Decentring the 'resilient teacher': exploring interactions between individuals and their social ecologies
Lead Research Organisation:
Manchester Metropolitan University
Department Name: Education and Social Research Institute
Abstract
There is currently a teacher retention crisis in the UK and beyond. One in five teachers in the UK plan to leave teaching within the next five years and a third of teachers report experiencing a mental health issue. Worryingly, one in ten teachers and school leaders reported feeling suicidal in 2018-19, and there is evidence that teacher wellbeing has dropped further still post-pandemic. The demands of the profession also have an impact on pupils, with happy productive classrooms depending on happy teachers. Given that teachers will play a key role in supporting children to recover from the impact of the pandemic both academically and emotionally, the need to promote teacher resilience has never been more urgent.
This project will adopt a socio-ecological approach to promoting teacher resilience, which views resilience not as something which resides solely within the teacher, but as distributed across the individual, their environment and the interactions between them. The project will bring together interdisciplinary expertise from across education and psychology with professional expertise and experience from teachers, school leaders, policy consultants, the National Education Union (NEU) and the charity, Education Support. These project partners/advisers will come together in a series of Education Innovation Labs to contribute to each stage of the research process. The project will have 4 key phases:
1. Quantitative phase - Survey data will be collected from teachers across England. This will help us to model the relationships between different factors related to teacher resilience (both at the individual and school level) and how they affect key outcomes such as wellbeing, job satisfaction and risk of burnout.
2. Participatory research phase - A range of 'ecology-mapping' methods will be designed and used with teachers to explore how these factors play out in teachers' working lives. This will help us to put the quantitative findings into context as well as generating new understandings about which factors are most significant to teachers working in specific contexts. This mapping phase will take place across 5 primary schools (3 working together within one academy trust) and 3 secondary schools in England. The schools will act as project partners throughout the project, contributing to research design and analysis of the findings as well as collecting data within schools.
3. Developing pathways to resilience - The findings from the previous two phases will be used to develop ways to promote school resilience at both the individual and school level. The research team will work together with project partners and advisers in the Education Innovation Labs to develop 'ecological interventions' (interventions aimed at the school environment as well as individual teachers). A bank of resilience strategies will be generated within the Labs, drawing upon existing research as well as the academic and professional expertise across the project partner team. Participating teachers at the 8 project partner schools will develop interventions tailored to their individual needs and school contexts, which will draw upon and extend this bank of strategies. The schools will implement the interventions and evaluate the impact that they have on teacher resilience using a mixed methods approach.
4. Broadening impact - We will share the findings with schools across the UK as well as researchers within the field. The project partner schools will cascade training to the other schools in their trusts and alliances. A training package, generated by the project, will be made freely available online and will be promoted UK wide through the NEU, Education Support and MMU's teacher education networks. An online course will also be created for student teachers and promoted to UK universities. This work will embedded into the NEU's Value Education, Value Educators strategy and shared with other researchers through conferences and articles.
This project will adopt a socio-ecological approach to promoting teacher resilience, which views resilience not as something which resides solely within the teacher, but as distributed across the individual, their environment and the interactions between them. The project will bring together interdisciplinary expertise from across education and psychology with professional expertise and experience from teachers, school leaders, policy consultants, the National Education Union (NEU) and the charity, Education Support. These project partners/advisers will come together in a series of Education Innovation Labs to contribute to each stage of the research process. The project will have 4 key phases:
1. Quantitative phase - Survey data will be collected from teachers across England. This will help us to model the relationships between different factors related to teacher resilience (both at the individual and school level) and how they affect key outcomes such as wellbeing, job satisfaction and risk of burnout.
2. Participatory research phase - A range of 'ecology-mapping' methods will be designed and used with teachers to explore how these factors play out in teachers' working lives. This will help us to put the quantitative findings into context as well as generating new understandings about which factors are most significant to teachers working in specific contexts. This mapping phase will take place across 5 primary schools (3 working together within one academy trust) and 3 secondary schools in England. The schools will act as project partners throughout the project, contributing to research design and analysis of the findings as well as collecting data within schools.
3. Developing pathways to resilience - The findings from the previous two phases will be used to develop ways to promote school resilience at both the individual and school level. The research team will work together with project partners and advisers in the Education Innovation Labs to develop 'ecological interventions' (interventions aimed at the school environment as well as individual teachers). A bank of resilience strategies will be generated within the Labs, drawing upon existing research as well as the academic and professional expertise across the project partner team. Participating teachers at the 8 project partner schools will develop interventions tailored to their individual needs and school contexts, which will draw upon and extend this bank of strategies. The schools will implement the interventions and evaluate the impact that they have on teacher resilience using a mixed methods approach.
