mobile world, comprehensive knowledge and understanding of this phenomenon remain surprisingly limited. the existing literature on nomadism is fragmented and disjointed, scattered across various academic disciplines and perspectives, ranging from anthropology and sociology to economics and environmental studies. this fragmentation has resulted in a lack of cohesive research that fully captures the complexities and nuances of modern nomadic lifestyles. this gap in cohesive, interdisciplinary research not only limits our academic understanding but also hampers the development of effective policies and support systems for nomadic communities. therefore, there is a pressing need for more integrated, comprehensive studies that bridge these disparate viewpoints and disciplines. such research would not only contribute to the academic discourse but also provide valuable insights for policymakers, social workers, and others engaged with nomadic populations. this study aims to explore the culture of the nomadic blaan people in malita, davao occidental. specifically, it seeks to answer three primary questions. first, what are the lived experiences of blaan engaged in nomadism? second, what are the coping mechanisms of blaan engaged in nomadism? lastly, what insights can be shared by the nomadic blaan from their experiences of being nomadic? this study holds significant value for various stakeholders and may contribute to the broader understanding of nomadic cultures, particularly the blaan tribe in malita, davao occidental. primarily, it may benefit the local government units near the tribal community by providing insights that can inform policy-making and community support initiatives. educational institutions, including the alternative learning system (als), indigenous people (ip) pilot schools, and tribal filipino school youth (tfsy), may gain knowledge to enhance their curricula and teaching approaches for indigenous students. most importantly, the blaan community itself may benefit from this research, as it aims to document and preserve their unique culture and traditions, potentially strengthening their cultural identity in the face of modernization. moreover, this study has broader societal implications by promoting understanding and respect for nomadic cultures, which can lead to more inclusive policies and attitudes toward indigenous communities. the study has several limitations and delimitations that should be noted. the research is limited to participants from remote areas of malita, davao occidental, pa ge 5 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 specifically in the barangays of little baguio, lagumit, ticulon, and bito. this geographical constraint may limit the generalizability of findings to other nomadic blaan communities. additionally, some participants may have limited formal education, which could affect their ability to articulate their experiences fully. in terms of delimitations, the study will use purposive sampling to collect data, focusing solely on the nomadic lifestyle of the blaan tribe. it will not touch on information unrelated to this topic to maintain focus and depth in the research. the study will also respect the privacy of the participants and avoid excessive exposure to their personal lives, which may limit some aspects of data collection but is essential for ethical research conduct. these limitations and delimitations are designed to ensure a focused, ethical study while acknowledging the constraints that may impact the research outcomes. materials and methods study participants the participants of the study were the blaan people of malita, davao occidental. their characteristics were excellent in abaca (manila hemp), mat and rattan weaving, beads making, blacksmith, handloom embroideries, and crafting musical instruments out of animal skin, bamboo, and forest trees. they have a sustainable approach to resource imposition, with traditional practices and beliefs that promote conservation and respect for the natural world (scispace, 2023). on the other hand, this study utilized the purposive sampling technique in gathering information about the nomadic lifestyle of the blaan tribe in malita, davao occidental. its strategies moved away from any random form of sampling and were strategies to make sure that specific kinds of cases that could be enclosed were part of the final sample in the research study (campbell et al., 2020). thus, generating the qualifying criteria for each participant was predefined and must be met to be considered in this research study. the inclusion criteria are the essentials of an article that must be present to be qualified for inclusion in a literature review (university of missouri – st. louis, 2023). first, the participants must belong to the blaan tribe community. next, be able to converse in their native dialect. then, should not involve any crimes or culprits to avoid danger at risk. the participants must be bonafide blaan. the exclusion criteria list the features of a person that, if met, immediately deems that person ineligible to participate in the study (hornberger & rangu. 2020). it means that other people are excluded in participating the research study. also, the withdrawal criteria described the participants may withdraw consent from the study before study completion if they decide to do so, at any time and for any reason participants (bmj open, 2020). they had freedom to join or withdraw from the activity if they were comfortable making an appeal. according to shetty (2018) the sample size of the participants was at least twenty (20) because it the required number of the participants to participate. they were qualified as nomadic people due to their way of life engaged in nomadism. also, the right age of the participants to join were ranging from eighteen (18) years old for women and twenty-one (21) years old for men. to communicate in their original tongue, they must be proficient. the duration of the activity took three (3) to four (4) minutes, adhered on the speed of the research participants. at this point, all the research materials had legal support from reliable journals and literatures used during the research activity. also, the sampling technique that i used was the purposive sampling technique, in which researchers involved the selection of samples based on some pre-established criteria. put differently, purposive sampling intentionally chooses units (nikolopoulou, 2023). they have characteristics that you need in the given samples. this kind of research might use it on its own. in addition, there were no risks at the study site, and all misunderstandings were settled lawfully in the local community. it was more decent and purposeful since it required in-depth analysis and justification of thoughts about the nomadic lifestyle. materials and instrument the instruments used in this research study was the interview guide, which acquired shared and lived experiences of the participants. it is written in english language and translated into their native dialect. it had three (3) research questions, three (3) guide questions and ten (10) probing questions. the research questions were the main issue that needs to take attention. the guide questions discussed your expectations about the topic. while the probing questions were created to develop the knowledge and understanding for the individual. the probing questions were used to asked the participants. it was a researcher-made because everything based on its given criteria without plagiarism. it includes printed and verbal questions for in-depth interviews (idis) and focus group discussions (fgds). for data validation, it is essential to analyze it in a systematic and transparent way (linkedin, 2023). in addition, the research questionnaire was checked and validated by the panel members and the external validator. it is to check the thought of the research questionnaire and its purpose. in this process, the external research validator referred to the study questionnaire’s validation document. after that, it was sent to the panel members for the validation process. revisions and validation of the final questionnaire were applied to make it authentic and valid. the panel members and the external validator gave their ratings after checking the final questionnaire. indeed, it enhanced the essentialities of validating the research when it came to its implications and in making prospects for a progressive research study. eventually, to develop its final research instrument were to measure the data presented by examining documents, observing behaviors, and interviewing the participants using openended questions. pa ge 6 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 design and procedure this study employed phenomenology because of its phenomenological analysis that attested to the lived experiences of the blaan people in malita, davao occidental. phenomenology is the concise and engaging introduction to one of the philosophical movements of the 20th century. the goal of phenomenology is to understand relationship to the world that is assumed by any such empirical research, not to acquire new empirical knowledge about various parts of the world (zahavi, 2019). in this study, the researcher explored the lived experiences of the blaan people, their coping mechanisms, and insights about nomadic lifestyle. on the other hand, the general plan to decide on to integrate the many study components logically and cogently, guaranteeing it will successfully handle the research topic, is the research design. it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement, and analysis of data (kirshenblatt-gimblett, 2020). this study utilized qualitative design and open-ended communication to gather data on higher order thinking skills. these were the “who, what, when, why, and how”. the research was relevant to indigenous people (ip) who needed help understanding their culture and history (watson, 2019). in addition, descriptive phenomenology was used to understand subjective experiences and gain insights into actions and motivations. the study also provided moral and psychological lessons, challenging conventional wisdom, and fostering fresh hypotheses (deakin university, 2023). on the other hand, it was phenomenal because of the type of research that acquired lived or shared experiences of the participants, their coping mechanisms for their nomadic culture, and their insights about nomadism. the research also gained insights into the blaan ethnic group’s nomadic culture. also, working with data to extract usable knowledge that can utilized to make wise judgments are known as data analysis. it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data (staff, 2023). since this study used a purposive sampling technique through in-depth interviews (idis) and focus group discussions (fgds) with the participants, the way to collect the data was very flexible. an in-depth interview was qualitative research technique that involved conducting multiple individual interviews. they involved oneon-one engagement with participants, usually taking place face-to-face, either remotely or inperson (dopson, 2021). while focus group discussion was frequently used as a qualitative approach to gain an in-depth understanding of social issues. the approach was to collect data from a deliberately chosen sample of people instead of a statistically representative sample of the general population. even though the application of this method in conservation research had been extensive, there were no critical assessment of the application of the technique (nyumba et al., 2018). the typology of this research focuses on cultural philosophy, which was even more specific to humans that they seemed to have the capacity to used symbolic systems