English Language Teachers Resilience Inventory

Abstract

The English Language Teachers Resilience Inventory (ELTRI), developed by Shirazizadeh and Abbaszadeh in 2023, is a robust 35-item psychological instrument specifically designed to quantify the resilience levels of English language teachers (ELT). The development of the ELTRI addressed a significant gap in the existing literature, which lacked a specialized resilience assessment tool tailored to the unique professional and contextual demands of foreign language teaching. The scale construction initiated with a pool of 44 items, generated through a combination of extensive interviews with Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and a comprehensive review of established teacher resilience frameworks. Following pilot testing and subsequent statistical validation using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), the inventory was refined into a stable five-factor model comprising 35 items. The authors provided robust evidence supporting the instrument’s content validity and strong internal consistency.

Keywords

Teacher Resilience, English Language Teaching, EFL Teaching, Contextual Supports, Emotional Management, Internal Motivations, Pedagogical Skills, Social Skills, Educational Measures

Authors

Shirazizadeh, Mohsen; Abbaszadeh, Afsaneh

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Purpose

The primary objective of the English Language Teachers Resilience Inventory (ELTRI) is to establish a psychometrically validated measure capable of assessing the multifaceted dimensions of resilience specifically among professionals engaged in teaching English as a foreign or second language.

The scale is intended to be used by researchers and educators to identify factors that enable English language teachers to cope effectively with job-related stressors and maintain their well-being and commitment, thereby addressing the specific demands of the EFL context where attrition rates can be high.

Construct

The core psychological construct measured by the ELTRI is Teacher Resilience. This construct encompasses the ability of English language teachers to effectively navigate and recover from professional challenges, stress, and adversity encountered within their teaching environment.

The finalized five-factor model suggests that teacher resilience in this context is multidimensional, incorporating elements such as contextual support, emotional regulation skills, and intrinsic motivation related to the teaching profession.

Validity

To establish the content validity of the ELTRI, the instrument underwent a meticulous expert review process. Four specialized experts in the field of EFL teacher education, all possessing profound knowledge of the resilience concept, thoroughly evaluated the inventory.

This expert evaluation focused critically on the appropriateness of the instrument’s overall content coverage, the clarity and precision of the individual item wording, and the general design and format of the inventory, ensuring that the items accurately represented the domain of teacher resilience within the language teaching context.

Reliability

The reliability of the ELTRI was primarily assessed through the lens of internal consistency, a crucial measure of how well the items within the instrument correlate with one another.

Initial calculations performed on the pilot version of the instrument yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.73. Following the refinement and reduction of items, the final 35-item scale was subjected to rigorous analysis using Cronbach’s alpha. This analysis resulted in a coefficient of 0.84, which is generally accepted in psychometrics as indicating a good and acceptable level of internal consistency for the final measurement tool.

Factor Analysis

The development process involved extensive Factor Analysis (FA) to determine the underlying structure of the resilience construct. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was initially conducted on the preliminary pool of 43 items, identifying 13 factors with eigenvalues exceeding one, which collectively accounted for 64% of the total variance.

A subsequent parallel analysis provided clearer guidance, suggesting that only the first five eigenvalues surpassed the established criterion for factor retention. Based on the inspection of the scree plot and the results from the parallel analysis, the researchers decided to retain a five-factor solution for further statistical confirmation.

A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was then performed utilizing principal axis factoring with a Varimax rotation. The final CFA confirmed the hypothesized five-factor model, which successfully explained 40.6% of the total variance. During this phase, items exhibiting factor loadings below the 0.40 threshold were systematically eliminated, resulting in the finalized, robust 35-item inventory.

Instrument

Test Type: Original instrument developed for a specific population and context.

Format: The instrument is a self-report inventory/questionnaire consisting of 35 items. Responses are gathered using a 6-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 6 (“strongly agree”).

Language Available: English

Population Group: Male; Female

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older)

Population Details: The measure was developed and validated using a sample of English Language Teachers located in Iran, focusing on the cultural and professional context of Iranian education.

Test Methodology: The validation process encompassed several advanced psychometric methodologies: Test Validity assessment (Content Validity), Test Reliability evaluation (Internal Consistency via Cronbach’s alpha), and extensive Factor Analysis (Exploratory and Confirmatory). The instrument is suitable for administration in either Electronic or Paper format.

Keywords

Contextual Supports, Educational Measures, Emotional Management, Employee Skills, English as a Foreign Language Teaching, Foreign Language Education, Intrinsic Motivation, Teacher Attitudes, Psychological Measurement

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Authors

Shirazizadeh, Mohsen

• Author ORCID Identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1880-1036

• Affiliation: Alzahra University, Department of English

• Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected]

• Correspondence Address: [email protected]

Abbaszadeh, Afsaneh

• Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

• Affiliation: Tarbiat Modares University, Department of English Language Teaching

• Affiliation Email addresses: No data is Available

• Correspondence Address: No data is Available

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

• Permissions: Contact Publisher

• Fee: No

• Commercial: No

• Test Year: 2023

Reference’s

Shirazizadeh, M., & Abbaszadeh, A. (2023). EFL teacher resilience: Instrument development and validation. Reflective Practice, 24(3), 375–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2023.2200926

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Items of the English Language Teachers Resilience Inventory

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The 35 items that constitute this inventory are available for review. They can be found in the source publication referenced above, specifically within Appendix B on pages 387-388 of the article.

Dear respondent,
This questionnaire aims at looking into your actual teaching practices as an English teacher. Your careful completion of the questionnaire will definitely contribute to real data and is greatly appreciated. Please check the box which best describes your perceptions about your job as an English teacher. The information will be kept confidential and will be used just for research purposes.

Thank you very much in advance for your time and kind cooperation.

Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements using the scale provided.

Response Scale: 1: Strongly Disagree, 2: Disagree, 3: Moderately Disagree, 4: Moderately Agree, 5: Agree, 6: Strongly Agree.