Mental Health Resilience During the Pandemic: An Exploration of the Lived Experiences of the Teachers of Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

In all types of disasters, resiliency is a key to recovery and this is also true for the substantially challenged mental health of the people. In the Philippines, education was not halted during the pandemic, and the frontline educators were on substantial struggles with the major shift in the educational landscape. There were efforts and initiatives seen during the pandemic to alleviate the impacts on the community, though how insufficient, are still beneficial especially to the mental health of the people. This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of the teachers of higher education institutions on mental health resilience during the pandemic. Data were obtained through key informant interviews with 11 HEI teachers purposely selected and were analyzed using Colaizzi’s phenomenology data analysis model to come up with the essential themes. Two themes emerged in the analysis of the data: community efforts and positive personality. This study reveals the beneficial impact of the support given by the different groups in the community on the teachers’ mental health during the pandemic. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the importance of the positive personality of the teachers to cope with the challenges of the pandemic in their mental health over and above the support given by the community. On a broader lens, this study stresses the importance of working together as a community in improving the mental health of teachers in the most challenging time in providing quality education services.