to communicate. it refers to practices of information exchange that are not genetic or epigenetic (borghini, 2019). it describes groups of participants displaying different clusters of behaviors, attitudes, or views of the world using descriptive names of type (association of qualitative research [aqr], 2021). on the other hand, the study is related to cultural understanding of phenomenology, focusing on the nomadic lifestyle practice of the blaan tribe in davao occidental. the research took two (2) to three (3) months and was implemented through an initiative to explore the unique customs, traditions, and beliefs of the blaan tribe, ensuring that cultural changes do not disappear from every culture worldwide. in this way, my role as a researcher was to conduct a study based on the life situation of the blaan tribe engaged in nomadism. in my opinion, a researcher was someone who not only conducted research but also provided answers to lots of questions. so, the data being gathered were monitored because it was very important to check it to avoid loss of data output. keeping records of the finished output was obligatory to ensure data privacy and security. then, analyzed the different perspectives and individuals’ experiences of the participants, emphasizing the purpose of the study being conducted in their community. also, i tried to find evidence of my research even if it was very risky to do it. it was because of the unexpected phenomena that would occur in the environment. for this research, the techniques and strategies being used should be able to expand the knowledge and understanding of the content. at the end of the study, this research could be used as a reference for any kind of study because it had meaningful value for information dissemination and other related studies. in this study, the researcher sought immediate advice from the professor of the graduate school to conduct a study. after that, it was submitted to the research panels for critiques and revisions. once the revisions were finished, the interview guide was created for the data gathering procedure as a subject for validation by experts from the graduate school. purposive sampling is a method that was applied. the researcher would set a schedule for an interview with the participants to gather the data from them. for many hours of travels just to reach their local communities in the far-flung areas of davao occidental, it felt so incredible because of the wonderful experiences we had especially when we talked to them and discussed many things about their life situation engaged in nomadism. i am very proud that i belong to this tribe because i can easily talk to them and i can relate their views and opinion based on their shared experiences. before the interview, the researcher should do the following. first, provide an approved recommendation letter from the national commission on indigenous people (ip) office and the tribal chieftain to conduct an interview with the participants. next, ensure the participants’ security and privacy. then, discuss the topic’s pa ge 7 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 content. after that, obtain an interview consent form. lastly, inform the participants about the documentation process. to get the data needed in this study, the researcher oriented the participants about the research and asked for their consent before information gathering. a minimum of fifteen (15) minutes and a maximum of one (1) hour would be set for the participants during the interview. before it started, communication via intent letter or phone call was sent to the barangay with the local officials and tribal chieftain. it was important to have conversations with them so that there was a smooth and legal process for conducting this study. it was necessary to collate the important data and shred it in all sorts of ways. the researcher allowed the participants to use a pseudonym or alias for individual security purposes. also, the study utilized thematic analysis to gather qualitative data from interview transcripts, social media profiles, and survey responses. data analysis involves applying tools methodically to describe, infer conclusions from, or analyze data (jankielewicz & whiting). the process involved a systematic approach, including transcription, reading and familiarization, coding, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining, and naming for themes, and writing up. in this case, transcription was a demanding process, but transcription software was used for a fast and efficient process. reading and familiarization were crucial for identifying interesting aspects of the data. coding was done manually or using software, and semantic codes were used to present participants’ experiences more realistically. searching for themes involved identifying broader patterns of data that could be used to answer the research question. reviewing themes ensured that they were useful and accurate representations of the data. defining and naming themes involved determining the precise meaning of each theme and how it aided in understanding the data. writing up the thematic analysis required an introduction to the research questions and aims. moreover, all issues discussed in this study will automatically be addressed based on the given manifestations of knowledge and expertise and approach, as well as accurate details of the participants’ output and the themes, concepts, and views in the study. in addition, trustworthiness refers to reliable sources for research, allowing people to accept findings and use them to inform public policy and guide individual and community action. it is tested through credibility, conformability, dependability, and transferability (jordan et al., 2021.) first, credibility refers to the quality of research as a credible source of information and honest thought, making the researcher more informed (university of washington libraries, 2021). with the help of the research panels, i should be able to obtain specific data from the research to formulate a successful research study. next, conformability refers to the stepby-step process of conducting research, starting with the basic needs of a community, and ensuring objectivity during data collection and analysis. it indicated a means to demonstrate quality (fleming, 2019). this research was conformable due to its leveled process and intelligent observation of participants’ experiences, demonstrating quality and dedication toward humanistic values. then, dependability refers to the dependable actions of the research to achieve the main course of objectives, ensuring factual data and stability over time and conditions (universal teacher, 2022). this research was reliable due to its legal documentary resources and legal documentation, allowing for the transfer of findings to other contexts. after that, transferability refers to the general findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the research study, which can be generalized or transferred to other contexts (insights association, 2021). this process had transferable information because it was easy to comprehend its thoughts and objectives. thus, it would provide a great structure of ideas and manifestations of information that could be used for journals, editorials, and other research studies. as a researcher, i will ensure the data validity and participant responses by adhering to tribal protocol and national commission of indigenous people (ip) rules for security, cultural sensitivity, and proper behavior. further, this study was conducted with a strong adherence to the ethical protocols and guidelines set forth by the university of mindanao ethics committee. the researcher thoroughly requested and secured from key school officials conforming permission needed to complete this research. the researcher ensured the correctness of identified recruiting parties and conducted a review of level of risks and measures to mitigate these risks (including physical, psychological, and social economic. suitable permission and agreement were correspondingly obtained from the sample of the study, in which they were assure that all their rights would be fully protected, explicitly the data include, but not restricted to. the researcher ensured that voluntary participation of the participants was completely voluntary and anonymous, ensuring privacy. they are given information before deciding to participate, and their names are kept confidential. confidentiality is maintained with a unique number assigned by the researcher. meanwhile, privacy and confidentiality to protect participants’ rights. recruitment identified suitable participants to share ideas and contribute to the research’s goals. informed consent process ensuring participants were fully aware of the benefits and received approval from school authorities and participants. risk did not involve high-risk situations, protecting the rights of the participants. benefits provides valuable insights for teachers, indigenous people (ip) students, and language curriculum administrators. plagiarisms ensures accurate citation of ideas, using grammarly and turnitin software for grammar and plagiarism checks. fabrication was the way of the researcher to carefully sourced information from reliable journals and scholarly works, ensuring no misinterpretation or alterations of data. falsification was based on existing studies, and the study adhered to apa pa ge 8 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 6th edition citation format, ensuring accurate and reliable presentation. also, conflict of interest (coi) was not a concern in the research, and participants’ welfare or secondary goals were not often influenced. focus group participant identification was crucial, ensuring confidentiality during survey data collection and interviews, although facilitators struggled to maintain complete participant confidentiality. deceit was to ensured participant welfare through deceitful writings and expert validation. observation was a valuable data collection method for understanding natural settings and people’s actions, as self-reported information may differ from actual data. permission from organization/location was conducted with formality and ethical standards, obtaining permission from the division of davao occidental. authorship qualifications were considered, with the researcher and adviser contributing significantly to the conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the study, leading to its publication. now, the approved or issued umerc certification number is umerc–2022-397 which was the following protocol granted by the university of mindanao ethics review committee given to the researcher. it means that the study was checked and validated. it would allow him to conduct his study in the location of the research participants. results and discussion lived experiences of the blaan engaged in nomadism table 1 presents the lived experiences of blaan who engaged in nomadism. based on their experiences, four themes have emerged: limited access to basic needs, environmental vulnerability, limited economic opportunities, and social marginalization. these themes encapsulate the multifaceted challenges faced by the blaan tribe in their nomadic lifestyle. table 1: lived experiences of the blaan engaged in nomadism major themes core ideas limited access to basic needs • difficulties due to a crisis. • striving for consumption. • struggle about raising children. • struggle in eating at least three times a day. • poor shelter. environmental vulnerability • farming has dangerous situations, so it needs care. • guarding the whole farmland and taking control of it. • locations are prone to weather issues. • too muddy, almost prone to landslide areas. limited