Abstract
Inequality in education has increased globally, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students from low-income families are at exceptional risk of underachieving and dropping out. Despite having limited educational resources and disadvantaged home backgrounds, some students manage to succeed against the odds. These students demonstrate academic resilience, that is, the capacity to adapt in the face of adversity and achieve successful school performance. However, it is yet unclear to what extent different aspects of teacher and teaching quality may promote academic resilience in the classrooms, especially by taking into account the different subjects and contexts of education systems worldwide.
This study draws upon unique data from the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a large-scale international assessment with representative student samples that compares student performance in mathematics and science across participating countries. It utilizes multilevel data from students and their teachers in Grade 4 across 58 countries, including in America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East by addressing the following research questions (RQs):
1. How prevalent are academically resilient students in mathematics and science across 58 countries?
2. To what extent does the share of academically resilient students varies across teacher and teaching quality in these 58 countries?
This study applies a within-country perspective to examine academic resilience: students are academically resilient if they are among the bottom one-third of the socio-economic status (SES) distribution but achieve the top one-third of the performance distribution in their countries. It also compares academic resilience between countries: academically resilient students are those who were at the bottom one-third of the SES distribution within their countries but demonstrate performance at least on the TIMSS baseline achievement (score 475). In addition, the measures of teacher and teaching quality from student and teacher questionnaires were also examined.
For RQ1, results from logistic regression showed that the share of resilient students varies across subjects and education systems as well as when different thresholds were used (within- and between-countries perspectives). For RQ2, the z-test for proportions indicated that there are significant differences in the share of resilient students across the teacher and teaching quality measures, both within and across the 58 countries. Several aspects of teacher quality (e.g., professional development, self-efficacy) and teaching quality (e.g., support and clarity of instruction) seem to play a crucial in promoting academic resilience in mathematics and science classrooms.
This study demonstrates that the effects of teacher and teaching quality on the likelihood that a student from low-SES families becomes resilient varied across subjects and countries. It also supports findings from previous research on the importance of enhancing teachers’ competence in improving the achievement of disadvantaged students. Since TIMSS includes a nationally representative sample of students, findings from this project may provide the potential for generalizability to inform educational policy and practice at the national level. Given the right policies, all countries can address educational inequality and contributes to creating a future that leaves no one behind. Poverty does not need to be destiny.