Teachers’ Mental Toughness and Emotional Flexibility Amid AI-Driven Teaching Demands

Teachers’ mental toughness and emotional flexibility have become increasingly essential for sustaining effective instruction amid Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven teaching demands and the growing complexity of learners’ academic and personal needs. This study explored how teachers develop these psychological capacities and utilize them alongside AI to support challenged learners, manage classroom complexities, and foster supportive learning environments. Employing an exploratory qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eighteen purposively selected teachers, and the data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings revealed that professional and personal experiences strengthened teachers’ resilience, emotional regulation, and instructional adaptability, enabling them to integrate AI responsibly for differentiated instruction, personalized learning, instructional decision-making, and responsive learner support. Teachers consistently emphasized that AI enhanced, rather than replaced, professional judgment, empathy, and authentic teacher–learner relationships. The findings further indicate that mental toughness, emotional flexibility, and responsible AI integration function as interconnected adaptive capacities that strengthen teachers’ responsiveness to instructional complexity and learner diversity. These insights extend Psychological Flexibility Theory and Resilience Theory while providing practical implications for teacher education, professional development, and AI-supported educational practice.