Exploring language teachers’ collective resilience: experiences of Chinese language teachers in a transnational university in China

ABSTRACT Guided by the system-focused perspective (Beltman, 2020. Understanding and examining teacher resilience from multiple perspectives. In C. F. Mansfield (Ed.), Cultivating teacher resilience. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5963-1_2) and the transdiciplinary framework (DFG, 2016. A transdisciplinary framework for SLA in a multilingual world. The Modern Language Journal, 100(S1), 19–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12301), this study adopted a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore how two Chinese language teachers in an EMI transnational university developed their collective resilience when navigating challenges through resources across micro-meso-macro levels of contexts. Multiple data sources were collected from government and institutional policy documents, in-depth semi-structured interviews and written reflections over four months and were analysed through phenomenological analysis and content analysis. The findings revealed the salient role of the multi-layered contexts in teachers’ resilience-building processes, which motivated them to achieve the synergistic development of individuals and the institution through collaborative efforts. This study particularly pointed to the importance of conceptualising the contextual features as agentive in shaping collective resilience. We thus propose a multi-layered model for understanding the complex interactions of language teachers’ collective resilience within this specific context of a transnational university, in which the three levels of contexts may be engaged in constant interactions to achieve a conceptual equilibrium. The study concludes with implications in regards to expanding our current understanding of the ways in which language teachers need to be supported throughout their resilience-building process and professional development in the long run.