4. Broadening impact - We will share the findings with schools across the UK as well as researchers within the field. The project partner schools will cascade training to the other schools in their trusts and alliances. A training package, generated by the project, will be made freely available online and will be promoted UK wide through the NEU, Education Support and MMU's teacher education networks. An online course will also be created for student teachers and promoted to UK universities. This work will embedded into the NEU's Value Education, Value Educators strategy and shared with other researchers through conferences and articles.
Organisations
- Manchester Metropolitan University (Lead Research Organisation)
- National Education Union (NEU) (Project Partner)
- Teacher Support Network (Project Partner)
- Moorlands Junior School (Project Partner)
- Salford City Academy (Project Partner)
- Hungerford Primary Academy (Project Partner)
- St Luke's C.E. Primary School (Project Partner)
| Description | 1. Relative importance of different factors in predicting resilience-related outcomes Key finding: Our survey results suggest that when evaluating which factors are most important for teacher resilience it depends on which outcome we are interested in. While wellbeing seems to be associated most strongly with individual level predictors (with the exception of workload), job satisfaction and burnout out are more strongly associated with contextual level factors (with the exception of self-esteem). Possible implications. Arguably, each of the three outcomes (wellbeing, job satisfaction and burnout) are desirable if we are to keep teachers happy, healthy and in post. However, the focus of research and interventions in schools has tended to focus on teacher wellbeing rather than other outcomes. The results suggest that interventions to support retention need to move beyond just trying to keep teachers well, mobilising broader conceptualisations of what it means for teachers to fully thrive. The findings provide suggestions as to which factors might be most usefully targeted when trying to manipulate different resilience-related outcomes. Plans for publication/dissemination. We have written a paper summarising these results to be submitted to Teaching and Teacher Education at the end of January. We also have plans for a theoretical paper which explores the notion of a multidimensional conceptualisation of resilience in further depth. We will include resources in the online toolkit relating to the different factors which were identified as key predictors of the three outcomes. 2. Mediation effects are important in teacher resilience Key finding: Our survey results provide evidence of mediation effects on resilience-related outcomes operating within and between ecological levels. They suggest that relational factors such as support from management and support from colleagues are particularly important levers for change as they drive effects which are mediated by other aspects of the ecological system. Possible implications. The results provide insights into how relational factors operate through other factors within schools, which might inform interventions at the school level. Plans for publication/dissemination. We have written a paper summarising these results, to be submitted to Education, Management and Leadership (hopefully by the end of March). 3. Place-based data-driven interventions may be a useful tool for identifying levers for change within schools Key finding: Ecology mapping supported teachers' and leaders' understandings of a resilience as a distributed phenomenon and provides a space for exploring potential levers for change. It supported senior leaders to uncover new insights into how colleagues are experiencing their roles, while providing space to think about issues that they were already aware of. Senior leaders also valued having their current efforts to promote resilience recognised and reflected back by other staff. At a practical level it highlighted issues with visibility and consistency in relation to existing policies and practices and facilitated identification of low-cost levers for change. The co-production of resilience plans seemed to be perceived as a facilitative problem-solving approach by leaders, and the mapping interviews sometimes seemed to have therapeutic value in themselves. Importantly, however, there were many challenges and ethical dilemmas to be navigated through the process. It was noted that schools are heavily constrained by both local and exosystemic factors. Contextual sensitivity was very important and particular care was needed to balance the wellbeing of teachers and senior leaders. (We will have more data on the extent to which the interventions were impactful after the spring term when we are collecting the next round of data). Possible implications. The findings suggest that ecology mapping may be a useful tool for promoting resilience in schools but that it is a process that needs to be navigated very carefully. There is much that schools can (and already do) do to promote teacher resilience, but their agency to affect change is limited within the current system. In order to make substantial progress in addressing the teacher retention/wellbeing crisis, systemic change is needed. Plans for publication/dissemination. The substantive findings relating to which strategies schools were using already/decided to use as a result of the process will be reported in the BERJ Special Issue on Making Teaching More Attractive (deadline end of April) and will also be integrated into the online toolkit. Reflections on the process from a methodological point of view will be reported in the AEQ Special Issue on Educational Ethnographies (deadline end of May). 4. Relationships between parents and teachers are increasing central to teacher resilience Key finding: Problematic relationships with parents arose as a substantial theme within the ecology mapping interviews. Teachers spoke frequently about the impact that parents have on their resilience and how relationships with parents have changed since the pandemic. Some of the key issues highlighted by teachers include: the fact that they are now expected to adopt a much broader pastoral role than before, with blurred lines in terms of the teacher/parent role; the fact that teachers are now much more accessible to parents via technology, which can increase the feeling of hyper-surveillance within the profession. Possible implications. This is an issue that is currently undertheorised. Our paper uses the theoretical framework of geographies of emotion (Hargreaves, 2001) to make sense of the marked impact that interactions with parents can have on teachers' resilience. In terms of practical implications, this paper makes suggestions in relation to how teachers and school leaders might try to navigate relationships with parents in ways which promote resilience, as well as reflecting on how more positive relationships between parents and teachers might be promoted at the broader exosystemic level. Plans for publication/dissemination. We have a first draft of a paper. This now needs refining before submitting to Teaching and Teacher Education. Resources informed by this work will also be included within the online toolkit. |
