C-SAP project 2010/11

Promoting students’ ‘resilient thinking’ in diverse higher education learning environments

Project report

Project lead: Viv Caruana

Project team: Viv Caruana, Sue Clegg, Josef Ploner, Jacqueline Stevenson and Rosemary Wood

Leeds Metropolitan University

C-SAP project 2010/11

Project Reference and Title: UK3/SS/2010 Promoting students’ ‘resilient thinking’ in diverse higher education learning environments

Keywords

Resilience, diversity, transitions, cross-cultural capability, biography, ethics - Social Sciences

Summary

This project explores how social science students draw on their diverse backgrounds and community cultural capital in developing resilience within multicultural learning environments, with a view to identifying curriculum and pedagogic practices which enable social science students to become future resilient thinkers in their lives and careers after university. Evidence from the literature suggests that whilst students value working in the ‘international classroom’ benefits from these cross-cultural encounters tend to be incidental in the absence of the conscious use of difference in the curriculum which is resilience-based and meaning-orientated. Thus the ultimate aim of the project is to identify curriculum and pedagogic practices that enable students to develop as ‘resilient thinkers’ through understanding the dynamics of difference and resilience.

The project was planned in four phases, with phases one and two involving initial set-up, literature review,design of research tools, securing ethical approval for the project and data collection via staff and student narrative interviews. Phases three and four have involved data analysis and interpretation, the development of case studies and dissemination of outcomes.

This research suggests that personal tutoring based on a holistic approach which acknowledges the complex living space which students occupy and draws on trust, empathy and mutual respect is paramount in enabling students to draw on existing resilient traits in order to develop new coping strategies. Transition is a key concept - in the context of complex and inter-connected present, past and future life trajectories- in promoting resilience and the ability to negotiate the boundaries of, and realise the opportunities afforded by, encounters with difference.

Perceived risk factors are less associated with the demands of academic learning in an unfamiliar educational environment, deriving more from social issues that can undermine the ‘sense of self’. In terms of resilient responses the most productive and sustainable seems to be changing ‘mind-set’ – viewing the world in a new light. However, an equally significant resilient trait is the thirst for knowledge which often represents the response to the experience or observance of hardship and suffering within students’ life-worlds.

Evidence suggests that students are resilient thinkers before coming to university and the student body as a whole can only benefit from pedagogic and curriculum interventions which encourage the sharing of life experiences. Learning for future resilient thinking in diverse HE environments requires curriculum and pedagogic practices that capture the processes involved in negotiating the boundaries of difference within personal and social contexts, taking them forward in ‘real world’ learning settings. This report therefore calls for further research into the possibilities afforded by biographical teaching methods which in themselves require the re-consideration of power relations in multicultural classrooms and further exploration of how our interventions can enable connections and emotional engagement without compromising teaching ethics.

Activities

Research aims and objectives

The project involved collaboration between LeedsMetropolitanUniversity, University of Sheffield and Hull College of Further Education (a member of Leeds Metropolitan’s Regional University Network or RUN). Working with both students and staff the overall research aim was to explore how social science students draw on their diverse backgrounds and community cultural capital in developing resilience within multicultural learning environments. These insights enabled us to identify pedagogic and curriculum practices which develop social science students as future resilient thinkers capable of engaging complex, multiple and alternative world views. A key feature of the project is the blending of research in the field of cross-cultural capability specifically and the internationalised curriculum more generally, with research conducted in the field of resilience,in order to illuminate the dynamics of the multicultural classroom and campus.

Research objectives included:

  • Identify the forms of resilience and resilient practices which students from diverse backgrounds bring into social science HE settings
  • Explore how diverse cultural capitals help to develop resilience within multicultural HE learning environments
  • Identify students’ perceptions of the ‘risk factors’ arising from intercultural encounters in diverse higher education settings and how they draw on their resilience in dealing with the challenges
  • Determine the extent to which course leaders are aware of the cultural dimensions of resilience and how they see this relating to learning in multicultural settings
  • Identify appropriate interventions which course leaders might use to build resilience, facilitate intercultural encounters and develop resilient mind-sets in diverse HE learning environments

Phase One: Recruiting participants, scoping the interview process and formulating interview questions

Preliminary insights from the literature informing the interview process

The first steps in executing the project were to detail activities related to the project, identifying the critical path on a gantt-chart. A mini-literature review had already been conducted as part of the process of bid writing and this review was extended during the initial phase of the project in order to inform the interview questions for both students and staff. Interview questions which were mapped against our research questions in an interview protocol checklist, based on the framework developed by Spickard (2005) were shaped by the following key insights from the literature review:

