Director’s Desk (September 21, 2015)
Why our research matters
Last Friday, September 11, 2015, I started a new journey with 45 Araling Panlipunan (AP) teachers from 16 selected schools of the Diocese of Antipolo to discuss about the Social Sciences courses for Grades 11 and 12. I felt a sense of responsibility to reveal what I know about the rationale and logic of these courses by sharing how we, from the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) Technical Panel of Social Sciences and Communication, designed and crafted the “curriculum guides” (CGs) that DepEd requested from us to produce. What appears to be salient during our discussion was the limited understanding of how these courses may be taught. More obvious is the lack of research orientation and disposition necessary to give life to these CGs.
In the end, I was more convinced about the salient roles our RCCESI studies may be able to accomplish during this time of transition towards K to 12 full implementation years from 20162018. I am thinking of convening AP teachers and RCCESI researchers to discuss and design researchbased modules employing concepts that are local and grounded yet interspersing with global realities. These AP teachers would need our research expertise to produce wellcrafted teaching and learning guides for full use grants http://www.britishcouncil.org/ Newton Fund Researcher Link Travel Grants training workshop Environmental Research Methods: Application In Assessing Biodiversity Values of Ecosystems TrainingWorkshop Philippine Network of Educators on Environment (PNEE) September 2325, 2015 | UPLB, College, Laguna 51st Annual Conference of the CSASCS starting next year, 2016. Seems like our researches matter or should we assert to make our studies matter? At this historic time of change in our educational system, I sense that K to 12 opens up possibilities (and opportunities) for us to challenge the prevailing discourses in our respective fields by engaging and practicing meaningful social research. If done well, then the RCCESI can provide research based knowledge that high schools around the country may use to grasp the many worlds we struggle to survive and make sense of.
