Primary School Teachers’ Resilience during the Economic Crisis in Greece

Abstract

The economic crisis has had economic, social and professional consequences on teachers with the result that challenges and adversity they face have significantly increased. Resilience helps the individual face these adversities and difficulties and is built through the individual's dynamic interaction with his/her environment. In order for teachers to face increased challenges and setbacks created by the economic crisis they are required to have resilience. This paper presents a research carried out in Greece aiming to assess the correlation between resilience of primary school teachers who work in Athens (the capital of Greece) and the parameters that are associated with the economic crisis. The present research has found that more than half of primary school teachers who participated in it show moderately high and high resilience and at the same time a very small percentage has very low and low resilience. Furthermore, the Greek teacher's resilience has been influenced by the economic crisis at a moderate level. It seems that teachers in Athens, despite the fact that they have been experiencing difficulties due to the crisis, are still facing them at a good level. An important finding is that the Greek teacher's resilience is very highly correlated to his/her relationship with his family and his/her colleagues. In Greece family nexus is still very strong. The Greek teacher is supported by a strong network of relationships that s/he establishes with his/her family members and his/her colleagues. This network of relationships seems to support and strengthen the features that make up resilience.

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