Strategies of Coping with Crisis in the Professional Development of Teachers

Abstract

This article discusses professional crises and strategies of coping with them. The study was conducted in Yekaterinburg (Russia) and involved 291 secondary school teachers. The teachers wrote psychobiographical essays, which were processed through content analysis methods. As a result, two types of coping strategies were identified: reactive and proactive. Reactive strategies imply taking the initiative rather than merely adjusting to the situation while in proactive strategies defence and adaptation mechanisms prevail. We found that in their professional development teachers switch from reactive to proactive strategies. Reactive strategies predominate in professional and educational orientation and profession choice crises while proactive ones, in crises of career choice, professional growth, professional expectations and non-normative crises.