economic opportunities • difficulties in education and money-making. • low income due to poor farming opportunities. • limited access to market roads. • farm products vulnerability. social marginalization • governing people is about making way for work in the ancestral domain. • children are being discriminated against in school. • limited to no access to social welfare. • poor education. • lesser opportunities for personal development. limited access to basic needs based on the in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, several key challenges emerged that paint a picture of daily hardship. families grapple with ongoing difficulties due to crisis. they also strive to maintain or increase their consumption levels. the struggle of raising children in these circumstances is particularly pronounced, with many households finding it challenging to provide even necessities such as three meals a day. moreover, they also experienced inadequate housing conditions, with many individuals and families living in poor shelter that fails to meet their fundamental needs for safety and comfort. based on the experiences of the blaan, it is evident that engaging in nomadism is difficult due to crisis. one participant responded: as idi-p1 shared her unusual living, “i gamah gu kay sah klandé an.” (what i experienced was a crisis.) moreover, the destination holds immense importance for blaan as it can directly impact their ability to meet basic needs for survival, including daily consumption. another participant responded: another idi-p2 shared his daily routine, “ikagatkah am dee san ku la maningkamot gé, la gamkaan gé. kinahanglan bisan det gu salum banwe ku tû gihapon am gug sén am tû gu maningkamot am.” (what you experienced there is if you will not strive, you cannot eat. it is valuable even what place you will go if again you will stay, there you will strive.) also, they realize that working gives solution to their problem as it will save them from hunger. it is their top priority for a living. another participant also responded: idi-p3 shared his unusual living, pa ge 9 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 “i klimah gnimô an gé ku la mafkimad gé kay la gam kaan gé.” (difficulties will happen once you do not strive hard because you cannot find something to eat.) in addition, looking for opportunities is such a good practice because it can help them to support their needs in the family especially their children. idi-p4 shared his daily routine “gamah gu gmalabék di satu ka banwé ké fkimad agu dee fara gébé gu dad ngâ gu.” i experienced working in one place and striving for it purposely to raise my kids. participants from the fgd also shared their viewpoints, further, poverty has been an agony to them. it is their common experiences of these times. they may get seldom regular meals. “i gu mlimah an dee san toh kay gagum dee i gu mlimah an, ké lahat mimén di gé lô gamkaan di sdu. alwé dulȇ ba, o tlu dulȇ?” (fgd-p4) (the cumbersome thing in there is that you walk into poverty, and everything will depend on you knowingly to feed for a day. would it be twice or three times a day?) also, difficult things can make struggles because it burdens their journey towards life. it has no good impression at all. “i klimah di nawa mébé gé di ka ksasé.” (fgd-p1) (difficulties in life lead to struggles.) in this case, they perceive that nomadism is not giving good life to everybody. they manifested a bad impact from it. “i toh mébé nawa di kgurak la mébé fyé kagatkah.” (fgd-p2) (a person who brings the feeling of nomadism is not living a good life.) also, moving back and forth in a place is not a good habit because it has a lifeless journey and unbalanced situation. “gurak di atû, gurak gadyé la fulung mébé nawa ye.” (fgd-p3) (going there, going here it is not bringing life). similarly, an unsuccessful person has no dwelling place to live as it shows a negative impact of nomadism. “i toh ku la mbangal i kné an kun lagi o libun gmamah gatu tah ké gatu dungan, na samfulȇ ké gatû.” (fgd-p4) (a person has no residency if he has experience moving up and down, then back and forth.) the result shows the difficulties experienced by the people, their struggles and type of living they have. it also corresponds to the findings of (compte et al., 2021) about limited access to basic needs that discusses urban poverty and nutrition challenges associated with accessibility to a healthy diet. food insecurity, urban poverty, risk factors for the nutritional condition of urban poverty, and coping mechanisms for restricted food access are some aspects that impact an individual’s ability to get healthy eating when living in urban poverty. in this study, this systematic review identified distinct barriers caused by urban poverty to accessing healthy diets and their association with poorer nutrition outcomes, questioning the urban advantage. in conclusion, they have experienced difficult things in life but tried to strengthen themselves to overcome them to live and to help their children. in addition, limited access to basic needs are the top issues faced by the participants. in the past ten years, research on low-income families has recorded a range of difficulties and problems they confront, deepening our awareness of their complex situations within the frameworks of society, culture, and policy (sano et al., 2020). most of them have limited access to education, and their time is spent working to earn money. it shows the difficult situation of the nomads in the remote areas. therefore, the government encourages these people to be interested in schooling and working so that they can earn a good living. environmental vulnerability during the in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, the participants shared several challenges related to environmental difficulties. they emphasized that farming inherently involves dangerous situations, necessitating constant care and attention. they also stressed the importance of guarding and maintaining control over their entire farmland, a task made more challenging by environmental factors. participants pointed out that their agricultural locations are particularly susceptible to weather-related issues, which can significantly impact their crops and livelihoods. moreover, they described their farmlands as excessively muddy and situated in areas prone to landslides, further underscoring the environmental risks they face in their daily agricultural activities. based on the experiences of the blaan, farming is one way to support their needs but it brings danger to them. they must be cautious to do it. one participant responded: idi-p16 shared his personal view, “maulan kay ta bég tasé. tlagad am ninaf ku nimôam.” (farming is sometimes dangerous. you are required to be careful when you do it.) also, farmland is their hope for their daily consumption. so, they must protect it from any harm and destructions. at the same time, it is the primary source of living. the idi-p16 shared his personal view, “nimô ta mán, gmalabék gami di gami félé. sah kaslimah ku la nlibal am. nunung am too fara la falmo dad darémé toh o dad la gulit agaf.” (for example, we are working on our farmland. it is so difficult if you will not take care of it. it should be protected to avoid destruction by strangers or stray animals.) in addition, they really want to live in the mountainous area because there are lots of trees and the water is clean. even it is difficult but in contrast, it gives a breezy and healthy environment. the idi-p3 shared her personal view, “i gu gatu mi banwe sa kaslimah kay mlal mulen. tu di bulul fye too kay dee kayu na galung ke mlaneb i eel” (in the area where we go, it is so cumbersome because of the abrupt rain. on top of the mountains, it is very nice because there are so many shielding trees and the water is so clean.) pa ge 10 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 the area where they go is facing road issue because of the unyielding event into their places. it gives problematic situation to every nomad in the place. the idi-p4 shared her personal view, “sa kfitak i gu gsalu mi, ta fan nkah i danul i banwe mi.” (it is very muddy in the place we go, it almost prone to landslide.) the participants who participated in fgd also shared their personal views. first, the government has supported this people to sustain their needs in the community. this is to lessen their obligation in their family and to maintain stability of agricultural resources. “di gami, fsalamat gami di gobyerno di bleh la gambét 4ps. aye tmabéng di gami mélé.” (fgd-p1) (for us, we are thankful to the government for the aid like 4ps. it helps us make a farm.) next, when they become married, the government will not stop in supporting them to prevent impoverishment and scarcity in the nomadic communities. “man ta malay gami, fsalamat gami kay gobyerno mli gami fyé serbisyo.” (fgd-p2) (when we were married, we were thankful because the government gave us good services.) also, they need to work hard especially when to persuade people to help them in building a farmland. they must be willing and convenient anytime. “di gami ka blaan, sah kaslimah ku la falgad gé di tanah am. tlagad am nlak dad tohm fara gamimô fyé kagkah di gé kangfun banwé.” (fgd-p11) (for us blaans, it is so hard if you will strive in your land. you must govern your people to make a living in your ancestral domain.) lastly, they learn how to become thrifty as it will save them from the unforeseen events such as shortage of food and calamity. even in the remote areas, they are still aware of what are the best things for betterment of their lives. “i dég, malnak i gami dalan fara mimô gami nawa. gamwé gé 150 pesos di sdu ta mlimah aye. telô gami mimén di gami félé kara du.” (fgd-p15) (for me, thrifting is also our way to make a living. earning 150 pesos a day is very difficult. we always rely on our farm every day.) the results show the social interactions of the nomads to society. it also corresponds to the findings of (trevisan et al., 2020) about environmental vulnerability that highlights the anthropic land uses, negative impacts on natural landscapes, and landscape indices that quantify the fragment’s environmental quality. in this study, they stated that a significant reduction in areas with native vegetation and an expansion of areas for agriculture led to a shrink in environmental quality in the landscape. the intensification of anthropogenic activities was distinguished to conclude in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by natural areas. in conclusion, they must be resilient and maintain patience to earn a good living in their ancestral domain. in addition, environmental vulnerability is very common to the nomads. as natural resources become scarcer, the range of options available to communities becomes more limited, reducing the availability of surviving solutions and reducing local resilience to hazards or capacity to recover from disasters. living in a mountainous area is one kind of environmental risk. natural resource depletion and resource degradation are the legend aspects of its vulnerability (national institute of disaster management, 2023). therefore, they practice workaholism so that they can sustain the needs of their children, especially in education and health. moreover, the government is providing them their family needs such as relief goods and financial aids. they believe that once their children finish their studies, they will reimburse everything back to their parents. limited economic opportunities based on the in-depth interviews and focus group discussion, the participants shared several factors contributing to their limited economic opportunities. they highlighted significant challenges in both education and income