Between Adaptation and Resistance: A Study on Resilience Competencies, Stress, and Well-Being in German VET Teachers

Abstract

We demonstrate the relationships between occupational demands in German vocational education and training (VET) teacher training, stress symptoms, and different behavioral resilience competencies. Taking into account interindividual differences in resilience competencies, we use a typological approach to identify different types of (trainee) teachers classified by their degrees and configurations of resilience competencies. Our empirical analysis is based on questionnaire data from 131 German vocational trainees and qualified teachers. The results reveal, among other things, that all three resilience competencies—resistance, flexibility, and dynamism—are significantly negatively correlated with the demands of working conditions and workload. Via a latent class analysis, we were able to identify three groups of (trainee) teachers who differed in their resilience competencies to adapt appropriately to different situations and their requirements (“behavioral flexibility”), to recover rapidly from setbacks and to defy the expectations of others (“behavioral resistance”), and to initiate changes as soon as they are necessary or desirable (“behavioral dynamics”). More resilient (trainee) teachers show, among other things, lower values for anxiety as an emotional stress symptom and higher values for job engagement. The findings are discussed with regard to implications for VET teacher training and we stress the need for equilibration on a systemic perspective.

Professional identification in the beginning of a teacher’s career: a longitudinal study on identity formation and the basic psychological need for autonomy in VET teacher training

“…In the latter, seminar teachers are in charge of teaching didactics and teaching skills in specific subjects as part of their training as well as evaluating their trainees' performance. Therefore, they fulfill the dual function of an advisor and an assessor, which in turn poses the risk of inter-role conflicts (Kärner et al, 2021a(Kärner et al, , 2022. In particular, in the first half of the training period, the role of the advising teacher is predominant among seminar teachers, while it then transitions to a phase in which many grade evaluations by seminar teachers are due and the performance of trainees is closely monitored, which represents a shift in the role of seminar teachers from advisors to assessors.…”

“…They assume a dual role as advisor and assessor, which can lead to inter-role conflicts; see also Section 2.2.2. For a more detailed and summarizing description of the organizational context of VET teacher training in Germany see also Kärner et al (2021a) or Kärner et al (2021b) .…”

Individual and organizational resilience—Insights from healthcare providers in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic

“… Britt et al (2016) proposed four categories that demonstrate individual resilience: job performance, low stress symptoms, high well-being, and healthy relationships. Other researchers have endorsed resilience as an adaptive capacity to modify or change to cope better with stressors ( Kärner et al, 2021 ). The underlying assumption is that an employee’s attitude toward the process of transformation is determined by the resilience and adaptive capacity of a system.…”

A social perspective on resilience: social support and dyadic coping in teacher training

“…In order to effectively cope with adversities, coping or stress management hereby generally refers to the process of dealing with stressful situations, meaning that individuals perform purposeful and intentional actions to meet and overcome stressful demands (Folkman and Moskowitz 2004 ; Kyriacou and Sutcliffe 1978 ; Lazarus 1966 ; Lazarus and Folkman 1984 ; Schwarzer and Schwarzer 1996 ). The individual way of dealing with stressors and the applied coping strategies can serve as an explanatory approach for individually varying strain in teacher training (Kärner et al 2021a ; Braun et al 2020 ; Lindqvist 2019 ).…”