Quietly sharing the load? The role of school psychologists in enabling teacher resilience
Abstract
Teacher resilience is associated with positive student outcomes and plays an important role in teacher retention and wellbeing. School ecologies can enable the resilience of teachers, with prior research illustrating the importance of supportive colleagues, strong leadership, and positive school culture. There is limited research however exploring the role of school psychologists in supporting teacher resilience. Using data from experienced Australian school psychologists and teachers, this exploratory qualitative study examines the role of school psychologists in supporting teacher resilience. Findings show that school psychologists directly and indirectly support teacher resilience, although teachers perceive school psychologists’ main role to work with individual students. Issues pertaining to variations in access and particular roles of school psychologists are discussed. Although further research is needed to clarify and promote the role of school psychologists, this study points to them potentially playing an important role in school ecologies that enable teacher resilience.