Pangarap Ko, Pangarap Natin: The Role of Hope As A Mediator Between Social Support and School Engagement Among Filipino Public School Students

Most students in the Philippines are enrolled in public schools, and yet conditions inside the classroom make it difficult for a student to stay engaged. Although there are many factors that contribute to school engagement, the current study looks at social support ___ particularly teacher support, parent support and peer help, as predictors of school engagement. The study also looks at hope as a mediating factor between this relationship, given that students are faced with adverse situations both in the school setting and in their communities. The study was conducted among Grade 6 students at a public elementary school in Quezon City. Regression analysis was conducted to look at the mediation between these variables. Based on the results of the study, hope serves as a partial mediator of the relationship between social support and school engagement. Results of the study have implications on factors on school outcomes, as well as school interventions on public schools in the Philippines

The Unifying and Divisive Effects of Social Identities: Religious and Ethnopolitical Identities Among Mindanao Muslims in the Philippines

The present study looks into the unifying and divisive effects of ethnopolitical and religious social identities, and an emerging superordinate Bangsamoro identity of Muslims in the southern region of the Philippines. We surveyed 394 Muslims with a mean age of 32.6 and standard deviation of 13.3 from the Tausug, Maranao, and Maguindanaoan ethnopolitical affiliations using various measures of social identities. Findings showed that the Muslims in our sample identify themselves more strongly with their religious identity over their ethnopolitical affiliations. Religious identity may thus be a unifying element in the conflict-ridden context of Mindanao, as a significant correlation was also found between their Muslim identity and attitudes toward the superordinate Bangsamoro identity. Qualitative data on the meaning of Bangsamoro were also analysed and revealed that Bangsamoro means a fusion of Mindanao, Islam, and peace/unity. However, data also reveal the divisive effects of ethnic identity. A moderately high overlap was found between their own ethnic identity and the Bangsamoro identity. The Tausugs, the low-power group in the peace talks, showed lesser overlap compared to Maguinanaons, suggesting that ethnopolitical, or what observers of Mindanao conflict have referred to as ‘tribal’ relations, implicates the respondent\u27s perception of a superordinate Bangsamoro identity

Fragmented Ethnopolitical Social Representations of a Territorial Peace Agreement: The Mindanao Peace Talks

This article examines fractures in the social representations of a contested peace agreement in the longstanding territorial conflict of Mindanao. We compared representational structures and discourses about the peace talks among Muslims and Christians. Study One used an open-ended survey of 420 Christians and Muslims from two Mindanao cities identified with different Islamised tribes, and employed the hierarchical evocation method to provide representational structures of the peace agreement. Study Two contrasted discourses about the Memorandum of Agreement between two Muslim liberation fronts identified with separate Islamised tribes in Mindanao. Findings show unified Christians’ social representations about the peace agreement. However, Muslims’ social representations diverge along the faultlines of the Islamised ethnic groups. Findings are examined in the light of ethnopolitical divides that emerge among apparently united nonmigrant groups, as peace agreements address territorial solutions. Research results are likewise discussed in relation to other tribally contoured social landscapes that carry hidden, yet fractured ethnic narratives embedded in a larger war storyline

RELATIONAL NATION The Appreciation of Characters in Rizal’s Noli me tángere in Two Philippine Public High Schools

In implementing the Rizal Law, the Department of Education’s K-12 Curriculum Guide emphasizes the study of characters in Rizal’s novels as a means to cultivate patriotism among the youth. In this light, this paper presents ethnographically how students from two public high schools in Rizal Province relate with characters in Noli me tángere. In the classroom, these characters have developed a status akin to “real” historical beings. Concomitantly, students use tropes that connect these characters to their own lives, relationships, and understandings of the social world. The students’ relationships elicit moral standards for imagining the nation and embodying their own patriotism

Surrogacy Among Filipinos Who Have Struggled With Infertility: A Discourse Analysis

