By Lori McGraw, OSU College of Health
I recently joined OSU’s 25 Year Club, though I have taught at this institution for 30 years, including my time as a graduate student instructor. I am a committed Beaver Believer. Despite my commitment to our university and students, I sometimes become disheartened. I have weathered multiple challenges with students over the years (e.g., 9/11, the Great Recession, COVID-19, increases in student mental health problems, & more). I came to the Resilient Teaching Faculty Learning Community with some wisdom but also with a desire to re-energize my teaching practice with others who care about teaching and learning. Based on insights from developmental science and concepts provided in our community, I offer suggestions for developing students’ resiliency and capacity to persist and thrive.
What is resilience?
Resilience is a process that brings about successful coping and recovery from adversity, trauma, or significant stress and hardship. Resilience is not just a characteristic within an individual but also is influenced by ways in which individuals view and engage with the world, the availability and quality of social relationships, and coping strategies used to manage stress.
What influences resilience?
Developmental science highlights that there are multiple pathways toward adaptation to adversity and these pathways are influenced by an individual’s vulnerability and sensitivity to the context, cumulative risk over time, and protective factors that increase the likelihood for resilience (Masten, 2011; Masten & Narayan, 2012). Contexts include interactions among individual, familial, communal, and larger social systems that affect vulnerability and resilience (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). Examples of larger social systems include interconnected forms of oppression, such as racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and others (e.g., Crenshaw, 1991).
According to Quintana & DeVaney (2020), fostering resiliency through teaching requires “the ability to facilitate learning experiences that are designed to be adaptable to fluctuating conditions and disruptions. Additionally, they necessitate the capacity to rethink the design of learning experiences based on a nuanced understanding of context.” I agree wholeheartedly. Here are some tips for creating resilient learning communities:
Show up for your students
Showing up means that you bring your whole self—your mental and emotional energy—to the classroom so that you can build what Brené Brown calls a Daring Classroom. Our thoughts and feelings, our brains and our bodies, are deeply intertwined with our relationships with one another. As Felten & Lambert (2020) contend, “Relationships are the beating heart of the undergraduate experience.”
Bolster teaching presence
One way to foster relationships in the classroom is to bolster teaching presence. According to Vygotsky (1978), effective teaching and learning is a collaborative process in which the construction of knowledge is created in social groups. When critical reflection and dialogue are encouraged and practiced, shared creation and discovery of knowledge occur (Schrage, 1995). This co-creation of knowledge has been called a community of inquiry (Dewey, 1938; Lipman, 2003), and is comprised of three interrelated dimensions: teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000).
Teaching presence is the intentional facilitation of learning through intellectual challenge and stimulation, contributing to the development and maintenance of a community of inquiry. Skills to create a group consciousness, such as drawing in less active participants and facilitating educational transaction are key to teaching presence (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000). Research has shown that students learn when they are motivated to do so and when others inspire them, including their teachers (Feldman, 1998).
Build social presence
Social presence, defined as the authentic and humanized representation of self, plays a pivotal role in enriching the learning experiences for students (Pacansky-Brock, 2017). The skills of empathy (understanding when students need extra support) and awareness (knowing your students) are key to increasing social presence or humanizing the learning experience, especially for online students (Pacansky-Brock, 2017). Empirical evidence suggests that cognitive presence is more effectively sustained when social presence is established (Fabro & Garrison, 1998).
Understand the context
Students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, such as first-generation, economically disadvantaged, African American, Native American and Hispanic populations, face disproportionate emotional and structural challenges in higher education, often resulting in lower retention and degree attainment rates (e.g., Irizarry, 2012). Instructor engagement and relational strategies have a demonstrable impact on the academic performance and persistence of these students (Kinzie, Gonyea, Shoup, & Kuh, 2008). Establishing both social and teaching presence is vital for fostering a sense of inclusion, especially when instructors employ culturally responsive practices that resonate with students’ lived experiences (Anderson & Adams, 1992; Baxter-Magdola, 1992).
Showing up for students, building meaningful relationships with them, and understanding the context within which they live will increase their ability to solve difficult problems and navigate an increasingly complex world.
References
Anderson, J. A. & Adams, M. (1992). Acknowledging the learning styles of diverse populations: Implications for instructional design. In L. Border & N.V.N Chism (Eds.), New directions for teaching and learning: No. 49. Teaching for diversity (pp. 19-33). Jossey-Bass.
Baxter-Magdola, M. B. (1992). Knowing and reasoning in college: Gender-related patterns in students’ intellectual development. Jossey-Bass.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (Ed.). (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. Sage Publications Ltd.
Crenshaw, K. W. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43 (6), 1241-1299. doi: 10.2307/1229039.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Touchstone.
Fabro, K. T., & Garrison, D. R. (1998). Computer conferencing and higher-order learning. Indian Journal of Open Learning, 7(1), 41-54.
Feldman, K. A. (1998), Identifying exemplary teachers and teaching: Evidence from student ratings. In K.A. Feldman & M. B. Paulsen (Eds.), Teaching and learning in the college classroom (2nd ed., pp. 391-414). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Felten, P., & Lambbert, L. M. (2020). Relationship-rich education: How human connections drive success in college. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., and Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2, (2-3) 87-105.
Irizarry, J. G. (2012). Los caminos: Latino/a youth forging pathways in pursuit of higher education. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 11 (3), 291-309. DOI: 10.1177/1538192712446322.
Kinsey, J., Gonyea, R., Shoup, R., & Kuh, G. D. (2008) Promoting persistence and success of underrepresented students: Lessons for teaching and learning. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 115, 21-38. DOI: 10.1002/tl.323.
Lipman, M. (2003). Thinking in education. (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Masten, A. S. (2011) Resilience in children threatened by extreme adversity: Frameworks for research, practice and translational synergy. Development and Psychopathology, 23(2), 493-506. doi:10.1017/S0954579411000198
Masten, A. S. & Narayan, A. J. (2012). Child development in the context of disaster, war, and terrorism: Pathways of risk and resilience. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 227-57. psych.annualreviews.org
Pacansky-Brock, M. (2017). Best practices for teaching with emerging technologies (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Schreage, M. (1995). No more teams!: Mastering the dynamics of creative collaboration. Currency Doubleday.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
About the author: Lori McGraw is a Senior Instructor II in Human Development and Family Sciences. She has designed and facilitated 24 unique undergraduate or graduate courses—in face-to-face, online, slash, and hybrid formats. In order to support students in their struggle to define who they are and how they will relate to others, professionally and personally, Lori focuses on (a) high impact teaching pedagogy, (b) social justice, equity and inclusion, (c) excellence in online teaching, and (d) curriculum leadership.
Editor’s note: This is the final post in a series of guest posts about resilience and teaching strategies by members of the Fall ’25 Resilient Teaching Faculty Learning Community facilitated by CTL. The opinions expressed in guest posts are solely those of the author.
Top image generated with Microsoft Copilot.
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