Teachers’ resilience and sense of professionalism: a narrative inquiry of ELT teachers’ struggle to step beyond survival

Abstract The prevalence of COVID-19 and the sudden shift into online teaching created unprecedented challenges for ELT teachers. Yet, threatening challenges might turn into opportunities for growth. This study reports on the types of challenges that ELT teachers experienced during the pandemic of Covid-19 and the strategies they adopted to face these challenges and promote their sense of professionalism. Fifteen ELT teachers agreed to participate in semi-structured interview sessions and complete narrative frames. Relying on transactional model of stress and coping, data of this study were analyzed. Our findings indicated that teachers faced personal and professional problems during the pandemic of COVID-19 and adopted emotion and problem focused coping strategies to become resilient against the stress associated with the pandemic. This study discussed how teachers viewed COVID-19 as a chance to expand their professional horizons and achieve wider networks of collegial connection and updated professional knowledge.