Katya Galea

Social inclusion and social justice: A resilience curriculum for early years and elementary schools in Europe

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a resilience curriculum in early years and primary schools to enhance social inclusion, equity and social justice amongst European communities, particularly amongst disadvantaged and vulnerable ones, through quality education. It defines educational resilience in terms of academic, social and emotional growth in the face of life challenges; discusses the conceptual framework and key principles underpinning the curriculum; and presents the six major content areas of the curriculum. Finally, it presents the preliminary findings of a pilot project on the implementation of the curriculum in more than 200 classrooms in about 80 early and primary schools in six European countries. Design/methodology/approach – The curriculum was first drafted collaboratively amongst the six partners on the basis of the existing literature in the promotion of resilience in early years and primary schools, with a particular focus to European realities. Once it w...

Teachers’ Narratives of Resilience: Responding Effectively to Challenging Behaviour

This chapter explores the narratives of eight teachers who respond effectively to challenging behaviour in a boys’ secondary school in Malta. The narrative exploration of teacher stories through in-depth interviews elicited the challenges faced by these teachers and the individual and contextual factors that have helped strengthen their resilience. Results show that each teacher’s resilient story is unique as factors contributing to resilience interact in complex ways. However, common factors, such as a positive attitude, seeing mistakes as learning opportunities, accepting one’s limitations, investing in firm but caring relationships, and remaining calm when responding to challenging behaviour, as well as contextual factors such as support within the school system contributed to their resilience. By investigating how resilient teachers respond to challenging behaviour in the dynamics of the classroom and in the wider context of the school, this study highlights what resilient teachers do to respond effectively to challenging behaviour in their everyday practices and how they do it, thereby also shedding light on what teacher education courses and continuous professional development sessions can focus on to enhance teacher resilience.