Escribano Ródenas, M. del C., Filgueira Arias, C. (2024). The study and development of resilience through the analysis of activities. Aula de Encuentro, volumen 26 (2), Monográfico, pp. 158-187
THE STUDY AND DEVELOPMENT OF RESILIENCE THROUGH THE ANALYSIS OF ACTIVITIES AND STRATEGIC INTERVENTION PROJECTS IN PRIMARY EDUCATION
EL ESTUDIO Y DESARROLLO DE LA RESILIENCIA A TRAVÉS DEL ANÁLISIS DE ACTIVIDADES Y PROYECTOS ESTRATÉGICOS DE INTERVENCIÓN EN EDUCACIÓN PRIMARIA
Escribano Ródenas, María del Carmen1; Filgueira Arias, Cándida2
1Universidad San Pablo CEU,
escrod@ceu.es
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5427-6518
2Universidad San Pablo CEU,
candi.bib@ceu.es
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7832-8960
Recibido: 11/10/2024. Aceptado: 26/11/2024
ABSTRACT
Based on information gathered from twenty-nine interviews conducted with eighty-nine teachers within the project “Fostering Resilience in Primary Education: Innovation and Continuous Teacher Training (ANDREIA),” this article analyses and explores the situational context as a dimension that influences and contributes to the development of resilience.
The instrument used was the initial screening interview with teachers to identify training needs in resilience (EDINRES+M), a semi-structured interview conducted with teachers and tutors from the twenty-four schools participating in the study, both public and grant-aided, to diagnose the training needs of in-service teachers regarding skills associated with resilience.
It is essential to analyse and specify the situations that foster the promotion of resilience in this context, as well as to reference and examine the actions needed to achieve this goal since the main objective of this research project is “to “raise awareness of the importance of fostering resilience today, identifying good practices and challenges in the school environment”.
KEYWORDS: Educational resilience, teacher training, strategic intervention.
RESUMEN
A partir de la información recopilada de veintinueve entrevistas realizadas a ochenta y nueve docentes en el marco del proyecto “Fomento de la resiliencia en Educación Primaria: Innovación y Formación Continua del Profesorado (ANDREIA)”, en este artículo se analiza y explora el contexto situacional como una dimensión que influye y contribuye al desarrollo de la resiliencia.
El instrumento utilizado fue la entrevista para la identificación inicial de necesidades formativas en resiliencia de los docentes (EDINRES+M). Esta entrevista semiestructurada se llevó a cabo con profesores y tutores de las veinticuatro escuelas participantes en el estudio, tanto públicas como concertadas, con el objetivo de diagnosticar las necesidades de formación de los docentes en activo en cuanto a habilidades asociadas a la resiliencia.
Es fundamental analizar y concretar las situaciones que favorecen la promoción de la resiliencia en este contexto, así como referenciar y estudiar las acciones necesarias para lograrlo, ya que el objetivo principal de este proyecto de investigación es “visibilizar la importancia de fomentar la resiliencia en la actualidad, identificando buenas prácticas y desafíos en el entorno escolar”.
Palabras clave: Resiliencia educativa, formación docente, intervención estratégica.
1. INTRODUCTION
The acquisition of social, assertiveness and conflict resolution skills, as well as the development of significant expectations of having control over one’s life, are important in building up the repertoire of self-management skills that are essential for coping with adverse situations (Puig and Rubio, 2011).
Undoubtedly life’s difficulties, problems, obstacles, etc., constitute the unforeseen events that make up life and are part of it. Educating in resilience will shape a personality that is resilient to these events and will bring into play tools as important as a sense of humour. Therefore, if we teach resilience, we will be building a complete personality that will know how to face with a sense of humour not only the tolerance of ourselves but also the events that surround us.
In general, the set of activities programmed and oriented in schools towards the mature acceptance of the failures and adversities of life will forge in pupils’ lessons that will last for the rest of their lives and that they will find difficult to acquire and develop by themselves (Suarez, 2001).
This article analyses and explores the activities and projects carried out in state and grant-aided primary schools on the development of resilience based on data collected from interviews with teachers for the project “Fostering Resilience in Primary Education: Innovation and Continuous Teacher Training (ANDREIA)”. The question considered on this occasion of those posed to the teachers from the schools involved in the study is question: “Have you carried out any activity or project associated with fostering resilience?”
In all the answers recorded regarding the activities and projects of the twenty-four primary schools that collaborated in this project, there is a perceived need for resilience-building activities on the part of the teachers.
2. RESILIENT SCHOOLS. THE DEVELOPMENT AND FOSTERING OF RESILIENCE THROUGH RESILIENCE ACTIVITIES
According to the research of Villalba (2004), the new trends in resilience indicate that it is a universal capacity that can be fostered, that is neither absolute nor stable, and that is based on interaction with the surroundings.
