Exploring Greek EFL Teachers’ Resilience

Abstract

This paper explores the resilience exhibited by 169 Greek English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. A quantitative approach was employed to examine Greek EFL teachers’ resilience in relation to demographic, occupational and school/class characteristics. Data were collected by means of the Teacher Resilience Scale (Daniilidou & Platsidou, 2018). The demographic, occupational and school/class characteristics of the participants were related to a number of specific facets of resilience including social skills, peer support, and persistence among others. The results in the majority of the parameters examined suggests that EFL teachers’ resilience is not affected by demographic, occupational and school/class characteristics. We suggest that the findings of this research can be used to inform the development of targeted interventions towards sustaining and building up EFL teachers’ resilience.

The Impact of Chinese EFL Teachers’ Emotion Regulation and Resilience on Their Success

“…Regarding the significant contributions of teacher resilience to positive educational outcomes, some researchers have conducted research on different aspects of teacher resilience ( Day and Gu, 2014 ; Li et al, 2019 ; Razmjoo and Ayoobiyan, 2019 ; Stavraki and Karagianni, 2020 ; Xue, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). For instance, Parsi (2019) inquired about the relationship between the EFL teachers’ resilience and level of creativity in which he found that resilience can predict EFL teachers’ creativity.…”

EFL/ESL Teacher’s Resilience, Academic Buoyancy, Care, and Their Impact on Students’ Engagement: A Theoretical Review

“…As a meta-construct, teacher resilience is affected by a range of individual, social, familial, organizational, and contextual factors called protective factors and risk factors which aid people fight back tensions (Stavraki and Karagianni, 2020). These factors come in environmental (contextual) and internal (individual) forms.…”

“…As for individual risk factors, low self-esteem, negative self-beliefs, lack of motivation, lack of confidence, weak relationship with others, and mismatch between personal beliefs and actual practices are the most common factors (Jenkins et al, 2009). In addition to these, positive attitude (Stavraki and Karagianni, 2020), positive emotions (Mercer et al, 2016), enthusiasm (Yost, 2006), persistence (Le Cornu, 2009), perseverance (Gu and Day, 2007), empathy (Jennings et al, 2011), and hope (Huisman et al, 2010) can affect teachers' resilience, too.…”

“…Concerning the contextual protective factors, scholars argue that a robust, caring, open, and efficient leadership style and rapport with peers and colleagues are the most prevalent factors (Karagianni and Papaefthymiou-Lytra, 2018). Considering contextual risk factors, it has been purported that ineffective class management, unsupportive leadership, dearth of resources, and weak rapport are the most obstinate sources which endanger teachers' resilience (Gibbs and Miller, 2014;Stavraki and Karagianni, 2020). Aside from these factors, academic degree, income, demographic background, and occupational characteristics may also affect teachers' resilience.…”

“…Considering teachers' resilience, many studies have approved its predictive power and positive outcomes, such as improved attitude, effective practices, higher commitment, higher level of efficacy, promoted identity, high retention, satisfaction, and academic performance. Additionally, Stavraki and Karagianni (2020) conducted a quantitative study on Greece EFL teachers' resilience in light of their demographic, occupational, and school/class characteristics. Their results indicated that such variables did not affect the participants' resilience level.…”