Examining Socio-Emotional Competence and Resilience Among Iranian EFL Teachers: Do Experience and Socio-Cultural Background Make a Difference?[Latin Thesis]

Mahsa Hashemi

Teachers capacity to be resilient is nurtured by some competencies as they experience different conditions in their work and lives. Socio-emotional competence plays an important role in the likeable growth of personality. Hence, teachers need to develop their social and emotional skills in order to persist in the face of challenges. To this end, this study primarily examined the relationship between EFL teachers resilience and their Socio-Emotional Competence (SEC). Likewise, EFL teachers perspectives on how their teaching experience and sociocultural background influenced their resilience and SEC were investigated. A mixed-methods research design was carried out with 138 Iranian EFL teachers. To collect data, the participants responses to two 5 point Likert-scale questionnaires of Connor-Davidson Resilience (CD-RISK) (2003, adapted by Estaji & Rahimi, 2014) and Socio-Emotional Competence Teacher Rating Scale (SECTRS) developed by Karalyn (2012) were analyzed. Afterward, 12 teachers participated in a semi-structured interview. As for the quantitative analysis of data, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Pearson r, and pair wise post hoc comparison tests were applied. The research results revealed significant differences in teachers resilience, SEC, and level of teaching experience. From among the sociocultural factors, only age and education of teachers revealed a significant difference in terms of resilience and SEC. For analyzing the qualitative data, content and thematic analysis were employed. Teachers interviews indicated the role of teachers sociocultural background and teaching experience as crucial components influencing their resilience and SEC. The findings suggested a great need to revisit EFL teacher preparation programs as sites for developing instructors social and emotional competencies where they can form or improve their level of resilience.