Promoting resilience in schools: a view from occupational health psychology

This paper considers teacher resilience from the viewpoint of a discipline concerned with the interactions between work design, management style and employee health and well-being: occupational health psychology. It will be suggested that there are strong parallels between interventions designed to promote resilience and those designed to reduce work-related stress. The imperative for the latter type of intervention arises from a significant evidence base, summarised in many research studies and reviews of the scientific literature. In making this argument, this paper draws upon four sources of information: (i) the experience of employers outside the education sector in resilience building, (ii) the influence of work design and line manager behaviour on employee well-being, (iii) current British government advice to employers about reducing stress and (iv) an illustrative case study. It is argued that although robust evidence as to the effectiveness of resilience interventions in the education sector is still lacking, experience from other sectors suggest that schools might nurture resilience by improving work design and by providing appropriate training for employees and their line managers.