generation, which constrain their ability to improve their financial situations. the participants emphasized that poor farming opportunities in the area result in low incomes, making it difficult to sustain their livelihoods. this problem is worsened by limited access to market roads, which hinders their ability to sell their produce efficiently and access broader economic markets. furthermore, they noted the vulnerability of their farm products, likely due to environmental factors or transportation issues, which adds another layer of economic uncertainty to their already precarious financial situation. the blaan people shared the usual situation of their family. it is their tradition. their father works in the farm and their mother stays in the house to take care of their family. the idi-p2 shared her experiences since she was young, “gamah mi i klimah kay i yȇ mi landé skwila na i mâ mi lô kunun toh gmalabék fara fkaan an gami.” (we experienced difficulties because our mother had no school and our father was the only person who worked just to feed us.) also, they incline to stay in their area instead of going to the crowded place. they want a peaceful environment to avoid chaos and stress. the idi-p3 shared her personal view, “la to gami gatû di dad gu déé to. fanak gami dini di bulul. di sbulen sule o alwe dule gami gatu fara me knaan.” (we seldom go to the market where many people live. we are staying here in the mountains. either one or two times a month, we can go there.) similarly, they have compared the situation in the past and the present. it has a big difference especially in education. today, they are motivated to pursue education as it will help them to land a better job. the idi-p2 shared her experience, “i gamah mi gami mdâ di kaeskwela mi. dad flanék nun grado la, pa ge 11 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 darémé ni landȇ an kay too mlimah. ta bég fyé ani ka la salngad kalsangan lô gé kmaan kasila kayu di kakaan am. aye i gami kagatkah, sléng am talû.” (what we experienced was about schooling. my siblings had good grades, while others did not because of poverty. it is fine now compared to before because you would only eat cassava for your meals. that is our situation.) however, idi-p5 figured out an experience which contrary to the common shared experiences of the participants. in the contrary, not all people are having a bad experience in nomadism. there are also people who are lucky enough to have a good living. all they need to do is to work hard so that they will not experience difficulties. “nun leman sa to fyé kagkahan. firo tlagad gé gmalabék fara la mlimah kagkah am”. (there is also a person whose living is splendid. but you need to work so that it will not be difficult). the participants who participated in fgd also shared their thoughts. in this way, the blaan people are very interested in farming but they cannot avoid making issues because of it. it requires time and dedication so that you can be successful at any cost. “kagkah i familya kay salngad di kagatkah mi gmalabék ké maulan. sah kaslimah kay gmalabék atoh kara du.” (fgd-p9) (family experiences are like situations in work and farming. it will be troublesome since you will work on it occasionally.) also, their experiences are very memorable because it gives pain and adjustment to one another. this is what they have manifested in living as a nomad. “i gamah mi di kagatkah kay tanduk i gu gamah am.” (fgd-p18) (what we experienced about living was the pain you would experience.) in addition, they have experienced different kinds of illness and famine but it does not bother them to find some cure. they think that it is natural to experience these in our lives. “i gamah ta giton di kagatné kay nun lyalo, bitil, tduk. firo mngabal até fara bulung di dad kah ani.” (fgd-p19) (what we experienced about living were ailments, famines, and illnesses. but we find some cures for these things.) lastly, some of these people belong to lifted family. they are very thankful for it because they can support their needs despite of the challenges they encounter in the environment. “mné agu di tah tanȃ na fyé i kébé gu i familia gu.” (fgd-p20) (i live in this world with the fine upbringing of my family.) the results show about the manifestations of the nomads from economic predicaments. it also corresponds to the findings (aiyar & ebeke, 2020) about limited economic opportunities that discuss intergenerational mobility, income inequality, and growth. excluding intergenerational mobility leads to misspecification, shedding light on why the empirical literature on income inequality and growth has been inconclusive. in this study, they stated that the impact of income inequality on economic growth is affected by the level of equality of opportunity, specifically intergenerational mobility. in societies with lower intergenerational mobility, income inequality has a more significant adverse effect on future growth. in conclusion, they are satisfied with what their natural resources produce. the most important is they can eat and maintain a healthy lifestyle. in addition, limited economic opportunities shows that economists discerned the high unemployment rate in the philippines caused by many issues. it includes an overcrowded population, a subpar educational system, a lack of establishments for vocational and technical training notwithstanding tesda, and a lack of direct foreign investment (philstar, 2022). they often experience a small income due to poor farming opportunities. however, the nomads have their ancestral domain where they can live and it has many natural resources around it. therefore, nomadic experiences are very normal in such ways because of the traditions and beliefs that they inherited from their ancestors. social marginalization based on the in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, the participants shared experiences that highlight their social marginalization. they expressed that governance in their community primarily focuses on facilitating work within their ancestral domain, suggesting a disconnect from broader social and economic systems. a particularly concerning issue raised was the discrimination faced by their children in schools, indicating societal prejudices that extend to the younger generation. the participants also reported limited to no access to social welfare programs, further emphasizing their exclusion from essential support systems. the blaan people often lived in the marginalized community. the school is very far from their houses. they believe that sending their children to school is very helpful because they can learn something great for their selves. they can also help their parents for everything in the environment. the idi-p7 also gives her experience “di dég, mafkimad agu kay nun grade 12 estudyante gu di eskwelahan. ta fan agu mli tanâ o det dee fara gamsulbad agu problema di eskwelahan.” (in my case, i am striving because i have a grade 12 student in the school. i am supposed to sell a land property or anything else to resolve any educational problems.) also, they really want to explore new environment if it gives something good for their lives. it is very important to be workaholic so that they can achieve their goals in life. the idi-p18 gives his opinion, “i dég ah tuyȏ gu gatu di mngabal di satu banwe fara sun nun nébé gu di familia gu fara nun gdatah i nawa la. tlagad ta fkimad fara malngan i knah ta di nawa.” (my concern about looking for a place is to take something for my family for the goodness of their lives. we need to strive hard to the extent we can finish our dreams in life.) the participants who participated in fgd also shared their personal views. in this case, the blaan people pa ge 12 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 always think of their directions because it is very risky if they will just go automatically. they must acquire good relationship with the people in the place where they have been through. “dég satu ka gmurak, too ti kanfélék ku fandam am i gu gatû am. lut am na nun gu gtulém am dun.” (fgd-p5) (as a nomad, it is very consequential to think of your journey. make sure you have something good to say about it.) also, they know that having a stable residency is the primary goal of a person. they always think to have a wonderful place to live. because, it is very wonderful to have a place called home. “dég satu ka gmurak, too ti bong kafyé ku nun fyé gumné am. lut am nun gtaral i kagatkah am ku ta gkél gé di gsalum.” (fgd-p6) (as a nomad, it is appropriate to have a proper residency. make sure you have a stable life once you reach your destination.) in addition, one of the best characteristics of the blaan people is being hospitable. they often to be generous because in their hearts, helping people is a good example in the eyes of the people. “nimô ta man, ku nun gatu di balim, nafé am alé. nang gé saldam ké muhal nawa di dale.” (fgd-p9) (for example, if somebody visits your home, you must entertain them. you do not be selfish and reluctant toward them.) moreover, they are very proud because they have many foods in their houses. they acquired good bonds to people because they love making friends in society. it is engraved in their mind to be socially good because that is what they learn from their forefathers. “ku blaan gé, déé knaan am. déé démém ké dad tohm. i ktohm kay nawam i linaw.” (fgd-p13) (if you are a blaan, you have many foods. you have many friends and visitors. you are a peace-loving person.) the results show about the situations of the nomadic blaan people in society about social marginalization. it also corresponds to the findings of (webb, 2020) about social marginalization. marginalization is entrenched such that victims find themselves unable to engage in community activities, participate in political processes, or achieve parity in such issues as educational attainment, home mortgage rates, and quality healthcare access. in this study, she stated marginalization leads to limitations in engagement, political participation, and parity in various aspects. it is a diverse range of individuals impacted. it has many double faces or triple exclusions. in conclusion, they are happy with where they live because they can get a peaceful environment. it is far from a crowded civilization. in addition, social marginalization perceives the situation of the nomads in a wider society. certain people are more marginalized than others due to socio-political, economic, cultural, and religious pressures. once marginalized, an individual exists in a position in society with limited access to affordable resources that limits survivability (baah et al., 2018). nowadays, lots of opportunities are given by the government. this is to help the jobless people in society to land a job. on the other hand, nomads in the mountains are distinctively nomadic, and they spent their lives in the forest to hunt and gather foods and raising animals. therefore, some people in the local government unit visited their areas to give some assistances about working and schooling. coping mechanisms of the blaan engaged in nomadism table 2 shows the coping mechanisms of blaan who engaged in nomadism. based on their experiences, three themes have emerged: embrace flexibility, practice mindfulness in all ways, set goals. table 2: coping mechanisms of the blaan engaged in nomadism major themes core ideas • embrace flexibility • changing the lives of the blaans to adapt to the new age of technology. • learn to adapt. • adjust with the surrounding environment. • diversifying the tribal group into their respective communities. • practice mindfulness in all ways • promote good attitude. • listen to others • supporting the advocacy of the barangay for the benefits of the