Introduction to Special Project

Focused on understanding experiences and gaining in-depth insights rather than testing hypotheses. It is aligned to the research aim of exploring the individual challenges and coping strategies in a specific context.

This aims to identify and describe the essence of a lived phenomenon, without the researchers' assumptions regarding the phenomenon (Delve & Limpaecher, 2022).

This is considered a methodological approach and an analytical method, which is rooted from phenomenology. In this approach, instead of simply determining the lived experiences of the participants, the researcher will provide interpretations on the responses, while developing codes, themes, and patterns (Delve & Limpaecher, 2022).

This is the intentional selection of specific individuals as participants of the study, relative to the research questions and phenomena (Golzar et al., 2024).

This is a research method wherein the researcher is involved in the participant setting while observing their interactions, behaviors, and practices (George, 2023), while ensuring minimal interference. 

The researcher prepared the interview questions in advance to help direct the discussion while allowing for improvisation and flexibility (“The Essential Guide to Coding Qualitative Data,” 2024).  

This is a framework by Stufflebeam in 1983, which is used to evaluate a curriculum, program, or an environment, focusing on the institution’s context, input, process, and product (Aziz et al. 2018). This study evaluated ABC's program to determine whether it is appropriate for the students of today's generation, which was used to support the main interpretation of this study (see Appendix H).

It is believed to be the set of analysis, interpretation, and understanding of what and how to teach (McCutcheon, 1982 as cited in Aslan & Yaşar, 2021, p.240). Curriculum theory and practice describe curriculum as a continuous process that involves planning, acting, and evaluating as it is transmitted and attempting to achieve outcomes (Smith, 2000), emphasizing its significance. Hence, without a curriculum, a school is not organized and has no clear set of goals to achieve, making learning less appropriate and less effective for the learners.

According to William Goode (1960, as cited in Nickerson, 2023) this theory describes how an individual may experience strain when they cannot meet their roles’ demands. It often occurs when individuals have multiple roles, unclear expectations, insufficient support or resources, and overlapping responsibilities, causing a decline in performance to fulfill their roles (Nickerson, 2023). In the context of this study, the absence of a formal curriculum contributes to such role strain. Teachers are expected to deliver quality education and promote student development, yet they lack a structured framework to guide their efforts. This uncertainty and added workload can lead to stress, inconsistencies in instruction, and reduced professional satisfaction, making role strain a relevant and insightful framework for understanding the challenges they face.

This theory was mostly established by Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Gagne, and Bruner (Kurt, 2021). This theory highlights learner-centered, experience-based, hands-on, and exploratory learning approaches (Kurt, 2021). This theory states that learners are active as they reflect on previous experiences and construct new knowledge (Kurt, 2021). This approach is essential to support children’s cognitive, emotional, and social development. However, the absence of a formal curriculum can hinder teachers from fully applying constructivist principles. Without a structured framework, it becomes challenging to ensure that classroom activities are developmentally appropriate, scaffolded effectively, and aligned with long-term learning outcomes. As a result, teachers must independently interpret and apply constructivist approaches, often without the necessary guidance or support, adding to their professional burden and potentially impacting the quality of early education provided.

This theory, by Lazarus and Folkman (1984 as cited in Chowdhurry, 2019), posists that individuals use both cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific internal or external demands that are perceived as tiring or exceeding their resources. According to this model, coping is not a one-size-fits-all response; individuals may adopt different coping strategies even when facing similar problems. For example, when not provided with teaching materials, one teacher may choose to create visual aids like flashcards, while another may rely on oral discussions to deliver content. These differing responses illustrate the personal and contextual nature of coping. In this study, it is therefore significant to investigate the range of coping strategies employed by teachers, as this will reveal how the challenges impact their teaching methods and whether their strategies are sustainable or effective in the long term. Furthermore, understanding these coping strategies can inform the development of more standardized policies, curriculum frameworks, or institutional supports that better meet the needs of teachers in similar contexts.

This theory is grounded from the philosophical traditions of IPA. It was majorly influenced by Schleiermacher, Heidegger, and Gadamer (Charlick et al., 2016). Schleiermacher (1998) believed that interpretation involves two aspects: grammatical (i.e., focused on the literal text) and psychological (i.e., focused on the individual or deeper meaning behind the text). On the other hand, Heidegger (1962) highlighted how interpretation is linked to the making of meaning from lived experiences. In IPA, this reflects the idea that a phenomenon may be described but understood and uncovered by the researcher (Smith et al., 2009 as cited in Charlick et al., 2016), especially since Heidegger believed that interpretation is shaped by the researcher’s preconceptions, which requires reflection. Additionally, Gadamer (1990) further suggested that in interpreting, ‘meaning’ is co-constructed by the researcher and the participant, and a phenomenon can have multiple conceptions (Charlick et al., 2016).

This is also grounded from the philosophical traditions of IPA. It operates at two levels: (1) thorough and systematic depth of analysis; and (2) the understanding of how an experiential phenomenon is interpreted from the perspective of particular people (Smith et al., 2009 as cited in Charlick et al., 2016). Idiography supports the concept of this research since it focuses on collecting the lived experiences of each participant. Instead of focusing on the general realizations, it focuses on the detailed and unique story of the particular participant. Specific and meaningful data of every participant in this research will be determined through the application of hermeneutics and idiography, which will significantly contribute to the shared understanding of all participants.