Hybrid-Service Learning During Disasters: Coaching Teachers Develop Sustainability-Integrated Materials
Abstract
The destructive impact of Typhoon Rai in 2021, which caused a prolonged power blackout in Cebu, Philippines, and the outbreak of typhoid fever cases in 2022 served as catalysts for the elementary public-school teachers in Barili, Cebu, to enhance the integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) within their curriculum. This descriptive research aimed to address the coaching request of Barili teachers regarding the integration of ESD into their action research remedial reading program. It presents the experiences of graduate students who participated in a hybrid-service learning (h-SL) approach as an alternative assessment in the Materials Production course. Over a period of three months, the students volunteered to assist the teachers in designing ESD-integrated reading materials using both online and face-to-face modalities. The findings derived from reflections, an anonymous survey, and focus group discussions revealed the following outcomes: (1) h-SL facilitated the academic growth and volunteerism of the students while empowering the community through the production of ESD-reading materials, and (2) face-to-face coaching fostered social-emotional connections between the student-coaches and teachers, resulting in spontaneous feedback.
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