For her part, Grotberg (2001) states that the identification of adverse situations and the knowledge of the basic principles of resilience, among which are the resilience traits or factors, are essential to foster it in oneself and in others. Resilience means support, strength and the capacity for action to face the adversities that life presents us on a daily basis. Similarly, let us not forget that the ability to forgive is also considered by this author as a resilience factor.
Indeed, resilience helps increase the ability to forgive and people with a greater capacity to forgive increase their resilience. In all, a theme explored in the activities programmed in schools will be oriented towards the acquisition of resilience and will revolve around the aforementioned aspects.
2.1. Methodology for analyzing teachers’ responses to question “have you carried out any activity or project associated with fostering resilience?
To explore the activities or projects associated with fostering resilience mentioned by teachers in response to Question “Have you carried out any activity or project associated with fostering resilience?” a qualitative methodology was applied, leveraging semi-structured interviews. This approach allowed for an in-depth understanding of the practices implemented in primary schools and the challenges encountered by teachers.
The responses were gathered using the EDINRES+M (Initial Screening Interview with Teachers for Resilience Training Needs) instrument. It was specifically designed for this study, EDINRES+M includes eight dimensions, one of which directly addresses activities or projects associated with fostering resilience. This dimension seeks to identify existing practices or initiatives that promote resilience in classrooms, the perceived effectiveness of these practices and the challenges and limitations faced by teachers in implementing such activities.
The data collection procedure followed these steps:
-Interview Implementation:
A total of 89 teachers from 24 schools participated in the semi-structured interviews. Each interview was conducted either face-to-face or via video conferencing, depending on accessibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed verbatim to ensure accuracy.
-Question Design:
The question about activities or projects was formulated to encourage teachers to share specific examples and reflect on their relevance to fostering resilience. Follow-up prompts were used to clarify or expand upon initial responses.
-Ethical Considerations:
The interview protocol was reviewed and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Abat Oliba CEU University, ensuring adherence to ethical standards in data collection.
The collected responses were analyzed using the qualitative data analysis software Atlas.ti (version 22). The software facilitated a systematic coding process and allowed researchers to identify recurring themes and patterns. The analysis included thematic coding, which was a critical step in categorizing the activities or projects described by teachers. Each response was coded based on its core theme or purpose. The process involved assigning specific codes to recurring activities or ideas, enabling a structured analysis of the data.
For example:
Activities aimed at emotional regulation, such as mindfulness exercises or journaling activities, were grouped under the code Emotional Skills Development. Teachers mentioned, for instance, implementing short daily mindfulness sessions to help students manage stress and anxiety.
Collaborative activities, like team-based projects or peer mentoring programs, were coded as Social Competence Enhancement. One teacher highlighted a project where older students mentored younger peers, fostering empathy and leadership skills.
Activities designed to enhance problem-solving abilities, such as group puzzles or real-life scenario simulations, were categorized as Problem-Solving Skills Training. A specific example included a “Resilience Day” event, where students worked in teams to solve challenges like building a bridge using limited materials.
Each coded segment was assigned a unique identifier based on its location within the dataset. For example, the code (6:9_25) refers to:
Document 6: The sixth interview transcript in the dataset.
Quotation 9: The ninth highlighted segment or quote within that document.
Code 25: The code assigned to this segment, corresponding to a specific resilience-related activity.
This system ensured traceability and allowed researchers to revisit the original context of any coded segment, maintaining the integrity of the analysis. For instance, a segment coded as (6:9_25) might detail a teacher’s description of how mindfulness practices helped students manage classroom conflicts, linking directly to the broader category of Emotional Skills Development.
Once thematic coding was completed, the codes were grouped into broader categories to provide a holistic understanding of resilience-building practices. These categories included:
-Classroom-Based Practices: Activities integrated into regular lessons.
-Extracurricular Projects: Initiatives conducted outside the classroom.
-School-Wide Programs: Activities involving the entire school community.
Cross-referencing findings from the teachers’ responses with data from school directors (EDINRES+D) ensured the reliability of the results.
The following section describes the types of activities.
2.2. Classification of resilience activities
The activities carried out the schools described here were of a lower specification than activities in general, as the former were short-term interventions on resilience.
In relation to the activities, the answers recorded in this study described a varied repertoire aimed at intervening in an interdisciplinary fashion in the field of resilience, working through interactive groups, cooperative groups, groups of experts, application of sociograms, dialogic gatherings, activities such as “word circles”, “restorative circles”, recreation of a situation or one that they have experienced, “turning the tortilla”, and “informat”. In addition, self-esteem, social skills, social skills that build resilience were worked on through the use of resources, materials and tools such as film forum, book forum, “Tutopia”, etc.
