The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and origin of the attitudes and beliefs of a group of teachers on fostering resilience in their secondary students. The purposive sample of teachers of at-risk students was drawn from two rural schools, a middle and a high school, one providing transition to the other. Ten teachers from the schools were selected by principals, based on their commitment, dedication and caring attitudes toward their students, to be interviewed. Teachers were also asked to draw their views concerning the fostering of resiliency in students. The other participants interviewed included the principal and counselor from each school.

This qualitative study examined teachers' attitudes, beliefs, and ideas on specific topics such as students, school, and learning. Four research questions guided the investigation of this study which revealed that teachers' attitudes and beliefs were associated with past experiences and were developed by multiple sources. The study found that family members, mentors/colleagues, childhood teachers and students have an influence on teachers' attitudes. There also seemed to be an association between the source of the influence and the lessons teachers learned from the influences. Teachers in the study stated that they learned specific strategies for working with at-risk students, which were acquired from particular influences, either prior to, during or after their educational training.

The study suggested that teachers can have a positive influence on their students' affective development; teachers in the study believed that protective factors were crucial and recognized the significant role they played in developing resiliency in students. In the study, teachers believed that parents played a major role in students' character development and that a concerted effort with school, home and community must be established to foster resilience in students. This study also suggested a model for fostering resiliency that contains strategies and a model of change which includes objectives for addressing the affective aspects of teaching practices so that resiliency may be developed in at-risk students.