Mindanao State University – General Santos

The establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is a significant achievement in the long quest for peace in the southern Philippines. Using qualitative content analysis method of study, the present study assesses BARMM's programs that address the fundamental needs of the Bangsamoro people to attain lasting peace through the framework of Maqasid al-Shariah—the objectives of Islamic law. As a framework, Maqasid al-shariáh prioritizes the preservation of religion (din), life (nafs), intellect (‘aql), lineage (nasl), and property (mal). The findings indicate that integrating Maqasid al-Shariah offers a comprehensive and culturally relevant approach to peace-building, promoting inclusivity, justice, and societal well-being. The study recommends embedding these principles into governance mechanisms. Specific policy suggestions include prioritizing religious harmony in education curricula, safeguarding livelihoods through ethical economic initiatives, and promoting intellectual development through anti-radicalization programs. These strategies aim to align contemporary approaches with Islamic ethical imperatives for sustainable development.

The increase in incarcerated mothers in the Philippines has raised concerns regarding their welfare. However, the impact of incarceration on motherhood needs further study and has been an underexplored topic of feminism. This study explored how women navigate and negotiate motherhood in a Correctional Institute for Women (CIW) in the Philippines. Researchers employed a case study approach and conducted key informant interviews to explore how incarcerated mothers fulfill their maternal role and to examine the context of motherhood within incarceration. The collected data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed to identify themes. The findings reveal that motherhood in CIW deviates from traditional notions of motherhood. Despite the absence of direct caregiving, incarcerated mothers perform their maternal role through emotional and spiritual connections with their children. Motherhood in the context of incarcerated women in CIW can be seen as taking control of their agency; however, it is exacerbated by their socioeconomic backgrounds. The findings suggest the development of a comprehensive profiling system of incarcerated women and its integration in the family support services in the CIW plans to promote a more inclusive and responsive program.

Background: During health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, children require accessible and developmentally appropriate resources to understand disease prevention and health-related behaviors. Children’s digital picture books have emerged as a promising medium for conveying public health messages through visual storytelling and age-appropriate narratives. Objectives: This study aimed to examine how children’s digital picture books represent disease preventive behaviors and moral values, using the Duma Says series as a case study. Methods: A qualitative visual and textual analysis was conducted on four digital picture books from the Duma Says Collector’s Edition. The study employed qualitative visual analysis and a critical discourse approach to examine representations of hygiene practices, social responsibility, and community engagement embedded in both images and narratives. Results: The findings indicate that the Duma Says series effectively integrates key COVID-19 preventive behaviors—such as handwashing, mask-wearing, social distancing, and sanitation—within child-friendly language and culturally contextualized visuals. In addition to promoting health practices, the books emphasize values of hope, responsibility, cooperation, and service, portraying children as active contributors to community well-being during a crisis. Conclusions: Children’s digital picture books, such as the Duma Says series, function as effective educational tools for promoting disease prevention awareness and values-based learning. Incorporating culturally grounded digital picture books into early childhood and health education may strengthen children’s health literacy, emotional resilience, and sense of social responsibility during public health emergencies.

Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants that can serve as transport vehicles for pathogens, potentially spreading them into human settlements and posing a public health threat. In recent years, concerns have been raised about the potential hazardous effects of these “pathogenic hitchhikers” on human health. This review paper presents foundational information on pathogenic hitchhikers associated with MPs, based on a review of the literature published in scientific journals from 2000 to 2021. We used search engines such as Google Scholar and Mendeley to retrieve publications during those inclusive years. Over the past two decades, we identified only 57 published articles on human pathogenic microorganisms associated with MPs, underscoring this area of research as relatively novel and emerging. For the reviewed articles, the common polymer types associated with pathogens were polyethylene and polypropylene, while Vibrio spp. were the most commonly reported human pathogens present on MP surfaces. Albeit small in scale, these studies provide incontrovertible proof that MPs can act as vectors for disease spread and pose a threat to the ecosystem. Significant gaps, nonetheless, remain, particularly concerning their harmful effects on humans and other macro-organisms that may inadvertently ingest MPs harboring these ‘hitchhikers’. Addressing these gaps in future research is thus warranted to comprehensively understand the ecological roles and health risks posed by these hazardous contaminants on MPs and for informing relevant policy decisions.

In a socially constructivist classroom, critical thinking is an important skill that teachers need to have to help them deliver lessons effectively. The use of 7E instructional design model is a well-known framework that pre-service teachers use to deliver their lessons. This study examined how pre-service teachers use critical thinking skills in 7E Instructional design lesson plans in science, which is rooted in social constructivism that emphasizes collaborative and learner-centered learning. This study utilized descriptive quantitative method, specifically frequency and weighted means following the 5-point Likert scale, then supplemented with descriptive qualitative data to verify and support the critical thinking skills in designing inquiry-based lesson plans of 162 second-year Bachelor of Elementary Education pre-service teachers. The instrument used in the study was a 35-item research-made questionnaire anchored on the 7E instructional design model that underwent validity and reliability testing, and was divided into seven sub-categories. The findings suggest that pre-service teachers generally use critical thinking skills in designing inquiry-based lesson plans. Pre-service teachers employ critical thinking by designing activities that help learners apply their new knowledge to solve problems, create new outputs, and connect to real-world situations. This study recommends that pre-service teachers' lesson plans must be examined to confirm their use of critical thinking skills, practical opportunities must be provided to them for improvement, and institutional policies must be formulated to guide them in designing lesson plans.

