Pathways to Resilience IV: Global South Perspectives

Resilience in University Settings

Abstract #117
Title: Underrepresented Students at Canadian Universities: Exploring Stories of Resilience
Presenter: Alyson King (University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada)
Co-Authors: Susan Brigham, Allyson Eamer 
Introduction: We examine how university students from diverse backgrounds and immigration experiences develop a process of harnessing resources to sustain their well-being and persist to graduation. Utilizing a framework of intersectionality to explore inequity, we assume that human lives are complex, multi-faceted, and shaped by a variety of intersecting factors.
Methods: Recognizing that “resilience is a complex construct and it may be defined differently in the context of individuals, families, organizations, societies, and cultures”, we define resilience as a process. Rather than using a deficit model lens and focussing on remediating problems, we take a transformative and collaborative approach to understand the structures and social factors that shape people’s educational experiences. We take a holistic and comparative approach to understand participants’ multiple realities (e.g., personal, university and community lives) and how those realities intersect and inform one other (Ngozi Adiche, 2009). We use electronic surveys and individual interviews.
Findings: We are collecting data from over 300 current undergraduate students or recent graduates in three Canadian provinces. Our presentation of participants’ narratives of what it means to develop resilience-building strategies in challenging settings has implications for universities as they prepare, support, retain, and ultimately graduate resilient citizens.

Abstract #55
Title: NWU-Mafikeng undergraduate student community pro-actively facilitate resilience through their magazines project
Presenter: Petro Erasmus (NWU, South Africa)
Introduction: To bridge this gap cooperative learning has been the framework for teaching and learning of constructs such as Resilience by creating a magazine within the framework of their communities.
Methods: The students had to create and design a magazine that included articles aimed at individuals in their communities that facilitated the complex process of resilience, as well as compiling articles for children and adolescents on how to enhance their resilience.
Findings: Students at the end of the project had to reflect on how this magazine project contributed to facilitating their own resilience. Themes identified included teamwork, problem-solving, psychological well-being and awareness.