| dc.description.abstract | Today's world is changing at an unprecedented speed, with global economic crises, wars and the COVID-19 epidemic sweeping the world. In the education context, the COVID-19 pandemic has already had an unparalleled effect on children, families, and schools globally on many different aspects (O'Connor et al., 2020; World Health Organization, 2020). Within this context, educational psychologists (EPs) are called to work during extreme challenging times and under the pressure of all these global changes and their subsequent impact on changes in the resources and governmental policies and guidelines. These circumstances trigger responses of adaptation and profound transformative action, also known as resilience (Ungar, 2021).
Resilience emerges in response to adversity and is a subject of interdisciplinary research, and although it has been studied in diverse disciplines and contexts (Ungar, 2021), there is very little literature that explores resilience in educational psychology practice and work-related stressors (Toland & Carrigan, 2011). Studies exploring resilience in educational psychology practice typically focus on how resilience can inform EPs practice (Toland & Carrigan, 2011) but do not address how EPs experience resilience themselves.
This research aims to address this knowledge gap by identifying the sources of stress EPs experience in their practice, in England and to explore resilience factors that promote and sustain resilience outcomes in their profession. My research on the literature review of resilience showed that resilience is a multifaceted and intricate topic that is currently best studied in a multisystemic level due to the complex nature of its definition and the diverse variety of factors that constitute its foundation (Brown, 2021; Masten & Motti-Stefanidi, 2020; Ungar, 2021). Hence, to address the multifaceted nature of resilience, I used Ungar’s framework of multisystemic that enabled me to investigate resilience in different aspects of EP practice.
In Phase 1 of my research, I distributed an online qualitative questionnaire by using and adapting Ungar’s multisystemic framework to identify sources of stress in EP practice and inform the design of the interview questions for Phase 2 of my research. In Phase 2, I conducted semi-structured interviews to explore resilience factors that emerge through coping strategies that EPs employ to manage work stressors. In total, I managed to gain the views of 10 EPs for Phase 1 and seven EPs for Phase 2 of my research.
To analyse the data for Phase 1, I used qualitative content analysis to identify the prevalence of work stressors as reported by EPs, in addition to qualitative descriptors with examples of their individual experiences. In Phase 2 of the research, I used reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) to gain a better understanding of how EPs experience resilience factors in their practice. Additionally, by using RTA I was able to actively engage in a transparent and reflective process throughout the analysis, as a trainee educational psychology (TEP).
The research highlights main sources of stress for EPs and the diverse strategies they implement to cope with adverse and distressing circumstances. Recommendations for promoting resilience outcomes in EP practice are discussed. | en_GB |
