A Systemic, Evidence-Based Approach to Educational Resilience
“It takes a village to raise a child” – African Proverb
Resilience in education does not develop in isolation.
It emerges from the systems, relationships and environments that surround a young person.
The RESTA approach is built on the understanding that educational resilience is a collection of protective mechanisms, shaped by consistent, trauma-aware practice across an organisation, not a fixed trait within an individual.
Tier 1
In the first instance (Tier 1) most learners will benefit from small changes in practice so that they can further develop a set of protective mechanisms that buffer them against stress and help them bounce back when things get challenging. A whole organisation approach at tier 1 offers support for all learners and can help prevent the need for further intervention by ensuring that all staff know how to support and develop resilience in learners whilst actively being aware of practice that can be trauma inducing.
In tier two we acknowledge that some students may find it more challenging to bounce back when times are difficult. This is because the protective factors that they have may not meet the level of challenge they face and therefore they may be at risk. Tier two focuses on targeted groups of learners that are not responding successfully to strategies from tier one. At this level RESTA can be offered to groups of students who may need a little extra support to ‘bounce back’ by a trained and licensed member of staff (the RESTA)
Tier three is for students whose protective mechanisms do not match the challenges of learning and being in school. At tier three students may be struggling to engage and connect and they may have a level of attendance that either the school or parents are worried about. Tier three students will be those who have missed the opportunity for tier one and two (e.g., EBSA) or have not responded to strategies at tier one and two. At this level RESTA can be offered at an individual level using a person-centered approach by the trained and licensed practitioner (RESTA). At this stage it is useful to ensure the systems surrounding the child are all working in the same way to support the development of protective mechanisms, and therefore, organisations trained as RESOs have access to 50 logins a year to our webinar specifically for parents (RESP)
Taking a three-tier approach not only supports current educational practice but it has also been demonstrated as an effective way to deliver intervention both for Educational Resilience and Emotional Based School Avoidance (EBSA) (Ervin, 2010; Kearney & Graczyk, 2022).
The tiered approach is fundamental is supporting resilience in all learners and helps to solidify the principles of the RESTA programme which are:
- Appoints a person-centred, proactive, and preventative approach.
- Uses a positive psychology perspective of student mental health and well-being; avoids negative descriptions, is embedded in positive thinking, and is empowering for students.
- Views educational resilience as a collection of protective factors which develop from the systems that surround the young person and so rejecting the notion that a student is either ‘resilient’ or not.
- Holds that development of resilience in students nurtures strong, independent learners who are better equipped for the next stage of study.
- Asserts that resilience is tangible, modifiable and can be improved by measured intervention following assessment.
References
Ervin, R. A. (2010). Considering tier three within a response-to-intervention model. RTI Network. https://www.rtinetwork.org/essential/tieredinstruction/tier3/consideringtier3#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20at%20Tier%203,of%20his%20or%20her%20progress.
Kearney, C. A., & Graczyk, P. A. (2022, September). Multi-tiered systems of support for school attendance and its problems: An unlearning perspective for areas of high chronic absenteeism. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 7, p. 1020150). Frontiers.