Preview

Educational Policy

Advanced search

Research on Resilient Schools: New Perspective

Abstract

The article examines the emergence, current status and prospects of Russian studies of school resilience. It is proposed that research has reached a frontier that can be overcome using new theoretical and methodological approaches.
The ecosystem, sociocultural approach and proactivity (agency) theories are considered as such. It is demonstrated how the use of these approaches to the analysis of existing knowledge about resilient schools allows us to better understand the conditions, mechanisms of formation and dynamics of resilience, as well as to build a balanced policy of supporting schools in adverse conditions.

About the Author

S. G. Kosaretsky
Moscow State University of Psychology and Education
Russian Federation

Sergey G. Kosaretsky - PhD in Psychology

29, Sreteneka Str., Moscow, 127051 



References

1. Acevedo, V. E., & Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2014). Vicarious resilience: An exploration of teachers and children’s resilience in highly challenging social contexts. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 23(5), 473–493. doi: 10.1080/ 10926771.2014.904468

2. Agasisti, T., Avvisati, F., Borgonovi, F., & Longobardi, S. (2018). Academic resilience: What schools and countries do to help disadvantaged students succeed in PISA. OECD Education Working Papers, 167. OECD.

3. Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.1

4. Best, S. (2025). Unleashing Greatness: A Strategy for School Improvement. British Journal of Educational Studies, 73(4), 553–561. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2025.2458941

5. Borazon, E. Q., & Chuang, H. H. (2023). Resilience in educational system: A systematic review and directions for future research. International Journal of Educational Development, 99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102761

6. Brooks, J. E. (2006). Strengthening resilience in children and youths: Maximizing opportunities through the schools. Children & Schools, 28(2), 69–76. https://doi.org/10.1093/cs/28.2.69

7. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American psychologist, 32(7), 513. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003–066X.32.7.513

8. Bryan, J. (2005). Fostering educational resilience and achievement in urban schools through school-family-community partnerships. Professional School Counseling, 8(3), 219–227. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42732462

9. Chapman, C., Armstrong, P., Harris, A., Muijs, D., Reynolds, D., & Sammons, P. (2012). School effectiveness and improvement research, policy, and practice: Challenging the orthodoxy? https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203136553

10. Christie, P., & Potterton, M. (1999). Resilient schools: A South African study. Creating people centred schools: school organisation and change in South Africa. In J. Gultig, D. Butler (Eds.). SAIDE. https://www.oerafrica.org/system/files/2024–01/creating-people-centred-schools.pdf

11. Chu, W. (2018). Resilience in education: concepts, contexts and connections. In M. Wosnitza, F. Peixoto, S. Beltman, F. Caroline, & M. Cham (Eds.). Springer.

12. Coe, R., & Fitz-Gibbon, C. T. (1998). School Effectiveness Research: criticisms and recommendations. Oxford Review of Education, 24(4), 421–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305498980240401

13. Day, C. (2014). Resilient principals in challenging schools: the courage and costs of conviction. Teachers and Teaching, 20(5), 638–654. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2014.937959

14. Demerath, P. (2018). The emotional ecology of school improvement culture: Charged meanings and common moral purpose. Journal of Educational Administration, 56(5), 488–503. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-01–2018–0014

15. Edmonds, R. R. (1979). Effective Schools for the Urban Poor. https://files.ascd.org/staticfiles/ascd/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_197910_edmonds.pdf

16. Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998). What is agency? American Journal of Sociology, 103(4), 962–1023. https://doi.org/10.1086/231294

17. Flinn, S. (2020). Ecosystems of educational disadvantage: Supporting children and young people receiving child protection and welfare services in Ireland. Social Work & Social Sciences Review, 21(3), 45–69. https://doi.org/10.1921/swssr.v21i3.1359

18. Fullan, M. (2016). The elusive nature of whole system improvement in education. Journal of educational change,17, 539–544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833–016–9289–1

19. Gehring, T., & Marx, J. (2023). Group Actors. Why Social Science Should Care About Collective Agency. Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 48(3), 7–39. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27221352

20. Gibbon, C. T. (1998). School Effectiveness Research: criticisms and recommendations. Oxford Review of Education, 24(4), 421–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305498980240401

21. van de Grift, W., & Houtveen, T. (2007). Weaknesses in Underperforming Schools. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 12(4), 383–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/10824660701758942

22. Harris, A. (2010). Effective Leadership in Challenging Schools. International Encyclopedia of Education (Third Edition), 777–782. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978–0–08–044894–7.00448–6

23. Harris, D. (2007). High-flying schools, student disadvantage, and the logic of NCLB. American Journal of Education, 113(3), 367–394. https://doi.org/10.1086/512737

24. Henderson, N., & Milstein, M. (2003). Resiliency in Schools: Making It Happen for Students and Educators. Corwin Press.