Surrogacy continues to be practiced to address infertility in the Philippines; however, discussions on the method are sparse, given its limited accessibility and morally questionable procedures that may concern potential parents in a developing country. Using discourse analysis, the researchers interviewed ten (10) Filipino Roman Catholics who were struggling with infertility, to uncover how they construct the idea of surrogacy. The study shows the discourses on surrogacy are often approached in a detached manner, where potential parents describe the method as a last choice or one that is never considered. They articulate this position by highlighting the emotional factors surrogacy would entail; the women, in particular, described the involvement of another individual as “taking over” the role of the mother. Participants placed themselves in positions of both power and vulnerability, reconciling the split between surrogacy as a compassionate act or a transactional business. The ambiguous role of faith was also negotiated by the participants, where they argued for surrogacy using alternative teachings or through God-given “free will”. The discourses present considerations for the continued practice of surrogacy among key players in reproductive health in developing countries, recognizing the concerns of infertile couples to enable informed decision-making and policy creation

Being oneself through time: bases of self-continuity across 55 cultures

Self-continuity – the sense that one’s past, present, and future are meaningfully connected – is considered a defining feature of personal identity. However, bases of self-continuity may depend on cultural beliefs about personhood. In multilevel analyses of data from 7287 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations, we tested a new tripartite theoretical model of bases of self-continuity. As expected, perceptions of stability, sense of narrative, and associative links to one’s past each contributed to predicting the extent to which people derived a sense of self-continuity from different aspects of their identities. Ways of constructing self-continuity were moderated by cultural and individual differences in mutable (vs. immutable) personhood beliefs – the belief that human attributes are malleable. Individuals with lower mutability beliefs based self-continuity more on stability; members of cultures where mutability beliefs were higher based self-continuity more on narrative. Bases of self-continuity were also moderated by cultural variation in contextualized (vs. decontextualized) personhood beliefs, indicating a link to cultural individualism-collectivism. Our results illustrate the cultural flexibility of the motive for self-continuity

Individual and culture-level components of survey response styles: a multi-level analysis using cultural models of selfhood

Variations in acquiescence and extremity pose substantial threats to the validity of cross-cultural research that relies on survey methods. Individual and cultural correlates of response styles when using two contrasting types of response mode were investigated, drawing on data from 55 cultural groups across 33 nations. Using seven dimensions of self-other relatedness that have often been confounded within the broader distinction between independence and interdependence, our analysis yields more specific understandings of both individual- and culture-level variations in response style. When using a Likert scale response format, acquiescence is strongest among individuals seeing themselves as similar to others, and where cultural models of selfhood favour harmony, similarity with others and receptiveness to influence. However, when using Schwartz’s (2007) portrait-comparison response procedure, acquiescence is strongest among individuals seeing themselves as self-reliant but also connected to others, and where cultural models of selfhood favour self-reliance and self-consistency. Extreme responding varies less between the two types of response modes, and is most prevalent among individuals seeing themselves as self-reliant, and in cultures favouring self-reliance. Since both types of response mode elicit distinctive styles of response, it remains important to estimate and control for style effects to ensure valid comparisons

Beyond the ‘East-West’ dichotomy: global variation in cultural models of selfhood

Markus and Kitayama’s (1991) theory of independent and interdependent self-construals had a major influence on social, personality, and developmental psychology by highlighting the role of culture in psychological processes. However, research has relied excessively on contrasts between North American and East Asian samples, and commonly used self-report measures of independence and interdependence frequently fail to show predicted cultural differences. We revisited the conceptualization and measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals in 2 large-scale multinational surveys, using improved methods for cross-cultural research. We developed (Study 1: N = 2924 students in 16 nations) and validated across cultures (Study 2: N = 7279 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations) a new 7-dimensional model of self-reported ways of being independent or interdependent. Patterns of global variation support some of Markus and Kitayama’s predictions, but a simple contrast between independence and interdependence does not adequately capture the diverse models of selfhood that prevail in different world regions. Cultural groups emphasize different ways of being both independent and interdependent, depending on individualism-collectivism, national socioeconomic development, and religious heritage. Our 7-dimensional model will allow future researchers to test more accurately the implications of cultural models of selfhood for psychological processes in diverse ecocultural contexts