Teaching at the Margins as Multigrade Pedagogy in Last Mile Schools

Abstract

This study explored how multigrade teachers enacted pedagogy in last-mile elementary schools in Baggao, Cagayan, with emphasis on differentiated instruction, learner participation, resource-adaptive teaching, and professional pedagogical capacity. A cross-sectional pedagogical mapping design was employed among 20 multigrade teachers selected through criterion-based total enumeration. Data were gathered using the validated Multigrade Pedagogy in Last-Mile Schools Scale and analyzed through a Bayesian cumulative-link multilevel model to preserve the ordinal structure of the responses. Results showed that learner participation demonstrated the strongest enactment, with a predicted high-enactment probability of .79, followed by differentiated instruction at .73 and professional pedagogical capacity at .64. Resource-adaptive teaching obtained the lowest probability at .52 and produced a negative posterior estimate of -0.36, indicating persistent constraints in access to grade-appropriate materials, digital resources, and instructional support. Pairwise posterior contrasts further showed that learner participation and differentiated instruction were substantially stronger than resource-adaptive teaching. The findings suggest that multigrade teachers were able to sustain meaningful classroom engagement and instructional flexibility despite structural limitations. Strengthening multigrade-specific professional development, localized instructional resources, assessment support, and access to appropriate learning technologies is recommended to reduce dependence on individual teacher improvisation and support more sustainable pedagogy in last-mile schools.