Promoting Resilience in the Classroom

A Guide to Developing Pupils' Emotional and Cognitive Skills

Carmel Cefai

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781846427732
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Gestión del aula

Resilience is a set of qualities that enable children to adapt and transform, to overcome risk and adversity, and to develop social competence, problem-solving skills, autonomy and a sense of purpose. For children and young people it is as vital to possess these qualities in school environments as in the family and the community at large.

This handbook for teachers and educators explores ways of nurturing resilience in vulnerable students. It proposes a new, positive way of thinking about schools as institutions that can foster cognitive and socio-emotional competence in all students.

Individual chapters examine effective practices in schools and classrooms, and assess a range of classroom processes, such as engagement, inclusion, collaboration and prosocial behaviour. The author makes use of case studies throughout to bring to life classroom activities and concrete strategies that will promote best practice for enhancing student resilience, and offers a framework that can be adapted to the existing nature, culture and needs of each individual school community and its members.

Promoting Resilience in the Classroom is a valuable resource for educational practitioners as well as educational officers and policy makers engaged in school development and educational improvement.

CHAPTER 1

Educational Resilience for All

In the centre of the Mediterranean Sea lies a small island with crystal blue water, gentle flat-topped hills, green fertile valleys and small ancient villages basking in the warm sunshine. Its rich historical heritage is epitomised in the Ggantija Neolithic Temples, the oldest free-standing structure in the world, predating the Egyptian Pyramids by a thousand years. The island of Gozo is part of the Maltese archipelago, situated at the crossroad of the Mediterranean between Europe and North Africa. The Gozitans are a friendly and hardworking people. One of their most marked characteristics is their resilience. Theirs is a story of survival in the face of abandonment, of growth and prosperity in the face of exploitation, poverty and marginalisation. In 1551 the island was ravaged by Ottoman corsairs and the whole population was taken into slavery in North Africa. In times of invasion, it was abandoned by the military authorities. As late as the Second World War Gozo was considered militarily unimportant and would have been the first to be occupied by the Axis forces had the planned invasion taken place. Yet it was the Gozitan farmers who saved the Maltese islands from capitulation by providing badly needed flour until supplies arrived on the warships. Despite its limited resources, the island has managed to thrive by exploiting its strengths, namely the fertility and natural beauty of the land, the hard work and resourcefulness of its people, and the strong sense of community and connectedness among the inhabitants.

The Gozitan experience is one of a people thriving against a background of hardship and poverty. It is one of resilience; that is, the ability to overcome the odds and succeed in the face of adversity. Resilience draws our attention to growth in the presence of risk, to what helps us succeed rather than what keeps us back. By studying the success story of individuals, families and communities, we are then able to promote those qualities and systems which facilitate the success of individuals who are at risk in one way or another. In education this has been translated into initiatives to create social systems which protect children and young people coming from adverse social-economic backgrounds, and which facilitate their healthy cognitive and socio-emotional development and, consequently, their ‘graduation’ as successful young adults prepared for the tests of life.

PREPARING CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE FOR THE TESTS OF LIFE

As they seek to establish themselves as autonomous and successful citizens in a fast-changing world, young people, whether at risk or not, will need to have the required competencies and resources to achieve their goals, to solve problems effectively, to engage in healthy relationships and to sustain their psychological and social wellbeing. When they leave school, they will have to have learned the requisite academic skills to enable them to function as self-reliant citizens and to gain access to opportunities and resources. They will also need to be equipped with other skills: to be flexible in the face of change; to be creative in problem solving and effective in decision making; to build and maintain supportive relationships; to work collaboratively with others; and to mobilise their resources in times of difficulty. They will have to be able to steer clear of crime, violence, substance abuse, unwanted teenage pregnancy, poverty and social exclusion, as well as being resilient, both academically and socio-emotionally, in the face of an unstable, changing society. Academic and socio-emotional literacy, however, are not mutually exclusive or developed at the expense of one another. Indeed, they can support, reinforce and complement each other. Happy and socially competent individuals are in the end more productive in schools and society (Layard 2005). This dual focus in education is both desirable and essential in today’s world, and also possible to achieve. This book is about this broader vision of education. It is about the formation of academically and socially resilient students prepared for the tests of life rather than a life of tests (Elias 2001). It is rooted in a psycho-educational perspective which underlines a positive and proactive view of human development and behaviour. It proposes a model of classrooms operating as protective contexts for children’s and young people’s development. Within this universal model of educational resilience, classrooms operate as optimum learning environments for all their pupils, including those considered at risk, promoting their cognitive, social and emotional competence.

