A preview of a monograph titled Educational Resilience in Inner-City America: Challenges and Prospects.

Edited by Margaret C. Wang, Director of the Temple University Center for Research in Human Development and Education, and Edmund W. Gordon, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University

Published by Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates in Spring 1994.

The 13 papers comprising the monograph are abstracted below, providing a brief overview of the collection.

Introduction

The editors challenge the current belief that the story of inner- city life in America, and the education of its people, is one of tragedy, with an often dire and predictable ending, highlighting deficiency and failure. They note that the lives of many inner-city children and families across this country are indeed in disorder, and that, as with most social problems and the modern morbidities of our time, children and youth in the inner cities are hit hardest.

But Wang and Gordon write that this view is only half of the full picture. The cities of our nation illustrate a startling juxtaposition between the despairing and the hopeful, between disorganization and restorative potential. Alongside the poverty and the unemployment, the street-fights and the drug deals, are a wealth of cultural, economic, educational, and social resources.

Overall, the editors suggest that the challenges facing children, youth, families, and schools in inner-city America stem from a variety of economic, political, and health problems; furthermore, their solutions are complex and require the application of knowledge and expertise from many disciplines and professions. Furthermore, strategies and structural changes must be developed that will enhance the chances for schooling success of todayÕs students in todayÕs schools.

One such strategy is to build on the resilience with which children are empowered to succeed in the face of enormous adversity. Some children show remarkable resilience and develop successfully despite adversity; indeed, many are strengthened by the challenges they face, and are able to build productive and promising futures for themselves and their families.

This book is an attempt to broaden our understanding of how to magnify the circumstances known to enhance development and education, so that the burden of adversity is reduced and opportunity advanced for all children and youth, especially those of the inner cities who are in at- risk circumstances. The monograph focuses on (a) raising consciousness about the opportunities available to foster resilience among children, families, and communities; and (b) synthesizing the knowledge base.

Despite the emphasis on resilience and positive factors that can be utilized to foster it, the chapter authors are nonetheless realistic in appraising the life situations and educational opportunities of children and youth, not forgetting for a moment the difficulties, the complexity, and the complex history of the problems they face.

In this book, the authors examine the concept of resilience which has recently inspired a multitude of discussions and investigations among researchers involved in studying human development and the life circumstances of children and families, especially those living in urban environments.

An emerging theme in investigations into this topic is the search for the mechanisms and strategies of resilient adaptation, such that those mechanisms and strategies might be identified and fostered. The term resilience refers either to the human capacity to recover from psychological trauma or to the achievement of successful adaptation despite developmental risk and adversity.

For such a recent psychological construct, resilience seems to have come of age, gaining broader respect and attention from the scientific community. Researchers are now able to talk, albeit with a limited research base, about the characteristics of resilient persons and the correlates of resilience.

Nevertheless, the editors stressed that there are several theoretical and methodological problems associated with the current conceptualization of resilience that require further explication. First, there are no definite criteria by which a particular variable can be defined as a risk factor. Further, despite increasing knowledge of the correlates of resilience, we are hard pressed to describe reliable mechanisms by which resilience might be achieved in persons, institutions, or communities. Another problem is that resilience may correctly be defined as a human capacity to recover. However, in order to define resilience as the capacity to recover, we must first establish the fact of trauma, which is often an existential and relative phenomenon.

In the chapters included in this book, the authors have examined resilience in a variety of contexts. The editors emphasize that although the construct which dominates this work may be limited, this fact does not obviate the value of the construct or the work. They note that researchers are beginning to formulate better questions and the concept of resilience is expanding. Some situations and variables have been identified which, when appropriately managed, appear to foster resilience and capacity for successful adaptation despite risk and adversity. Building a research base for effective human intervention, first to prevent dysfunction and, when necessary, to correct and heal, will be one of the greatest immediate challenges.

The 13 papers are organized below under three headings: (a) Understanding Resilience; (b) Research on Resilience: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations: and (c) Fostering Educational Resilience.

