Pathways to Resilience III: Beyond Nature vs. Nurture

Resilience & Educational Services:

Abstract #179
"A Critical Mass of Supports": Teen Resilience and Educational Attainment through Student Engagement, Wrap-around Programming, and Community Partnerships
Presenter: Konrad Glogowski
Abstract:
The Pathways to Education program, founded in Toronto’s Regent Park in 2001 to address high youth disengagement and dropout rates in one of Canada’s most disadvantaged communities, has been replicated throughout Canada and is now reaching over 5,000 high school students in 17 communities across the country. The model aligns well with existing research on effective dropout prevention programming and youth engagement. Its four-pillar approach, focused on youth engagement and wrap-around support, has been shown to nurture resilience and improve educational attainment among youth living in risk situations.
This paper presentation will explore how youth engagement - delivered through a comprehensive case management approach and with key community partners - nurtures resilience in marginalized youth. Specifically, the paper will focus on recent case studies from community-based programs in Nova Scotia and Ontario that explore how effective partnerships with local community agencies and schools employ youth engagement strategies, adult-youth mentorships, and a strong focus on youth voice to further enhance the impact of the program, create safe spaces for marginalized youth, and nurture resilience.

Abstract #190
Promotion of Resilience in Education
Presenter: Zuzana Hrncirikova
Abstract:
This paper is a theoretical framework for the search of protective and risk factors in the education of youth who have to cope with greater demands of life circumstances (eg. youth at risk, endangered youth). The text aims to define risk and protective factors of resilience in educational processes in the context of the educational system in the Czech Republic. First the paper deals with the notion of resilience. Then it discusses the contribution of risk and protective factors of resilience, which are specified in terms of social-ecological approach. Eventually it presents particular risk and protective factors in the education of youth in the Czech Republic, which can reinforce or weaken their resilience ability.
The results of empirical studies have shown that education can, under certain circumstances, replace youth what can not be provided by their own family, and can be provided them with a safe environment to live.
As a very important person in this situation seems to be an educator who can help a young person in coping with life's challenges, which are beyond his/her power.

Abstract #255
How Do Education Services Matter for Resilience Processes? South African Youths’ Experiences
Presenter: Linda Theron
Abstract:
The resilience literature is increasingly drawing attention to formal service provision as a means for social ecologies to support children’s and youths’ positive adjustment to challenging life circumstances. This paper interrogates the universality and simplicity of this argument. Using a secondary data analysis of two saturated, qualitative South African data sets (i.e., the life stories of 16 resilient, black South African students from impoverished families, and phenomenological accounts of 237 black South African adolescents) I show that education services predominate South Africans childhood and youth experience of formal support. I theorise that contextual and cultural specifics informed the dominance of education services. However, the data show that education did not consistently facilitate resilience processes. When it did, education services were characterised by teacher-community reciprocity and student receptiveness to support. Moreover, education service providers (i.e., teachers and principals) engaged in supportive actions that went beyond the scope of typical teacher tasks. Thus, I suggest that formal service facilitation of resilience processes is complex and culturally-nuanced. In disadvantaged contexts, like those reported in this paper, it requires collaborative activity that might well demand atypical service acts from service-providers.