Resilience in Chinese Novice English Teachers: Exploring Dynamics in Challenges, Coping Strategies and Institutional Support
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57125/FED.2025.09.25.14Keywords:
Chinese novice English teachers, resilience, challenges, coping strategies, institutional support.Abstract
Novice English teachers often encounter challenges in curriculum requirements, classroom management, student engagement, community expectations, etc. Understanding the factors that foster resilience — the ability to adapt and thrive in the face of adversity — is significant for improving teacher retention and professional development outcomes. Existing research has investigated key factors such as self-efficacy, administrative support, and access to professional development; however, the complex interplay of these factors, working collectively to enable novice English teachers to accommodate and flourish in their daily challenges, remains relatively under-explored. This study aimed to investigate the challenges faced by novice Chinese English teachers, the coping strategies they employ, and the role of institutional support in fostering their resilience. We conducted a thematic analysis of data from 18 semi-structured interviews, each lasting 40 to 50 minutes, with novice English teachers working in China’s public schools. Results show that Chinese novice English teachers encounter a combination of challenges, including a heavy workload and classroom management difficulties, which they try to overcome with strategies such as prioritising tasks, focusing on their successes, and seeking emotional support from colleagues. Institutional support, particularly structured mentorship, access to professional development, and collaborative school culture, was found to significantly reduce the impact of the challenges, with 89% of participants reporting increased confidence and adaptive capacity when supported by mentorship programs. This research reveals a dynamic process in which the challenges Chinese novice English teachers encounter feed directly into their coping strategies, influenced by both personal factors (emotional and cognitive) and institutional support (mentorship, resources, professional development, etc.). This research highlights the importance of structured mentorship programs to offer guidance, professional development programs to address the practical needs of novice teachers, and a collaborative school culture to build a thriving professional learning community.
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