This week, I managed to get through one of my key resources, Resiliency in Schools: Making it Happen for Students and Educators, by Henderson & Milstein (2003). This was helpful in giving me a general overview of the topic of resiliency in schools, allowing me to start “sorting out” my resources and guiding my research in the direction I want to go in. Henderson & Milstein argue that there are six steps to fostering resiliency, which they present through a Resiliency Wheel. They break it down into mitigating risk factors and building resiliency in the environment. The six areas they describe are:

• Increase prosocial bonding
• Set clear, consistent boundaries
• Teach ‘life skills’
• Provide caring & support
• Set and communicate high expectations
• Provide opportunities for meaningful participation

What was interesting about their approach was that they also emphasized developing resiliency in educators. I initially hadn’t planned to include this as part of my question, but in thinking about this, in order for educators to facilitate the development of resiliency in students, it is important for them to be able to understand and model resiliency themselves.

Last post, I mentioned that I may start to mind map the direction I am going in. While this is subject to change, based on the reading I have done so far, I plan to break my question down into four areas:

•  Building self-efficacy through classroom management
• Teaching failure and vulnerability through risk-taking
• Building a resilient, supportive community
• Building a supportive student-teacher relationship.

References

Henderson, N. & Milstein, M. M. (2003). Resiliency in Schools: Making it happen for students and educators. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, Inc.