The book provides a framework which can be modified and applied by schools and classrooms according to their needs, and which includes classroom practitioners, in collaboration with staff, pupils and parents, in designing, implementing and evaluating their own action plans. It has originated from a study of classroom practices, with examples generated from actual classrooms. It is intended as a practical guide for classroom practitioners and educationalists engaged in school improvement and development, in promoting educational engagement and socio-emotional competence in the classroom. Besides classroom teachers, the book should appeal to heads of school, support and specialist teachers, learning support assistants, school counsellors and educational psychologists. Teacher trainers and INSET providers may find the theoretical framework and the action plan very accessible and easy to use in their teacher education courses. The book could also serve as a resource for educationalists engaged in policy making, planning and curriculum development, with particular reference to social and emotional learning.

OUTLINE OF THE BOOK

The book is divided into three major parts. The first part proposes a theoretical model of classrooms as resilience-enhancing contexts for all the pupils. The definition of educational resilience proposed in the second chapter diverges from traditional ones in that it is not based exclusively on risk. It suggests a universal approach focused on protective factors which operate for both at-risk and non-at-risk pupils. This book is for the promotion of social and academic competence for all pupils, including those perceived as being at risk. Chapter 3 then presents the model that has been developed from the study of processes occurring in primary school classrooms, characterised by good practice in educational engagement and socio-emotional competence. The model describes how contextual processes and facilitating forces promote engagement and socio-emotional competence in the classroom.

The second part of the book is an elaboration of the theoretical model in relation to actual classrooms. It presents various narratives and stories from classrooms selected for their good practice in educational engagement and socio-emotional competence. The chapters in this part of the book provide a number of points where you will be invited to reflect on particular aspects of your practice. The first chapter (Caring Classrooms) presents various illustrations of how classroom teachers sought to build caring relationships with their pupils. Classroom relationships are examined further in Chapter 5 (Prosocial Classrooms), with illustrations of relationship building among the pupils themselves. The next three chapters present various facets of pupil engagement in the classroom. Chapter 6 (Engaging Classrooms) focuses on meaningful and inclusive engagement, providing examples of how various teachers created authentic, experiential and enjoyable learning experiences. Chapter 7 (Collaborative Classrooms) highlights the benefits of pupils building knowledge together and of classroom teachers collaborating with their pupils, their colleagues and the parents in their practice. The final chapter in this part (Empowering Classrooms) focuses on influential engagement, providing examples of pupils being encouraged to make choices, participate in decisions and believe in themselves as competent learners.

Part 3 (Chapter 9) is a reflective developmental section that helps you to implement the resilience-building model in your own classroom. Classroom change is suggested through an action research framework that guides you, in partnership with the pupils, colleagues and parents, through an ongoing process starting with an assessment of the present situation, the formulation of a plan of action, the implementation of the plan, evaluation and further change.

The main aim of the book is to empower school and classroom staff to take responsibility for their own and their pupils’ development, to take self-generated and self-directed action in seeking to engage the pupils in meaningful and influential learning experiences within a caring and collaborative culture.

PART 1

A MODEL FOR
CLASSROOM
PRACTITIONERS

CHAPTER 2

Introducing Risk and Resilience in Education

In this chapter the concept of resilience is explored within an educational context. The chapter starts by examining the paradigm shift that took place in moving from risk to resilience and how the problems with the former have led to the emergence of the latter: a model emphasising growth and strength development. Another shift in the definition of educational resilience is then proposed. Resilience is construed within a ‘universal’ perspective, focusing on common processes that promote positive social and academic behaviours among normally developing children and young people as well as those who may be at risk in their development. The chapter concludes with a contextual and universal definition of educational resilience.

