Safeguarding student wellbeing in challenging times

The well-being of students in higher education has been a rising concern amongst researchers and educators with students reporting elevated levels of stress, increased levels of suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression and burnout.  As the world continues to be influenced by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), resilience building has been argued in the literature as a skill that should be taught to safeguard students’ long-term wellbeing.

Higher education Institutions now need to re-orient toward a proactive approach to meet their duty of care for students’ wellbeing and to remain relevant and competitive. Yet, resilience in HE remains an emerging field that has been found to lack conceptual clarity and methodological rigour, with limited research available on how to enhance student resilience.

In 2023, we embarked on a study that seeks to develop a simple, multi-step resilience building technique that educators can easily embed in their teaching and students apply in their everyday lives. We define resilience as dynamic process of drawing upon resources in order to recover or achieve positive functioning and mental health in the face of adversity.

A technique borrowed from the social sciences

A little over a decade ago, researchers Case and Hunter (2012) developed a three-step adaptive responding technique observed to enhance the wellbeing of marginalised African American high school students, which was subsequently applied to minority groups including the LGBTQIA community and refugees & migrants.  They argue that individuals who feel marginalised and discriminated against can apply the technique to improve their psychological wellbeing. It is suggested that, even in the midst of oppressive societal conditions, mini ecological revolutions exist to provide individuals security, solidarity, hope, respite, and healing (ibid). This technique entails three steps:

1. Narrative identity work – to affirm one’s subjective experience of adversity;
2. Acts of resistance – to develop a vision of an alternative future, instil a sense of hope and celebrate the positives; and
3. Direct relational transactions – to foster empathy and security through a shared sense of community.

In our study, we will critically examine how the adaptive responding technique can be applied in a higher education teaching and learning setting to facilitate the building of resilience and wellbeing of students. The study will utilise an adaptive response protocol based on Case and Hunter (2012), taking into consideration aspects of learning and teaching, employability and VUCA.

How will the study work in practice?

In this study, the treatment group will attend an adaptive response protocol workshop, with the control group taking part in a workshop unrelated to resilience. The volunteers will be given some collateral to bring home and encouraged to refer to them at least once a week – for example, a mnemonic akin to DRSABCD in First Aid for the treatment group, and something unrelated to resilience for the control group. In two to four weeks’ time, the resilience level of the sample will be measured again to gauge the efficacy of the adaptive response protocol.

Keeping it simple for everyone

This study makes a practical contribution by proposing a simple yet scientifically sound resilience building tool that would be easy to understand and implement for both educators and students alike. We emphasise the importance of simplicity because students have to be able to understand and recall the technique easily before they could use it at a time of distress. Educators in higher education are well-placed to provide early intervention, equipping students with resilience skills that they can use not just during their studies, but for the rest of their lives.

Authors:

• Ruth Friedmann, Lecturer, International College of Management Sydney,
• Assoc. Prof. Emma Wong, Academic Director, University of Tasmania

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