Section I. Understanding Resilience

This section of the monograph includes five chapters. They address the theoretical underpinnings and research insights relating to the general construct of resilience, particularly to fostering competence and learning success in inner-city children and youth.

Chapter 1

"Resilience in Individual Development:Successful Adaptation Despite Risk and Adversity"

by Ann S. Masten

Resilience at the individual level, according to Masten, refers to successful adaptation despite risk and adversity. In this chapter, Masten examines what has been learned about psychological resilience in individuals, and draws implications from that knowledge for fostering such resilience. The chapter discusses the origin of the resilience concept in developmental psychopathology, and shows how both focus on variations in adaptation within a developmental perspective. The author explains how adaptation is judged according to psychosocial milestones called developmental tasks, and delineates the ingredients of adaptation which must be considered in understanding individual resilience.

Further, there is a focus on longitudinal studies which, together with data from cross-sectional research, converge to suggest a set of factors which appear to play a significant role in the resilience of individual children and adolescents. Finally, strategies are discussed for fostering such resilience.

Chapter 2

"Variations in the Experience of Resilience"

by Edmund W. Gordon and Lauren Dohee Song

Gordon and Song note that there are a number of ambiguities in the completed scientific work on resilience, due to a lack of consensus on the domain covered by the construct. Therefore, these authors have attempted to apply to the construct of resilience a descriptive analysis, one that could lead to a reconceptualization of the construct and a suggested taxonomy. They discuss the variability of research outcomes based on the focus of the research questions; thus, they contend that the conditions labeled as resiliency are relative, situational, and attributional.

Based on this assertion, Gordon and Song seek (a) to identify correlates of success and failure in the lives of selected persons judged to be disadvantaged; and (b) to conceptualize and describe developmental processes in which multiple factors interact dialectically to result in functional or dysfunctional adaptations.

Chapter 3

"Educational Resilience in Inner Cities"

by Margaret C. Wang, Geneva D. Haertel, and Herbert J. Walberg

This nation's attention has lately been captured by the plight of children and families in a variety of risk circumstances and by the urgency for interventions that foster resilience and life opportunities for all children and youth. In responding to such challenges, researchers are focusing on factors that strengthen resources and protective mechanisms for fostering the healthy development and learning success of children and youth in the inner cities.

This paper has two purposes: (a) to briefly discuss the concept of resilience as it has been advanced in developmental psychopathology; and (b) to summarize educationally relevant research consonant with the definition of educational resilience. The focus of discussion is on potentially malleable conditions within communities, homes, student peer groups, schools, and classrooms.

Chapter 4

"Understanding Resilient Students: The Use of National Longitudinal Data Bases"

by Samuel S. Peng

Studies of resilience, according to Peng, require comprehensive, longitudinal, integrated data about families, schools, and their communities. Such data are typically difficult to obtain; however, the National Center for Education Statistics has recently produced several national data bases on students, families, and schools, offering valuable resources for those researching the concept of resilience. PengÕs chapter describes these data bases and illustrates their potential use in identifying resilient students and factors related to resilience. The paper concentrates on three areas: (a) the nature of the data bases; (b) their potential use in resilience studies; and (c) illustrating the analytic use of a national data base.

Peng explains that the data bases are a storehouse of information on factors relevant to resilience research, including, among many others, demographic variables, measures of student self-concept, and measures of grade-point average. In his sample analysis, Peng examines the differences in resilience rates under various environments, which provides a basis for formulating hypotheses about the varying environmental impacts on fostering resilience.

Chapter 5

"The Americanization of Resilience: Deconstructing Research Practice"

by Leo Rigsby

Rigsby's chapter critically examines the concept of resilience, with the aim of exposing some assumptions underlying the concept and the processes and conditions which are assumed to give rise to resilience. The concept is first placed in the broader cultural context of the American emphasis on individualism and the strive for upward mobility. According to Rigsby, Americans seek to understand success in terms that magnify the agency of the striving spirit of the individual.