  • UK students have a prevailing interest in other cultures and anticipate benefits from working in the ‘international classroom’ but in reality benefits are usually incidental and of low yield, because cultural diversity alone does not automatically lead to intercultural learning experiences. In effect, the social experience of ‘otherness’ has to be transformed into a personally relevant learning experience which can lead to stress and negative feelings ‘…caus[ing] cognitive irritation, emotional imbalance and a disruption of one’s own cultural worldview…’ (Harrison and Peacock, 2010a; 2010b; Otten, 2003). Thus it seems likely that in negotiating these learning experiences resilience is a determining factor.
  • The conscious use of ‘difference’ in the curriculum as a resource and structured opportunities for interaction in and out of formal learning settings can create a positive learning environment based on social connections which challenge individual biographies, but these interventions should be resilience-based and meaning-oriented (Caruana and Ploner, 2010; Pan et al, 2007)
  • The raw material of resilience is intellect, physical robustness and emotional stability. How these interact with the surrounding network, culture and practical situations determines the level of resilience based on external support (family, friends, teachers etc.), internal support (abilities and skills and learning to develop them) and existential support (meaning, values and faith). Each of these ‘protective factors’ is culture-bound and encounters with other cultures may bring new understanding, shifting mind-sets, building positive self-image, reducing risk-factors and thereby opening up new opportunities and worldviews (Gunnestad, 2010; 2006) Stutman et al (2002) as cited in Gunnestad (2006) claim that those who master the rules and norms of a new culture through finding contact points between cultures are more resilient than those who adhere exclusively to their own culture or those who become highly acculturated.
  • Resilient thinking challenges ‘automatic thinking styles’ and rigid beliefs whilst building tolerance for frustration and discomfort and relativistic views which are the bedrock of survival in a pluralistic, complex, globalised world of the 21st century (Fazey, 2010; Pearl, 2010). Hence curriculum interventions that harness resilient traits in order to negotiate difference will contribute towards graduates as future resilient thinkers

Student project steering group

A project steering group was formed by students known to the project team at Leeds Met. This group was significant in shaping and evaluating the research in progress. The group discussed the merits of conducting the research but were particularly instrumental in critiquing the interview questions proposed for our student participants. Students suggested that some of the questions were perhaps too business-like, couched in a language more akin to a job interview. The steering group also suggested a re-ordering of questions to enable participants to tell the story of their journey to university prior to considering any personal resilient traits/support networks and resilience as an abstract concept. From these discussions guidance for those interviewing students was drawn up suggesting the approach to the interview process, particularly interaction between interviewer and interviewee, the general and more specific probing questions which might be explored (indicating the connections between them and the kind of data which is likely to emerge). Proposed interview questions for staff were similarly mapped against research questions and guidance produced for those undertaking the interviews.

Phase Two: data processes

Phase Two of the project focused on the recruitment of students and staff who were willing to take part in face-to-face narrative interviews. In all 26 students and 8 members of staff participated in the project. A diverse range of international and home students on foundation, undergraduate (from first year to third year) and postgraduate programmes in sociology, politics and related social science-based subjects like criminology, cultural anthropology, tourism and applied global ethics were interviewed. Members of staff interviewed for the project discharged course/subject leadership roles and/or were otherwise involved in teaching social science subjects (including Sociology and Politics). Interview data was transcribed and examined to produce rich descriptions of students’ accounts of their backgrounds and the resources they draw on when encountering challenges in HE settings and intercultural communications in the classroom and beyond. Staff interviews were also analysed to produce insights regarding the influence of their backgrounds and experiences on teaching and learning processes, their encounters with student resilience and how all these factors shape the teaching and learning interventions which are designed to harness diversity as a resource and to build future resilience.

Phases Three and Four: Case studies and dissemination

Phase three of the project involved the development of a series of case studies of student journeys which can form the basis for thinking about appropriate curriculum interventions and pedagogic practices within multicultural learning settings. Phase four has been concerned with dissemination and to date members of the programme team have presented findings at a variety of events:

  • Stevenson, J. (2011), Student Resilience and Retention in Higher Education, The 18th International Conference on Learning, University of Mauritius, Mauritius, 5th to 8th July 2011
  • Ploner, J. (2011), Promoting students’ resilient thinking in higher education and beyond , HigherEducationAcademy seminar series 2011: Improving the degree attainment of black and minority ethnic students, LeedsMetropolitanUniversity, Leeds, UK, 6th June 2011
  • Caruana, V. (2011) Promoting students’ resilient thinking in diverse higher education learning environments, Making Higher Education Relevant to 21st Century Thinkers C-SAP dissemination event, Leeds Metropolitan University, 19 July 2011

An abstract has been accepted for the SRHE Annual Research Conference, Newport, South Wales, 7-9 December 2011, Caruana, V. (2011) ‘Resilience, transition and the international student experience in diverse university settings’. The project team plan to submit an article to the British Educational Research Journal provisionally entitled ‘You don’t have to hate burgers to love Russian soup…’ -Resilience, transition and the international student experience in diverse university settings. This report is also supported by a synoptic literature and a series of case studies which will be made electronically available to the C-SAP subject communities.

