Pathways to Resilience III: Beyond Nature vs. Nurture

Abstract #310
Practitioner Resilience: The Contribution of Professional Education 
Presenter: Jörg Huber
Co-Presenter: Penny Lindley
Abstract:
The notion of ‘practitioner resilience’ is established within the literature. However, there is a lack of research examining the whole experience of student learning and the means by which this may enhance practitioner resilience. The research question underpinning this study was: How do student health visitors’ experiences in higher education and practice settings contribute to the development of their capacity to respond to the tensions between expectation and reality in their practice role? This presentation will share the study’s original contribution to the field through the development and application of a conceptual framework combining resilience and transformative learning theory to learning for practitioner resilience. The conceptual web of learning, depicting the complex process of development of practitioner resilience, supports a social theory of resilience. The study supports the contention that resilience can be learnt through professional education, contributing new knowledge regarding how this has been achieved during a course leading to a professional qualification. The study adds to the small volume of research carried out with students and contributes new insights into the development of resilience as part of a process of transformative learning.