Research about educational resilience provides a framework for understanding why some at risk children are successful in school, while others are not. It can inform and guide teachers as they strive to improve the odds of urban student achievement.

This research, an instrumental multiple case study, gathered the experiences of three experienced elementary teachers of fourth grade at one high poverty urban school. Multiple data sources, including a questionnaire, documents, a series of interviews, and field observations were collected and analyzed using thematic analysis techniques within a cultural studies approach. A social constructionist lens informs the theoretical framework that underpins this research study that incorporates aspects of Bourdieu's (1977) theory of power and practice and the study of educational resilience.

This study examined how the socio-cultural divide between urban students and schools is mediated by teachers, exploring teachers' beliefs about success and resilience, and determined the subsequent ways in which resilience building strategies were employed. Analysis of the data reveals that how elementary teachers in urban schools negotiate the socio-cultural divide between school and home impacts the provision of environments that promote and sustain urban student success and resilience. The participant teachers' lived experiences as elementary urban educators provide insight into the attitudes and processes that can reconcile many of the challenges evident in urban educational contexts.