Enhancing student resilience by targeting staff resilience, attitudes and practices

ABSTRACT

Resilience is a much-needed capability for both university staff and students in this volatile time. However, conceptualisations of resilience vary widely, with many viewing this as a fixed attribute each individual either has or doesn’t have, and the impact of context on resilience is often neglected. This research explores the outcomes of a staff leadership program focused on participants’ conceptualisation of resilience and how they can influence student resilience through curricula and/or co-curricula innovation. The program, informed by social cognition and political leadership theory, was delivered to 58 staff from a range of disciplines across three Australian universities. Several program attendees participated in a pre (N = 13) and/or post (N = 10) interview that examined their understanding of resilience and self-identified changes in their teaching practice in relation to resilience. The importance of the social cognition process of sensemaking (establishing a shared, contemporary view of resilience as a dynamic process through an ecological lens) appeared critical. The program’s political leadership strategies promoted changes to participants’ teaching practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• staff development
• leadership
• retention
• employability

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the other members of the project team: Michelle Donaldson, Murray Lane, Sue Barnard, Fiona Naumann, Bernadine Cooper, Sonia Ferns, Alan Reubenson, Omar Abdelrahman, Sarah Edney, Sharon Maresse and Caroline Rueckert.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Technology Network.