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Research Psychologists: Fostering Social Ecologies of Academic Resilience: Some Practical Examples

Presenter

Carlien is an independent research psychologist who completed her doctoral research on resilience, transitions and facilitating, and enabling adjustment across contexts through multi-level, systemic understandings. She consults on and co-ordinates the StudyWell research project at North-West University exploring student well-bring and success in context of study demands and resources. She is a senior accredited ATLAS.ti trainer who facilitates excellence in qualitative methodologies through institutional and private client engagement.

Sandra is a registered research psychologist and the head of post-graduate research at AFDA: The school for the creative economy in Johannesburg. She directs the research programme that aims to enhance the well-being and academic success of post-graduate students in creative practice. She is completing her doctoral research on families and supportive care environments at the North-West University. As an independent research consultant she facilitates qualitative research processes for both individual and organizational environments.

Abstract

Student retention and throughput are considered important indicators of student well-being and success at higher education institutes. Considerable efforts focus on the FYE (first-year experience) with associated remedial practices that are centered on academic progress and development of students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. However, these students face increasing complexities when starting, enduring, and continuing their tertiary studies that extend beyond academics. Understanding postgraduate students’ positive adjustments despite multiple adversities, call for resilience definitions and conceptualisations that include multi-level and setting components that capture the complexities of student life and student experiences. One such explanation is Ungar’s (2012) the social ecologies of resilience theory (SERT) : an iterative, bidirectional process of doing better than expected when life is tough, resulting from individual interactions with relational and pragmatic resources that are made available, or, to which individuals are guided to create enabling contexts. 

This paper lays the foundation for integrated approaches that consider students as embedded within more significant, complex systems that can facilitate (or hinder) their success in their studies. Practical examples provide guidance to address the current gap in understanding and supporting students’ academic and personal learning curves more appropriately. These examples are illustrated from the vantage point of research psychologists who enable and work with students in varied settings, such as postgraduate classroom settings, workshops, and private consultations as lecturers, consultants or learning facilitators. We engage in collaborative activities that promote greater autonomy and accountability from both students and facilitators.  Key examples of how we support postgraduate students from a social ecologies of resilience perspective include enabling student and client-led processes that encourage students to find their study purpose, to effectively position themselves within their study contexts, to recognise their strengths, draw on their experiences and build their toolkit for