nomads. • following the laws of the government for a peaceful life. • guiding the family to be religious and believe in the lord for every job they have. • set goals • encourage children to go to school. • prioritize education • attract the family to big farms so they can have big harvests. • inspiring the family to do job hunting. • stating the importance of farming and planting to the lives of the people. pa ge 13 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 embrace flexibility during the in-depth interview and focus group discussion, the participants shared insights on their coping mechanisms. they emphasized the importance of changing the lives of the blaans to adapt to the new age of technology. the community recognized the need to learn and adapt, adjusting to their surrounding environment. this flexibility extends to diversifying the tribal group into their respective communities, indicating a willingness to evolve while maintaining their cultural identity. the blaan people are adaptable to their environment. they slowly learning new things to shape their selves so they can be par to other people. some of them are prominent in society because they are being selected as leaders in their community. one participant responded: idi-p1 expresses his comparison about the tribe before and after, “di mdu ani, dad blaan ta mifat di banwé démé dad toh. la salngad muna, dad intsik ké dad bsaya lo ti dilé.” (nowadays, the blaans can adapt to the environment with other people. unlike before, only the chinese and the bisayans were prominent.) also, they keep searching for good because they want to gain more knowledge about certain things. they will follow once it is beneficial to them. the idi-p7 contributed her opinion, “ku nun man niyé la fye smabay dalé.” (if there is a search for good, they will follow.) in addition, the blaan children are slowly entering the school. they started to make dreams for themselves. these dreams are very wonderful because it gives them dignity and honor. the idi-17 gave his opinion, “dad ngâ blaan muna ké ani nun gu la salngad i kagkah la. i kanfélék kah dee kay fanganag gmaré ké matdô fara mbaling propesyunal.” (the blaan kids before and after have different situations. its most important thing is that they are slowly educated and taught to become professionals.) further, they have anticipated good things about the leaders in their community. these leaders will rule their ancestral domain and their people. they are very thankful because there is somebody who can guide and protect their rights as a nomadic tribe in society. the idi-p4 also shared his viewpoint about the young generation of their tribe, “di mdu ani, dad tribu nun kagatlah la di dalé gumné. dad klagan, dad ubû, dad muslims, ké dad blaan nun dad fulung la mébé di dalé klahat.” (nowadays, the tribes have diverse juxtapositions in their communities. the tagakaolos, manobos, muslims, and blaans have tribal chieftains to lead them in anything.) the participants who participated in fgd also shared their personal views. the blaan children are slowly evolving due to modernization and technological advancement. this is very helpful to them to gain more knowledge about the society and the world. “i muna, dad ngȃ landé gnaré la di teknologi, bisan ti gatû alé di eskwilahan. di mdu ani, gmaré alé bong fara di kdatah i dalé nawa. aye dun, gmaré di teknologi.” (fgd-p18) (back then, teenagers did not know technology, even though they went to school. today, they learned something great for the betterment of their lives. that is, to learn about technology.) moreover, they think their situation before as a very cruel due to lack of education. right now, they really want to be educated so that their lives will improve and not be left behind. they have embraced technology because they believe on its positive benefits to their selves. “i muna, dad ngȃ, som dad anguk alé kay la gmaré alé masah. ani, ta tandô alé i kakfélék i banwé di tah tanâ ké det i bleh la di tah tanâ.” (fgd-p19) (before, the kids seemed like monkeys because they did not learn to read. now, they have taught about their importance in the world and what they can offer the world itself.) the results show the importance of flexibility especially to the nomadic blaan people. it also corresponds to the findings of (echeverri et al., 2021) about embracing flexibility, which explores organizations focusing on alternatives to incorporate flexibility to become more adaptive and responsive to change. each strategy plays a specific role in the cooperative real estate portfolio and implies different sources of flexibility that support the physical, functional, and financial flexibility demands. in this study, they stated that organizations seek flexibility to adapt to changes, different motivations drive organizations to incorporate co-working spaces, and each co-working strategy plays a specific role in supporting flexibility demands. in conclusion, they started to adapt to things in their environment so they would not be left behind. like for instance, embrace flexibility is the way to do anything despite of the consequences. the capacity for change adaptation and flexibility is one of their main advantages. instead of resisting change and clinging to the status quo, those who are flexible and are adaptable can welcome new opportunities and experiences with open arms (gasparinetti, 2023). it means that the nomadic blaan people can adapt the new age of technology. they know how to adapt to new generation, especially the new technology; they are very eager to learn about it. they are encouraged to pursue education so that they can have a settled life. practice mindfulness in all ways the participants also highlighted the significance of practicing mindfulness in all aspects of life. this theme encompasses promoting good attitudes and actively listening to others. the blaans expressed their commitment to supporting the advocacy of the barangay for the benefit of nomads, demonstrating their engagement with local governance. they also emphasized the importance of following government laws to ensure a peaceful life. additionally, the community values guiding families to be religious and to believe in the lord in all their endeavors, showcasing the integration of spirituality pa ge 14 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 in their daily lives. the blaan people loves planting many crops in their farmland. it is an additional source of living for their family. they want to ensure that they have plenty of agricultural resources to support their daily needs. one participant responded: the idi-p2 expresses her viewpoint, “too ti kanfélék i nun félé ké mélé gé dee lagulit knaan. ani i bong tuyék di gitoh nawa.” (it is very beneficial to have a farm and to plant many crops. it is a good support for our lives.) also, they faced big challenges in life. that is how to deal with the people especially their neighbors. they see that it is very important to love and respect your neighbors since this the only way to have a peaceful life. the idi-p3 expresses his viewpoint, “i mayag gité kay dad arat ta. dad démé ta mné di banwé mayé di gitoh ku fyé arat ta di dalé. firo ku tasé arat am di dalé, dee até di kasaglâ.” (what challenges me is our attitude. our neighbors will like us if we have a good attitude. but if we have a bad attitude towards them, we will be in trouble.) in addition, the blaan people are law-abiding citizens. they believe in the works and process of their leaders in their barangay. aside from that, it is the place where they can receive the reliefs from the government. the idi-p10 stated his observation in their locality, “di gami, i barangay mébé kafyé. dad kasfagu nimô la fara mébé di kalbong banwé. aye dun, i gobyerno déé tuyék dee.” (for us, the barangay brings good to its people. laws have established to rule the whole place. of course, the government has a lot of support for it.) in addition, some of these people are devoted to their religion. they work hard because it is necessary. they are helpful with their companions because it is a good practice. most of all, whatever consequences may happen always ask a guidance to the lord. the idi-p18 gave her opinion, “i dég, i gamtabéng di dég kay gmalabék tarol di kaftoo di mélé. ku la gmalabék, det i gitoh kagwé? too ti kanfélék i gmalabék; smalék até tabéng di mélé, na ftabéng ato di gitoh dad démé. fara gimô. aye gamfakubay.” (fgd-p18) (for me, what helped me was that i worked in line with my belief in the lord. if i do not work, what will be our wealth? we must work; we ask for help from the lord, and we need help from our companions to resolve our problems. that is an attraction.) the participants who participated in fgd also shared their personal views. in this case, the blaan people likes to explore in their area because of the natural resources. aside from that, they can make a living in the area they have moved. “gamfakubay di dég di sahal banwé kay gamwe gami (kamto fali, smanggi agul, msô lagulit félé) di gami baulan démé gu i familya gu.” (fgd-p7) (what attracts me to the other place is that we can get a big harvest from our farm with my family.) also, they are very enthusiastic when it comes to farming. it is innate to them and they inherit it from their lineage. most of their harvest earn a good income and they are very proud of it. “i dég familya mayé gmalabék di baulan kay bong gwé la dee.” (fgd-p10) (my family likes working on the farm because of the high income they can get from it.) lastly, their income is for their family. even in a small amount of money, they used it to support the needs of their children especially in education. they are doing their best to avoid impoverishment and scarcity. “i gwé i familya gu lo fang di kakaan mi. gmalabék alé too fara flés alé.” (fgd-p14) (my family’s income is intended for our food supply. they worked very hard to maintain it.) the results show about practice mindfulness all ways. it is a good characteristic of a person that shows presence of mind. it also corresponds to the findings of (tan, 2021) about practicing mindfulness in all ways. mindfulness, a holistic approach involving awareness, attention, and attitude, can be categorized into first-generation and second-generation programs, with first-generation being more individualistic and second-generation being collective and spiritual. in this study, she stated mindfulness has been visible to have essentialities for mental, physical, emotional, and social well-being. it is a central practice in both confucian and christian traditions, emphasizing personal and collective reflection, introspection, meditation, and rejuvenation. in conclusion, they learn to be mindful of their families, friends, and all people in the environment. also, practice mindfulness in all ways is a type of a good personality to make a person successful of his duties and responsibilities. a state of awareness can be through focused relaxation and can be achieved through mindfulness practices. but they all aim to achieve the same thing. purposeful, judgment-free attention to thoughts and sensations. it allows the mind to refocus on the present moment (helpguide, 2023). it educates the nomadic blaan people to promote good attitude. on the other hand, the nomadic blaan people are very experts at weaving fabrics using manila hemp fibers and dyeing them with traditional colorants. their flocks and live stocks are their source of food, and sometimes they sell it in the market. therefore, they are mindful of their crafts because this is their only way to show their tradition to people in society. set goals setting goals emerged as another crucial theme during the discussions. the participants shared their focus on encouraging children to go to school and prioritizing