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Home > HCAS > HCAS_PUBS > HCAS_JOURNALS > TQR Home > TQR > Vol. 31 > No. 9 (2026)

 

Abstract

In this study, we analyze how beginning teachers in Chile construct meanings around resilience during their first year of professional induction, within a context of intensified teachers’ work and limited institutional support. Drawing on a socioecological perspective and Critical Discursive Psychology, we developed a qualitative design focused on interpretative repertoires. Ten beginning teachers from various subject areas, educational levels, and regions participated, with each being interviewed at two time points, six months apart. Through an abductive analysis, we identified three affective–discursive repertoires. The first construct enters the profession as a generational tension, in which innovation is associated with youth, while, simultaneously, beginning teachers are delegitimized by school hierarchies. The second organizes care as an identity core that offers relational gratification but also leads to exhaustion in the face of vulnerable contexts and overwhelming demands. The third articulates a heroic subjectivity that keeps the school running through overexertion in response to a “ghostly” institution that evaluates and demands but does not provide accompaniment. Taken together, our findings show that resilience is produced as a situated, relational practice, emerging more in spite of institutions than because of them. We discuss the implications for induction policies and intergenerational mentoring, as well as for strengthening the material and collective conditions of teacher care. These may help improve early-career teacher retention and well-being.

Keywords

teacher resilience, beginning teachers, interpretative repertoires, critical discursive psychology, teacher care and emotional labor, professional induction in Chile

Author Bio(s)

Paula Villalobos-Vergara, Psicóloga Educacional, Doctora en Psicología, Universidad de Chile. Magíster en Educación, USACH. Profesora Titular, Departamento de Kinesiología, Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación.

Diego Palacios Díaz, Psicólogo de la Universidad Santo Tomás de Santiago, Chile, Magíster en Psicología Educacional de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile y Doctor en Psicología de la Universidad de Chile. Actualmente es Académico Investigador de la Escuela de Psicología de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Santo Tomás, sede Santiago.

Joel Álvarez Ruf, Ph.D., MSc. Magíster en Ciencias Biológicas, Especialización en Neurociencia, Universidad de Chile. Doctorado en Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Profesor Titular. Departamento de Kinesiología, Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación.

Rodrigo Vergara, biólogo y doctor en Psicología. Académico titular en la Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación. Fue Director del Núcleo de Bienestar y Desarrollo Humano del Centro de Investigación en Educación, además de participar del Doctorado en Educación y el Magister en Ciencias aplicadas al Movimiento y Cognición Humana.

Acknowledgements

This study was carried out thanks to funding from the Fondecyt Initiation Project 11241300, “Elements of the Individual, Relational, and Institutional Dimensions of Teacher Resilience That Foster the Retention in the School System of Teacher Education Graduates from Four Chilean Universities” (2024–2026).

Publication Date

10-24-2026

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

ORCID ID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1569-8064

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