Supporting a Child’s Resilience in the Context of Collaborative Partnerships Between Parents and Teachers
Abstract
Research Objectives and Problems: The aim of this article is to analyze the factors that support and strengthen a child’s resilience from the perspective of the synergistic cooperation between supportive adults—parents and teachers. The central research question is: How can family-school partnerships support and nurture a child’s resilience?
Research Methods: This paper employs a synthetic-analytical review of relevant literature. It also reviews selected findings from previous research.
Structure of the Article: The discussion begins with a definition of resilience and a characterization of a resilient child within the school environment. It emphasizes the importance of partnerships between parents and teacher, which is expressed, among other things, through their shared commitment to strengthening the child’s resilience.
Research Findings and Their Impact on Educational Sciences: Resilience is a process that helps children to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Partnerships between the child’s significant adults—mainly parents and teachers—enhance the effectiveness in fostering resilience. A child’s resilience builds up when the adults who spend the most time with them work synergistically, rather than acting independently. The analyses presented are founded on education and family sciences. They take into account research from various cultural contexts; hence, the conclusions and findings have international relevance.
Conclusions and Recommendations: Promoting and supporting resilience is one of the key challenges of today’s educational process. Resilience enables children facing difficult situations or the pressures of disadvantage to achieve healthy development, well-being, success, and ambitious life goals. Caring, attentive and supportive adults—whether parents or teachers—must be sensitive and vigilant to prevent difficult experiences from becoming chronic, as this could undermine the process of building resilience and deplete the resources needed to maintain it. Adults in the child’s life should be responsive, observant, and, most importantly, actively present to provide consistent support and guidance.
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