An Australian case for relational resilience. Building academic pathways in first year, preservice teacher education

Abstract

This research explores the potential of pedagogies embedded within an Australian example to allow pre-graduate diploma of education (PSDE) students to persist and succeed in their ambitions. This paper examines how the twin concepts of resilience, the capacity of an individual to withstand difficulties, and relational resilience, a capacity to develop empathy with others, are activated in this PSDE program. Methods include a survey (n=43), documents from the course, and focus group interviews (n=9) of PSDE students between 2014 and 2016. Results support our thesis that relational resilience in teacher education contexts can usefully be viewed as a dynamic and socially constructed phenomenon emerging from the intersection between individual and institutional factors. This research supports the importance of identifying capacities for interpersonal and collaborative work, for entry into preservice teacher education. We suggest that focusing on relational dynamics, as well as accounting for context and institutional culture, are critical in designing effective pre-service education.

Mapping the self in self‐regulation using complex dynamic systems approach

“…Furthermore, whereas some relatively short SRL questionnaires exist (eg, Pichardo et al., 2014), using such surveys that are validated with cross‐sectional data or methods is a ‘questionable research practice’ when applied to longitudinal data (Flake & Fried, 2020; Hall et al., 2021). Therefore, EMA studies rely on single‐item questions that capture a whole construct (Malmberg et al., 2013; Malmberg et al., 2016; Martin et al., 2015), for example, resilience (Gilmore et al., 2019), well‐being (Cheung & Lucas, 2014), burnout (Dolan et al., 2015) and self‐efficacy (Hoeppner et al., 2011) or engagement (Manwaring et al., 2017; Martin et al., 2015; Xie et al., 2019). Most published research with single‐item construct questionnaires show that they are as ‘reliable as their multi‐item counterparts’ (Allen et al., 2022).…”

Pedagogical approaches to support student resilience in higher-education settings: A systematic literature review

“…A curricular initiative for nursing students applied a problem-based learning model centered on ethics and ethical theories and offered students tutorials, expert talks, ethics skills training and domain-specific lectures to strengthen their resilience (Monteverde, 2014). Other comparatively smaller approaches included: a group pedagogy course that employed relational resilience teaching methods (e.g., mutuality, empathy and mutual growth) (Gilmore et al, 2019); multi-week adventure education programs that exposed participants to different mental and physical tasks to develop leadership and psychological resilience (Ewert and Yoshino, 2011;Neill and Dias, 2001); and service learning projects which had students frame and research an issue, develop a lecture and subsequently teach the lecture to elementary school pupils in support of developing persistence (Daniels et al, 2015).…”

Subverting perceptions of academic and professional learning with drama

“…The Diploma of Education Studies course is delivered on-campus at Footscray Nicholson campus of Victoria University, located in the Western suburbs of Melbourne. Traditionally, our students are first-in-family, from working class or lower middle-class backgrounds, and frequently speak English as an additional language (Gilmore, Loton & Welsh, 2018). Generally, they enter our course because they have not met the requirements to enter directly into the Bachelor degree for Education.…”