education, recognizing it as a pathway to future opportunities. they also expressed interest in attracting families to big farms to increase harvest yields, indicating a desire for agricultural advancement. the community emphasized the importance of inspiring family members to engage in job hunting, suggesting a recognition of pa ge 15 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 diverse economic opportunities. lastly, they stressed the significance of farming and planting in their lives, highlighting the continued importance of traditional livelihoods alongside modern pursuits. the blaan people have started schooling despite on the prevalent problems in their community. they are very interested in education because they think it will help them to grow and explore new things in the environment. one participant responded: idi-p20 shared his opinion, “i falami banwé di dad ngȃ blaan kay i knun i edukasyon. dalé satu di falami fali ani. dad tukay blaan gimô la.” (the new world for young blaans is to have an education. they are one with the new age of today. it is very good.) also, their parents want their children to be in school so that they can learn anything to help them back. they are very honored if their children can finish their studies. they are responsible to help their children about their needs in school. the idi-p16 shared her viewpoint, “kah gu dég dad ngâ di eskwelahan fara dim kleet fali gablem di i det dad kaflayam am. aye dun, dad ngâ garé la ku tnabéng la i dalé tuwah.” (i put my kids in school so that, later, you can give them what you have exerted. of course, the kids know how to help their parents.) further, some of these people have landed jobs in the other places and it helps their family for everything. this is very unusual but if it is for the means of support, then they will do it. the idi-p5 shared his opinion, “i dég galabék mébé di dég familya tû di banwé gu gmurak gu.” (my job helps me bring my family to the area where i moved.) moreover, they always want to bring good deeds in their selves to avoid problems in their way. they always be careful when it comes to doing their tasks in life. the idi-p2 expresses her viewpoint, “too ta nébé det i gu mli di gitoh nawa. niyé ta fare ku glukas di gitoh fara la gatlab gitoh.” (we need to bring what is good for our lives. we need to check if it gives us problems so that we will not be fall flat.) the participants who participated in fgd also shared their personal views, in this case, the government gives their support to the marginalized communities so that it will reduce the number of weaken society in the country. at least, it will help to lift their situation in the far-flung areas. “i gobyerno mlih tabéng di dad toh. kara alwé bulén, gamdawat gami tag 3,300, nkél 3,900 pesos. ani i btas gamtuyék di dad estudyante di eskwelahan.” (fgd-p14) (the government provides aid to its people. every two months, we can receive cash from 3,300.00 to 3,900.00 pesos. this amount can help support our students at the school.) in addition, the blaan children of today are genuinely advance because of modernization. there are lots of opportunities found in their community. it easy for them grab it to make a living. “dad ngȃ sadni bong i kaflanig la di gu gatu la. muna la to bong kaflanig mdȃ di ktalû dad toh di banwé.” (fgd-p16) (the children of today have a great perception of their journeys. before, it was not so great because there were few persons in their places.) lastly, these people know what are their choices in life. this is part of their journey and they know that if they do good things, they can have a harmonious relationship with the people in society. “di gami kagfélé, nun gu fyén le nun gu sasé an. nalek ta gu fyén kay ku samfulȇ nan la mli ksasé.” (fgd-p20) (in our situation, there is a good part and a worst part. we must choose the good part so that it will be good in return) the result show setting a goal because it encourages every person to become an achiever and successful in life. it is also related to the findings of (fan et al., 2020) about set goals that highlight the interaction between assigned and personal goals. these goals help every person to follow a path to achieve their dreams in life. it shows commitment, dedication, fulfillment, and motivation to become successful. in this study, they stated that goalsetting leads to higher effort compared to no goal-setting. effort increases with the level of the goal, whether selfset or assigned. attaining previous goals emphatically impacts future performance and self-motivation. in conclusion, they learned to prioritize salient things and the least important ones to earn income from their community. moreover, set goals is the ability to prioritize your tasks beforehand. every people have a path to follow when they have goals. despite their failures, goals are an excellent tool for keeping ourselves accountable. setting goals and working to achieve them helps us define what we truly want in life (riopel, 2019). on the other hand, the government knows that the nomads need help with their daily needs. that is why some organizations and sectors in the local government unit provide help at least twice or three times a year to bridge the gap between the nomads and the civilized community. therefore, some aid like 4ps, livelihood programs, and cash grants are given to the families of the nomadic people who experience poverty, and benefits like scholarships and free education are also offered to them. it is to attained their set goals in life. insights can be shared by the blaan engaged in nomadism table 3 presents the insights of blaan who engaged in nomadism. based on their experiences, three themes have emerged: cultural awareness, adaptability, and goal setting. table 3: insights can be shared by the blaan engaged in nomadism major themes core ideas pa ge 16 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 • cultural awareness • defining the lives of the blaan as a nomadic people. • nurturing culture and identity, especially towards citizenship. • preserving beliefs, customs, and traditions to avoid deculturization. • teaching young nomads not to abandon their culture. • adaptability. • embracing one’s culture means saving their lineage. • being able to mingle and adapt is important. • promote pleasant attitude especially when in a diverse community. • be a flexible and resilient individual. • goal setting • working gives meaning to our lives. • money-making makes you happy and wealthy. • encourage the young to finish school. • getting a degree is an edge. • getting motivated to succeed in life. cultural awareness during the discussions, participants emphasized the importance of cultural awareness. they shared insights on defining the lives of the blaan as a nomadic people, highlighting the significance of their traditional lifestyle. the community stressed the importance of nurturing their culture and identity, particularly in relation to citizenship. they expressed a strong commitment to preserving their beliefs, customs, and traditions to avoid deculturization. a key point that emerged was the importance of teaching young nomads not to abandon their culture, indicating a focus on intergenerational cultural transmission. the blaan people has a unique culture and it is still preserved up to this day. they are very cordially in showing their customs and tradition to the people because it is a sign of unity and oneness. one participant responded: idi-p11 shared her opinion, “i fyé arat kay kay fnanak ta i gitoh kultura mdâ kalsangan. nang gé mébé i kultura na sihag ato. i nébém aye i fyé niyé ké mtud dun.” (one good attitude is to preserve our culture from ancient times. do not bring a culture that is bending. instead, show it with a good impression and character.) also, they are encouraged not to abandon their culture because it is a taboo for them if they will do it. they have nurtured their young children to always love their ancestries. they keep reminding them even they are already old. the idi-p8 shared his opinion, “i fyé arat kay kultura ta gitoh blaan, nang ta tagak.” (one good attitude is that our blaan culture should not be gone.) in addition, these people love to plant crops and raise animals. it is their daily routine to support their financial needs. some of them sell it in the market but the main purpose these things are for their daily needs. the idi-p16 added that, “i dég, i kgurak aye fité i gé kto di ka blaan. gmurak gami na gamlabat gami kultura too ti mngalam. nawa mi gami dad démé mné, ké nawa mi maulan ké magaf. dad ngâ mi nawa la eskwila na mayé alé gatû di eskwelahan kara du.” (for me, a nomadic lifestyle defines our identity as blaans. we are nomadic people, and understanding our culture is very deep. we love our neighbors, and we love farming and raising livestock. our children love being educated and are willing to go to school.) lastly, they want to know more things for their culture. it is something that they can share so that it will not be erased in society. they pass it from one generation to another. the idi-p18 also said that, “i dég, lahat gamtabéng di gami kultura fara fyé kay gnaré ké tdô di lahat gmurak dad ngâ di tribu blaan.” (for me, everything that can help our culture for good must be learned and taught to every nomadic child of the blaan tribe.) the participants who participated in fgd also shared their personal views. in this case, the blaan people love to showcase their talents and ways of living. all of them love to do celebration as it will give enjoyment and prosperity. it also a treasure to their tribe to practice these activities in their community. “sa kafyé fanlanig ku ta sayéw alé blaan, mimô alé utén na knaan. tibok kafyé ku lahat dad toh safyak alé.” (fgd-p18) (it is good to see if they will perform a blaan dance, and cook some viands and foods. it would be great if everybody would entertain one another.) moreover, visiting another place can help them to explore that can be applied in their community. they are very eager to learn innovative lessons because it can help them to enhance their skills and capability to socialize in the environment. “ku gatû gé di sahal banwé ké magu gé ditû, ganbét am dad kanfélék tdô fara di familyam. ani nimô fara gamgifat di falami gumné ké nsud tukay di kfalami i gitoh banwé.” (fgd-p19) (if you go to another place and wander there, you will imitate some beneficial lessons for your family. it is to adapt to our new society and adjust to the modernization of our environment.) the result show about cultural awareness among nomads especially in promoting compassion and sincerity towards life. it describes the values of being culturally aware. it also corresponds to the findings of (raines, 2021) about cultural awareness. cultural awareness fosters global citizenship, promotes inclusivity, respects diverse cultures, influences communication, and increases cultural diversity, promoting self-awareness, respect for other cultures, and showing respect for others. in this study, pa ge 17 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 she stated cultural awareness means being sensitive to the differences and similarities between two cultures when communicating or interacting. in conclusion, they always ponder not to abandon their culture and feel ashamed of their identity. in addition, cultural awareness is the way to know your culture. being culturally aware allows you to engage with others without bias or condemnation by acknowledging and appreciating their values, habits, and beliefs. it leads to more cultural connections and fewer interpersonal conflicts arising from cultural differences (evolves community, 2021). the participants are bona fide blaan people, but they have many relatives who are not full