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Case Study

The director of a primary school faces a conflict between her educational philosophy that emphasizes play-based learning in the local language and parents who want a more academically rigorous curriculum focused on English. She must decide whether to maintain her program or make changes to address parental concerns, risking a betrayal of her principles or loss of students.

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Mary Rose Abit Go
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29 views3 pages

Case Study

The director of a primary school faces a conflict between her educational philosophy that emphasizes play-based learning in the local language and parents who want a more academically rigorous curriculum focused on English. She must decide whether to maintain her program or make changes to address parental concerns, risking a betrayal of her principles or loss of students.

Uploaded by

Mary Rose Abit Go
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CASE STUDY

A Conflict of Goals

Teresa Beltran, the director of St. Benedict Primary School, Tacloban City,
came out of the parents-teachers meeting feeling utterly dejected. She felt that
Tacloban City was not the place for her. Her initial impulse was to close the school,
pack her bags, and fly to the United States.

In 1999, Teresa Beltran, armed with a Master of Arts Degree in Language


Education from New York University and seven years of teaching experience at
several basic education institutions in the U.S., came home to the Philippines to
attend her mother’s funeral. She was prevailed upon by her family, most especially
by her father, to stay home for good and establish a quality primary school, to
meet a felt need in the community.

The educational program of St. Benedict Primary School was based on


Piaget’s Developmental Psychology, Maria Montessori’s methods of teaching, the
principles and practices of the Open Classroom, and the multilingualism
philosophical view. In keeping with these, the language arts program was so
designed to include and stress learning activities which provided play and talk, that
built around the concepts of action, interaction, and transaction, that provided
numerous encounters with the variety and depth of language. Attention was given
to the most effective ways of challenging the thinking of children, capitalizing on
their curiosity and individual differences (including language differences),
encouraging intellectual exploration, and above all, avoiding ritualizing instruction
through memorization and rote learning. In short, the program utilized the
experience-language-cognitive wealth that the children bring with them to school at
ages 6 to 9 years old as the sound, all-embracing foundation on which to develop
knowledge and language competence.

The only deterrent to the successful implementation of such a rich language


arts program was the strong pressure coming from parents who thought of a
primary school as the start of formal instruction.

The parents who attended this year’s PTA meeting were more aggressive and
articulate than those who did the year before. The meeting began cordially
enough, and after some exchange of viewpoints and preliminary remarks on
proposed school activities, Ms. Gloria Cruz, a parent of a Grade 2 pupil, stood up
and asked: “Ms. Beltran, does play and informal interaction in their mother tongue
have to be the core of education for primary graders? We, parents think that our
kids have enough of play and practice in speaking Waray at home. We send them
to school early not to play but to learn.

Ms. Marie Domingo picked up the thread of the first remark: “Yes, they
should be learning English and be able to speak fluently just like the kids in LNU.”
“They should be reading short stories and writing themed essays in English
instead of doing small group conversations, role playing and playing,” added Ms.
Nonie Cuizon.

“Our kids seem to be behind those from other schools,” commented Ms.
Elena Dulay.

The litany of what their kids should do and learn in school would have
continued had not Ms. Baby Fernandez, president of the PTA, put an end to the
discussion. Trying to be diplomatic, Mrs. Fernandez said, “We hope you understand
our concern and you don’t feel bad and consider it an interference. We are just
trying to help you improve the school’s program. We have nothing against the
school. We like the atmosphere and the physical setup. We think the teachers are
competent. But maybe we can help accelerate our kids’ mental development and
improve their English proficiency by redesigning our curriculum and putting stress
on formal learning and activities.”

Ms. Beltran felt helpless. She knew that to try to rationalize the school’s
program would lead to an endless and heated discussion like what happened the
year before. She managed a gracious smile and said: “Thank you for your concern.
I’ll try to study your proposal.”

Ms. Beltran came out of the PTA meeting feeling discouraged and
unappreciated. She did not know what to do. To succumb to parental pressures
would mean betrayal of her educational principles and philosophy. On the other
hand, ignoring parental concerns would also mean less or no enrollment at all.
What should she do?

Follow very closely the following steps for dealing with the case:

1. Read the case.


2. Solve the case using the following format:
a. Define the problem or the issue in one sentence.
b. In arriving at a solution, what is the objective of the line of action to be
taken to solve the problem? State this in one sentence.
c. Spell out in three or four sentences what the ideal qualities are of the
solution to be arrived at. For example, if the problem has to do with
parents’ complaint and the solution is to change the school curriculum,
what additional features should this change have? In this case, it is
necessary that the solution has the following accompanying conditions:
the procedure has to be according to law (otherwise it shall violate
statutory laws); the trade-off is within the means of the school and
satisfies both parties; and that the solution does not give rise to other
problems.
d. Summarize the case facts, focusing on the dimensions of the problem.
e. Spell out the alternative courses of action (or solutions) that are possible.
The more the options and alternatives, the better the analysis. There
should be at least three alternatives.
f. Take each proposed option and spell out the consequences of each
option; foresee and describe as many consequences as you can which
may result from the line of action taken.
g. Choose ONE or a COMBINATION of solutions and justify your choice.

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