Teachers’ faith, identity processes and resilience: a qualitative approach

Abstract

Teachers are at risk to suffer from burnout and adverse mental health as a result of work-related stress and conflicts. The development of teacher resilience depends upon a complex interaction between extraneous factors (i.e. administrative and social support), and, intrinsic factors (i.e. personal values). Although it is known that personal faith plays a crucial in the development of resilience in different contexts (i.e. emotional exhaustion, illness), it remains questionable whether there is a possible relationship between teacher resilience and personal faith. The present project addresses this gap in knowledge by investigating narrative accounts of teachers’ individual experiences with resilience in relation to their personal faith. The Thematic Analysis of two group interviews with 16 teachers indicates that the teachers’ personal faith provided religiously motivated narrative frameworks that facilitated the interpretation of one’s experiences. By resonating with basic constituents of identity construction (i.e. meaning, distinctiveness, self-esteem), the religious interpretation of conflicts shielded the teachers’ identity from threat in times of distress. In conclusion, the present study’s exploratory results suggest that personal faith may improve teacher resilience. Future, large-scale studies may provide further evidence to reconsider the role of religious education in teacher training as important factor in the development of teacher-resilience.

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