Primary School Teachers’ Resilience: Experiences and Perceptions

The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers’ viewpoints and conceptualizations of resilience and to explore their experiences of resilience. This is a qualitative study that uses a focus group and individual interviews. Participants were teachers who work at a primary school that has multiple risk factors, such as being at a low socioeconomic status, being in a challenging area, having disadvantaged students, and having insufficient physical facilities. A semi-structured interview form was employed in the data collection process and inductive content analysis was used in the analysis of data. According to the findings, participants defined resilience as an individual, operational, and conceptual personality trait. They described themselves as resilient and stated their resilience levels have changed over time. It was also concluded that they encountered various risk factors and had some protective factors. Their suggestions were for the educational system, teachers, administrators, and parents to foster teacher resilience. Implications for future practice and research were discussed. Keywords: Primary school teachers, risk and protective factors, teacher experiences, teacher resilience