Eighteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society

Abstract

The Kindergarten Education Act and other laws declaring the provision of education to children with disabilities, provide education to every Filipino child with visual impairment. It envisions students to acquire learning skills that will enable a Filipino child with visual impairment to function effectively and independently for eventual mainstreaming/ inclusion in the community as a productive citizen. The study aims to gain an “insider perspective” on how the teachers and administrators of the selected schools in Laguna, Philippines make sense of their experience in implementing the kindergarten program for the visually impaired. The goal of the study is to identify the positive and negative experiences of teachers and administrators along with contributing factors to the experiences. This study explores the experiences of five (5) teachers and five (5) school administrators in their implementation of the kindergarten program for children with visual impairment which were selected via purposive sampling. Themes were extracted employing the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) on the experiences of 5 school administrators and 5 teachers in the Schools Division of Laguna. Drawing from these experiences and considering the previous study related 4 emergent themes are presented: 1) Journey Towards Progress, 2.) Filling the Education Gap, 3.) Collective Efforts and 4.) Support Issues. The study shows that the participants’ positive and negative experience, albeit being influenced by several factors, is it is not a separate linear experience but rather an interwoven set of both positive and negative experiences leading to the perceived success of the program.