In general, the data recorded from the answers posed in the interviews revealed a number of important differences in terms of the activities carried out in state and grant-aided schools. In general, the data recorded from the answers posed in the interviews revealed a number of important differences in terms of the activities carried out in state and grant-aided schools. Specifically, in grant-aided schools, 68% of teachers reported implementing structured resilience-building activities as part of their regular classroom practices. These included collaborative group projects, restorative circles, and activities integrating moral and cognitive skills to foster social competencies and emotional regulation. Examples provided by participants included using films and literature to explore resilience-related themes and reframing negative experiences through reflective exercises like the ‘turning the tortilla’ activity. Additionally, 55% of grant-aided schools reported having dedicated programs or initiatives aimed explicitly at promoting resilience. In contrast, only 32% of teachers in state schools mentioned similar structured activities. Instead, state schools relied more frequently on one-off approaches, such as classroom discussions (reported by 48% of state school teachers) and assemblies (reported by 35%). While effective in addressing specific resilience dimensions, these activities lacked the integration into a cohesive pedagogical framework observed in grant-aided schools. Moreover, state school teachers highlighted the challenge of limited resources, with 74% identifying this as a significant barrier to implementing more comprehensive programs. Experiential and communicative activities were the most common across both types of schools, with 84% of grant-aided schools and 62% of state schools employing these methods. However, assimilative and productive activities—requiring greater resources and teacher training—were more prevalent in grant-aided schools (57%) than in state schools (21%). These findings underline a clear disparity in the scope and implementation of resilience-building activities between state and grant-aided schools. They highlight the need for targeted interventions to address these gaps and promote equitable opportunities for resilience education across all schools.
The activities were grouped into seven categories: assimilative, evaluative, experiential, productive, communicative, application, and information management. These categories were constituted based on the theoretical framework of resilience-building practices, aligning with the dimensions of cognitive, emotional, and social development. Each category reflects a distinct pedagogical approach, emphasizing specific aspects of resilience.
-Assimilative Activities: These involve acquiring and internalizing new knowledge or concepts related to resilience, such as reading stories or watching videos that model coping mechanisms.
-Evaluative Activities: Focused on reflection and self-assessment, these activities help students analyze their own behaviors or situations, often through tools like sociograms or self-reflection journals.
-Experiential Activities: These are hands-on tasks that immerse students in resilience-building scenarios, such as role-playing or outdoor team-building exercises.
-Productive Activities: Creative tasks like writing, drawing, or creating multimedia projects allow students to express their understanding of resilience and its application in their lives.
-Communicative Activities: These emphasize dialogue and interaction, such as group discussions, peer mentoring, and collaborative problem-solving, enabling students to develop social competencies.
-Application Activities: Focused on real-world implementation, these involve applying resilience skills in practical contexts, such as community service projects or classroom leadership roles.
-Information Management Activities: These help students organize and process information related to resilience, often through research tasks or structured presentations.
The categorization process involved thematic coding of the activities described in teacher and headmasters’ interviews using “Atlas.ti” software. This coding highlighted the distinct pedagogical strategies employed in resilience-building practices, allowing the research team to group similar activities under the aforementioned categories.
Of these, the most frequently used in the schools studied were communicative activities (employed by 74% of the teachers) and experiential ones (used by 65%), as described below with their detailed analysis.
The first, assimilative activities, are ones in which pupils adopt a more passive role, receiving information through different channels. While none of the recorded answers from state schools mentioned this type of activity, it was in almost ten grant-aided schools where the emphasis was on classes carried out during the pandemic (6:9_25), (13:8_32), (17:21_42), social skills programs to work on cognitive skills, moral dilemmas and social skills to be resilient (9:23_76), and the virtues (9:51_137). Resilience is also seen in Christian virtues (13:12_32) and in “what do I need and what do I offer?” (13:26_56). Finally, they also mentioned talks given by the municipal police on safety screens (29: 25_72).
With respect to the second type of activities analysed, namely evaluative — those specific activities with which pupils are evaluated to determine whether they achieve the planned objectives—, few of the recorded answers made reference to it. In the case of state schools, one answer was only found in an activity called Values, in which a video of some clips from an Andalusian television series were shown to highlight in the third person what the pupil should do in a situation where someone asks them for help (24:83_155).In the case of grant-aided schools, only five answers referred to evaluative activities: making mistakes in the middle of class and facing the feeling of ridicule (9:9_48), self-esteem as an example of emotion (9:10_50), highlighting the things that need to be improved (9:20_64), and the tutorial action plan with their “stop bullying” team, such as positive discipline against bullying (9:34_94) and self-assessment (26:36_85).
For the third category, the experiential activities, we observed from the recorded answers that these were the most popular activities in both the state and grant-aided schools. These experiential activities were designed around prior knowledge of the expectations and needs for improvement, assuming specific objectives in terms of results. State schools used videos with film scenes to explore questions such as “What can we do for others? What do others do for us?” (2:24_56) (these activities were also carried out in grant-aided schools (12:11_37), (29:40_117)), or a box in which children who did not have enough courage to explain their problems to others could leave anonymous messages (19:20_38).Assemblies and active dynamics were also held to allow each pupil to express emotions and feelings and to be able to solve them together (24:21_47), (24:84_157), or Post-its were simply posted on a board (28:19_42). Occasionally a sociogram was created at the beginning of the course and expert groups were organized (28:14_32).In some of the grant-aided schools, the activity “turning the tortilla” was carried out, which consisted of writing on one side of a piece of paper all those things that caused pupils stress during the pandemic, for example “I can’t go out”, “I don’t know”, or “I can’t meet my friends”, and on the other side writing the good things about the pandemic (6:10_25).Cooperative work was carried out with the sharing of roles of weaknesses and strengths in order to work on resilience (7:19_39). Similarly, experiential activities were carried out in the grant-aided schools with the help of the Parents’ Associations (9:36_94). In Physical Education classes, activities were sometimes carried out in which pupils simulated having an impairment in order to empathize with students who suffer from some type of disability (10:59 83).
