Degree Date
12-14-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Education
First Advisor
Dr. Kristeen Chachage
Second Advisor
Dr. Elisheva Cohen
Third Advisor
Dr. Kristine Scallon
Abstract
This interpretive phenomenological study illustrated how a group of primary school teachers in Nicaragua used ontological values to orient their experiences and negotiations of a destabilizing socio-political crisis compounded by COVID-19. Set within a framework of education in emergencies, this study employed short-term ethnographic methods and trauma-informed principles to explore the dynamic and interconnected domains and relationships during collective duress, and the organic resilience that emerged to preserve core priorities. A history of collective adversity, weak systems, and political hegemony made the nation vulnerable to cycles of emergency while leaving recovery up to individuals, families, and communities. As a result, culturally embedded priorities of protecting loved ones (familismo) and preserving communal relationships (personalismo) have evolved over generations, continuing to motivate and direct resilience response. The research reveals how teaching and school played a secondary role to these core values, offering tentative financial safety within a climate of intensified economic insecurity. Participants adapted resilience strategies to the domains of community and school while tailoring them to unique crisis characteristics and upholding their central values. The findings reify the need for constructivist socio-ecological approaches to understanding experiences and management of crises as well as delineating the terms of resilience. By engaging a socio-ecological perspective, this interpretive phenomenological study illustrates how a group of primary school teachers in Nicaragua held to anchored values to negotiate their roles and exigent responsibilities intensified by crises.