Inclusion, resilience and lifelong learning

In previous articles Nisai Group have talked about the lifelong gains for children and young people with learning differences and disability that come through educational and social inclusion. One of the critical factors in realizing those lifelong gains is the ability to be resilient in your attitude and your learning so that you can make the most of educational opportunities in a developing global skills environment. Inquirer Interactive, along with Nisai Education Trust and UNESCO IITE, is hosting the final webinar in the series on the development of  inclusive education in South East Asia to look at just this issue. 

Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from adversity, and having resilience matters for all young people but especially those with learning differences as they face multiple barriers and hurdles throughout their lives. Researchers Cahill, Beadle, Farrelly, Forster, & Smith (2014) have found that resilience can be seen as a combination of:

1. Social competence 
2. Optimism
3. Purpose
4. A positive attachment to family, to school and to learning
5. Problem-solving skills
6. An effective coping style
7. A positive self-image

These are all qualities that they would want for the children and young people, and when these combine into their lives then resilience builds. And what is particularly striking is the way in which these qualities are both taught explicitly (within the curriculum) and explicitly (through interaction and modelling),  bridging between a child’s experiences in the home environment and in education. This is a timely reminder of  just how important high quality relationships between parents and teachers are, and highlights the need to constantly ask questions about learners capacities and capabilities in these areas …  need to know just how resilient children really are!

Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi (2000), in their work on a positive psychology, proposed that they should allow  people’s strengths and capacities to form the basis of personal effectiveness and resilience. In an educational setting, this can be achieved when they focus on creating a learning space for the children which :

• is a safe, stable and secure learning environment
• has supportive relationships and a tight-knit community
• has a sense of belonging and identification
• provides opportunities for skill-building, decision-making, and planning
• promotes social and cultural integration 

and, post-pandemic, they might also add that everyone has digital capability and digital literacy so that they are able to confidently gather and deploy the skills needed in the rapidly changing world..

Taking this resilience based and social/family centred approach to education allows us to radically reconsider what they might imagine schools and classrooms/learning environments to look like for young people with learning differences… the ‘bricks and mortar’ school based model may not be the only way to develop lifelong, resilient learners!

In 2020 Nisai Education Trust undertook an evidence-based inquiry into the Nisai Virtual Academy’s success in retaining young people with learning differences in education, and supporting them on the journey to Higher Education. This was partly driven by reports internationally that a significant number of neuro-diverse  learners were finding benefit from online approaches including; relief from the social stress of school, less bullying, a focus on learning, flexibility on when and where to learn and a significant decrease in levels of anxiety. 

Of the learners attending the Nisai Virtual Academy a third have identified Autistic Spectrum Conditions, 15% have identified specific learning difficulties and almost 60% acknowledged that they have intense anxiety or have identified social, emotional and mental health issues. 

The inquiry looked at academic learning and teaching, the development of personal resilience skills/attributes, and also the wellbeing provision experienced by the learners, all through the Universal Design for Learning framework. The findings – available through the Nisai Education Trust website – showed that the Virtual Academy provision met learner needs for a safe, positive, integrated learning environment where resilience could be developed and then applied. And that those young people who went onto further study at University and college had acquired those qualities of optimism, purpose and positive attachment that enabled them to be successful and keep on being successful. 

Now is a good time to start to rethink how they might further structure and develop the the learning experience around the need to grow long-term resilience, and to make the most of those technologies that bring learning to life in the homes and communities. By doing this they will not only be including learners in the ‘now’ of learning but also in  ‘future’ – lifelong – learning.