This digest provides an overview of the emerging construct of educational resilience and seeks to contribute to the growing body of improvement-oriented research emphasizing factors that protect against stress and promote success among children and youth in adverse circumstances. It outlines the theoretical and research bases of educational resilience, and posits an ecological framework for analyzing research findings within the contexts of home, school, and community. Implications for improvement of educational practice and policy development are drawn, and collaborative roles for educators, parents, peer groups, and community members are suggested.

Theoretical and Research Bases

Investigators in clinical psychology, psychiatry, and child development have been studying the phenomenon of psychosocial resilience in diverse, at-risk populations since the 1970s. Their work has demonstrated that some children survive adversity without lasting damage and has revealed that such resilient children tend to be motivated, independent, resourceful, and self-determined, and possess good interpersonal and cognitive problem-solving skills.

Corroborative research in education has also demonstrated that some students succeed academically despite adverse circumstances. This research emphasizes the study of diverse populations of educationally resilient children and the homes, schools, and communities that contribute toward their healthy development and learning success despite high-risk circumstances. When placed in the home, school, and community context, educational resilience provides an important conceptual base for the design of educational interventions and can be used to inform theory, practice, and policy.

The Role of Family, School, and Community

The Role of the Family

Research on the role of the family in the educational resilience of children at risk of educational failure has documented the importance of positive child-parent relationships and has emphasized that secure childhood attachments protect against adversity in later life. Family warmth and cohesion, as well as an absence of discord, have also been proven to protect children against adversities. In addition, families that are caring and structured; that employ consistent discipline, rules, and regulations; and that hold high academic, moral, and social expectations produce better outcomes among children from at-risk families.

Family involvement in schools has been known to enhance children’s school performance; educational intervention programs specifically designed to involve family members have had a strong and positive impact on children’s school success. These programs help parents become better home educators and help children develop good study habits and high expectations. Other programs that have been shown to be effective involve families directly in school management and choice and encourage parents actual presence in the school.

The Role of the School

Schools and classrooms have recently received attention as logical sites for resilience-promoting interventions. This synthesis has found a consistent pattern of organizational and behavioral characteristics among inner-city schools that promote educational resilience and learning success among at-risk students. Teachers in the more effective schools generally interact more frequently with students, while students spend more time working independently, express greater satisfaction with their schoolwork and peer relationships, have higher aspirations and achievement motivation, and possess better social and academic self-concepts.

The following variables are part of an emerging resilience research base that focuses on protective mechanisms that can enhance schools capacity for promoting the educational resilience and learning success of increasingly diverse student populations.

Teacher Expectations and Actions. Teachers serve as important protective mechanisms through their ability to make adaptations in stressful situations. They help students develop the values and attitudes necessary for persevering in their schoolwork and achieving high grades; support students academic and social endeavors by nurturing personal relationships with students; and foster educational resilience by promoting students sense of competence and positive self-concept.

The Role of Curriculum and Instruction. Of particular relevance to educational resilience among children in high-risk circumstances are curriculum and instruction that are learner-centered and based on a constructivist approach to learning. The learner-centered focus seeks to forge closer connections between the in-school and out-of-school learning experiences of the diverse learners through teacher sensitivity to student diversity, learning experiences that are responsive to cultural and individual differences, and the use of culturally sensitive instructional materials, assessments, and curriculum themes. The constructivist approach aims to empower children with attitudes and competencies that foster resilience development through social competence, resourcefulness, autonomy, and a sense of purpose.

School Organization and Climate. There is increasing evidence that schools that create a sense of student involvement and belonging tend to lead to reduced feelings of student alienation and disengagement. Excessively bureaucratic and impersonal social relations in schools serving at-risk students may increase students and teachers alienation and disengagement. Also, smaller schools have a more nurturing climate and are more inclusive, whereas larger school s tend to isolate children with poor academic skills, learning disabilities, or limited English proficiency.

Preschool Programs. In general, preschool effectiveness literature has posited favorable outcomes for at-risk children who attended preschool, including: general academic competence, fewer referrals to special education, fewer retentions in grade, more remediation in mainstreamed classrooms, greater achievement motivation later in life, and an increased likelihood of graduating from high school and finding employment.

Peer Support. Peer networks can facilitate the development of an individual and protect against stress by providing a stable and supportive source of concern; conversely, however, they can inhibit positive educational outcomes by pressuring children and youth to engage in misconduct rather than productive educational tasks. In addition, peers can have a significant impact on a students self-perceived academic competence and attitude toward school. Opportunities to interact with students who have high achievement motivation and a positive academic self-concept can be beneficial to at-risk students. Mentoring programs, cooperative learning programs, cross-age tutoring, small learning groups, and extracurricular activities provide mechanisms for youth and children to develop positive peer relationships and stronger support networks.

The Role of the Community

Community plays an important role in developing educational resilience among at-risk children as well. Research has shown that communities that have high expectations for good citizenship and well-developed, integrated social organizations for healthy human development provide protective mechanisms for its residents. Energetic parent and community involvement programs support children’s academic efforts, assist families in the development of good parenting skills, and reinforce the values promoted at school. The linking of parent, school, and community resources through these programs helps amplify children and youths sense of nurturance and support.

Conclusions and Implications

• The emerging research on resilience and resilience-promoting mechanisms represents a major paradigm shift from studies of risk, adversity, and deficiency to studies of correlates of resiliency, interventions that foster development and resilience, and protective mechanisms that mitigate against vulnerability and adversity.

• Effective, improvement-oriented research on educational resilience utilizes a broad ecological framework for analyzing research findings within the contexts of home, school, and community, and focuses not only on identifying causes of risk and adversity , but also on understanding the protective measures that can be created or maximized to reduce risk and enhance student success.

• Educational resilience offers a challenge to educational researchers and practitioners, and suggests the potential benefits of early experience, the role of curriculum and instruction in mitigating adverse circumstances, and the importance of educationally facilitative and alterable protective factors in homes, schools, classrooms, and communities. It also posits that early alterable conditions fortify students to persist successfully through endemic difficulties.

• Initial research on educational resilience has helped researchers develop a scientific base for formulating better questions and building a better knowledge base for effective intervention. However, much of the argument relies on analogy or hypothesis rather than empirical assertion, reinforcing the need for researchers to probe the validity of the construct over extended time periods and in multiple contexts since, by definition, resilience implies development over time.

Masten, A. S. (1994). Resilience in individual development: Successful adaptation despite risk and adversity. In M. C. Wang and E. W. Gordon (Eds.), Educational resilience in inner-city America: Challenges and prospects (pp. 3-26). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Wang, M.C., Haertel, G.D., & Walberg, H.J. (1994). Educational resilience in inner cities. In M. C. Wang and E. W. Gordon (Eds.), Educational resilience in inner-city America: Challenges and prospects (pp. 45-72). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.