The fourth category of activities considered was that of productive activities, namely activities, individual or social, carried out to meet programmed objectives. We observed that they were carried out mostly in the grant-aided schools compared to the state schools. In the state schools in our sample, restorative circles were held for group or individual conflicts (23:15_47), as well as activities to explore the issue of equality for disabled students (24:82_146 – 152).In the grant-aided schools, resilience was worked on in the classroom, playground or dining hall through dialogue and self-esteem (5:5_19), with group work (5:7_23), trying to resolve conflicts at the time (5:11_29); social skills and competencies that built resilience were also worked on (9:25_81), (21:33_84). Clips from films were used (10:7_25) or proposals for a challenge such as “Today try to make someone in your family smile, today make up a play and present it to your parents, today look in the wardrobe, dress up as something, take a photo and share it with us, make a snack, play a game with your siblings, look in a cupboard for any game you haven’t played in a long time and play with your siblings” (12:18_41). Of course, we must not forget the tutorial work on taking care of each other (13:11_32) and, finally, the fight against bullying (17:19_42).
The fifth category of activities analysed comprises communicative activities in which students learn to communicate using language, taking into account their true needs and interests. This type of activity was the most frequently used activity in both state and grant-aided schools, followed by the experiential ones already mentioned, in terms of the number of quotes observed. The state schools carried out dialogic gatherings (2:22_49) based on “word circles” and “restorative circles” in which, starting from a question, participants try to express all the emotions and feelings etc. and then exploring how they could improve the situation being discussed by giving each other advice (22:8_28), (22:9_29) and (24:30_61).Tutorials and reading individually or in pairs (24:28_58) and groups (22:16_51) were also used. In grant-aided schools, pupils worked on emotions (7:44_93), (10:5_24) and how they had to deal with small activities that required effort (10:25_45). They also worked on them through movies and reading books (10:32_51 – 52), (10:33_53 – 54), (10:34_56), (10:35_58), or a phrase from a film chosen every day for pupils to think about(12:16_41), (13:9_32), or putting the emotion they felt into words with introspection and self-knowledge (13:28_56), or through Tutopia (17:20_42) and public speaking work (17:23_42), (17:24_43), (18:14_30), (18:24_45 – 47). Representing a play was another activity carried out by the grant-aided schools (18:35_67).
The application activities, in which students put into practice the knowledge acquired, comprise the sixth category of activities studied. This category was not worked on very much, neither in the state schools nor in the grant-aided ones that collaborated in this study. State schools carried out activities on how to assemble a small appliance such as a DTT following the instructions (1:7_19). They also held assemblies and debates (27:9_26) and dynamics to work on emotions (28:17_37). Murals and workshops provided by the city councils on the subject of peace were held in the grant-aided schools (26:31_81).
Regarding the seventh category of activities analysed, information management activities, it is curious to note that no mention was made of them in the recorded answers of the interviews carried out, neither in state schools nor in grant-aided schools.
In all, it should be noted that resilience activities should not be oriented at or focused on forgetting the past but rather on understanding it and giving it a meaning that lessens the chances of it being repeated, thereby avoiding continuous victimization and overprotection.
All trainers, teachers, and educators who work in primary education will contribute to fostering resilience with attitudes that help them value life, project themselves into the future, feel responsible for themselves, forgive, and commit themselves to helping others who continue to suffer. Developing a sense of humour, bringing laughter to misfortunes and taking part in cultural activities are also ways of overcoming traumas and looking to the future with optimism (Rutter, 1993).
2.3. Content of activities that favour the development of resilience
The activities carried out in the state primary education schools that participated in this project were based fundamentally on personal self-knowledge and on what can be done for others (2:24_56). Workshops and group work served to carry out relationship activities to help the pupils help each other (22:16_51).Conflicts and feelings were also explored (24:21_47), (24:28_58). In addition, disability equality (24:82_146 – 152) and the dynamics of emotions (28:17_37) were worked on. In the grant-aided schools, the activities involved using real problems to solve in the moment (5:11_29); emotions (7:44_93), (9:9_48), self-esteem and its reinforcement, (9:10_50) cognitive skills, moral dilemmas and social skills and competencies (9:23_76), (9:25_81), (10:5_24) were also explored. From a Christian point of view, virtues (10:7_25), (13:12_32) and values (17:19_42), (17:20_42), (17:21_42) were worked on. Grant-aided schools also explored emotions (29:40_117).
