The issue of teacher resilience has gained significant attention in recent years, yet conceptual and empirical exploration of the topic remains in its infancy (Gu, in Chapter 2 of this volume). Resilience in education: concepts, contexts and connections makes an important contribution to the relatively new and under-researched field of resilience. The volume unfolds an elaborate picture of the conceptualisation and development of teacher resilience as well as intervention studies on the topic in educational contexts.
This collection engages multiple research methods to illustrate why and how teacher resilience fluctuates among different groups of teachers, including student teachers, early career teachers, primary and secondary school teachers as well as university teachers. It also focuses on teacher resilience across various national contexts, such as South Africa, Australia, Germany, Malta, Ireland, Portugal, and Canada, helping to draw a rounded picture of teacher resilience. Additionally, the authors explore teacher resilience from an ecological perspective, with particular attention to the dynamic interaction between environment and teachers. Some researchers (e.g., Mansfield, Ebersöhn, Beltman and Loots) in this collection have utilised Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to construct new models of resilience and analyse the interplay between teachers and nested ecological systems and the influence of this on resilience.
I have been inspired by this book to focus my research on the interactions between teachers and their environment from an ecological perspective. The volume not only facilitates my reflections on the construction of teacher resilience models in a Chinese context informed by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, but also prompts me to consider the role of teacher resilience in the creation and maintenance of social ecology – rather than a one-way effect of the environment upon teacher development. The book will benefit pre-service and novice teachers working in adverse school contexts, and offer efficient strategies deriving from resilience intervention programmes to navigate an array of pressures and thrive well in future teaching and learning. Therefore, I would recommend it to anyone who endeavours both to research and to develop resilience in educational contexts.