| Exploitation Route | The academic outputs will make an important contribution to the field, which can then be built on further by other researchers. For example, our first paper (to be submitted soon) shows how the factors which predict resilience differ depending on which outcomes you are exploring. This motivates further research involving developing broader conceptualisations of teacher resilience as a multi-dimensional construct. The online resilience toolkit (currently under development) will be used across teacher education providers within their initial teacher training programmes. |
| Sectors | Education |
| Description | The emerging findings are already being mobilised within training for student teachers (at Manchester Met) and teachers within our partner schools. The co-development of the 'ecological interventions' to promote teacher resilience within the case study schools has led to changes to practice already. The findings have also been shared with school leaders at school leader conferences, where participants indicated that they intended to make changes to their practice based on the research. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Influenced practice within our 8 case study schools |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| Impact | The 'ecological interventions' that we co-developed with the case study schools, had the aim of promoting teacher resilience/wellbeing. Emerging feedback from teachers suggests that some of the strategies developed/implemented have supported their wellbeing. Some of them have also provided teachers with additional skills, e.g. training in relation to how to support pupils with additional needs more effectively. |
| Description | Research findings from the project embedded into resilience training for student teachers at Manchester Met |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Although we haven't measured this quantitatively, feedback from student teachers who have attended the teacher resilience sessions suggests that they have developed strategies to support their wellbeing while teaching. This training also has a broader educational benefit, as it leads to a change in conceptual understanding of resilience, which in turn, can help them support pupils in their care in schools. |
| Description | Chairing a panel discussion at the FED Annual Summit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Invited to chair a panel discussion on teacher recruitment and retention at the FED Annual Summit, which included Dame Alison Peacock (Chartered College of Teaching)(around 40 audience members). Generated discussion and provided opportunity to share some of our findings with policy relevant audiences, e.g. Dame Alison Peacock and Lord Jim Knight |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://fed.education/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/FED-NES-Programme-2024-2.pdf |
| Description | Keynote lecture at Partnership Conference (Manchester Met) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | PI (Steph Ainsworth) delivered keynote lecture at Manchester Met Annual Partnership Conference to around 90 teachers/school leaders. Feedback gained from the audience indicated that they planned to use some of the strategies discussed in their schools. They also mentioned conceptual change as a result of the lecture (e.g. now seeing resilience as a process not a trait). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Lectures on teacher resilience to undergraduate student teachers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Teacher resilience lectures for first, second and third year undergraduate student teachers at Manchester Met University on the BA Primary Education programme (about 450 in total over the 3 year groups). Feedback collected at the end of the lectures indicates that students plan to use some of the strategies they have learnt about on their teaching placement, and that they now see resilience as a process. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Panel presentations at the FED Summit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to speak on two panel discussions at the FED Education Summit 2023: 'Recruitment and retention: We know the problems, but what are the solutions?' 'Wellbeing for all? Building emotionally healthy schools and colleges.' I talked about our emerging findings in relation to teacher resilience and how they address these national issues. There were around 40-50 people in the discussion sessions. This lead to interesting discussion around these issues with the other panel members and the audiences. It also led to a senior leader from a school asking to be involved in the project (they are now a case study school) and a request to present at a senior leadership conference for BEST (Bury Education Support and Training), which I will present at this week (Friday 15th March 2023) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://fed.education/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Summit-Programme-2023.pdf |
| Description | Podcast about teacher resilience aimed at school leaders (We Lead Well) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | PI (Steph Ainsworth) was invited to be a guest on the We Lead Well podcast aimed at school leaders in the UK. The podcast received 244 downloads. It was not possible to measure impact but the hope is that this will have broadened leaders' views of teacher resilience and provided some ideas on how to promote this within schools. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://maguirevvm.podbean.com/e/resilience-in-education-building-stronger-schools/ |
| Description | Podcast for teacher audience about teacher resilience (TTS Talking) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | PI (Steph Ainsworth) was invited as a guest on a podcast (across 4 linked episodes). The topic was teacher resilience, drawing upon results from the project. The episodes received 4155 downloads. The audience was mainly UK but with downloads across 28 other countries. The podcast is TTS Talking, which is aimed at Early Years teachers in the UK. In the question below, I have selected "Not aware of any impact" as we were unable to collect impact data, but the hope is that these podcast episodes will have broadened teachers' perceptions of what it means to be resilient, including practical ideas. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://worldofeducation.tts-group.co.uk/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-resilient-teacher/ |
