EXPERIENCING WORK STRAIN AND COPING STRATEGIES IN A CHANGING TEACHING ENVIRONMENT FOR PERSONAL RESILIENCY AND ENGAGEMENT AMONG PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS PAMELA MAY A. CALABRIA 1 & ELISA N. CHUA, Ph. D. 2 1 Elementary Grade Teacher II, Sto Angel Elementary School, Laguna Philippines Email pamelamay.calabria@deped.gov.ph 2 Associate Professor V, Laguna State Polytechnic University- San Pablo City Campus, Philippines Email elisa.chua@lspu.edu.ph ABSTRACT This study wanted to find out the experiencing work strain and coping strategies in a changing environment for personal resiliency and engagement among public school teachers. This specifically aimed to answer the teacher- respondents perceive level of work strain as to emotion, personalization, conflicts, responsibilities, and resources. Also, the preferred coping strategies of teacher- respondents in terms of problem- focused coping and emotion- focused coping and how is the personal resilience of the respondents be described as to self- efficacy, motivation, peer support and administration support. To what extent is the work engagement of the teachers as to promotion, working environment, salary and incentives and relationship. The significant relationship of work strain factors and personal resilience and teacher’s work engagement and the significant relationship of coping strategies of teacher- respondents and personal resilience and teacher’s work engagement. This study utilized a descriptive correlational study to examine the work strain and coping strategies in a changing teaching environment for personal resiliency and engagement among public school teachers. Since there is a significant relationship between work engagement and coping strategies thus, the null hypothesis is not sustained. It is proposed that the Schools District of Sto. Angel may conduct an annual stress management program for all public teachers in elementary and secondary to provide them with vital coping and problem-solving skills for managing their everyday strain. Specific strategies help teachers at any grade level gain awareness of the ways they respond to stressful situations and improve their overall well-being and effectiveness. And to allow them to have in-depth knowledge and understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Keywords: Work Strain, Coping Strategies, Personal Resiliency, Work Engagement 1. INTRODUCTION An organization, by its most basic definition, is an assembly of people working together to achieve common objectives through a division of labor. An organization provides a means of using individual strengths within a group to achieve more than can be accomplished by the aggregate efforts of group members working individually. Positive school cultures provide a safe, supportive, encouraging, inviting, and challenging environment for students and staff, which in turn allows students' academic achievement to evolve. Interventions and strategies for creating a positive school culture will be recognized and discussed. Work strain is a stressful environment that will badly affect damage an employee’s mental and physical health as mentioned. Points out that work to family conflicts also impact to increase the stress level of employees. Stressful situations can occur when an employee realizes that requirement of situations is larger than what they can handle and when those situations continue for longer period. Many teachers would agree. Teaching is not only hard work, but it can also be full of stress. Pressure due to school reform efforts, inadequate administrative support, poor working conditions, lack of participation in school decision- making the burden of paperwork, and lack of resources have all been identified as factors that can cause stress among school staff (Anderson, 2020). For so long, teachers have always been at the forefront in leading a classroom lesson, but with the spread of COVID-19, national lockdowns (partial and full) suddenly made face-to-face learning a thing of the past, non-relatable, irrelevant, and no longer viable. Without physical proximity with students, teachers now struggle to re-establish their role from a primary input provider to facilitator of learning- no longer a wooly idea in the clouds, but a stark reality to embrace for all. Additionally, mental block among teachers in accepting this new reality is realistically real, possibly alluded to lack of interest in exploring technology, deemed to be troublesome and time-consuming. Having established their comfort zone, many do not want to rock the boat drastically, as opposed to students, often millennials or Generation Z individuals, who willingly welcome implementations of technology sooner (Fisher, 2018). 1 www.ijrp.org IJRP 2022, 106(1), 1-8; doi:.10.47119/IJRP1001061820223703