Intercultural Competency of Araling Panlipunan Teachers in Ramon District, Isabela: Basis for a Contextualized Lesson Exemplar Framework Towards The Development of Contextualized Lesson Exemplar

Inter-cultural competency is an important aspect of developing an inclusive and culturally sensitive environment for learning, particularly in Social Science topics such as Araling Panlipunan which involves discourse about culture and diversity. A descriptive-comparative research design was utilized to determine the intercultural competencies of the Araling Panlipunan teachers in selected secondary schools in Ramon district, Isabela. The variables that were considered include cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, and cultural skills. Other variables included in the study were age, sex, educational attainment, teaching experience, and training. From the results, it is clear that the respondents possessed a moderate intercultural competence in all three categories. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups based on age, educational attainment, and years of teaching experience in terms of intercultural awareness, knowledge, and skills.There were statistically significant differences were found in intercultural skills when grouped according to sex and training exposure. The study reveals several barriers in developing and implementing culturally responsive pedagogy. Some barriers found were inadequate training, lack of proper teaching materials, and insufficient time for lesson preparation, congested classrooms, and inadequate institutional support. Due to these barriers, teachers cannot implement cultural responsiveness in their daily classroom teaching. Based on the findings above, the study recommends the enhancement of professional training, the provision of multicultural teaching materials, and increasing institutional support in order to enhance intercultural effectiveness in AP classrooms. The development of contextualized lesson exemplars is not covered in this study but is recommended for future research.