Resilience for all : a study of classrooms as protective contexts

Abstract

Educational resilience has received considerable attention in the literature in the past three decades, with particular reference to indicated and selective interventions. This paper construes resilience within a generalist, universal perspective and examines how classrooms may serve as protective and competence-enhancing contexts for all their students. Various processes, such as caring relationships, active engagement, inclusion, collaboration, positive beliefs and expectations, and recognition, were identified in a naturalist study of Maltese primary school classrooms operating as optimal learning environments. The study suggests that classrooms, which organize themselves as caring, inclusive and learning and pro-social centred communities, may operate as protective and competence-enhancing contexts for all their students.