Intriguing empirical relations between teachers’ resilience and reflection on practice

Abstract

While some teachers experience burnout or literally quit the profession considering their challenging working conditions, others take stress as a challenge and try to improve professionally, a dynamic that could be termed resilience. Literature point out that professional competences are an important personal protective factor enhancing teacher resilience. It also appears that teacher reflection is fairly significant in professional development process. This doctoral study sought to explore the relationship between teachers' resilience and reflection on practice. Twenty-three teachers from seven underprivileged schools participated in this mixed method study. They were invited to complete a quality of work life questionnaire and a daily stress diary, and to participate in a semi-structured interview. The analysis has highlighted four resilience profiles among these teachers: 1) very resilient, 2) resilient, 3) somewhat resilient, and 4) non-resilient. Vertical analysis of four representative cases according to their reflection has shown that low resilience seemed to be related to an increased emphasis on the problems instead of the solutions, and on the environmental instead of the personal reflective contents, and inversely. Despite its limits, this study reveals evidence of empirical relationships between teacher resilience and reflection, and highlights avenues for professional development, and ideas for future research.

Keywords:

• teacher resilience
• teacher reflection
• stress
• underprivileged schools
• professional development

Acknowledgements

This doctoral study was financially supported by the Fonds québécois de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC) and University of Montreal.

Notes

1. Based on Richardson et al. (1990).

2. http://www.qualitedevie.uqam.ca/

3. All names are fictitious.