Teacher Resilience and Coping with Teacher Stress in Vocational Schools

Abstract

The aim of the proposed study is to present the partial results of research activities focused on vocational school teachers’ resilience realized within the grant project IGA003DTI/2022. The present study aims to examine the existence of associations between teacher resilience and years of teaching experience. The research sample consisted of 474 vocational school teachers in Slovakia. The level of their teacher resilience was measured by The Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale CD-RISC-25SLOVAK. The scale measures seven dimensions—Hardiness, Coping, Adaptability/Flexibility, Meaningfulness/Purpose, Optimism, Regulation of emotion and cognition, and Self-Efficacy. The findings confirmed the existence of associations between teacher resilience and years of teaching experience as novice teachers and teachers with ten or fewer years of teaching experience achieved lower scores in the scale than their more experienced colleagues. Although we are aware of the limits of the research study given the size and composition of the sample, the findings suggest that years of teaching experience can be considered an important variable from the aspect of teacher resilience and it is important to pay increased attention especially to novice teachers’ well-being and building their resilience, e.g., by providing guidance through developing effective coping strategies. As there are a lack of available data on vocational school teachers’ resilience, the present findings have the potential to broaden the existing knowledge and have implications for further research.