blooded as their identity. they may seem to be half-breed because their mother or father had intermarriage with the other tribal group. and they can speak both languages of their tribes. but this is not a hindrance to their relationship because they have laws and traditions to follow. therefore, the government created the indigenous people republic act (ipra) of 1997 or r.a. 8371 to protect their rights and freedom as well as their ancestral domain. adaptability adaptability emerged as another crucial theme during the interview and focus group discussion. participants shared the belief that embracing one’s culture is essential for preserving their lineage. they emphasized the importance of being able to mingle and adapt, especially in diverse communities. the blaan community highlighted the need to promote a pleasant attitude when interacting with others from different backgrounds. participants also stressed the importance of being flexible and resilient individuals, suggesting a balance between maintaining cultural identity and adapting to changing circumstances. the blaan community has many manifestations about their culture especially when to adapt in their environment. they are encouraged not to feel embarrassed in meeting other people. one participant responded: idi-p6 stated his opinion, “dad blaan garé la i dalé fantoh. dalé arat kay la glifét la i dale kultura ké la myâ samgalak di dad bsayâ.” (the blaans know of their belief. their attitude is not to forget their culture and not be ashamed to mingle with the bisayans.) also, they keep reminding their fellowmen if they visited another place, they must be careful in dealing with people. it is because they need to meet them to avoid conflicts and chaos. the idi-p19 shared her perspective, “ku mité gé dad toh, funam ti niyé ku fyé kaflanig am di dale o ku lȃ. fare ku mite gé sagla” (if you see people, you need to be watchful of them if they look good or bad. you may encounter quarrels.) in addition, they know that having a good attitude is a good practice. it is not a good personality if they possess a bad attitude because it will harm them at any situations. the idi-p1 expressed his view, “arat i nébé. déé smaglȃ gé ku tasé i arat am.” (attitude is the capital. you have many enemies once you have a bad attitude.) lastly, they believe in workaholism because even at a young age they are being taught how to work. it is also a good practice to perform physical activities to maintain healthy lifestyle. these people know how to work in their ancestral domain based in their tradition and belief. the idi-p20 expressed another viewpoint, “di satu banwé di gumné gu, téén gu na gmalabék kay mimô gé tabéng. too ti fyé di dég satu ka gmurak banwé.” (in the place where i live, i see that working is about improvising your skills. it is indeed good for me as a nomad.) the participants who participated in fgd also shared their personal views. in this case, the blaan people wants to explore in the vast forest of their territory. it is because of the natural resources found in the area. it will help them to survive from hunger and impoverishment. “i dég, lahéw agu mngabal banwé fara maulan agu na magaf agu. malwés dég di klandé. too ti mbangal.” (fgd-p7) (in myself, i am happy to find a place where i can do farming and raise livestock. it will save me from poverty. it is very fine.) also, some of them have produced the foods for their animals from their farm. it is a good way to maintain stability of their primary resources. they prefer to lived in an area where their animals lived freely and plants can grow very fast. “di dég banwé dnagit kablulan, magaf agu di tû. nun kti i knaan la kabay le mi gfulȇ. dég baulan tmuyék dale knaan leman.” (fgd-p8) (in my place called kablulan, i raise my animals there. food is scarce for them, but it resolves quickly. my farm supports their food as well.) in addition, these people love to go to the forest to get some fire woods because it is full of adventure and relaxing. it is their tradition to live in the woodland mountains. they like to catch fishes, crabs, shrimps in the streams and rivers and hunt wild animals in the forest. “mngabal banwé fara gamwé knaan ké dutung di kimô knaan di dlag kay to ti lahéw. aye i gami kultura, ké la gtagak mi ani.” (fgd-p13) (finding a place to get the food and firewood for cooking in the forest is enjoyable. that is our culture, and we cannot abandon it.) lastly, they have shared that they love cooking. they cooked many traditional foods for their meals and snacks. they are endowed with talents in cooking since young as their parents taught them to do so. “i dég, di banwé di gu gmurak mi, too gu ti nimô i knaan mi ké kimô i tukay knaan kara du. ani nimô fara landé bitil ké mlidû.” (fgd-p14) (for me, in the place where we move, i want to make sure that i cook our meals and make our snacks every day. it is to avoid hunger and loneliness.) the results show that it is very effective to mold the existence of every individual especially on how to become adaptable. it also corresponds to the findings of (indeed editorial team, 2023) about adaptability that highlights adapting to the environment. by enhancing the pa ge 18 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 person’s skills, he can become a more valuable employee, better leader, better equipped to face challenges, happier, simpler to adapt to career changes, and more relevant. it stated in this study that they will be better equipped to face challenges. the more adaptable the persons are, the better they can effectively handle adversity without getting the best of them. in conclusion, they started to learn about other people from various cultures and be open-minded about their cultural backgrounds. also, adaptability is being able to accept what is in the environment. adaptability skills are essential in your personal and professional life. gaining competency in other soft skill regions, such as communication, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills, enables you to adjust to changes in your personal or professional environment. it includes developing your ability to adapt (indeed editorial team, 2023). it means that the nomadic blaan people can adapt the environment where technology is highly driven. on the other hand, some of them today are being christianized, but some of them are still in their tribal faith. nevertheless, the most important thing is they can adapt the new culture in the environment. therefore, people in the civilized community love their culture because of its diversity in filipino culture. goal setting the participants shared the perspective that working gives meaning to their lives, indicating the value placed on productive engagement. the community expressed the belief that money-making contributes to happiness and wealth. a strong emphasis was placed on encouraging the young to finish school, with participants noting that getting a degree provides an edge in life. the discussions also revealed the importance of getting motivated to succeed in life, suggesting a forward-looking and aspirational outlook among the blaan community. the blaan people know that working is very important so that they can live. if they cannot work, they cannot support their daily needs and it will lead to famine and debt. aside from that, they love to work because it can help their selves to be more active and healthier. one participant shared that: idi-p4 also added his opinion, “i kanfélék am ye falgad gé san fara mto gé.” (what you need is to work so that you can live.) in addition, the blaan parents know that education is very important to their children. they have encouraged their children to finish their studies despite on the problems happen in their lives. the idi-p4 added his opinion, “man gu dad ngȃ gu, gatû ale di skwilahan. falngan la i skwila la fara nun fyé trabaho di kagkél i fanahon” (i told my children to go to school. they must finish their studies to land a job at the end of the day.) further, these people are now proud of their tribe. some of them have a become a spoke person in their community as they promote the beliefs, customs, tradition, and values in society. they are taught not to be ashamed of their existence. the idi-p10 also added his opinion, “i deg, ftoo gu rég ktoh kay la myȃ agu di dég ksatun. talû agu di dég tribu di kdilé satu blaan toh.” (as for me, i believe in myself because i am not ashamed of my identity. i speak for my tribe as a bona fide blaan person.) lastly, some of these people go to the city to work there. they have opened their eyes about new things in their environment. it helps them to learn everything and they used these learnings for their family. it is such as stepping stone and wonderful experience to them. the idi-p17 also shared her experience, “i dég, kgalabék mi di syudad, déé garé mi, na nimô mi dini di gami banwé. i nimô dini dad fyé gambét mimô falami knaan, mlanéb di bali kara du na i gu gdéén, fnanak i fyé nimô di galabék.” (for me, when we worked in the city, we learned a lot, and we applied it here in our place. what we applied is for good, like cooking new foods, cleaning the house regularly, and most of these, maintaining good habits at work.) the participants who participated in fgd also shared their personal views. in this case, some of them become a spokesperson of their tribe or tribal leader as they introduce their culture to the people in society. they emphasize the history, tradition and especially that is based on the way of living of the blaan people. “i dég, ftoo gu rég ktoh kay la myȃ agu di dad démé gu blaan.” (fgd-p10) (for me, i believe in myself because i am not ashamed to my fellow blaan.) in addition, they encouraged every fellow blaan to follow their tradition so that their culture will not be bend. they should bring a good image to their tribe and to people in society. “i fyé arat kay kay fnanak ta i gitoh kultura mdâ kalsangan. nang gé mébé i kultura na sihag ato. i nébém aye i fyé niyé ké mtud dun.” (fgd-p11) (one good attitude is to preserve our culture from ancient times. do not bring a culture that is bending. instead, show it with a good impression and character.) further, these people are very lovable. wherever they go, they are always smiling as a sign of courtesy and respect. they want every people to feel happy once they will see them in the environment. “i dég, i bong kasalnawa kay mbaling blaan. la gbunim aye. ti téén di dad toh di tah tanâ.” (fgd-p13) (for me, the great love is to become a blaan. you cannot hide it. it will be visible to people around the world.) lastly, they embrace optimism like loving the neighbors and valuing the family. they treasured these attitudes so that they can live longer. at the same time, they can have a peaceful living if they will possess it in their lives. “a btal arat di ka blaan kay malnawa di dad démé la mné ké nang tagak i gé familyam. kanfélék am mlanig di kagol ké lkaf am i gé klumad.” (fgd-p14) (a positive attitude for being a blaan is to love your neighbor and not abandon your family. you need to look back and embrace them as indigenous people.) the results show about the essentiality of goal setting in the thinking process of a person. it also corresponds pa ge 19 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 to the findings of (fayaz, 2023) about goal-setting. it is to set goals and identify specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives. break down goals into manageable steps, identify necessary resources, and create contingency plans. ensure they align with longterm aspirations and align with values and priorities. track progress and adjust as needed. in this study, he stated that goal setting plays a role in career building. they may make a success roadmap, monitor their