This case study analyzed the challenges and opportunities regarding food safety and profitability in the Dayok production chain in General Santos City. Using a descriptive quantitative research approach, which is based on surveys from Dayok producers and retailers, the analysis has detected key factors affecting production practices, market performance, and income generation. The results show that producers face problems related to sanitation, the absence of standardized methods of processing, and limited access to appropriate facilities. Additionally, fluctuations in market prices have also challenged the production environment. Retailers experience problems maintaining product quality and ensuring safety while generating profits due to tough competition and uncertainty of supply. Opportunities for improved hygiene practices, value addition, training, government regulatory reforms, and increased government support have been indicated. The study has emphasized the need for teamwork among producers, retailers, and local authorities in order to enhance the safety, profitability, and sustainability of the Dayok industry in General Santos City.

SeTARA Daring provides a range of facilities that enable online teaching and learning, including convenient access for tutors and learners via various digital devices. This study aimed to develop and describe the procedure for producing video-tutorial–based learning media for use in the “SeTARA Online” application by tutors at PKBM East Medan, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the resulting media. The research object was a KineMaster-based video tutorial designed to support tutors in creating effective instructional media within the SeTARA Daring platform. Data were collected using a questionnaire, and were analyzed using Aiken’s V to establish content validity, complemented by a t-test and normalized gain (N-gain) analysis to examine learning improvements. The findings indicate that the developed video tutorial achieved very high validity, with Aiken’s V approaching 1.00, suggesting that the content and presentation were highly appropriate and aligned with the instructional material. In addition, the video-based media not only supported students’ understanding of the learning content but also encouraged tutors to adopt more creative and innovative instructional practices. Results from the pretest–posttest analysis further demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in student learning outcomes among those who learned with the KineMaster-based video media compared with those who did not. Overall, the study concludes that KineMaster-based video tutorials are feasible and effective for supporting learning through the SeTARA Daring application. Future research is recommended to extend implementation to broader contexts and to further examine impacts on learning outcomes across different learner groups.

As the most visible expression of language in everyday life, the linguistic landscape (LL) captures the interplay of a community’s linguistic diversity, sociocultural dynamics, and underlying language policies. While there is growing interest in these dynamics in both global and national contexts, LL often goes unnoticed and underexamined in local contexts, such as public parks in Davao City, Philippines. Thus, this study explores the linguistic landscape of Davao City public parks, which plays a crucial role in shaping identity and social interaction in the city. The researchers examined the types of signs, the languages or codes present in the signs, and their functions within the nine parks across downtown Davao City. Employing qualitative content analysis, the findings reveal that top-down signs were structured and standardized, while bottom-up signs were informal and diverse. Regarding the codes, the signs were displayed in English, Cebuano, Filipino, Spanish, and Japanese, and were either monolingual, bilingual, or trilingual, serving both informational and symbolic functions. The interaction between the informational and symbolic functions of signs illustrates how language operates as both a tool for regulation and a marker of identity in public recreational spaces. The study highlights how signs serve both regulatory and identity functions in public spaces, thereby recommending the inclusivity of signage policies that enhance cultural representation, particularly of indigenous languages. This research contributes to the understanding of the role of multilingualism in public spaces, identity, and accessibility.

School culture—shaped by values, attitudes, and beliefs—is vital to school success in the Philippines, where teacher performance plays a pivotal role in shaping the quality and direction of education. However, this issue is not only confined to the local setting. On a global scale, a limited understanding of school culture remains a challenge, hindering progress toward quality education under UN SDG 4. The study aimed to identify how school culture correlates with and potentially influences variations in teachers' professional performance and behavioral attributes. This descriptive-correlational study examined how school culture influences teachers' work proficiency and behavioral competencies in seven (7) private schools in General Santos City, using two questionnaires: one on school culture and the DepEd Self-Assessment Tool (SAT), with 182 teacher respondents—both were administered for quantitative data analysis. The results showed private school teachers practice school culture to a great extent (M = 4.00), with high work proficiency (M=3.98), high behavioral competence (M=3.71), and school culture significantly influences teachers' work proficiency and behavioral competencies, and there was a significant difference between variables (p = 0.0000). This recommends that school administrators should foster a positive school culture through regular teacher collaboration training, clear harmony policies and feedback surveys, encourage teachers to share best practices that contribute to a strong school culture and establish a mentoring program where highly proficient teachers can support their peers, promoting an exchange of best teaching practices, private schools should do a reassessment of the existing practices that greatly contribute to the school culture and refine the domains that need to be improved and future researchers may explore how school culture affects other areas of the organization.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of MeTayutay, an e-learning tool designed to teach figures of speech and examines the figures of speech found in selected works of Genoveva Edroza-Matute as supplementary learning material. It is grounded in the TPACK Framework (Mishra & Koehler), Connectivism Learning Theory (Siemens & Downes), Formalist Theory, and Reader’s Response Theory. Analysis identified metaphor, paradox, hyperbole, synecdoche, metonymy, simile, rhetorical question, personification, and euphemism in Matute’s works, with metaphor being the most frequently used. These works serve as valuable resources for teaching figurative language. Additionally, MeTayutay proves to be an effective digital instructional tool for improving students’ understanding of figures of speech, reinforcing their learning through interactive and supplementary content.