Resilience to neoliberal structural constraints: lessons from Chinese inclusive education teachers

ABSTRACT

Teaching is challenging and has long been vexed by teacher stress, burnout, and attrition. Framing through a positive perspective, this paper investigates teacher resilience to a form of structural challenge, that is, neoliberalism. The paper quantitatively models the resilience process of a sample of 2219 Chinese inclusive education teachers who develop professional competence and manage burnout despite the structural constraints brought about by neoliberalism. The analysis highlights the role of teacher agency in the resilience process. The paper calls for proactive policy and research response to the neoliberal tendency that deprofessionalises teachers.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher resilience
• neoliberal isotopism
• inclusive education
• Learning in Regular Classroom
• teacher agency

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 Huiyan International College, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University [ICER202103].

Notes on contributors

Guanglun Michael Mu

Guanglun Michael Mu is a sociologist of education. His current research revolves around building resilience through a sociological lens.

Yan Wang

Yan Wang is a teacher educator, with particular expertise in inclusive teacher education.

Nan Zhu

Nan Zhu has expertise in special teacher education, learning disabilities, and assessment of children's special education needs.

Dan Zhou

Dan Zhou specialises in inclusive teacher education and higher education of people with disabilities.