RISK

St Mark’s Primary School is situated in a relatively socially disadvantaged region in Malta. In the early 1980s the school had 350 students, the great majority coming from the low socio-economic group. The school was struggling with high rates of illiteracy, absenteeism and misbehaviour, as well as the parents’ lack of cooperation and occasional abuse of staff. Teacher stress was very marked, with a high turnover of staff every year. St Mark’s was considered a failing school, and the pupils attending the school were at risk of educational failure. As part of the Education Priority Areas’ policy at the time, the local education authority (LEA) provided extra funding and support to the school to reduce disaffection and increase attendance and achievement. More staff were assigned to the school, including more teachers, so that classrooms could be reduced in size. An additional assistant head was appointed, together with extra support staff such as learning support teachers and classroom assistants. More regular service from educational psychologists, educational social workers, school counsellors and school doctors and nurses was made available to the school. A welfare fund was set up to address the basic needs of some of the pupils and their families, such as the provision of free uniforms, stationery, textbooks and lunches. In some cases, financial assistance was provided to the families themselves, who were also receiving assistance from the social workers. The complementary teaching room was furnished with state-of-the-art resources, and an office was opened for the support professionals visiting the school. The school environment was also enhanced with new furniture, more comfortable classrooms and improved play facilities.

The above example illustrates how earlier approaches to the educational success and failure of school children have largely been focused on the identification of risk factors with their adverse effects on development, and the introduction of measures to counteract such effects. Within such a perspective children and young people coming from socio-economically deprived backgrounds, ethnic minorities or adverse family circumstances are considered as being at risk in their development and success at school. The term ‘at risk’ is a broad one, with numerous factors being considered as likely to compromise children’s development, such as poverty, abuse and neglect, developmental disability, and parental illness or psychopathology. In education it usually refers to children and young people who are at risk of school failure by virtue of coming from a disadvantaged background such as a deprived socio-economic background, region, ethnic status, family circumstances and language (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 1995). The main focus of such an approach has been to identify the factors that put pupils’ success in school at risk and then to remedy and/or prevent such factors (cf. ‘fixing kids’ approach). As illustrated above, a common practice has been to provide additional funding to schools which have a preponderance of pupils coming from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, such as pupils eligible for free lunch or whose parents were in receipt of unemployment benefits.

The risk model in education has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. Children and young people have been found to develop successfully despite risk and adversity, and what may be an obstacle to development for one child may be an opportunity for another (Liddle 1994; Semmens 1999). Individual children may be considered at risk when in actual fact they are not. Expectations for entire groups of children may be suppressed, while learning and behaviour problems may be interpreted as related to individual deficits or the group’s ‘culture of poverty’ (Catterall 1998). A risk orientation is also likely to lead to the labelling of children, families and communities because of the children’s difficulties while ignoring those characteristics of the school context which may fail to promote children’s cognitive and social development. Finally, the provision of extra resources to schools considered at risk has not necessarily been accompanied by marked improvements in expected outcomes. For instance, Cappella and Weinstein (2001), making use of a national, longitudinal database, found that, while 15 per cent of the at-risk group (pupils coming from disadvantaged backgrounds) improved their reading performance significantly over their secondary school years, the remaining 85 per cent either dropped out of school or remained in the lowest or basic achievement level. As Pianta and Walsh (1998, p.408) put it, ‘we have not been very successful at helping poor children succeed in school…despite decades of intervention programmes, substantial success stories have been few’.

Despite the definition and redefinition of ‘at risk’, one thing which has remained constant is the belief that some parents have failed their children, reflecting deep seated biases against women, the poor and ethnic groups. (Lubeck and Garrett 1990, p.327)

RESILIENCE

It was the failure of the risk model to explain success and failure at school adequately that led to a paradigm shift towards models of resilience and competence enhancement. Both the risk and resilience perspectives are concerned with understanding what helps children and young people to do well at school. However, while for the former this represents problem avoidance, the latter is concerned with wellbeing and health in addition to dysfunction (Luthar, Cicchetti and Becker 2000; Waxman, Brown and Chang 2004). It shifted the focus from deficit and disadvantage to growth and strength development. It asks ‘What makes children in difficulty achieve and be successful?’ rather than ‘What prevents children in difficulty from succeeding?’ Through the study of children and young people who managed to thrive and be successful at school despite negative circumstances in their lives, the resilience perspective has led to a reconsideration of the ways in which schools can foster success in children and young people (Brown, D’Emidio-Caston and Benard 2001; Henderson...