Many authors, including Vázquez, Escámez and García (2012), Signes and Vázquez (2022), Morín, (2000), Perrenoud, (2012), Robinson, (2015) and Gardner (2015), propose and defend an academic curriculum more focused on those lessons that are essential for life and not simply useful to the school itself. Believing that the school is an ideal place to build resilience involves making a concrete and explicit decision on the part of the school management team and rethinking the educational curriculum in terms of its content and its more holistic meaning.
2.4. Resources, materials and tools used in activities for developing resilience
Among the answers to the interviews carried out with the primary school teachers, more than twice as many referred to the resources, materials and tools used in the grant-aided schools than in the state schools.
State schools used recycled materials such as small appliances (1:7_19) or boxes (19:20_38), books (2:22_49), or simply pieces of paper stuck to a board on the wall (28:19_42), (26:11_36). One of the main tools was the creation of circles, either word circles in which pupils talk about a particular a word in order to express emotions and feelings (22:8_28) or so-called restorative circles to resolve conflicts at the group or individual level (22:9_29), (23: 15_47), (24:30_61). The grant-aided schools used dialogue, self-esteem (5:5_19), and self-confidence (5:7_23) as tools to identify strengths and weaknesses (7:19_39). Another important tool was the tutorial action plan (9:34_94). Videos and films were also used as material to build resilience (10:32_51 – 52), (10:33_53 – 54), (10:34_56), (12:11_37), (13:29_56), (12:16_41). Reading (10:35_58), (13:9_32), (18:24_45 – 47), drama (18:35_67) and self-assessment for exam grades (26:36_85) were also used as resilience tools.
Unlike the resistance of materials, which involves the ability of a material to withstand tensile, compressive, bending, torsional and shear stresses, a material’s resilience is related to a fundamental property of matter: elasticity. Some materials have high resilience because their mechanical properties allow them to undergo large deformations, after which they return to their original state (Calvente, 2007). This analogue serves to consider the materials and resources that can be used in the primary education classroom and whose properties are suitable for the viability, acquisition and development of resilience.
Resilience is to be built, to be invented by each person based on the people in their context and the materials that involved in achieving it. Thus, rather than being determined by genetics or the environment, it is built through creativity and freedom using the appropriate means, tools and resources (Cyrulnik, 2001).
3. RESILIENCE EDUCATION. RESILIENCE PROJECTS AS AN INTERVENTION STRATEGY IN SCHOOL CONTEXTS
The “revolution” and awareness that the implementation of a “resilience education” implies in schools represents an important component of the motivational investment required for a significant change to occur from an individual, personal perspective. Vanistendael (2005) reaffirms this reflection by explaining that rediscovering this beneficial psychological capacity and integrating it into our lives through work and the tenacity needed to put it into practice, is thanks to the planning and implementation of resilience projects, turning it into “another view” of reality. Indeed, working in education and through projects as an intervention strategy, we will discover the positive elements that will enable our pupils to build their own lives beyond the corresponding necessary repair of the damage that their lives has caused them. By establishing these bases, we will have the necessary tools for the pupil to start searching for elements to overcome the next problem, predisposing them to a positive state.
When we refer to a project in this context, we are referring to the planning of a process to achieve previously programmed learning objectives that are being carried out in the schools studied here to foster resilience. In these types of projects, no significant differences in general are observed between those carried out in the state and the grant-aided schools, although the variation in execution of the different levels and stages is noteworthy.
In general, we can say that projects, as an important part of a psycho-pedagogical intervention process, provide the appropriate means to reflect on and integrate strengths and to put them into practice in a positive way, building and shaping the personality of pupils. This “change of perspective” on reality requires small steps to consolidate its incorporation into our daily lives. In the same vein, Gomes (1995) calls this circumstance “the pedagogy of small gestures”, since he believes that small gestures, a look, a word of comfort, of encouragement, etc. contribute to building a bond that will allow us to look at the same person from their codes and symbols (Munist and Suárez, 2007) and are of course essential elements to consider in the planning of any self-respecting resilience education project.
3.1. Classification of resilience projects
An educational project in general, and a resilience project in particular, aims to instil and foster learning to solve problems or issues raised from the concerns and the interests of pupils and the learning that is to be fostered. In other words, such a project is an idea or a plan that seeks to achieve an eminently formative goal, and to do so it is necessary to plan a process that arises from the diagnosis of a need in order to foster learning and to solve a certain problem. But what types of projects are there? As we have seen in our analysis of the quotes, there are types of projects in which the problem to be solved, the goals of the project and the tools available to carry them out are determined. In other words, the needs that exist on the one hand and the resources and means required to address them on the other are taken into account.
A traditional classification of resilience projects establishes five types of projects: intervention, learning, research, development and teaching.
With regard to intervention projects, only one quote was identified among the answers of the teachers from the state primary schools that participated in this research.
