We demonstrate the relationships between occupational demands in German vocational education and training (VET) teacher training, stress symptoms, and different behavioral resilience competencies. Taking into account interindividual differences in resilience competencies, we use a typological approach to identify different types of (trainee) teachers classified by their degrees and configurations of resilience competencies. Our empirical analysis is based on questionnaire data from 131 German vocational trainees and qualified teachers. The results reveal, among other things, that all three resilience competencies—resistance, flexibility, and (...) dynamism—are significantly negatively correlated with the demands of working conditions and workload. Via a latent class analysis, we were able to identify three groups of (trainee) teachers who differed in their resilience competencies to adapt appropriately to different situations and their requirements (“behavioral flexibility”), to recover rapidly from setbacks and to defy the expectations of others (“behavioral resistance”), and to initiate changes as soon as they are necessary or desirable (“behavioral dynamics”). More resilient (trainee) teachers show, among other things, lower values for anxiety as an emotional stress symptom and higher values for job engagement. The findings are discussed with regard to implications for VET teacher training and we stress the need for equilibration on a systemic perspective. (shrink)

A positive teacher-student relationship that is characterized by mutual trust, warmth, and teacher support (= proximity) as well as clear limits for student behavior (= influence) is considered central for students’ cognitive and psychosocial development and this assumption has widely been supported empirically. However, these studies largely focused on domain-specific student outcomes such as achievement or interest in particular subjects and less so on general aspects of school adjustment such as school satisfaction or self-esteem. At the same time, the teacher-student (...) relationship can also be considered vital for teachers: Teachers who perceive difficulties in controlling student behavior report reduced occupational well-being. In addition, the teachers’ need to feel appreciated and liked by students is increasingly emphasized as an important resource for their occupational well-being. However, this assumption has not been investigated sufficiently. Therefore, the present work addressed the question of whether the teacher-student relationship in terms of proximity and influence is associated with students’ general school adjustment and teachers’ occupational well-being. Results from study 1 revealed that teacher proximity and influence were associated with students’ general school adjustment in terms of achievement, school satisfaction, truancy, and self-esteem. Study 2 showed that teachers who perceived difficulties in controlling student behavior and who felt unappreciated by students reported lower work enthusiasm and higher emotional exhaustion. In Study 3, teachers who felt related with their students reported higher work enthusiasm, whereas no association with their emotional exhaustion was found. The present work underlined the importance of the teacher-student relationship for both students’ school adjustment and teachers’ occupational well-being. (shrink)

Care is a feature of all of our lives, all of the time. An analysis of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence reveals that care and caring permeate complex dimensions of life in and after school and we ask here, if, on some accounts, care can do the work required of it. Acknowledging the significance of her contribution to care, we focus on the work of Nel Noddings suggesting that she pays insufficient attention to other emotions implicated in the work of morally (...) appropriate care. We argue here that Noddings' version of care would benefit from the support of an ethical theory of the emotions, including a moralized form of compassion, if care in schools is to be both better understood and more likely realised. (shrink)