Project findings

The project reveals that the landscape of resilience in relation to cross-cultural learning processes in diverse HE environments is complex and cannot be reduced to a single variable or phenomenon. Key messages emerging from the research are discussed below:

Mapping resilience – familiar territory?

Narrative interviews reveal that for both students and staff the nature of the challenges faced in higher education and resilient responses are similar to those encountered in other fields of education and in childhood and early life experience. Challenges cited by students and members of staff include: the difficulties of balancing study with caring for family – not only children but also parents and siblings; financial worries and indeed poverty; loneliness and difficulty making new friends - a challenge which is often heightened by being older than class mates; language barriers and other problems associated with adjusting to UK academic cultureand finally class/family barriers and social, cultural and other inhibitions stemming from prior life experience which can often be traumatic. Internal resilient responses vary from passive acceptance – making the best of it, valuing what you have - to active engagement – taking responsibility and control, planning and making things happen, understanding oneself and changing mind-set to overcome barriers, having high expectations and becoming an independent learner not only in higher education but in life. External factors which develop resilience are similarly varied and include: global travel, community relationships within family, church, university alumni and wider social settings, based on a sense of common interest and identity – sharing interests in, for example, music, dance and sport and through local community volunteering. Drawing on individual experience resilience is commonly defined as weathering the storm, learning from tragedy and being in a better place post-trauma, blocking out the negative and developing self-belief, being flexible when stretched – like an elastic band.

Meaningful relationships with tutors – the ‘learning system’ getting to know the students rather than the students getting to know the ‘learning the system’

Students in our study emphasised the role of personal tutoring in enabling them to develop coping strategies. Rapport, discretion and accessibility were key phrases articulated in conversations about relationships in the diverse HE learning environment. However, perhaps more importantly, students valued tutors’ holistic approach,their concern for the whole person acknowledging the complexity of the life-space students occupy, rather than simply supporting the student in the academic context. This holistic approach forms the bedrock of meaningful and positive relationships with teachers and others supporting learning, relationships based on trust, empathy and mutual respect which in becoming resilient, are more important than simply getting to know the ‘learning system’. Our research reveals that like their international counterparts, many home students rather than enjoying the support of family, community etc. are key players supporting others through troubled times whilst coping with the demands of HE. Lecturers’ narrative accounts of particular episodes in the multi-cultural classroom and their experience with different forms of ‘resilience’ and ‘resilient thinking’ provide prolific insights into the complexity and heterogeneity of coping strategies among students. Unsurprisingly, this is particularly the case with experienced lecturers who can look back on years of experience which provides a rich source of information for younger or less experienced teachers.

The importance of trust became apparent from our early attempts to recruit students to the project. In the face of limited response from e-mails to students the team re-directed their efforts towards interviewing course leaders and other members of staff. Their enthusiasm for the project was such that they elected to make contact with individual students whom they thought would be willing to be interviewed. This served to break the deadlock which had been the outcome of our own and others’ electronic approaches to students via general distribution lists. In effect, what can only be interpreted at best, as students’ apathy or at worst, reluctance to engage with us as outsiders, was transformed into enthusiasm and commitment with the intervention of personalised emails from tutors. It seems, we had connected with the students via an individual with whom they had built up a relationship of trust and mutual respect over an extended period of time.

Complex pasts, uncertain futures and the pedagogy of ‘resilient thinking’ for a complex, globalised world engages personal biographies

For all students and at all levels of study being ‘introduced’ into new diverse learning environments requires acknowledgement of transition as a concept which pervades the entirety of the journey through HE and requires the continued maintenance of an authentic connection with prior and ongoing learning and life experiences. Maintaining a dialogue between pre-university/secondary education and Higher Education in terms of learning styles, teaching and learning cultures etc. provides the raw material to promote resilience and the ability to cross the boundaries of difference.

Our work with Course Leaders etc. reveals that they are aware of the cultural dimensions of resilience. There is also a sense in which they feel that cross-cultural capability is less about travelling the world accumulating knowledge about different cultures and the different ways in which people live, rather it is more about interventions which harness and explore the difference that students and staff bring to teaching and learning processes within diverse HE settings. Whilst widely acknowledging the significance of diversity and its potential as a rich source of learning Course Leaders also emphasised that the perennial issue is how to enable home students to think about their resilience in the context of the richness of their own and ‘others’ personal biographies in order to become ‘resilient thinkers’ for the future.