Correlates of Filipino Students’ Perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine History Curriculum, Language Preference and Demographics

This descriptive-correlational research involved randomly selected 367 college students at the National University. The impetus for the study is the exclusion of Filipino language subjects in the tertiary levels on the onset of K-12 program. According to the results of the study, using Filipino language as a medium of instruction enhanced the Philippine history curriculum. To ascertain the relationships among variables such as student perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine history curriculum, language preference and demographics, bivariate and multivariate analyses were used. Bivariate analyses revealed that, there is a relationship among the age (7E-150<a), year level (7.7E-172“(7.7E-172<a), gender (1.6E <a) of the respondents and their perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine History Curriculum. There is a relationship (1.2E-159<a) between the language used by the respondents at home/residence and their perspectives. There is a relationship (2.56E-20<a) between the respondents’ perspectives and their preferred language for the course. Furthermore, there is a relationship (1.29E-40<a) between the language used by the respondents at home and their preferred language for the course as shown in the 58.41% of the observed variances on the respondents’ preferred language for the course which is attributable to the language they use at home, with the other 41.59% possibly affected by other factors.


Introduction
The term Filipinizing the curriculum means utilizing Filipino language in informative conveyance through course or subject. Most of Filipino understudies are bilingual; Filipino is the public language while English and Filipino are the authority dialects. For quite a long time, sociology and history courses show utilizing the English language in universities in the Philippines. In the coming of K-12 Curriculum, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) eliminated Filipino language subjects in the tertiary educational plan, subsequently, Filipino subjects as part of the curriculum in a course becomes inessential and optional level were held.
However, in primary and secondary schools, Filipino language is the mode of guidance for sociologies.
The removal of the Filipino subject in the curriculum gathered different reactions and dispute among educators and students. The utilization of the Filipino language as a mode of instruction in teaching Philippine History and Filipino subjects as part of the curriculum make sense to answer the issue. Along these lines, it may work with more noteworthy theoretical arrangement and appreciation among undergrads of Philippine history, language, and culture.
As indicated by Mahadi and Jafari (2012), "language is symbolic presentation of a country or a particular local area. All in all, language is the symbolic presentation of a culture' (p.234).
The expression "indigenizing the educational program" signifies the use of the local language in informative conveyance of a specific educational plan or course. However, some Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) in the country considered indigenization as deterrent to internationalization of the academe considering the use of advance space or the web which is ingraining public cognizance. On the contrary, the objectives of incorporating Philippine history course in educational plan is to cultivate public awareness. While indigenization of the curriculum becomes an avenue for an intricate interaction between educators and understudies to fabricate new agreement an information conveys learnings using Filipino as language of correspondence. It is considered as one of the challenges in the Philippines today particularly in diverse classrooms.
This study was hastened by the elimination of Filipino language subjects in the tertiary curriculum. As such, it evaluated the utilization of the Filipino language in teaching the Philippine History as integral part of the educational plan. The students from the National University (NU) shared their point of view on Filipinizing the educational programs offered by the university. It also investigated how Filipino language proficiency becomes essential towards the accomplishment of the Philippine history educational plan.

