Abstract
The coronavirus pandemic brought unprecedented circumstances, providing insights into how systems (people, institutions and societies) cope during a disruption. This paper reports research undertaken at one university in the South West of England, which adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigate how students responded to and coped with the impact of Covid-19 disruption and what they perceived as influencing their resilience.
Data were gathered from 434 students (undergraduate and postgraduate) using an online survey. Twenty of these students were subsequently interviewed individually. Data analysis used the lens provided by the Dynamic Interactive Model of Resilience (DIMoR) to explore the complexity of resilience and how it is shaped and impacted by internal and surrounding environments for any given system.
The research revealed the value of DIMoR as a tool for analysis and highlighted the dynamic, interactive and multifaceted nature of resilience as something that is influenced by multiple other systems rather than being a static quality within a system. A range of impacting risk/protective factors and vulnerabilities/invulnerabilities were identified, which are not either/or but fluctuate and exist to a greater or lesser degree depending on context and influences. The research also showed the shifting nature of surrounding systems that can become more or less proximal and influential depending on circumstance. Additionally, the study provided insight into the overriding importance of proximal relationships and the role lecturers/tutors can play in helping students to access university support services. Wider implications of the findings are discussed in relation to university processes and practices.
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Author Biographies
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Adeela Ahmed-Shafi, University of Gloucestershire
Adeela has a background in psychology and education and has been teaching in higher education for over 17 years. Her research draws on psychological theories to explore how to re-engage young offenders with formal education and learning in a secure custodial setting. Adeela's other research includes how to develop academic resilience and buoyancy in higher education students. She has also worked on international projects in Rwanda and Pakistan and is currently working on three EU funded projects on the education of young people in conflict with the law and in custodial settings, including, re-engaging young offenders with education and learning with three European partners. Another is a project designed to develop social and emotional competencies through active games in young people in conflict with the law. This is with ten partners across seven European partners. Adeela has an established publishing profile and leads the REF submission for Education at the University of Gloucestershire. Adeela is an active community worker and also stood for MP in 2010.
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Tristan Middleton, University of Gloucestershire
Tristan is Senior Lecturer in Education and Joint Course Leader for the MA Education suite at the University of Gloucestershire. Tristan is Chair of Directors of Leading Learning for SEND CiC which oversees the work of the National SENCO Award Provider Partnership and also a member of NurtureUK’s Research, Evidence & Ethics Trustee Sub-Group and Editor of the International Journal of Nurture in Education. He is currently a member of the Erasmus+ RENYO project team focusing on the re-engagement of young offenders with education and learning, with three European partners. He is currently working on a PHD by publication in the field of inclusive education.
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Richard Millican, University of Gloucestershire
Rick is a Senior Lecturer in Education and the Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Education at the University of Gloucestershire where he has worked for the past 12 years. Prior to that he has a long history of working within education, but in different contexts and phases. These include as a Drama and Music teacher across age ranges, a teacher of learners with social and emotional difficulties 5-18, a teacher of English as a Foreign Language to children and adults and a teacher trainer. He has worked in various countries including Spain, Oman and Egypt and in schools, further education colleges and universities including Leeds and Birmingham.
His current interests are in social justice and sustainability and in the role of education in helping to create a fairer and sustainable world. He is currently working on an international research project, A Rounder Sense of Purpose, which is developing a framework of competences for educators of sustainable development linked to the Sustainable Development Goals. This has led to various recent publications alongside work into developing academic resilience and buoyancy with higher education students.
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Sian Templeton, University of Gloucestershire (now self-employed)
Sian Templeton was a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Gloucestershire but is now a practicing Educational Psychologist working with teaching staff, children, young people and their families. She has worked in a variety of educational settings with a focus on supporting the social, emotional and cognitive needs of vulnerable learners to enable them to engage with education. She achieved this through working directly with the young people, with the families, teaching staff and a range of professionals from health and social care. In addition to direct work, she also believes in exploring more systemic opportunities for promoting and supporting access to education for all. She teaches on both Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses within her University role across a range of areas within education and leads on a number of psychology-based education modules. She is involved in ERASMUS + projects related to her areas of interest. Sian’s research includes resilience, emotional education and supporting young offenders in re-engaging with education and she is completing her DEdPsy at University College London.
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Jenny Hill, University of Gloucestershire
Jennifer Hill is Head of Learning and Teaching Innovation at the University of Gloucestershire, UK, where she leads on learning, teaching and assessment on behalf of the University. Jenny is a National Teaching Fellow and a Principal Fellow in the UK Professional Standards Framework. Jenny’s educational enquiry has focused on student partnership, assessment and feedback, the development of graduate attributes, learning spaces, the teaching-research dialectic, and student transitions. She has published over 100 journal articles, book chapters and co-edited books. Originally a geography academic, Jenny has chaired the Royal Geographical Society Higher Education Research Group (now GeogEd), served as an invited consultant on the OfS Degree Standards Project, and is currently a member of the International Editorial Board for Journal of Geography in Higher Education.