He then examines the origins and uses of the term in social science and public policy, noting that researchers make subjective judgments about desirable and undesirable outcomes. Further, they make assumptions about the causes of adaptations, although such causes may not have been explicitly described or consciously examined. From this discussion the author recommends research and policy cautions. The final section of the chapter suggests some specific directions for theory development and research on resilience processes.

Section II. Research on Resilience: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations

Four chapters are included in this section, addressing the complexity and theoretical and methodological concerns in the study of educational resilience.

Chapter 6

"On Resilience: Questions of Validity"

by David Bartelt

Bartelt's chapter is concerned with several components of the external validity of resilience as it is employed at the levels of individual, family, and city. Specifically, it explores whether resilience has a clear, unambiguous empirical referent in psychological states, behaviors, and/or forms of social organization, such that research and policy recommendations can be organized around it.

Bartelt makes the case that resilience as a concept is difficult, if not impossible, to empirically specify, and is too easily conflated with measures of situational success or failure. Resilience is never directly observed, Bartelt notes, always imputed. Further, he argues, resilience analysis needs to be broadened to the societal level, since various societal factors bear heavily on individual responses. Bartelt suggests that the resilience concept can only be made useful if properly placed within the broader social and educational context.

Chapter 7

"Resilience as a Dispositional Quality: Some Methodological Points"

by Joan McCord

McCord first draws an analogy between the research to determine elements which foster resilience and medical research seeking to uncover the conditions distinguishing healthy survivors from victims of disease. According to McCord, studying resilience as a quality of people or their environments raises several difficulties: first, opinions regarding what constitutes a beneficial outcome are diverse and sometimes contradictory; second, different disabilities have overlapping natures (e.g., delinquency may be linked to dropping out, but not all school dropouts become delinquent); third, the absence of conditions which produce problems is easily confused with the presence of conditions mitigating or preventing such problems.

McCord argues that more work must be undertaken to ascertain how protective factors should be identified. Studying resilience only after exposure to risk could mistake the products of adversity for the qualities of resilience. Finally, McCord cautions that the study of how to promote positive outcomes ought not confound approval with scientific method.

Chapter 8

"Risk and Resilience: Contextual Influences on the Development of African-American Adolescents"

by Ronald Taylor

The focus of this chapter is a discussion of the developmental tasks of adolescents, the major environmental risks that confront African-American adolescents, and evidence of resilience in light of the risks faced and the explanations for observed adaptations. Implications are then drawn for the education of African-American adolescents. Taylor first delineates the developmental tasks by which adolescents prepare for adult roles and responsibilities.

According to Taylor, mastering these tasks is defined as resilience if there is evidence of significant obstacles--such as poverty-- impeding such mastery. The author then discusses the effects of economic disadvantage, racial bias, and other obstacles to adolescent development and self-identity formation. Taylor asserts that evidence abounds of individuals who, despite coming from high-risk groups, overcome obstacles to their development. He outlines the "protective" factors which appear to separate high-achieving African-American students from poor backgrounds. Finally, the chapter discusses methods through which parents and schools may be able to facilitate student learning.

Chapter 9

"Special Education as a Resilience-Related Venture"

by Maynard C. Reynolds

Reynolds first presents an overview of various reasons for which students are placed in special education programs. According to Reynolds, categorical programs can be interpreted within the resilience framework, since students placed in such programs often have experienced high rates of adversity; while some show resilience, others exhibit deepening problems and pathology. Thus, there may be merit in joining resilience research and theory with the field of special education.

Reynolds considers it problematic that educators rarely engage deeply in research, or even in evaluation of the programs they conduct. He notes that special programs are often launched with only a thin knowledge base for guidance and with little attention to evaluation and research. Thus, Reynolds asserts, many students in special placements show little improvement in the abilities required to reenter regular education classes. Reynolds suggests that bringing resilience researchers together with educators could help generate creative programs, such as the newly developing collaborative arrangements among schools, parents, and social agencies. He also recommends providing adult mentors for at-risk children, and assigning ÒresilientÓ teachers where they are most needed, e.g., in special education classes.