Literature Review
The field of language strategy in schooling emerged in the 1960's with an idea of modernization via public turn of events. This down to earth idea is more engaged phonetic homogeneity rather than the protection and enthusiasm for conservation. This way of thinking has advanced into a basic point on issues of correspondence and equity through language rights. In the desires to stay up to date with the globalization of the English language and developing number of diasporas of Filipino experts to work abroad and the ascent of Business Interaction Reevaluating (BPO) industry, the then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo incited a re-visitation of English as the medium of instruction in Philippine school from the primary up to the tertiary levels (Ricento, 2000, as referred to in Burton, 2013, p. 15). In 2006, Representative Eduardo Gullas presented an English-just bill to the Congress to make English as the essential language for academic instruction in all schools in the country. However, congress has separate thoughts on the idea which caused the bill to become unpopular and forgotten. Eventually as the K-12 program comes to birth, CHED eliminated Filipino subjects in the curriculum (Gonzalez, 2006 as referred to in Burton, 2013, p. 17).
Language acquisition in the Philippines becomes perplexing, conflicting and swaying on the issue on what is the public language or the official language of communication considering the national language and mother tongue based (MTB) in the multi-lingual education. Burton (2013) draws the distinction between official language and national languages. The official languages are "typically the language of government and legal activities" (p.11). Meanwhile, national languages "are usually selected as a way to bring unification to a country and to promote nationalism". They are frequently used in the education system and sources of media throughout the country, but in many cases, they are a symbolic representation of a nation (p.11).
Indigenizing the curriculum requests a change in showing style, learning style, further perception, dynamic cooperation, and order of Filipino language. Since the Filipino language are segments of data and correspondence of culture, students relied upon the capacity to fathom, measure social sciences instruction and soak up qualities from learning sociologies in e-ISSN 2799-0303 │ 103 local language. According to Gray and Coates (2010), indigenization holds that social work information ought to emerge from inside the way of life, reflect nearby practices, be deciphered inside a neighborhood edge of reference and subsequently be locally pertinent, which should address socially significant and setting explicit issues (p.2). The investigation of Louie et. al (2017) fought that organizations of higher learning need to move away from the nearsighted focal point used to see instruction and execute indigenizing methodologies to check the foundational restraining infrastructure of information and correspondence.
There were several studies conducted on the use of native language in instruction. For instance, Garin et al (2017) investigated the impact of the contextualized subjects on the use of Filipino language as part of the instruction while Guillermo (2008) progressed the theory on the primary flows of the alleged indigenization development such that the Pantayong Pananaw and Sikolohiyang Pilipino were firmly identified with the ascent of the patriot and aggressor mass developments of the 1960s to the 1980s. In another study involving French students, Pablo et. al (2011) disclosed the use of both French and English language in the state funded college in central Mexico. This was supported by the studies of Liao (2006), Cook (2010) and Kobayashi and Rinnert (1992) that first language has been utilized by EFL students to work with and speed up language learning. In a similar context, Wen and Johnson (1997) found that the utilization of Chinese language meddled their learning of English. Accordingly, Mahmoudi and Amirkhiz (2011) uncovered that the pre-college students of various capability levels (successful and low-accomplishing) were strong of English control in their English classes and were condemning of an inordinate utilization of Persian with regards to Iranian schools.

Research Design
In order to establish the existence of relationship of the independent variables (age, gender, language used at home) with the dependent variables, (preferred medium of instruction and perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine history curriculum), and to ascertain how the independent variables shape these perspectives, the descriptive and correlational research designs were employed. Descriptive research is the investigation which describes and interprets what if while correlational study determines which different variables are related to each other in the population of interest.

Sampling Techniques and Respondents
To ensure that the results of the study would be conclusive, random sampling technique was utilized using the formula prescribed by Philippine Social Survey Council (PSSC) in determining the actual sample size and selecting respondents. The fundamental principle of random sampling is that a sample is very likely to be representative of if it is selected by a principle called Equal Probability of Selection Method (EPSEM) which states that every element or case in the population must have an equal opportunity of being selected as sample.
The college students enrolled in the academic year 2019 -2020 at the National University, Manila were the target respondents. Coming from different walks of life, it was expected that these students have different perceptions on Filipinizing Philippine History curriculum which could provide a variety of opinions and beliefs that are not confined to a particular age, class or gender, and would therefore give extensive views on the subject. Since this study dealt with human participants, ethical considerations were also taken into account using appropriate channels and protocols. The total number of tertiary students enrolled at the National University during the academic year 2019 -2020 was 8,318. The study used PSSC formula with 95% confidence level and 5% margin of error. After which, stratified and block random sampling method was used to gather respondents proportionally from each program. The total participants of the study was 367 students.

