Why do some young people manage to do well in school despite difficult home situations, poverty, migration, or other forms of vulnerability? In recent years, when discussing this question, you quickly end up talking about resilience. And it is true that some young people seem better able to cope with setbacks. They persevere, remain motivated, and somehow find their way.

But wait. There is a danger here. If we start seeing resilience mainly as something an individual has, or doesn’t have, it can very quickly become something a young person needs to develop. And suddenly we are putting the responsibility on the child who is already struggling! A new study by Sarah Gardezi and colleagues in Review of Education is an interesting reminder that things aren’t that simple.

The study is qualitative, so don’t expect effect sizes or causal claims. The researchers talked to eight young adults in Ireland who had faced quite a few difficulties while growing up, but nevertheless did well in education. All eight came from families with a low socioeconomic status and low levels of parental education. For some, there was more: migration and language barriers, growing up in a single-parent family, losing a parent, or being part of the Traveller community.

At the time of the study, they were between 22 and 28 years old. They had gone on to further education or were now working. The researchers didn’t only talk to them. For each of the eight, they also interviewed an adult whom the young person had identified as important in their educational journey.

This of course gives us eight very particular stories. And that is exactly the point of the study. Instead of looking at why vulnerable young people fail or drop out, the researchers looked at young people who had made it. What had helped them along the way?

Not just persevering

Four major groups of factors emerged from the interviews. First, there were, of course, characteristics of the young people themselves. They spoke about motivation, perseverance, clear goals, and a clear sense of direction. In addition, there were parents’ expectations and support, teachers’ emotional and academic support, and, finally, the role of friends and peers. Factors such as extracurricular activities, the neighbourhood, and financial support also sometimes played a role. …

According to the researchers, two elements recurred in every story.

The first was what parents expected from their children. Most of these parents were not highly educated themselves, which meant they couldn’t always help with schoolwork or show their children how to find their way into higher education. But they were very clear about one thing: education mattered. They encouraged their children and were proud when things went well, but perhaps most importantly, they believed they could succeed. In one form or another, the same message returned in almost all the stories: education comes first.

The second element was the relationship with teachers. And this was about much more than having a nice teacher. These were teachers who encouraged the young people, helped them when needed, gave feedback, or simply talked to them at the right moment. Sometimes it was something as small as a conversation in the corridor. We have known about the possible importance of such informal moments for quite some time, and here they popped up again.

What I found striking is that the teachers could still describe these students remarkably well seven to fifteen years later. They didn’t just remember how they had done at school. They also remembered what they had been struggling with at the time.

Resilience also exists between people

The researchers start from the idea that resilience isn’t simply something you have in you. It also depends on what happens around you. A young person may be motivated and persistent, but parents can strengthen this by showing that they believe in them. Teachers can help, friends can help, and it matters whether a school has high expectations. This is why the authors describe resilience as fundamentally relational. So instead of only asking how we can make vulnerable young people more resilient, we should perhaps also ask: what are we doing that can help them to be resilient?

Some of the examples in the study make this very concrete. One of the young people arrived in Ireland at the age of 10 without speaking English. Sport helped him connect with others and, along the way, pick up the language. Others received extra language support, personal feedback, or access to materials they didn’t have at home. And for some, something much more basic mattered too: financial support made it possible to go on to higher education.

But there is an important limitation

We have arrived at the traditional ‘but’ part of my blog posts. And just like any fine study, this one also has its limitations, the most important of which we call survivor bias.

These are just eight young people, and most importantly, they were chosen specifically because, despite having vulnerable backgrounds, they succeeded. In other words, they have overcome everything. It is unknown whether young people who eventually dropped out also had parents with high expectations and engaged teachers.

In addition, the participants describe their school years many years later. A person creates a narrative about their life after it is over, making it difficult to understand what really contributed to their future success.

Another intriguing limitation of the research is worth noting. Of the eight young people, three named their parents as the most important to their success, but those parents could not be interviewed. In such a case, the researchers interviewed the teachers. The authors themselves note that, as a consequence, the significance of the teachers in the results became somewhat exaggerated.