Thinking dispositions as a resource for resilience in the gritty reality of learning to teach

Thinking Dispositions for Teaching: Enabling and Supporting Resilience in Context

“…Through our research examining this work, we have been provided with an opportunity to explore how resilience might be supported in authentic teaching contexts through a focus on the thinking dispositions. The findings from the interview, survey and journal data indicated that the people-centred thinking disposition was foundational for PSTs and enabled them to demonstrate resilience in context, despite a challenging first teaching experience (McGraw and McDonough 2019). In the different forms of data, we were able to identify the ways that the dispositions framework and the completion of the BRiTE modules provided an opportunity for the PSTs to examine and reflect on their resilience process as they undertook the VIA teaching experience.…”

“…In the next stage, we assembled narrative vignettes for each interview in order to highlight the complexity of the PSTs' experience. Further details about the analysis process and examples of these vignettes can be found in McGraw and McDonough (2019).…”

“…On analysing the interview, survey and journal data, we identified the central role a people-centred thinking disposition played in enabling PSTs to be resilient in context (McGraw and McDonough 2019). Despite being faced with the challenge of teaching out-of-field, with a peer and with students they did not know, the PSTs demonstrated an orientation towards the students and the peer they were working with, that enabled them to be resilient despite the complexity of the work.…”

“…Jordan's (2006) model of relational resilience suggests that mutual empathy, empowerment and courage are the "building blocks of resilience" (p. 79), and in the experiences of the PSTs we see the ways that a people-centred way of thinking enables relational resilience, as demonstrated by Penny who described an interaction with a student saying, "I tried to give him a bit of space and not harass him". In the analysis of the interview data we identified the ways that this people-centred disposition interconnects with the other thinking dispositions in order to enable PSTs to demonstrate resilience and problem-solving in challenging contexts (McGraw and McDonough 2019). Similarly, there was evidence in the open-ended responses from the BRiTE user survey of PSTs engaging in people-centred thinking as they considered the role they would play in supporting the resilience of others, with one PST commenting that, "The modules made me aware that I'm good at judging other peoples' emotions and I can empathise strongly with other people" (#4).…”

Cultivating Teacher Resilience: Introduction

“…Chapter 5 illustrates an approach to building resilience for postgraduate students completing a secondary initial teacher education degree (Master of Teaching). Sharon McDonough and Amanda McGraw integrated the BRiTE topic themes alongside their existing work on thinking dispositions for teaching (McGraw and McDonough 2019) and contextualised this within a site-based programme. Findings highlight the importance of a people-centred disposition as a personal resource for resilience and that the dispositions and resilience are interconnected in various ways.…”