When we did “Picasso in your classroom”, there was a child who still hadn’t spoken but who plucked up the courage to express something in writing and with the drawing he expressed a situation that had happened (24:29_59)
However, in the grant-aided schools it seems that its use was more highly regarded. Pedagogical Update Plans (PUP) were carried out to work on assertiveness and divergent thinking (6:14_31), equality plans (7:43_90) and bullying prevention (11:13_46), (11:24_67), (26:8_31).
Learning projects are those that facilitate the teaching-learning process and the integration of the family and community in the construction of knowledge. In these learning projects there does not seem to be any difference in terms of their application in state and grant-aided schools. For example, a number of schools already had certain projects with their own names, such as the Project Barça, Project Ask Me, or Project Ask.
In class we already do Project Barça, now we’re doing yours, we really get involved in all the projects very quickly, whether it’s cyberbullying, whether it’s bullying, because in cyberbullying and bullying you’re talking about situations that aren’t nice, that are affecting you and I think that the boys and girls already identify other situations, even though you aren’t talking about children, they can identify situations that are happening to them at home and you’re helping them (19:25_46)
In Years 5 and 6 now we’re also doing a project called “Project Ask Me”, in which we ask unanswered questions, it’s another way of working. Sometimes they ask a lot of questions and I answer with questions, because the teacher doesn’t always have to answer, and a little bit of this shows them when there’s a question there’s not necessarily an answer (28:16_34)
“Project Ask”, which we’re also doing, we do it every fortnight, we go to the drama room, which is a really big room with no tables or chairs or anything, and then they sit wherever they want, they have some time, some ten minutes to think up questions and then if they want, they share them with the rest of the group, but the group doesn’t ask questions, nor does it answer them. And from here, among the whole group we choose a question that we pin up and leave pinned up (28:20_42)
The grant-aided schools carry out value projects (7:23_44), (26:33_82) and others that they do in tutorials on a regular basis (29:14_36), (11:12_45).
In Year 6 we’ve also worked quite a lot in class on everything that’s happening, with the whole issue of COVID, a little on how we’ve felt,on how we’ve had to adapt to the situation and how we have to continue adapting and that’s why this course has been quite successful (17:8_26)
There is one that involves a lot of classes and that is a project and is currently going through a very interesting moment. We have a chicken coop at school and a whole group of secondary school kids are involved in the project. We’ve realized that the involvement of kids, especially from Years 5 and 6, at certain times, is very positive. So, we don’t know exactly what’s going on, but someone, we don’t know who, has been vandalising it during the night, on weekends, kidnapping chickens, destroying the chicken coop itself, the herbs, of the garden around it... It’s a job they take really seriously, that for them is really important, and they’ve dedicated hours and hours and a lot of effort and so I see that apart from the benefits of when things go well, when the hens lay eggs, when the kids collect them and sell them to the teachers, of this whole process, because these difficulties the project’s going through, I see that daily, those of us who can be more involved in it, sure, it’s a job, they ask “why’s this happened?, why’s it happened to us?, what do we do, do we dismantle the chicken coop?, do we close the project?”, well no, it makes us more determined to say, “well, no, we’re going to fix it because we believe in it”, and because there has to be a process of finding out what’s going to happen and it’s admirable because really for some of these kids it’s their life, right now in their day-to-day lives they only think about the chickens, about what to do, about who knows what... They treat the hens themselves in a type of ICU, so...in that sense it’s an activity that I see very clearly. And even without this vandalism, this hooliganism, I also see that it’s a project that requires all this resilience, so that the chickens are well, so that they lay their eggs, to see how we organize ourselves and then how it continues, how it’s taken care of and how far they can go (18:22_42)
With regard to the third category of projects, research projects, which are those scientific and organized studies that aim to rigorously and objectively analyse a topic, no mention of them was made in any of the interviews conducted with the schools in this study, neither the state nor grant-aided schools.
In the fourth category of projects, development projects are programs for change that, on the basis of certain action strategies, aim to expand people’s opportunities and options for development. No quotes were identified in the answers of teachers from the state schools in this study, but there were some, albeit few, in the grant-aided schools. Only four mentions were recorded, which are presented below.
When the project was implemented, there was an hour on social skills, both in primary and secondary (and in infants as well), and then it stopped, and is now done in the tutorials (9:24_78)
When this social skills program was carried out, it was a very different thing, because it not only considered the development of social skills, itconsidered, in the past, having cognitive skills, and then having a moral criterion. Because, of course, you can be very clever, but be a criminal. What this was looking for was a moral state of Kolber, maybe? The highest. And this is the difference (9:27_84)
The project that’s being carried out, though I’d like to clarify not directly as you’ve said, more indirectly, it’s the AVE Bullying Project, but not as such, I mean, not as the purpose of the project itself but what it contributes at the level of tutoring within the classroom, because with what’s happening, it puts this, everything I am commenting on, in place and orders it a little (14:9_29)
We have a Personal Improvement Plan project at school that may not consider resilience as a concept, but depending on the case, we would explore it. And it’s what we work on in group tutorials, empathy, conflict with others, this is included. Well, well, maybe not the word resilience... (16:23_110)
In the teaching projects, only one quote was identified from the state sphere, while in the grant-aided schools it seems that its use is more frequent, with four quotes observed. The only mention made by teachers from any of the state schools referred to the fostering of Philosophy.
