Early childhood teachers' constructions of their resilience and thriving: A continuing investigation

O'Leary (1998) claims that any seemingly intractable challenge holds 'the potential for crisis or opportunity' (p. 435). In this article, I draw on a study of seven child care teachers' constructions of their resilience and thriving to consider O'Leary's contention in light of the so-called staffing crisis facing the child care sector in the Australian state of New South Wales. While warning of the dangers of romanticizing teachers and their work, the study suggests that insights into teachers' resihence and thriving may ofter productive opportunities for generating alternative cultural scripts of teaching in child care. Cultural scripts or storylines grounded in discourses of agency, freedom, hope, trust, and teaching as intellectual work could assist in repositioning teaching in child care as an attractive career option and thus help to address the current staffingshortage.