Customer Reviews

Resilience Education

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Instead of focusing on "resilience factors as the flip side of risk factors" this is an intelligent presentation of resilience education as pedagogy. The authors present a clear description of resilience education and its applications in the classroom and other settings. Additionally, this work truly is research-based. There are far too many other presentations of resilience education that are based on poorly conducted research designed to "prove" the theory instead of "test" it. Finally, I think this book is appropriate to a reader with no familiarity with the subject; as well as to readers well-versed in resilience education who might be looking for a place where theory and practice are brought together in a cohesive, practical, and thoughtful way.

This is a book for all practitioners and members of the community. It centers on classroom transformation and teacher-student and student-student empowerment. The stories of resilience caused me to reflect on my own educational experience as a 2nd language acquisition learner. I have several memories of teachers and mentors who played significant roles in helping me develop a positive sense of self which contributed to my educational success.

First, the book challenges readers to re-examine the risk orientation associated with educational policies and programs. Terms such as "at risk" and "high risk students" are indicators often used to label students from underachieving schools and economically disadvantaged communities. The risk approach focuses its lens on the "at risk" labeling of youths for some type of failure and in essence detracts from where the real problems may lie (i.e. pedagogical practices in school).

Second, it offers readers to consider the alternative of risk orientation - resilience education. Resilience education is a "paradigmatic" shift from a banking concept of education towards a developmental approach that focuses on learners' strengths.

Lastly, beyond the discussion on the theory and research on resilience education, the book moves into the practice of it. The PORT-able approach to resilience education discussed in details looks at how educating through participation, observation, reflection and transformation is brought to life. It offers a look at life in classrooms where both the teacher and student are learning and developing with one another. Engaged activities, authentic learning and experiences flourish in healthy, democratic classrooms.

An incredibly easy, informative and insightful read. Highly Recommended.

As an educator I have often been saddened by students in my classes that seem to fall short of success in school and/or life. Reading this book has helped to give me a completely different perspective on just how to promote the well being of every student in personally exemplifying the model of resilience. The specific examples and exercises given for each piece of the PORT -able model allows for greater understanding of concepts as well as generating positive ideas for classroom use. The PORT -able model is a superb model and I am anxious to practice what I have learned in anticipation of the changes that will be visible with my students and myself as we learn that little something extra to help us build life-long interpersonal resources for success.

The Resilience Education model is an extremely important strategy for teachers and students in today's standards-based, outcome-oriented educational system. For democracy to continue and thrive, we must open the eyes of our students to the complexities of the world. In order to do that, we must open our eyes to the complexities, needs, and strengths of our students. Resilience Education emphasizes that educators should also be learners. Through the practice of Participation, Observation, and Reflection, we can transform our classrooms to better suit the needs of our students, as well as ourselves. I look forward to continuing my Resilience Education and applying these concepts to my students, colleagues, and student teachers.

Tony Monahan

Student Teacher Coordinator

Dept. of Kinesiology

University of Rhode Island

The authors' contention is that resilience and "protective" factors create successes in all kids, but especially those "at risk." They see resilience as a "self-righting mechanism" that allows students to withstand the winds that blow around them.

They then propose four main areas to teach resilience: decision-making skills, explicitly connecting thoughts to feelings to action, building on interests and strengths, and a "healthy democratic community" that is centered on caring. Up to this point, all of this seems pretty reasonable.

Unfortunately, the authors do not connect explicitly these four areas with their PORT-able method. A teacher who wished to teach resilience to her kids would not know where to start, what exercises would help, or whether there are some things in school better left unsaid.

The second half of the book reminds me of re-warmed progressive educational methods, reframed for a post-therapeutic culture. Conservative readers will have a hard time understanding just how educational attainment is connected to the resilience education (besides, the methods are unclear or left out completely). In addition, the proposed "advantages" of resilience education are not linked with any data whatsoever about educational attainment from other studies (The authors often cite the work of British child psychiatrist Michael Rutter's 1985 work on resilience, but he did not connect resilience to educational attainment). The last chapter also uses terms like "meta-reflection" and then thanks the reader for reading. Really! So I found the theory OK, the methods absent, and the tone of the book, at the end, cloying.