Handling a professional crisis: the in-betweens of individual and institutional resilience in the case of Greek public secondary education teachers

Abstract

ABSTRACT Employing insights from past and ongoing critical cases of institutional and individual resilience can most plausibly assure resilience at the societal level and help prepare for an upcoming crisis. This paper considered the Greek public secondary education teachers’ professional crisis following the 2008 financial crisis as a case study to explore the problematisations of teachers’ continuous professional development (CPD) at institutional and individual levels. It drew on the complex systems approach and Actor-Network Theory to explore resilience through the institutional system’s selections and teachers’ individual translations of the issue. Based on secondary data and the results of double quantitative research, the paper explored the problematisation of CPD as a boundary object at individual and institutional levels, and presented statistical data on how teachers perceive themselves and the institutional context to their CPD. Research findings showed bifurcations at the problematisation level that affect the emerging properties and the degrees of resilience at individual and institutional levels. Results suggest the study of these qualitative changes in problematisation can offer valuable insights for policymaking and policy change. Further qualitative research is needed to understand the invisible points of bifurcation that hinder or promote inertia and resilience at institutional and individual levels.