Finding a place for resilience in teacher preparation

Australian school systems are moving towards a more systematic and comprehensive recognition of the interrelationships between academic outcomes, wellbeing, resilience and personal development. Against this background it seems timely to examine how teacher education can most effectively integrate concepts like resilience into teacher education. When there are so many competing demands on pre-service training, it can be difficult to see how one more area could possibly be added to an already crowded programme. However, making teachers aware of their role in developing resilient students does not require the addition of something ‘new’ to their training. It involves instead an explicit acknowledgement that encouraging resilience in students is the fundamental outcome of a meaningful connection with the students. Resilience is a bridging concept that links together the cognitive, emotional, social and physiological domains of wellbeing. Examples, strategies and lessons will be drawn from the Response Ability National Teacher Education project.