By Jenny Jackson, Clinical Associate Professor, College of Health
Resilience. It’s achieved buzzword status in recent years, something we are encouraged to possess (resilience) or strive to be (resilient). According to the American Psychological Association, resilience is “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.” As a participant in the Resilient Teaching Faculty Learning Community this fall, I spent a lot of time reflecting on resilience and teaching resilience. In so doing, my perspective shifted from viewing resilience primarily as an outcome to embracing resilience as a process.
Resilient teaching, in my view, is teaching in such a way that supports both the student and the educator in the process of building resilience. As I considered how to incorporate resilient teaching strategies into my nutrition counseling courses, I realized that I want to show up for our dietetics students in the same way that I am training them to show up for their future patients and clients. I want to support them in the process of resilience using the same approaches often used in nutrition counseling to facilitate the process of health behavior change.
Relationships and vulnerability are at the heart of resilience (as for the counseling process). Having strong relationships, a sense of agency, and a growth mindset can build resilience. When we feel seen, heard, and supported, we can build resilience. When we are thriving, socially and emotionally, is when we witness resilience. How are we supporting our students to build resilience?
My students learn how to coach patients and clients using Motivational Interviewing (MI). MI is a client-centered, strengths-based approach to behavior change, “a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication.” In addition to MI techniques, such as using open-ended questions and reflective listening, one of the most powerful aspects of MI is the spirit, which involves compassion, acceptance, partnership, and evocation.
Honoring the spirit of MI in our relationships with students might look something like this: When a student needs support, we offer compassion by focusing on what is best for the student. The student can trust that we will put their needs before our own. We show acceptance by conveying our belief in the inherent worth of the student; by expressing empathy; by promoting the student’s autonomy; by affirming the student’s efforts and strengths. We work in partnership with the student such that the relationship feels like a collaboration rather than an expert vs. student imbalance of power. We evoke the student’s ideas about what type of support they may need from us.
Given the common perspective that resilience is all we need to thrive during uncertain times, it seems imperative to nudge ourselves to check our privilege when thinking and talking about resilience. Resilience is not something we “should” have nor is it equally accessible for everyone. Resilience must be considered in context with other factors, such as social determinants. Resilience is not a reason to tell others or ourselves to “be strong.” The last thing an individual, family, or community enduring trauma needs is the push to “be resilient.” Resilience stems from surviving through and growing from challenging times.
Our resilience is threatened when the demands on us outweigh our capacity to handle them. With finals week and winter holidays on the horizon, on top of ongoing humanitarian crises in our global community, it’s a time when many of us feel anything but resilient. We can help our students and ourselves by leaning into the process of building resilience, trusting that the outcomes will be successful so long as we keep showing up and asking for support when we need it.
About the author: Jenny Jackson, Ph.D., M.S., RDN, CHWC is a Clinical Associate Professor of Nutrition and Director of the OSU Dietetic Internship Programs. She is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Health and Well-being Coach. Jenny’s research interests include community-based and epidemiological investigations focused on food security and the promotion of healthy eating and physical activity behaviors across the lifespan. Her current projects address food insecurity among U.S. college students. Previous projects include development of family-home and school environmental assessment tools that help researchers understand environmental conditions that enable or hinder healthy eating and physical activity behaviors.
Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of guest posts about resilience and teaching strategies by members of the Fall ’23 Resilient Teaching Faculty Learning Community facilitated by CTL and UIT-Academic Technologies. The opinions expressed in guest posts are solely those of the authors.
Photo: Pink flowers by Edward Howell on Unsplash
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