How do teachers construct and cultivate resilience in children and young people?: A cross cultural study between Northern Nigeria and South Yorkshire.

This thesis explores resilience from the point of view of teachers; an unusual voice within the research. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, an e-questionnaire (quantitative n = 14) and narrative interview (qualitative n = 4) were used to paint a picture of resilience and gather the stories of informants; teachers. Authentic accounts of the informants’ constructions of resilience were elicited using a Personal Construct Psychology Tool: Model of the World. These stories were then analysed using the Listening Guide (a feminist tool) to amplify the stories that were told about teacher experiences and practice. The findings return us to our original inquiry; ‘do teachers in South Yorkshire and Northern Nigeria construct and promote resilience in the same ways?’ From an etic (across cultures) perspective, the evidence would suggest that all teachers in our sample take a process view of resilience. However, from an emic perspective (within culture) there are some nuanced differences that can be attributed to differences in culture.