RESILIENCE AND COPING MECHANISMS IN TEACHER CAREER CRISIS: A MIXED-METHODS STUDY

Teacher career crisis represents a critical yet understudied phenomenon in the landscape of educational workforce sustainability, particularly within the Central Asian pedagogical context. This study investigates resilience capacities and coping mechanisms among teachers experiencing professional career crises at higher and secondary educational institutions in Uzbekistan. Employing a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, the study collected quantitative data from 187 teachers using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25), the Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educators Survey (MBI-ES), and a researcher-developed Coping Strategy Inventory (CSI-T), complemented by qualitative semi-structured interviews with 24 purposively selected participants. Qualitative thematic analysis yielded five overarching themes: professional identity erosion, institutional support deficits, collegial solidarity as protective buffer, pedagogical meaning-making, and adaptive transformation. Findings indicate that resilience-focused professional development frameworks and institutional mentoring structures are urgently needed in Uzbekistan's educational system. The study contributes original empirical evidence to international discourse on teacher well-being and career sustainability.