Exploring Ivatan Indigenous Resilience Practices and Their Integration into the K to 10 Science Curriculum: Foundations for a Proposed Theory

This study examined the relevance and feasibility of integrating Ivatan indigenous resilience practices into the K to 10 Science Curriculum in the Schools Division of Batanes. It reports the qualitative phase of an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, using narrative inquiry and reflexive thematic analysis. Twelve purposively selected co-participants—three school heads, five science teachers, and four Grade 9 learners—completed individual semi-structured narrative interviews and an identical four-question open-ended questionnaire. Findings concerned six focal practices: kapanpet, kapaytapangku, kapaychawan, kapayaru, panuvidan, and manyinen. Learners described household participation as their principal route of acquisition, alongside uneven recognition of Ivatan terminology and limited explicit cultural content in science lessons. Teachers identified conceptual connections with weather and climate, force and structural stability, and food preservation and resource management. Learners and teachers converged on demonstration, guided practice, and product-based assessment. Feasibility depended on competency alignment, instructional time, learner readiness, teacher knowledge, reliable localized materials, and institutional permission to contextualize. Differences concerning the relationship between indigenous knowledge and scientific explanation were retained. The findings informed a proposed theory of the educational function of Ivatan resilience practices and a curriculum-integration framework supported by Instructional Supervision, Mentoring, Evaluation, and Technical Assistance (ISMETA). Instrument development and quantitative validation remain subsequent phases; no quantitative validation or intervention outcomes are claimed.