Australian Journal of Adult Learning - Volume 57 - Issue 2 - July 2017 - 'The trails to get there': Experiences of attaining higher education for Igorot Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines

Oct 15, 2026

‘The trails to get there’ examines the hardships of attaining higher education for Igorot Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines and the effects education has on the community. Drawing on Igorot leaders’ experiences, the article uses a personal journey—walking mountain paths and navigating discrimination—as a symbol of overcoming physical, social, cultural, and psychological barriers. It also highlights how higher education learning supports efforts to maintain and promote Igorot culture.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Digna’s Story

Research Setting

Benguet Province background

Education and the Igorot Indigenous Peoples

Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 57, Number 2, July 2017 ‘The trails to get there’: Experiences of attaining higher education for Igorot Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines Digna Adonis Jen Couch Australian Catholic University The title of this paper alludes to the hours of walking on mountain paths, which one of the authors, growing up in an Igorot Indigenous community in post-colonial Philippines undertook to go to school. This is an apt symbol of the sheer effort it can take to overcome physical, social, cultural and psychological barriers to access, persevere with and complete, higher education. This article explores the hardships of attaining higher education and the effects of education on the Igorot community. The article shares the experiences of Igorot leaders and how they have used their higher education learning to work for the promotion of maintenance of their Igorot culture. Keywords: barriers to education, Indigenous learning, westernized higher education 198 Digna Adonis and Jen Couch Introduction Digna’s Story: I come from a remote village in the highlands of Benguet. At an early age, my siblings and I were trained by our parents to help in household duties, farm work and participate in family and community rituals, which according to the Igorot culture are good ways to learn about life and its wisdom. Shortly before I turned seven, government representatives came to our village and enlisted children, telling us we needed to go to school to learn. After I finished elementary school, I needed to leave home to study at a private high school in a mining town centre, about five to six hours walk from my village. My fees were paid for by a politician who promised to support the education of one young person from my village when he campaigned in the previous election. During the first year of my study, I experienced discrimination in and outside the school. I was often scolded because I did not know how to speak and use respectful words in Ilocano and Tagalog. There were times when my classmates would resist accepting me as a member in group projects and assignments because they thought I could not contribute to the task. Many times, I had to ignore belittling stares and conversations of people about me. Knowing very little about urban ways and lifestyle, I developed the desire to attain education. In my mind, gaining a formal education and finishing a degree will give the confidence to survive in the mainstream society. So, the rest of my highschool life through college, I had to move to the city, learned to speak and ‘behave’ like my classmates in order to be accepted and belong to a group and have friends. I finished my teaching degree by being a working student. The fact that working whilst studying meant I had todo a four-year degree over five years did not matter. Like me, many Igorots who come from remote villages struggled to attain higher education. In the following discussion, we will start by giving a background to formal education in the Philippines and in the Igorot region. We will then give an overview of the methodology used in this study, since these methodological issues are an important part of our argument about the meaning of education for Igorot professionals. The hardships of attaining higher education and the effects of education on Igorots will follow. We conclude by sharing the experiences of Igorot ‘The trails to get there’: Experiences of attaining higher education for Igorot Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines 199 leaders on how they have used their higher education learning to work for the promotion of maintenance of their Igorot culture. Research Setting Benguet Province of the Philippines is located at the Northern Luzon of the Cordillera Mountain Range with an estimated population of 372,533 in 2007 (PPDO, 2008). As a result of government legislation originating from the Spanish exploration in the seventeenth century, Benguet is subdivid

FAQs

What central experience does the paper use to symbolize the effort required for higher education?

The paper’s title alludes to the hours of walking on mountain paths undertaken to go to school, representing the effort needed to overcome multiple barriers.

What barriers to education does the article highlight?

It describes physical, social, cultural, and psychological barriers, including discrimination in and outside school and difficulties navigating mainstream urban ways and language.

How does the article connect education to Igorot cultural maintenance?

It shares how Igorot leaders use higher education learning to work toward the promotion and maintenance of Igorot culture.

Oct 15, 2026

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