Project

Resilience of VET teachers. Basis for the development of context-sensitive actions

The project addresses the subject of resilience in daily work of VET teachers. Teacher resilience can be defined as the ability to maintain one’s professional commitment and positive motivation towards teaching when various difficulties and/or obstructive or adverse conditions emerge.

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Research on resilience of VET teachers is both useful and relevant because there is a substantial lack of theoretical and empirical studies on the challenges faced by this population, the risks that they are exposed to (e.g. burnout), and the strategies and resources that individuals have at their disposal to ensure their resilience.  Moreover, there is a recognised need to develop resilience of VET teachers in their teaching contexts. This requires the development of interventions based on conceptual models designed specifically for the context in which VET teachers carry out their daily activities.
Two objectives are pursued: the first objective is to identify specific challenges faced by VET teachers in their daily work and the strategies that they use to cope with these challenges both on an individual and organisational level. Here, the ultimate aim is to establish a conceptual model of resilience for this population.
Based on this model, the second objective is to develop specific interventions that can be firstly implemented in teacher training programmes to make individuals more resilient.

Method

The project involves the application of a quali-quantitative research plan and a close collaboration with basic and continuous training departments of SFIVET and with schools in order to develop and implement the first actions supporting the resilience. In particular, the following phases are provided:

  1. Collection and analysis of interviews with teachers and head masters of vocational schools of the Canton of Ticino aiming at identifying the challenges faced while teaching, the resilient strategies implemented and the resources to address them, as well as the possibilities of an interaction between challenges, resources and professional well-being;
  2. Provision and analysis of a questionnaire to the entire population of vocational school teachers of the Canton of Ticino (in collaboration with L.I.N.E.A. project; www.ti.ch/linea) in order to investigate on a larger sample the interaction between challenges, resources and professional well-being as well as to identify the resilience profiles between teachers;
  3. Comparative survey by involving a large sample of Swiss vocational school teachers in various cantons (German-speaking, French-speaking and Italian-speaking cantons).
  4. Development and testing of first training activities in support of resilience to be inserted between basic and continuous training offers of SFIVET within its various headquarters from Lugano, Lausanne and Zollikofen. Such activities shall be monitored in terms of outputs and processes in order to develop further tools for the promotion of resilience amongst vocational education teachers.

Findings shall provide an empirical base for moving forward with the development of training actions intended to support teachers’ resilience in the educational sector.

-> The complete final report is available on demand. Contact person: Dr. Viviana Sappa

Publications
Presentations