Development of resilience among Chinese rural teachers: a social ecological perspective

ABSTRACT

Teacher resilience is regarded as a professional attribute that enables school teachers to cope with adversities in their work life in order to sustain continuous professional development. This paper aims to investigate the development of resilience among novice teachers in a primary school in rural China from a social ecological perspective. It attempts to trace the developmental paths of resilience among Chinese teachers working in an economically deprived area, and to elucidate their trials and tribulations as interactions with different social ecosystems affect the growth of their resilience. The paper’s findings suggest that novice teachers working in rural education in China have to deal with context-specific adversities that are shaped by educational tradition and school reform. Accordingly, the resilience development of novice teachers follows three discernible pathways, which lead to different capabilities. In the process, the interplay of multifaceted situational factors and the interaction among different ecosystems yield a range of cumulative influences on their resilience development.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher resilience
• novice teachers
• rural education
• social ecosystem theory
• China

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to the International Centre for Teacher Studies and Development at the Beijing Normal University and Teacher Studies and Development Project at the Education University of Hong Kong for their support of the research and writing of this paper.

The authors also thank Ms. Shijiao Zhang for her assistance in data collection and participation in discussion.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the International Joint Research Project of Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University (Number ICER 202002).This work was also supported by the project, ‘Theoretical and practical study on teacher professional ethics’, which was established as a Humanities and Social Science project under the auspices of China’s Ministry of Education (“Theoretical and practical study on teacher professional ethics”, which was established as a Humanities and Social Science project under the auspices of China’s Ministry of Education Number 19JHQ084).

Notes on contributors

Xiaoli Wang

Xiaoli Wang is an associate professor in the School of Education at South China Normal University. She serves as research fellow at Institute for Advanced Study of Educational Development in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area of South China Normal University. She is also a member of the research team for the International Project of Teacher Studies and Development at Beijing Normal University. email address: [email protected]

Leslie N.K. Lo

Leslie N.K.Lo. is a chair professor in the Faculty of Education and a senior research fellow at the Centre for Teacher Education Research at Beijing Normal University. Concurrently, he serves as an honorary professor in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham. email address: [email protected]