We have a little time called “Time to Think”, which we work with Philosophy 3/18 and it encourages a lot of, well, it’s a unifying thread of situations of a character who experiences things and then you do a bit of feedback with the pupils. In this time you can work on this, which would be the Philosophy part, but you can also work on other topics that come up with the students. I work with pre-adolescents and we work a lot on self-acceptance, because at a social level there’s a lot of pressure, there are really derogatory comments among them, even though they’re a good group, sometimes without meaning to... they deal with topics that shouldn’t be normalized, about the physical aspect, or they laugh at the differences that don’t have standards set by society and things like that, and they also work on their own well-being, but this is individual for each teacher, what the school does is promote Philosophy 3/18, which is perhaps more related to the issue of resilience and is something that the school chooses, it isn’t in the curriculum, for example, it’s a school project (25:30_48)
In grant-aided schools, projects to foster self-esteem, respect and tolerance (5:6_21), (26:9_34), and the virtue of strength (10:31_50) were mentioned.
All the activities proposed in the project, the aim is that they get a tolerance card, to remember, during the course, that we must be tolerant people... It can also happen that, during the course, the card’s taken away, because all that we talked about and worked on during the course, you’re not abiding by it. They have to see that there may be consequences to this (26:10_35)
In the sample observed, projects were identified that involved a group of pupils, of different pupils, in which they have to commit to fulfilling the activities carried out: projects that are continuously evaluated, providing information on their validity and effectiveness, etc.
3.2. Content of projects that favour the development of resilience
Projects on resilience carried out in state schools focused on emotions (19:17_37), (24:29_59), self-acceptance (25:30_48) and bullying (19:25_46). In addition to bullying (14:9_29), the grant-aided schools collaborating in this study also worked on dialogue (5:6_21), values (7:23_44), (7:43_90), (26:33_82) and social skills (9:24_78), (9:27_84), as well as improving coexistence (11:24_67) and emotions (29:14_36).
We have a Personal Improvement Plan project at school that may not consider resilience as a concept, but in some cases, we would work on it. And it’s what we work on in group tutorials, empathy, conflict with others, this is included. Well, well, maybe not the word resilience... (16:23_110)
In Year 6 we’ve also worked quite a lot in class on everything that’s happening, with the whole issue of COVID, a little on how we’ve felt, on how we’ve had to adapt to the situation and how we have to continue adapting and that’s why this course has been quite successful (17:8_26)
In this first project, above all, working on empathy, self-esteem, putting oneself in another’s shoes, understanding, and from there, solving conflicts and the whole project is living and living together. That everyone’s well, respect and tolerance and all that this implies. It’s closely linked to the issue of resilience (26:9_34)
The contents developed in the projects, the proximity and the attitude of the teachers encouraged the pupils in their efforts. They were also provided with accessible and challenging tasks that enabled them to achieve the programmed objectives and that confirmed that the selection of the contents that they worked on in the projects was adequate.
3.3. Resources, materials and tools used in projects for developing resilience
Regarding the resources, materials and tools that were recorded in the answers of the primary education teachers from the schools collaborating in this study, the following were found both in state and grant-aided schools: readings, case studies, films, and film forums. Among the answers analysed, we would like to highlight some of those from grant-aided schools that refer to the pedagogical action plan (6:14_31) or specific campaigns.
The whole school is working on the virtue of strength, to end up working on this CEU “Vividores” campaign and in primary school in particular we’ve made a film for each year,from Year 1 to Year 6, and then a film forum where we made sure especially that the main characters demonstrated this value of strength and virtue, of how good it is. The Year 6film in particular was very much in line with what we were saying about physical effort because they’re kids who end up being champions, kids from a fairly humble place, champions of school races, and so it involves a physical effort and we’ve just worked on this; but well, there’s a bit of everything and each film is explored from a different point of view (10:31_50)
We have a project to carry out activities to prevent bullying among pupils, which makes coexistence among them an important value as well, and when something happens there’s an intervention (11:13_46)
The first Year 5 project is “Living and Living Together”. It’s about going up to the new year, to a new class, because from Year 4 to Year 5 there’s a mix of students (26:8_31)
All the activities proposed in the project, the aim is that they get a tolerance card, to remember, during the course, that we must be tolerant people... It can also happen that, during the course, the card’s taken away, because all that we talked about and worked on during the course, you’re not abiding by it. They have to see that there may be consequences to this (26:10_35)
The importance of a good choice of resources, materials and tools for fostering resilience in schools is evident in the laudable intention of coping with conflicts at school and in life in general. In this regard, it is curious how this choice of resources determines the appropriate development of pupils’ capacities for “coping” with conflictive situations, empowering them to develop skills to overcome the difficulties that life presents them.
