How do beginning teachers achieve their professional agency and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic? A social-ecological approach

ABSTRACT

This study, emerging from a larger, longitudinal research project, reports about a cohort (n = 13) of beginning teachers’ professional agency and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. From the social-ecological perspective, the participants perceived their professional agency as both temporal and relational phenomena by interacting within their current circumstances. The participants’ professional agency focused on facilitating students’ online learning. Meanwhile, the participants strove to achieve four types of resilience, i.e. personal, professional, institutional and community. These types of resilience supported their capacity to remain committed to learning to teach during the pandemic. Implications for facilitating teachers’ professional agency and resilience are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Beginning teachers
• professional agencies
• resilience
• social-ecological approach
• teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).