| Description | Presentation at School Leaders' Conference (BEST Trust) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | PI (Steph Ainsworth) was invited to deliver a keynote lecture at the BEST Trust Bury School Leader Conference, which sparked questions and discussion (around 30 school leaders). Feedback collected after the talk from school leaders indicated that they found it informative in terms of how school culture impacts on teachers, and they planned to take the strategies discussed back to their schools. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation to school leaders |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Around 60 school leaders attended a presentation that I delivered at the Devon School Leadership Annual Conference about the findings from the teacher resilience survey. This provided an opportunity for school leaders to reflect on the factors that might be influencing teacher resilience/wellbeing in their schools. I received feedback from the conference organisers that the school leaders found the research interesting and the practical strategies for promoting teacher resilience useful. The slides were shared so that school leaders could reflect on/try out some of the strategies when they returned to their schools. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://devonsls.co.uk/annual-school-leadership-conference-2023-2/ |
| Description | Presentations to student teachers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I have delivered presentations to our undergraduate and postgraduate student teachers on our teacher education programmes. These are designed to help them to understand what we mean by teacher resilience and to provide practical strategies to support resilience while teaching in schools. I had feedback from the students that the sessions were helpful in preparing them for teaching/their teaching placements, including a request to embed further inputs about teacher resilience/wellbeing into the programmes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Round table event at NEU Education Renewed Summit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | PI (Steph Ainsworth) took part in a round table event at the NEU Education Renewed Summit (June 24) with the aim of agreeing a set of principles for the report card which Labour was planning to bring in for schools (around 15 participants, including Dame Alison Peacock). Unfortunately, other members of the round table did not sign the statement that was constructed so it has not been published, but we continue to have discussions with our NEU link person, who is a partner of our project, about the relationship between accountability systems and teacher resilience. We will be presenting at a future NEU event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Talk at Networking Event (Opogo Leading Schools and People) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Talk about teacher resilience (PI - Steph Ainsworth) at networking event attended by teachers, school leaders and other stakeholders working in education (e.g. supply agencies, coaches etc) (Around 40 attendees). Sparked questions and discussion. Led to a discussion with Bright Leaders, who then contributed to one of our Education Innovation Labs with our project partners, providing input on pupil resilience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Teacher resilience lecture for PGCE students (Manchester Met) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Teacher resilience lectures for postgraduate PGCE student teachers at Manchester Met University on the PGCE Primary Education programme (about 150 students).We were unable to collect feedback on this occasion but when we have done the same lecture with other students they have indicated that they planned to use some of the strategies they have learnt about on their teaching placement, and that they now see resilience as a process. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Teacher resilience workshop for deferred/returning PGCE students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Small group workshop exploring teacher resilience with returned students who had to defer or were unsuccessful in their last placement. Feedback indicated that the workshop gave them some practical strategies to use while on placement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Teacher resilience workshop for returning student teachers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Small group workshop exploring teacher resilience with returned students who had to defer or were unsuccessful in their placement last year. Feedback indicated that the workshop gave them some practical strategies to use while on placement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Teacher wellbeing training delivered at 5 schools |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Teacher wellbeing training was delivered to 4 case study schools involved in the project. An other school also asked if they could access the training, having heard about the project at a networking event. The number of teachers attending the training was between 30 and 90. Total: around 210 teachers. Feedback surveys indicated strategies that teachers plan to use in their future practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| Description | Two meetings with DfE |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Two meetings with representatives from the DfE (including people working on the Teachers' Working Lives project to inform them about our project and the emerging findings. We discussed synergies between our work and the ongoing work in the DfE to improve teacher retention. The first Teams meeting led to a follow up visit by the DfE to Manchester Met University to find out more about our findings and to speak to some of our case study schools. We are now in ongoing dialogue and will invite the DfE to our future meetings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | Workshop at Partnership Conference (Manchester Met) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Two repeat workshops (about 15 people at each - 30 total) exploring how to promote teacher resilience delivered to teachers/school leaders at the Annual Partnership Conference (Manchester Met). Led to lots of discussion with teachers. Feedback survey indicated conceptual change and/or plans to try out strategies in school. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |