Study On EFL Junior And Senior High School Teachers’ Resilience In The Context Of Professional Learning Communities

In recent years,with the focus on teachers’ positive psychology,more and more scholars have been paying attention to the role of resilience in teacher professional development.When sorting out relevant literature,this study found that most of the research on teacher resilience focused on the discussion of definition,exploration of framework and influencing factors of teachers’ resilience from the perspective of risk and protection while less on how specific environments enable teachers’ resilience.Relevant studies that examined the impact of specific environments on English teachers’ resilience are even rarer.Based on the literature on teacher resilience and realistic teaching situations,this study investigated the professional learning communities in which English teachers are,aiming to explore the influence of professional learning communities on English teachers’ resilience changes and the influential paths.According to the literature,this study proposed a structural model of English teachers’ resilience.Hodder and Summers’ professional learning community framework was used to analyze the impact of professional learning communities on English teachers’ resilience based on the proposed model.The Research questions are: 1)What are EFL teachers’ resilience profiles in Chinese junior and senior high schools? 2)What changes,if any,have happened to EFL teachers’ resilience in professional learning communities? 3)How do professional learning communities to the changes in EFL teachers’ resilience?This study adopted a mixed-method approach.First,a four-dimensional structure of English teachers’ resilience was constructed based on which the EFL-TR Scale has complied.Second,questionnaires were issued to investigate the status quo of EFL teachers’ resilience in junior and senior high schools.There were 337 valid questionnaires returned.According to the questionnaire data analysis results,the scale was further improved.With the assistance of the improved questionnaire,the EFL teachers’ resilience profiles were described.Finally,semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 English teachers.The research results showed that: 1)The resilience level of EFL teachers in China is at a relatively high level;There is no significant difference in the overall level of resilience of EFL teachers in terms of gender and school levels;however,when pointing to the specific dimensions of resilience,there is a significant difference in the dimension of motivation;2)Changes in the resilience of EFL teachers are reflected in all the four dimensions.Professional learning communities have a direct impact on the changes in teachers’ enthusiasm and commitment to teaching,teachers’ self-efficacy,and motivation while having an indirect impact on teachers’ recovery;3)Based on the professional learning community framework by Hodder and Summers,it was found that professional learning communities have a positive influence on the various dimensions of teacher resilience;Especially,the professional learning communities in China also present the feature of “facilitative relationships”,which has significant implications for the development EFL teacher resilience.This study explored the current situation of teachers’ resilience in China and investigated the impact of professional learning communities on EFL teachers’ resilience,which expanded the literature in the field of teacher resilience to some extent.Meanwhile,this study discovered the distinctive characteristic of Chinese teachers’ professional learning communities,hoping to gain some implications for the implementation of our nation’s professional learning communities.