Data Gathering Procedure
In order to obtain the needed data, a survey was conducted among randomly selected college students. Before personally distributing hard copies of the questionnaires, permission to conduct the study was obtained from University officials and consent to participate in the study was sought from the respondents. Since this study dealt with human participants, ethical considerations were taken into account such as full disclosure of the study purpose and inclusion of the procedures in the formal (written) consent form. Further, appropriate channels and protocols were observed during the data gathering. The anonymity of the participants and confidentiality of their responses were maintained. The participants were also informed that their participation was voluntary; that they were free to decide not to answer any question/s which maybe offensive or too personal. They were likewise informed of their rights as e-ISSN 2799-0303 │ 105 participants, the anticipated risks or benefits of their participation and potential conflicts of interest. Furthermore, the randomly selected students were also interviewed to supplement the quantitative aspects of the study.

Data Analysis
All the answered survey questionnaires were manually encoded and all qualitative responses from the interviews were recorded verbatim. Data from the quantitative aspect of the questionnaires were processed using MS Excel Tool Pak, JMP11 Statistical Discovery Software, and R-Software. Quantitative data were sorted, tallied, and presented in tables. The encoded and tallied answers and rating given by the respondents, underwent statistical treatments to determine relationships and trends.
Bivariate (linear regression) and multivariate analyses (multiple regression) were used as measures of correlation to determine the magnitude and direction of relationships among age, gender and language used at home, preferred medium of instruction and perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine history curriculum. Likewise, the source of variation in regression was analyzed with the use of single factor One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).     The respondents were asked if using Filipino language as medium of instruction will help them in gaining more appreciation and understanding of the Philippine history course.

Results and Discussion
As shown in table 4, 93.19% agree while only 6.54% disagree.

Perspectives on Effects of Filipinizing Philippine history course in enhancing engagement, understanding and comprehension of the course
Effects on student engagement, understanding and comprehension ̅  V1 The usage of Filipino language as a medium of instruction in the course Philippine History will make me better understand and appreciate the context and content of the course. 3.62 0.65 SA I believe that using Filipino language will help me do better academically in the course. As shown on table 5, the survey respondents strongly agree that the usage of Filipino language as a medium of instruction in the course Philippine History will make them better understand and appreciate the context and content of the course (3.62). They also strongly agree that Filipino language will help them do better academically in the course (3.63).
Likewise, they strongly agree when asked if the usage of Filipino language as a medium of instruction in the course Philippine History will increase their motivation and confidence to participate in the class as reflected in the result of (3.61). They also strongly agree that the use of Filipino language will enhance classroom communication and comprehension of the course, which garnered the highest weighted mean of 3.64. Furthermore, the results of the interviews show consistency with survey results:

Student engagement and motivation
 The whole discussion will be better because the students can fully express their thoughts using the native language.
 This subject should be taught using our national language for us to be more active in class and to understand the topic as well.
 Using Filipino will benefit the students wherein they won't be afraid to ask questions and argue about their history.
 By using our native language, the students would be able to read, speak, listen and write freely.  It will be clearer if the discussions are done in Filipino; It needs to be in Filipino to be understood enough by the students  It will benefit the students that will lead to a better understanding.
 We will be more interested with our own history since it is more understandable.
 Not everyone is able to understand and appreciate history, aside from the fact that it involves long readings but also because it is taught in English.
 We can easily familiarize those contexts and it can give importance with its own language  As a Filipino and as a student, it is helpful to easily understand and easy to familiarize in learning Readings in Philippine History.
 It will lead to better understanding and students will probably appreciate this subject when it will be taught using our national language.
 If it will be taught using our language, students will more appreciate and will have a clearer picture with the historical events and discussions because as a student there are some words in English that I can't understand and it led me to confusion sometimes.
 I still believe that using the national language in this class will foster greater historical appreciation for the Philippines than using English because it sets the class in a cultural atmosphere.

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The results show that instructional delivery in Filipino will have positive impact on the students' level of engagement within learning spaces, and it will facilitate better understanding, comprehension and appreciation of Philippine history. Using Filipino as a medium of communication in the Philippine history class will facilitate better understanding of the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
3.63 0.61 SA Using Filipino as a medium of communication will help enhance the discussions on traditional topics and other interdisciplinary themes that will deepen understanding of Philippine political, economic, cultural, social, scientific and religion history.
3.61 0.64 SA Using the Filipino language in teaching and learning of Philippine history will enable us to achieve knowledge and understanding of the course.
3.63 0.59 SA Using the Filipino language in teaching and learning of Philippine history will enable us to achieve critical thinking skills on various historical and current issues.
3.60 0.65 SA Using the Filipino language in teaching and learning of Philippine history will enable us to achieve practical skills or ability to apply what we learned in real life scenarios.
3.61 0.60 SA Using the Filipino language in teaching and learning of Philippine history will enable us to improve our attitudes relating to Philippine historical matters.
3.63 0.60 SA Using Filipino as a medium of communication will help achieve the end-goal of Philippine history curriculum which is to develop the historical and critical consciousness of the students so they will become versatile, articulate, broad-minded, morally upright and responsible citizens.   It will lead to better understanding and students will probably appreciate this subject when it will be taught using our national language (9 counts).

 We can easily familiarize those historical contexts and it can give importance with its own language
 It may bring up several unknown Filipino words which may caught the attention of the students.  If it will be taught using our language, students will more appreciate and will have a clearer picture with the historical events and discussions because as a student there are some words in English that I can't understand and it led me to confusion sometimes.

 Not all of us are intelligent when it comes to understanding and reading something that is written in
English language so I am 100% that every Filipino who's interested in learning history will benefit from this.

 I can easily express my thoughts in every lesson without any worries which results to a constructive
discussion between the class and the professor.

 I will benefit as a Filipino by learning to express my ideas in Filipino outside a casual social setting.
As a student, this is an avenue to enrich my vocabulary.

Table 7 Overall Perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine History Curriculum
Overall perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine History curriculum ̅  V1 Overall, using Filipino language as a medium of instruction will enhance the Philippine history curriculum. 3.63 0.61 SA Overall, using Filipino language as a medium of instruction in the course Philippine History will not be a hindrance in developing competency in English since all other courses are being delivered and learned in English 3.26 0.76 SA Overall, using Filipino as a medium of communication will help achieve the end-goal of Philippine history curriculum which is to develop the historical and critical consciousness of the students so they will become versatile, articulate, broad-minded, morally upright and responsible citizens.  This study is anchored on the notion that language of a nation is regarded as the mirror of its culture, colorful history and national identity. The proponents conducted this study with the view that Filipinizing the curriculum by itself is an innovative way to enhance the Philippine History curriculum and nurture among students the values and attitudes fostered by the curriculum. This time and age necessitate higher educational institutions (HEIs) to recognize the use of Filipino language shall encompass the personal and particular academic goals of the students. Furthermore, this study could be used as benchmark for effective educational practice in terms of level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, enhancing student engagement, student-faculty interaction in enriching, enhancing traditional e-ISSN 2799-0303

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Filipino values, national consciousness and augmenting the social sciences curriculum. Student perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine history curriculum could guide the University administrators in developing programs and initiatives intended to improve to levels of engagement of students with their social sciences courses. Results of the study could be used in designing intervention, activities and programs which will enhance other social science programs; to sustain efforts to create more relevant, more nationally conscious and engaging learning spaces. As shown in Table 8, there is a relationship (7E-150<) between the age of the respondents and their perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine History Curriculum since the p-value is lower than the alpha (=0.5) or level of significance. With regard to the testing of the strength of the relationship between age of the respondents and their perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine History Curriculum, R-square (0.017375139) indicates that 1.74% of the changes in the perspectives of the respondents can be explained by their age. Consequently, the null hypothesis of no significant relationship is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted.
The coefficient of determination (adjusted R square) has a value of 0.014683016, indicating that 1.47% of the observed variances on the respondents' perspectives can be accounted to their age, with the other 98.53% possibly caused by other factors. As shown in Table 9, there is a relationship (  As shown in Table 10, there is a relationship (  As shown in Table 11, there is a relationship (1.2E-159<) between the language used by the respondents at home/residence and their perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine History Curriculum since the p-value is lower than the alpha (=0.5) or level of significance.
With regard to the testing of the strength of the relationship between year level of the respondents and their perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine History Curriculum, R-square (0.001417) indicates that 0.14% of the changes in the perspectives of the respondents can be explained by the language they use at home/residence. Accordingly, the null hypothesis of no significant relationship is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted. The coefficient of determination (adjusted R square) has a value of 0.00132 suggesting that only 0.13% of the observed variances on the respondents' perspectives can be accounted to the language they use at home, with the other 99.87%% possibly affected by other factors. As shown in Table 12, there is a relationship (1.29E-40<) between the language used by the respondents at home/residence and their preferred language for the course since the pvalue is lower than the alpha (=0.5) or level of significance. With regard to the testing of the strength of the relationship between the language used by the respondents at home/residence and their preferred language for the course, R-square (0.585279) indicates that 58.53%of the changes in their preferred language for the course can be attributed to the language they use at home/residence. Thus, the null hypothesis of no significant relationship is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted. The coefficient of determination (adjusted R square) has a value of 0.584142 suggesting that 58.41% of the observed variances on the respondents' preferred language for the course is attributable to the language they use at home, with the other 41.59% possibly affected by other factors.

Conclusion and Recommendation
The results of the study showed that instructional delivery in Filipino has positive impacts on the students' level of engagement within learning spaces and facilitated better understanding, comprehension and appreciation of the Philippine history. The participants strongly agreed that that the usage of Filipino language as a medium of instruction in the course Philippine History made them better understand and appreciate the context and content of the course, helped them do better academically in the course, increased their motivation and confidence to participate in the class and enhanced classroom communication and comprehension of the course.
According to the results of bivariate analyses, there is a relationship (7E-150<) between the age of the respondents and their perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine History Curriculum. Moreover, 1.47% of the observed variances on the respondents' perspectives can be accounted to their age, with the other 98.53% possibly caused by other factors.
There is a relationship between the gender (1.6E <), year level (7.7E-172<) and language used (1.2E-159<) of the respondents and their perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine History Curriculum.
There is a relationship (1.29E-40<) between the language used by the respondents at home/residence and their preferred language for the course while 58.53%of the changes in their preferred language for the course can be attributed to the language they use at home/residence. The coefficient of determination indicates that 58.41% of the observed variances on the respondents' preferred language for the course is attributable to the language they use at home, with the other 41.59% possibly affected by other factors. There is a relationship (2.56E-20<) between the respondents' perceptions on Filipinizing the Philippine History curriculum and their preferred language for the course. There is a relationship among respondents' perspectives on Filipinizing the Philippine history curriculum, language preference and demographics The results convey that Filipinizing the Philippine history curriculum will have positive outcomes in terms of achieving the objectives and end-goals of the course. Filipino as a medium of communication develops students' historical and critical consciousness to become versatile, articulate, broad-minded, morally upright and responsible citizens. Specifically, using Filipino in instructional delivery will facilitate better understanding of the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed. It will likewise help in enhancing discussions on traditional topics and other interdisciplinary themes, improve the attitudes of students in relating to Philippine historical matters, enable them to achieve knowledge and understanding of the course, nurture critical thinking skills on various historical and current issues and practical skills or ability to apply what we learned in real life scenarios.
Overall, using Filipino language as a medium of instruction will enhance the Philippine history curriculum. This study was precipitated by the exclusion of Filipino language subjects in all college levels. Filipinizing does not imply using Filipino as a medium of instruction in all courses, nor does it imply that foreign students should be compelled to attend classes in a Filipinized classroom setting. It is however, should be considered an option. Filipinizing does not necessarily entail hindrance to Filipino students in developing competency in English, as the study suggests it will only be applied in Philippine history curriculum. The positive perspectives of the respondents provide a compelling case for universities and colleges to reexamine the Philippine history curriculum.