Section III. Fostering Educational Resilience

This section includes four chapters focusing on research-based, innovative strategies for creating learning environments in schools, homes, and communities that serve as protective factors. This section also focuses on innovative ways to create such learning environments.

Chapter 10

"Effectiveness and Efficiency in Inner-City Public Schools: Charting School Resilience"

Lascelles Anderson

Anderson's chapter is an attempt to apply the concept of organizational resilience to inner-city elementary schools as well as a systems viewpoint of organizational behavior. There are, according to Anderson, three conditions of organizational resilience, including: (a) evidence of consistently good performance; (b) the linkage of such performance to the organizationÕs internal processes; and (c) dynamic (over time) sustainability in performance. Also, schools as organizations must exhibit characteristics of organizational health if they are to sustain success over time; resilient schools are healthy schools. Anderson states that school resilience, as a construct of organizational health, may be characterized in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. These dimensions are therefore central to his proposed analysis design. Using the dimensions of organizational health and learning as foci for dialogue, the insights which should result can hopefully be used to create opportunities for improving school health and, thereby, school resilience.

Chapter 11

"Understanding Resilience: Implications for Inner-City Schools and Their Near and Far Communities"

by H. Jerome Freiberg

According to Freiberg, the study of resilience provides an important forum for discussing attributes of families, students, peers, schools, and communities that foster resilience in the inner cities. Freiberg endeavors to provide direction for future research examining alterable variables for creating constructs of resilience, building on proactive and additive models rather than individual or collective deficits. The chapter reviews research literature from the helping professions, particularly studies of protective strategies which lead to greater resilience. It also explores the role of schools and communities as partners in accelerating protective factors in at-risk environments. The literature review reveals that certain factors, e.g., caring parents and supportive schools, may help foster resilience. Furthermore, the resilience construct may be broadened to include groups that are able to protect themselves. Freiberg argues that whereas schools have significant potential to foster resilience, they cannot achieve lasting social changes alone: a focused effort is required from all aspects of society to build Learning Communities which embrace the stakeholders of both the near and far community.

Chapter 12

"Contextualizing Resiliency"

by Howard Liddle

Liddle asks whether resilience as an organizing concept contains sufficient logical and emotional resonance to yield systematic theoretical and research inquiry to make a lasting contribution. His basic premise is that the continued revision or extension of resilience as a concept is necessary. Liddle points out that resiliency represents numerous different concepts and ideas, and, thus, there is a danger of producing an ill-defined set of concepts. Resiliency needs to be understood as manifesting within and across levels of systems, and must be brought to the phenomenological level. Further, we must understand the varieties of contexts in which resiliency occurs. Other frameworks which might help contextualize resiliency include individual differences, the cross-cultural perspective, and gender sensitivity. Finally, Liddle warns that we must not romanticize resiliency, since not all things are possible for all at-risk children. He argues that the current fascination with resilience stems from political and ideological contexts, and must be understood as such.

Chapter 13

"Organizing for Responsiveness: The Heterogeneous School Community"

by Diana Oxley

Oxley presents a conceptual framework and theoretical underpinnings for a school community that is responsive to the needs of inner-city children. She provides a general definition of a school community, and specifies three interdependent dimensions of schooling: structures, processes, and goals. Structurally, schools appear to be a combination of bureaucratic and loosely coupled structures. To create a more productive context for learning, Oxley recommends restructuring schools as small, relatively autonomous, interdisciplinary groups of staff and students who work together over time, guided and supported by parents and supervisors.

Features of this school community would include shared decision making, collaborative planning, and active learning. Oxley also outlines goals of school communities, such as mastery of core subjects, higher order intellectual functioning, social competence, and health. She suggests that this school community framework is particularly responsive to inner cities.