Holding the Ladle Together: Lived Experience, Mentorship, and Research Pedagogy in a Philippine State University

This reflective-pedagogical essay explores how a neurodivergent academic, trained in Aotearoa New Zealand and now teaching in a Philippine state university, navigates the tensions of re-rooting a relational research pedagogy within a culture shaped by procedural compliance and institutional mistrust. Drawing on autoethnographic insights and conversational reflections with undergraduate and doctoral students, the essay foregrounds a pedagogy grounded in trust, dialogic feedback, flexibility, and care. It traces how Filipino cultural norms such as pakikisama (relational harmony), hiya (social shame or propriety), and pagsunod (submission) shape student-teacher interactions, and how efforts to nurture epistemic ownership often challenge dominant norms of authority and performance. Framed through the lens of cognitive justice and relational ethics, the paper highlights both the quiet risks and transformative possibilities of teaching from lived experience. Rather than offering a universal model, it proposes a pedagogy-in-motion—attuned to culture, constraint, and the co-creation of a more humane research atmosphere.