Lasallian spirit lives on: Stories of public-school teachers with comorbidity beyond the pandemic

https://doi.org/10.70228/JHER2025040

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ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to the education sector, particularly for public school teachers with chronic comorbidities. This study employs narrative inquiry, specifically Dialogical Narrative Analysis (DNA), to examine the post-pandemic experiences of five public school teachers with chronic comorbidities in the Philippines. Addressing a significant gap in educational research, the study foregrounds a marginalized group whose professional lives are shaped by the intersection of health vulnerability and institutional expectations. The findings demonstrated that teacher resilience is not a fixed trait, but a dynamic, socio-ecological process negotiated across personal, relational, and institutional domains. The research revealed three main themes: Weavers of Dreams: Teachers' Journeys Through Transitions and Transformation; Weavers of Hope: Teachers' Learning and Growth Beyond the Pandemic, and Threads of Experience: Weaving Pandemic Insights into the New Normal. Participants enacted resilience through adaptive pedagogical strategies, time management, and meaning-making practices; however, their narratives also revealed tensions between professional commitment and embodied limitations. Lasallian values—particularly faith, service, and communion—emerged as mediating forces that shaped how resilience was constructed and sustained. These values served both as sources of motivation and as moral pressures that potentially normalize overextension. The study contributes to resilience theory by proposing a value-mediated, socio-ecological model of teacher resilience. It offers implications for developing more humane and health-sensitive educational policies in post-pandemic contexts.

Keywords: COVID-19, comorbidity, public school teachers, Lasallian values, narrative inquiry, Information and Communication Technology integration