TEACHER RESILIENCE, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND STRESS MANAGEMENT IN TEACHER EDUCATION REFORM IN NIGERIA: A REVIEW
Keywords:
Teacher resilience, emotional intelligence, stress management, teacher education, teacher transformationAbstract
Teacher education in Nigeria has undergone considerable transformation over decades, shaped by policy shifts, curriculum reforms, and growing demands for the teaching profession. Central to this transformation is the recognition that teachers are not merely academic practitioners but emotionally engaged professionals whose psychological wellbeing significantly influences educational outcomes. This paper examines teacher resilience, emotional intelligence, and stress management as backbone of teacher education transformation in Nigeria. Drawing on Transactional Model of Stress and Coping of Lazarus and Folkman, the paper explores how these constructs interact and contribute to the evolving landscape of teacher preparation and professional development in Nigeria. The paper reviews empirical literature on each construct, highlighting how resilience enables teachers to adapt and thrive in the face of professional adversity, how emotional intelligence shapes classroom relationships and instructional quality, and how effective stress management strategies support teacher retention and performance. In the face of Nigeria's historical and contemporary teacher education challenges, which includes poor funding, inadequate infrastructural facilities and social amenities this paper argues that reforms in teacher education must go beyond curriculum content to embrace the psychological and emotional dimensions of teacher preparation. Much work had not been done as regards integrating the three constructs within a single review. Recommendations are offered for future research and policy, including the embedding of psychological resilience and emotional competency modules in Nigerian teacher education programs. It is concluded that sustainable teacher education transformation in Nigeria requires a deliberate investment in the psychological empowerment of teachers at all levels of the education system.References
Adeyemo, D. A. (2007). Relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement of university students. Journal of Psychology and developing societies, 19(2), 199-213
Adeyemo, S. A., & Torubeli, A. (2019). Teacher stress, job satisfaction, and performance in Nigerian secondary schools: Implications for educational reform. Journal of Education and Practice, 10(6), 45–53.
Aghenta, J. A. (2001). Educational planning: A new direction for Nigeria and other developing countries. Nigerian Journal of Educational Administration and Planning, 1(1), 1–16.
Aluede, O., Idogho, P. O., & Imonikhe, J. S. (2016). Increasing access to university education in Nigeria: Present challenges and suggestions for the future. The African Symposium: An Online Journal of the African Educational Research Network, 12(1), 3–13.
Brackett, M. A., Palomera, R., Mojsa-Kaja, J., Reyes, M. R., & Salovey, P. (2010). Emotion-regulation ability, burnout, and job satisfaction among British secondary school teachers. Psychology in the Schools, 47(4), 406–417. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20478
Day, C., & Gu, Q. (2014). Resilient teachers, resilient schools: Building and sustaining quality in testing times. Routledge.
Eze, T. I. (2018). Teacher recruitment and retention in Nigeria: Challenges and prospects. International Journal of Educational Research, 7(2), 29–40
Fafunwa, A. B. (1974). History of education in Nigeria. George Allen & Unwin. Federal Republic of Nigeria. (2014). National policy on education (6th ed.). Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council Press.
Freedman, J., & Jensen, A. L. (2020). Emotional intelligence and teacher effectiveness: Implications for teacher education reform. Journal of Teacher Education, 71(3), 264–278.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. Bantam Books.
Gu, Q., & Day, C. (2013). Challenges to teacher resilience: Conditions count. British Educational Research Journal, 39(1), 22–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411926. 2011.623152
Hen, M., & Sharabi-Nov, A. (2014). Teaching the teachers: Emotional intelligence training for pre-service teachers. Teaching Education Journal, 25(4), 375–390. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2014.908838
Ibe, V.T., (2024). Management of teachers’ emotional intelligence for effective service delivery in public secondary schools in Rivers state. Journal of Education in Developing Areas (JEDA). Vol. 32(2), 333-347.
Ige, A. M., & Halele, D. (2014). Emotional intelligence and teacher effectiveness: A South African context. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(23), 272–280
Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The prosocial classroom: Teacher social-emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 491–525. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654308325693
Kaviani, H., Mohammadi-Mehr, S., & Pejhan, M. (2022). "Teacher stress: Sources and stress management strategies." Journal of Education and Learning, 11(2), 1-20
Khumalo, S. S., & Mji, A. (2017). Exploring the relationship between teachers' resilience and learner performance in South African schools. International Journal of Educational Sciences, 17(1–3), 1–10
Kyriacou, C. (2001). Teacher stress: Directions for future research. Educational Review, 53(1), 27–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131910124115
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.
Luthans, F., & Eddy, N. (2022). "Teacher resilience and student learning: The role of stress management." Journal of Educational Psychology, 114 (6), 1645-1661
Luthar, S. S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). The construct of resilience: A critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child Development, 71(3), 543–562. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00164
MacDonald, A., & Boudreau, K. (2022). "Teacher stress management: A case for mindfulness-based interventions." Teacher Education and Special Education, 45(3), 191-203.
Mansfield, C. F., Beltman, S., Broadley, T., & Weatherby-Fell, N. (2016). Building resilience in teacher education: An evidenced informed framework. Teaching and Teacher Education, 54, 77–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.11.016
Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56(3), 227–238. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.227
Mayer, J. D., Caruso, D. R., & Salovey, P. (2016). The ability model of emotional intelligence: Principles and updates. Emotion Review, 8(4), 290-300.
Nelis, D., Quoidbach, J. Mikolajczak, M., & Hansenne, M. (2020). Emotional intelligence: Revisiting the Salovey and Mayer model. Journal of Psychological Research and Practice, 12(2), 101-114
Nwagwu, C. C. (2015). Teacher education reform in Nigeria: Issues, challenges and the way forward. Nigerian Journal of Professional Teachers, 1(1), 12–26.
Ogwo-agu, J.N., & Modebelu, M. (2025). Motivational skill and stress management factors of emotional intelligence as correlate of teachers’ instructional leadership in secondary schools in South East, Nigeria. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), Vol. 9 (10), 4697 – 4704
Onyekachi, R. (2020). Challenges facing teachers in Nigeria: Implications for teacher education. International Journal of Academic Research in Education, 6(1), 1–14
Richards, J. (2012). Teacher stress and coping strategies: A national snapshot. The Educational Forum, 76(3), 299–316. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2012.682837
Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3), 185–211. https://doi.org/10.2190/DUGG-P24E-52WK-6CDG
Sutton, R. E., & Wheatley, K. F. (2003). Teachers' emotions and teaching: A review of the literature and directions for future research. Educational Psychology Review, 15(4), 327–358. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026131715856
Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, K., Kivimäki, M., & Toppinen-Tanner, S. (2020). "Teacher stress and stress management: A systematic review." Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1 - 22.
Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (1982). Vulnerable but invincible: A longitudinal study of resilient children and youth. McGraw-Hill
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors are permitted to post their work online in institutional/disciplinary repositories or on their own websites. Pre-print versions posted online should include a citation and link to the final published version in Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication as soon as the issue is available; post-print versions (including the final publisher's PDF) should include a citation and link to the journal's website.