progress, define their aims, increase motivation and self-efficacy, and monitor their progress by creating clear and explicit goals. in conclusion, they started to show and elevate their culture to people and educate their young children on the importance of embracing their cultural heritage. in addition, goal setting is how people set their purposes in life. young professionals and inexperienced business owners frequently make the error of creating grandiose plans that disintegrate rapidly due to a lack of defined targets. to turn their vision into a reality, they will define goals and objectives along with specific action steps (o’neill, 2018). it means that nomadic blaan people should know their duties and responsibilities in their family through working. they must have aside from that, they need to pursue schooling so they can get a stable living. of course, the government supports the advocacy of these people because of the increase of jobs and services offered in our community. on the other hand, this phenomenological research results from the lived experiences of the participants in nomadism. the result is in line with the study of dovetail editorial team (2023) stating that phenomenology is a type of research that seeks to explain the nature of things through the way people experience them. it takes all consciousness as intentional—in other words, when we try to make sense of something, it is always with a purpose in mind (hammond, 2021). this means that the view of the participant is highly respected and valued. nomadism is very interesting to be studied and that can bring our society good and exceed its social expectations about humanistic values. the results show the challenges of the engagement of the participants in nomadism through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. these include limited access to basic needs, environmental vulnerability, limited economic opportunities; and social marginalization. these challenges mark the living of the nomads especially on their quest to better society. in addition, the result of this study is anchored in the theory of lived experiences. it is described by chandler and munday that this experience belongs to people who have gained knowledge through direct, first-hand involvement in everyday events rather than through assumptions and constructs from other people, research, or the media (community science, 2023). this means that the participants have had so many relatable experiences in their nomadic life journey. some of them have so many conspicuous events from yesteryears. however, these experiences have made them to become strong individuals in the environment. on the other hand, another theory supports the results of this study. the theory of lived experiences in social policy analysis. its representation and understanding of a researcher or research subject for human experiences, choices, and options and how those factors influence one’s perception of knowledge. it responds not only to experiences of the people but also to how people live through and respond to those experiences (mcintosh and wright, 2018). the participants have had meaningful experiences throughout their lives. those marks brought so many challenges for them, and that made their lives shape them into the people they wanted to be. also, the results show about coping mechanism of the engagement of the participants in nomadism. these include embrace flexibility, practice mindfulness in all ways, and set goals. this is to determine the survival situation of the nomads in society. according to the model of coping modes theory, it is an extension of the monitoring-blunting model and has some connections to the repression-sensitization theory. it elaborates on the idea of cognitive avoidance and proposes that humans have an innate tendency to steer clear of stressful situations because they seem unclear (chowdhury, 2019). although the participants have many struggles in their journey towards a nomadic lifestyle, they understand that each event in their lives is always occurring. they want to ensure the safety and security of their lives, away from danger. that is why they need to cope with every single event in the environment. according to lazarus and folkman (1984), there are two basic coping categories. problem-focused and emotionfocused coping are responses aimed at “managing or altering the problem causing the distress” and “regulating emotional responses to the problem,” respectively (stanisławski, 2019). therefore, the participants are not just people who do not know how to solve problems or have compassion for emotions. as humans, they know how to seek advice from their friends and parents and to bring comfort to people who are in grief. these are the characteristics they have, and no doubt they are not unlike those of people in a civilized community. the results shared the insights of the engagement of the participants in nomadism. these include cultural awareness, adaptability, and goal setting. this is to determine the individual views and opinion about their ways of living. according to marchetti (2021), insights focus on the phenomenal aspects of consciousness, more specifically the “why” of it, deriving an explanation for the evolutionary and functional understanding of consciousness. according to him, phenomenal aspect of consciousness (pac) offers information on how different mental processes affect the self and permits an agent to develop a sense of self. he uses the notion of information that is available only for an agent or self to understand, which forms the basis of conscious information processing. he argues that conscious information processing is due to two important pa ge 20 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 2025 components: self and attention (srinivasan et al., 2023). therefore, the participants have unique views about their culture, the people in their environment, and the world around them as their dwelling place. as per the representational change theory of insight, which is based on the theory of memory and cognition (2001), insight difficulties lead to impasses because they mislead problem solvers into creating unsuitable starting representations. it is attained when the initial representation is changed. the current study also implies that eye movement recordings offer a significant new window into the processes of understanding and resolving issues (knoblich et al., 2023). therefore, the participants are not just people who are very far from civilization but people who can explore, study, and conquer the problems of their community. implication and concluding remarks this section provides remarks about the study on the nomadic lifestyle of the blaan tribe in malita, davao occidental. also, it presents the implications based on the important findings of the study. further, relevant information is presented that might help the participants with the challenges and difficulties faced by them in nomadic lifestyle. lastly, this study is based on the cultural philosophies and understanding, documentary studies and phenomenological researches that give significance and value towards research and literatures. implication for educational practice the findings indicate that the blaan tribe has limited access to basic needs such as food, water, shelter, and healthcare. policymakers and relevant organizations may use this information to consider developing programs and initiatives to address these fundamental needs, ensuring that nomadic communities have access to essential resources. regarding the environmental vulnerability faced by the blaan tribe, efforts may be made to protect the natural environment upon which the nomadic lifestyle depends. this may involve sustainable resource management practices, environmental education, and the inclusion of nomadic communities in decision-making processes related to land use and conservation. limited economic opportunities were identified as a challenge for the blaan tribe. initiatives to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities, such as eco-tourism, handicraft production, or other culturally appropriate income-generating activities, may be explored. this may help improve the economic well-being of nomadic communities while preserving their traditional way of life. in terms of social marginalization, efforts should be made to raise awareness and promote understanding of nomadic cultures within the broader society. this could involve educational campaigns, cultural exchange programs, and the inclusion of nomadic perspectives in decision-making processes that affect their lives. implication for future research based on the findings of this study on the nomadic lifestyle of the blaan tribe, there are several implications for future research: future researchers may conduct comparative studies among different nomadic tribes or communities to identify similarities and differences in their lived experiences, coping mechanisms, and cultural insights. this would provide a more comprehensive understanding of the nomadic way of life and the challenges faced by various nomadic groups. also, longitudinal studies may be conducted to track the changes and adaptations experienced by nomadic communities over an extended period. this would allow researchers to observe how these communities respond to various environmental, economic, and social changes, and how their coping strategies evolve. building on the findings related to limited economic opportunities, future research could explore sustainable livelihood strategies that align with the nomadic way of life. this could involve studying traditional livelihood practices, identifying potential income-generating activities, and assessing the feasibility and cultural appropriateness of various economic opportunities. lastly, given the complex nature of the challenges faced by nomadic communities, future research could benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration. this could involve bringing together researchers from various fields, such as anthropology, sociology, environmental studies, economics, and public policy, to develop a holistic understanding and propose solutions. conclusion as a researcher, my insights about the blaan tribe engaged in nomadism are unique and compelling, but i found their situation, especially for their children, to be very challenging. in this new generation, they must secure stable jobs and earn a good living to support their daily needs. their lives must be improved in areas such as education, medical assistance, housing, and consistent access to resources. these are crucial aspects that should be introduced to them to address poverty and lack of opportunities. although some have adapted to this lifestyle, their children should be protected from such unstable situations. they must be nurtured and guided towards a more secure future. despite the difficulties in reaching these people, my ideals and aspirations have allowed me to share knowledge about various possibilities for their future. this study is highly relevant to society and culture, as it focuses on the core values and traditions of nomadic people in our society. as a result, participants who engaged in this research expressed 100% satisfaction due to the excitement of learning about their lineage and the trustworthiness of the research process. they were eager to learn new information about their heritage and potential opportunities. furthermore, i realized that this research has just begun to address justifications for the common good and issues concerning certain individuals who neglect humanistic pa ge 21 https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajiri am. j. interdiscip. res. innov. 4(1) 1-25, 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