Elementary School Teachers’ Critical Consciousness and Core Self-Evaluations: A Rural Setting

This study examined the relationship between critical consciousness and core self-evaluations among public elementary school teachers in a rural Philippine district. A quantitative descriptive-correlational design was used with 129 teachers selected from a population of 190 through stratified random sampling. Data were obtained through adapted survey instruments that measured critical consciousness across passive adaptation, emotional engagement, cognitive awakening, and intentions to act, and core self-evaluations across self-esteem, neuroticism, generalized self-efficacy, and locus of control. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation, and multiple linear regression were applied. Results showed that critical consciousness was high overall (M = 4.09, SD = 0.56), with cognitive awakening obtaining the highest domain mean (M = 4.16, SD = 0.53). Core self-evaluations were also high overall (M = 3.42, SD = 0.57), with self-esteem rated very high (M = 4.23, SD = 0.48) and neuroticism rated less high (M = 2.03, SD = 0.58). Critical consciousness and core self-evaluations showed a very strong positive relationship (r = 0.90, R2 = 0.81, p = 0.000). Regression results indicated that all four domains of critical consciousness significantly predicted core self-evaluations, with emotional engagement having the largest standardized coefficient (beta = 0.55). The findings suggest that teacher development in rural schools may be strengthened by programs that link social awareness, reflective practice, emotional connection, and professional self-belief.