Abstract:
Over the past few years, local and international universities have seen considerable student unrest in
response to unaffordable tuition fees and inequality and even pressures from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thus, resilience becomes evident in the way people behave in adverse situations. Especially for
developing lecturers, resilience may help to respond appropriately to adverse situations, regardless of
where the pressures originated from. Therefore, this study investigated the role resilience played in
the teaching behaviours and approaches displayed by lecturers during student unrest. Semistructured
interviews and the Brief Resilience Scale were applied to generate data from 16
participants. Findings reveal that most lecturers displayed moderate to high levels of resilience and
study results strongly relate to the multi-dimensional teacher resilience framework selected for
exploring the topic. What emerged, was the lecturers’ determination to teach, as well as their personal
agency and collaboration, all contributing to an ability to successfully fulfil their responsibilities. The
findings of this study may add value to how university management structures could assist lecturers
during times of adversity.
