How can teachers be more resilient?

Resilience in Education: Concepts, Contexts and Connections

Over the last decade, there has been increasing interest in resilience in educational contexts in order to understand how teachers effectively cope with the everyday challenges that are inherently part of the teaching profession. The focus on teacher resilience in educational contexts has in part, stemmed from concerns about teacher well-being and mental health to broader concerns about ensuring quality teaching and learning to concerns in relation to high teacher attrition rates in some jurisdictions.

The catalyst for this book emerged from a European Funded project – Enhancing Teacher Resilience in Europe (ENTRÉE) which addressed European concerns about the ’need to safeguard and promote teachers’ wellbeing’ (http://entree-project.eu/en/). The project team included practitioners from Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Malta and the Czech Republic, as well as partners from Australia. The aim of the project was to support pre-service and practicing teachers’ capacity for resilience through the development of online Modules and face to face training materials.

In the ENTRÉE project, teacher resilience refers to the process of, capacity for, or outcome of positive adaption and ongoing professional commitment and growth in the face of challenging circumstances. Resilience is shaped by individual, situational and broader contextual characteristics that interrelate in dynamic ways resulting in challenges or supportive factors. Individuals, drawing on personal, professional and social resources, not only bounce back but are able to thrive professionally and personally, experiencing job satisfaction, positive self-beliefs, personal well-being and ongoing commitment to the profession (Wosnitza et al,.2014, p.2).

This book focuses on teacher resilience in educational contexts –it combines the international body of work related to the ENTRÉE project and, in addition, it provides a global view of teacher resilience with contributors from Europe, Australia, South Africa, Canada and the United Kingdom. The authors share their conceptualisations of resilience, their empirical research and the interventions developed to support resilience in a variety of educational settings.

Professor Mark Morgan and Dr Margaret O Donnell - leaders in the ENTRÉE project, are contributors to this book.