The Relational Foundations of Teacher Resilience: Recognition and Professional Authority

Teacher resilience (TR) is essential for teacher well-being, professional commitment, and educational quality. Although recognition, authority, and resilience have received considerable scholarly attention, limited research has examined how recognition and professional authority interact to support TR. Guided by Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this exploratory qualitative study investigated these dynamics through semi-structured interviews with 12 purposively selected teachers (≥3 years’ teaching experience), 12 purposively selected Primary 4–6 students (aged 10–13), and 12 purposively selected parents from selected urban public primary schools in Kigali, Rwanda. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings suggest that TR is a relational process shaped by interactions among recognition, authority, and supportive professional relationships. Recognition was perceived to foster teachers’ sense of relatedness through student success, parental trust, collaborative engagement, and collegial affirmation, while authority was associated with competence and autonomy through pedagogical expertise, fairness, and care. Based on these findings, the study proposes a preliminary SDT-informed interpretive framework in which recognition and authority function as interconnected relational resources that may support TR. By integrating recognition and authority into a single explanatory framework, this study contributes to TR scholarship and offers insights for strengthening teacher well-being and professional sustainability in resource-constrained and evolving educational contexts.