Developing a Socio-Ecological Thriving Resilience Model for Student Teachers in Myanmar, a Crises-Affected Context

The teacher education journey of student teachers in Myanmar has become more challenging due to the combined effects of COVID-19 and political unrest. Preparing resilient teachers in such contexts requires an understanding of the challenges student teachers face and the strategies they employ. Through focus group interviews with 12 final-year student teachers, the study explored their challenges and strategies during their teacher education journey. Using constructivist grounded theory, data were analysed, and a Socio-Ecological Thriving Resilience Model was proposed. Student teachers overcame both professional and personal challenges through the active use of their own resources and contextual ones. This demonstrates the significance of readily available contextual resources and the importance of taking initiative to access them. Their responses also included additional benefits they gained while overcoming the challenges. All these findings indicate that resilience goes beyond mere surviving to thriving and is relational, context-dependent, and developmental.