My Work Affects My Studies! Lived Experiences of Elementary Pupils Engaged in Farm Work and the Teachers Who Handle Them

Abstract

Utilising a phenomenological research design employing unstructured in-depth interviews, this study investigated the lived experiences of elementary school students engaged in farm work and the teachers overseeing them, focusing specifically on the impacts of farm work on their schooling. Six teachers and six pupils from grades four to six at a rural elementary school in an agricultural area in the Philippines agreed to participate in the interviews. Digitally recorded interviews were thematically analysed to generate the themes and sub-themes. Unlike the majority of previous studies, this present study included both the perspectives of students and teachers. The study considered the actual experiences of the children and the teachers' conceptualisations of an ideal educational experience for students. The study aimed to fill the gap by forming a synthesis with these two different perspectives. The researchers generated three themes: poor academic performance, mechanisms for reinforcement of learning, and imbalance between school responsibilities and daily lives. The results highlighted that farm work negatively affected the academic lives of elementary school pupils, leading to poor grades and increased absenteeism. Meanwhile, teachers faced challenges in delivering and reinforcing learning materials due to the frequent absenteeism of the students. In conclusion, the demands of farm work hinder pupils' educational progress and their ability to benefit from classroom instruction fully. For future research, it would be helpful to extend the current findings by examining the parents’ perceptions since this study focused only on the experiences of elementary pupils and elementary teachers’ perspectives regarding the effects of farm work on academic life.