Teachers’ quality has long been researched in the field of general education. However, little attention has been paid to the professional qualities of excellent English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in the context of English curriculum reform, especially from an ecological perspective. To address this gap, this study adopted a qualitative approach to characterise the qualities of excellent senior high school EFL teachers in China and the development of their professional qualities using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model. Four interconnected dimensions of excellent EFL teachers’ professional qualities were confirmed: English language pedagogical content competence, beliefs about the foreign language teaching profession and professional ethics, beliefs about foreign language teaching and learning, and beliefs about language teacher learning and development. Meanwhile, the EFL teachers constructed and developed their professional qualities in their dynamic interaction with the complex ecological systems where they lived. The paper considers these various teacher-related factors in the ecological systems and provides some suggestions for sustaining EFL teachers’ professional development.

Teacher resilience has been an increasingly hot topic in the booming perspective of positive psychology. It has often been conceptualized as the capacity to bounce back from teaching adversities that form in the process of dynamic and complex interaction and interconnection between teachers and the context in which they operate. However, scant attention has been paid to unveiling the fluctuation and process developmental mechanism of early career English teacher resilience, especially from an ecological perspective. A self-narrative study could serve as a bridge to understand teachers’ capacity for resilience to navigate multiple challenges, discover and reconstruct themselves and ensure recovery and development in their daily interaction with their environment. Against this backdrop, the present study adopted a self-narrative method to explore the dynamic development and influencing factors of early career English teacher resilience. Results concerning early career English teacher resilience displayed an approximate V-shaped developmental trajectory evincing a Fighting–Lying flat–Seeking balance–Fighting–Fighting transition during the early stages of an educational career. Additionally, this was affected by various personal factors (i.e., previous experience, belief, motivation and well-being) and contextual factors (i.e., students, family and colleagues) over the past five years. In light of these findings, implications are proposed for fostering early career teachers’ resilience to deal with setbacks and promoting their sustainable professional development.

Resilience, as a positive personal trait, has been a topic of hot debate in the field of general education with the booming perspective of positive psychology. The exploration of learner resilience is conducive to understanding how learners grapple with setbacks, positively adapt, and function well in the presence of challenging situations. To date, some attention is paid to the structure of learner resilience, its relationships with other psychological variables, and its impacts on academic achievement. However, research on the overall profile of resilience in the field of foreign language (FL) or second language (L2) from a holistic and systematic perspective is still lacking. Against this backdrop, the current study reviewed and synthesized research evidence on resilience in the FL/L2 learning context. Specifically, 27 high-quality empirical studies published between 2017 and 2023 were selected, and then they were analyzed in terms of substantive characteristics of the literature and research participants, models of resilience, methodological features, and research foci. The results revealed a steady increase in language learner resilience research and displayed the detailed distribution of reviewed articles in publication year and sources as well as participants' educational backgrounds. Moreover, the conceptualization of resilience displayed complex and diverse features, the quantitative approach took a dominant position in the reviewed literature, and resilience models from psychology were widely utilized in language learner resilience research directly or indirectly. Finally, the implications of these findings were discussed for the further development of language learner resilience research.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online teaching became a significant method at different levels of education across the globe. The transition from traditional offline to online educational environments brought new challenges for language teachers. Buoyancy plays a crucial role for teachers to bounce back from challenging situations. However, there is a scarcity of empirical research on language teacher buoyancy in online contexts from an ecological perspective which is conducive to unfolding the complex and dynamic nature of buoyancy. To fill this gap, the current study utilized a qualitative research method to investigate the factors influencing English teacher buoyancy in online teaching and how they shape and exercise buoyancy in their negotiation with different ecological systems in online teaching guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. The findings revealed that teachers experienced multiple challenges from different ecological systems, such as ineffective classroom interaction, work–life imbalance, heavy workload, and higher school requirements. Additionally, teacher buoyancy was shaped by the dynamic interaction between teachers and ecological systems and was not only viewed as the individual’s ability but as a socio-ecological product. Based on the above findings, the paper provides some implications for developing and researching language teacher buoyancy in the future.

While there has been much research into teachers’ professional quality in general education, scant attention has been paid to the professional quality of EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers, especially those working in adverse areas, for their sustainable career trajectories. Drawing on Wu’s framework of EFL teachers’ professional quality, this study adopted a mixed-method study design to investigate the professional quality of experienced EFL teachers in China’s rural areas. A questionnaire was administered online to 367 Chinese EFL teachers from 15 high schools in the northeast part of China. Follow-up interviews were then conducted with four volunteers. The results of the exploratory factor analysis produced a two-module structure of teachers’ professional quality, addressing teacher beliefs and English language pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for their sustainable career development. The teacher belief module addresses beliefs about language teacher learning and development as well as beliefs about foreign language teaching and learning. The English language PCK module includes two subscales: English teaching capacity and English knowledge and skills. Descriptive analysis showed that these participants had high levels of professional quality. Possible explanations for the interpretations of EFL teachers’ professional quality are provided from the qualitative data. Based on the above findings, the paper offers some implications for sustaining EFL teacher development in the future.