4. CONCLUSIONS
In general terms, and with respect to the activities and projects for the development of resilience in primary school pupils, no significant differences were identified between the state and grant-aided schools. However, when establishing categories, a number of qualitative differences were identified. For example, the state schools made no reference to assimilative activities, while numerous references to them were registered in grant-aided schools.
In general, fewer quotes were recorded in the state schools compared to the grant-aided schools, which reflects the number of participants from these types of schools that took part in this study.
Of the seven types of activities analysed, the most frequently used in the schools in the sample studied were communicative activities, followed by experiential activities, which were also very popular.
The productive activities were used mainly in grant-aided schools as opposed to state schools.
The evaluative and assimilative activities were not used very much in either the state schools or grant-aided schools. It is notable that no mention of any assimilative activity was recorded in the state schools compared to almost ten found in the grant-aided schools. In addition, only one evaluative activity was identified among the state schools compared to five observed in grant-aided schools.
The information management activities were not employed in any of the schools in the sample analysed, neither in state schools nor in grant-aided ones.
The projects implemented in the schools in our sample were mainly learning projects, their use being widespread both in state schools and in grant-aided ones. Of the teaching projects, only one was registered among the state schools, being frequently used in grant-aided schools. Of the intervention projects, only one was observed among the state schools, while several were identified in the grant-aided centres.
The development projects were not observed among the state schools, while only four references were recorded in the grant-aided schools. No research project was identified in either of the two types of schools.
There were many more references to activities than to projects in the twenty-four schools studied. Of the projects carried out in the schools in the sample, it was found that, with the exception of the learning projects, the others are not implemented in state schools.
Finally, it is necessary to reflect on the belief that the school is a very suitable environment for developing resilience, but this implies making a specific decision on the part of the schools in relation to the axiological conception of the curriculum in order to adapt it to the development of resilience as a mechanism to deal with conflicts at school and, by extension, in everyday life. Fostering work on personal and school conflicts strengthens personal security and self-esteem, allowing children to get to know themselves and to grow up in a very healthy environment.
5. FUNDING
Project Code: PID2019-111032RB-I00, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and developed by the consolidated Family, Education and Inclusive School (TRIVIUM) research group (2021 SGR 00914).
6. REFERENCES
Calvente, A. (2007). Resiliencia: un concepto clave para la sustentabilidad. Universidad Abierta Latinoamericana: UASIS.
Cyrulnik, B., et al. (2001). La résilience: le réalisme de l’espérance. Toulouse: Érès, coll. «Fondation pour l’Enfance».
Gardner, H. (2015). Inteligencias múltiples. La teoría en la práctica. Paidós.
Gomes da Costa, A. C. (1995). Pedagogía de la presencia. Losada.
Grotberg, E. H. (2001). Nuevas tendencias en resiliencia. In A. Melillo and E.N. Suárez Ojeda (Comp.). Resiliencia. Descubriendo las propias resiliencias. Paidós.
Morín, E. (2000). Los siete saberes necesarios para la educación del futuro. UNESCO.
Munist, M. and Suárez Ojeda, E. (2007). Conceptos generales de resiliencia aplicados a adolescentes y jóvenes. In Munist, Suárez Ojeda, Krauskpf and Silber (Comps.) Adolescencia y resiliencia. Paidós.
Perrenoud, P. (2012). Cuando la escuela pretende preparar para la vida. ¿Desarrollar competencias o enseñar otros saberes? Graó.
Puig, G. and Rubio, J. L. (2011). Manual de resiliencia aplicada. Gedisa.
Robinson, K. (2015). Escuelas creativas. La revolución que está trasformando la educación. Grijalbo.
Rutter, M. (1993). Resilience; some conceptual considerations. Journal of Adolescent Health. 14, 8, pp. 626-631.
Signes, M. T. and Vázquez, M. (2022). Fundamentos para una propuesta de adquisición y desarrollo de competencias docentes para el fomento de la resiliencia en el aula. In Signes, Carreira and Kazmierczak (Eds.), Educación, lenguaje y resiliencia: reflexiones, estrategias y retosactuales (pp. 161-181). Tirant Lo Blanch.
Suarez Ojeda, E. N. (2001). Resiliencia, descubriendo las propias fortalezas. Paidós.
Vanistendael, S. (2005). La resiliencia: desde una inspiración hacia cambios prácticos. In 2nd International Congress on Behavioural Disorders in Children and Adolescents. Retrieved from http://www.obelen.es/upload/262D.pdf
Vázquez, V., Escámez, J., and García, R. (2012). Educación para el cuidado. Hacia una nueva pedagogía. Brief.
Villalba Quesada, C. (2004). El concepto de resiliencia. Aplicaciones en la intervención social. Universidad Pablo de Olavide.