Page 149 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Training Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 149
preventing esl by enhancing resiliency
and contexts; (ii) learning to read early and fluently; (iii) having a parent or
carer who valued education and saw it as the route to a good life; (iv) hav-
ing friends outside care who did well at school; (v) developing out-of-school
interests and hobbies (which also helped to increase social skills and bring
them into contact with a wider range of non-care people); (vi) meeting a
significant adult who offered consistent support and encouragement and
acted as a mentor and possibly a role model; and (vii) attending school reg-
ularly (Jackson & Martin, 1998).
As we can see, numerous protective factors are related to overall posi-
tive development and also educational success and so an answer on how to
use these protective factors in preventing ESL is not straightforward.
Resilience enhancement
Some examples of possible ways to enhance protective factors are present-
ed on both the contextual and individual level. The idea behind it is that,
instead of focusing on the potential weaknesses and identifying potential
ESLers, we should instead focus on developing protective factors that can
offer protection against adverse situations (Hupfeld, 2007).
Contextual level
Contexts (such as family, school, community, peers…) play a significant
role in resilience enhancement (Motti-Stefanidi, 2015). One of the strongest
protective factors is a positive relationship with at least one adult (Walsh,
2016). For instance, when researchers (Jackson & Martin, 1998) in a school
setting compared high achievers and a comparison group at the level of
encouragement to go into further education by a parent or a significant
adult, they found that the high achievers were given greater encouragement
in general than the comparison group. Parents or carers of high achiev-
ers were significantly more likely to attend school events and show an in-
terest in the child’s educational progress than those in the less successful
comparison group. In more detail, parental expectations were found to
be more important than parental aspirations, suggesting that aspirations
alone are not as effective in changing behaviour as expectations are. The
level of educational expectation is related to the support and guidance, e.g.
parents who expect their children to stay in school pay more attention to
their schooling and provide more support. Alternatively, children and ad-
olescents whose parents expect them to stay in school also have their own
149
and contexts; (ii) learning to read early and fluently; (iii) having a parent or
carer who valued education and saw it as the route to a good life; (iv) hav-
ing friends outside care who did well at school; (v) developing out-of-school
interests and hobbies (which also helped to increase social skills and bring
them into contact with a wider range of non-care people); (vi) meeting a
significant adult who offered consistent support and encouragement and
acted as a mentor and possibly a role model; and (vii) attending school reg-
ularly (Jackson & Martin, 1998).
As we can see, numerous protective factors are related to overall posi-
tive development and also educational success and so an answer on how to
use these protective factors in preventing ESL is not straightforward.
Resilience enhancement
Some examples of possible ways to enhance protective factors are present-
ed on both the contextual and individual level. The idea behind it is that,
instead of focusing on the potential weaknesses and identifying potential
ESLers, we should instead focus on developing protective factors that can
offer protection against adverse situations (Hupfeld, 2007).
Contextual level
Contexts (such as family, school, community, peers…) play a significant
role in resilience enhancement (Motti-Stefanidi, 2015). One of the strongest
protective factors is a positive relationship with at least one adult (Walsh,
2016). For instance, when researchers (Jackson & Martin, 1998) in a school
setting compared high achievers and a comparison group at the level of
encouragement to go into further education by a parent or a significant
adult, they found that the high achievers were given greater encouragement
in general than the comparison group. Parents or carers of high achiev-
ers were significantly more likely to attend school events and show an in-
terest in the child’s educational progress than those in the less successful
comparison group. In more detail, parental expectations were found to
be more important than parental aspirations, suggesting that aspirations
alone are not as effective in changing behaviour as expectations are. The
level of educational expectation is related to the support and guidance, e.g.
parents who expect their children to stay in school pay more attention to
their schooling and provide more support. Alternatively, children and ad-
olescents whose parents expect them to stay in school also have their own
149
