Footprints of Resilience among High School Students Living in Farming Communities: An Integrative Framework

Abstract

Aims: This study aimed to generate a grounded theory explaining how high school students in rural farming communities develop resilience while commuting daily on foot to school, and how structural, social, and personal conditions shape this resilience. Study Design: The study employed a qualitative grounded theory design guided by the Strauss and Corbin (1990, 1997) systematic approach. Place and Duration of Study: The research was conducted at Catigbian National High School, Laoang, Northern Samar, Philippines, during School Year 2024–2025. Methodology: Straussian grounded theory approach, characterized by systematic coding procedures and the development of a conditional process model and used theoretical sampling and iterative data collection to refine emerging categories until theoretical saturation was reached. Data were gathered across multiple cycles to capture complementary perspectives on student resilience, including those of purposively sampled students (12) who regularly commuted on foot, teachers (11) responsible for academic and psychosocial support, and parents (12) who provided home-based context. Multiple qualitative data sources were used, including in-depth interviews, observations, and field documentation. Analysis proceeded through constant comparative methods involving open, axial, and selective coding, supported by analytic memo writing to ensure conceptual rigor and theoretical integration. Results: Analysis generated the Footprints of Resilience theory, which explains how students in farming communities sustain schooling through everyday adaptation to physically demanding, resource-constrained foot commuting. Within this process, structural constraints such as distance, lack of transport, and recurrent fatigue form the conditions that challenge participation, while poverty, rural geography, and peer environments shape how these challenges are experienced. Resilience emerges through the interaction of personal resolve, family encouragement, and school-based support, enabling students to enact disciplined routines, peer-based coping, and adaptive problem-solving. Over time, these practices transform daily commuting from a source of vulnerability into a context for persistence, fostering sustained academic engagement, psychological stability, and personal growth despite ongoing adversity. Conclusion: The Footprints of Resilience theory advances resilience scholarship by conceptualizing resilience as a situated and relational process through which rural students adapt to chronic mobility-related hardship. Rather than framing resilience as an individual trait, the theory demonstrates how adaptive capacity emerges from the interaction of structural constraints, personal agency, and family, peer, and school support. These insights provide a grounded basis for context-responsive educational policies and school-based interventions—such as nutrition support, flexible attendance practices, and community-assisted transport initiatives—aimed at strengthening learner well-being, retention, and academic continuity in farming communities.