Risk Factors and Resilience Strategies: Voices From Chinese Novice Foreign Language Teachers

Abstract

In recent years, due to the concern of the high rate of burnout and attrition of teachers in their early career years, teacher resilience has become a vital theme in the study of their professional development. However, little has been done in China. This study contextualized teacher resilience development in Chinese universities and interviewed seven resilient novice foreign language (FL) teachers to explore risk factors confronting them in Chinese contexts and resilience strategies they have employed to cope with these challenges. In-depth interview data and informants' reflective journals were analyzed inductively by using thematic analysis. The results of the study unfolded risk factors peculiar to Chinese context, and novices' adoption of resilience strategies was found to involve teachers' highly selective and dynamic interaction with risk and protective factors, and individual agency manifested itself as an important factor in novice FL teacher resilience development.

Burnout, Resilience, and COVID-19 among Teachers: Predictive Capacity of an Artificial Neural Network

“…Resilience, defined at the end of the 20th century [30,31], can be considered a strategy put in place to cope with stressful situations [24,[32][33][34]. It is the ability to be able to adapt to adverse situations [15,[35][36][37]. Aspects such as people's positive emotions (happiness, optimism, self-esteem, and assertiveness that the individual possesses) will be fundamental in the face of these problematic situations [38,39].…”

“…It has also been observed that those teachers who possessed stronger thoughts and emotions were able to cope with situations that required firm temperance and thus reduce the effects of stress that could cause them [36]. It is the responsibility of the educational system to develop such strategies and introduce resilience in teacher training plans as it results in better qualified people [15,[42][43][44]]. An example is the SmartInEducation methodology aimed at developing resilience and stress management techniques [45].…”

“…These data are of interest for subsequent comparative studies between different educational stages and between autonomous communities. It also serves to make visible a reality on which it is necessary to intervene, through the design of intervention programs adjusted to the facts, along the lines previously mentioned [15]. The introduction of artificial neural networks in the field of education represents a field that has hardly been exploited and that has great potential for detecting the syndrome from its initial stages.…”

“…The consequences on job performance are evident and can lead to abandonment, previously passing through disinterest and a decrease in the teacher's commitment to his or her task [14,15]. There are several factors that can trigger adverse effects and break the physical and mental balance of individuals, such as rapid social changes, especially when they involve rapid adaptation [16].…”

Challenges and Resilience-Building: A Narrative Inquiry Study on a Mid-Career Chinese EFL Teacher

“…An overview of previous studies reveals that almost all the research on teacher resilience were conducted in Western contexts ( Fan et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2021 ). Few studies focus on the risk factors and resilience measures adopted by foreign language teachers in the Chinese context, which is characterized with examination-oriented education and national reform policy ( Fan et al, 2021 ).…”