25. Honig, M. I., & Hatch, T. C. (2004). Crafting Coherence: How Schools Strategically Manage Multiple, External Demands. Educational Researcher, 33(8), 16–30. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X033008016

26. Husband, T., & Hunt, C. (2015). A review of the empirical literature on No Child Left Behind from 2001 to 2010. Planning and Changing, 46, 212–254.

27. de Klerk, W., le Grange, J. J. P., de Klerk, M., & Pretorius, J. (2020). Guidelines for promoting organisational resilience in South African schools. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 30(4), 362–368. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1796023

28. Kuperminc, G., Wilkins, N., Roche, C., & Álvarez Jiménez, A. (2009). Risk, resilience and positive development among Latino youth. In J. M. Grau, F. A. Villarruel, T. J. Chahin, N. J. Cabrera, & M. Azmitia (Eds.), Handbook of U. S. Latino psychology: Developmental and community-based perspectives (pp. 213–233).

29. Lerner, R. M. (2006). Resilience as an attribute of the developmental system: Comments on the papers of Professors Masten & Wachs. Annals of the New York academy of sciences, 1094(1), 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1376.005

30. Masten, A. S., Tyrell, F. A., & Cicchetti, D. (2023). Resilience in development: Pathways to multisystem integration. Development and Psychopathology, 35(5), 2103–2112. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579423001293

31. Mikhailova, A., Zviagintsev, R., Pinskaya, М., & Anderson, L. (2023). Differences in school effectiveness between resilient and struggling Russian schools. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2023.2254736

32. Naicker, I., Grant, C., & Pillay, S. (2016). Schools performing against the odds: Enablements and constraints to school leadership practice. South African Journal of Education, 36(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v36n4a1321

33. Parker, G. (2016). An ecological approach to teacher agency: a theoretical overview. Annual Review of Education, Communication & Language Sciences, 13.

34. Patterson, J. L., & Kelleher, P. (2005). Resilient school leaders: Strategies for turning adversity into achievement. ASCD.

35. Phillips, M. D., Turner, M. G., & Holt, T. J. (2014). Exploring resiliency within schools: An investigation of the effects of protective factors. Youth & Society, 46(1), 89–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X11425644

36. Pinskaya, M., Kosaretsky, S., Zvyagintsev, R., & Derbishire, N. (2018). Building resilient schools in Russia: effective policy strategies. School Leadership & Management, 39(2), 127–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2018.1470501

37. Rutter, M. (1987). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. American journal of orthopsychiatry, 57(3), 316–331. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939–0025.1987.tb03541.x

38. Rutter, M., Maughan, B., Mortimore, P., Ouston, J., & Smith, A. (1979). Fifteen Thousand Hours: Secondary Schools and Their Effects on Children. Harvard University Press.

39. Sammons, P., Hillman, J., & Mortimore, P. (1995). Key Characteristics of Effective Schools: A Review of School Effectiveness Research. University of London, Institute of education.

40. Sandoval l-Hernández, A., & Białowolski, P. (2016). Factors and conditions promoting academic resilience: a TIMSS-based analysis of five Asian education systems. Asia Pacific Education Review, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564–016–9447–4

41. Schelvis, R. M. C. et al. (2014). Exploring teacher and school resilience as a new perspective to solve persistent problems in the educational sector. Teachers and Teaching, 20(5), 622–637. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2014.937962

42. Siebecke, D. E., & Jarl, M. (2022). Does the material well-being at schools successfully compensate for socioeconomic disadvantages? Analysis of resilient schools in Sweden. Large-scale assessments in education, 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40536–022–00130-y

43. Silva, A. M., & Silva, S. M. (2022). Resilient schools: indicators from literature and border schools’ projects. Cadernos de Pesquisa, 52, https://doi.org/10.1590/198053148438_en%0D

44. Udehn, L. (2002). The Changing Face of Methodological Individualism. Annual Review of Sociology, 28(1), 479–07. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.140938

45. Ungar, M., Theron, L., & Höltge, J. (2023). Multisystemic approaches to researching young people’s resilience: Discovering culturally and contextually sensitive accounts of thriving under adversity. Development and Psychopathology, 35(5), 2199–2213. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579423000469

46. Ungar, M. (ed.). (2021). Multisystemic resilience: Adaptation and transformation in contexts of change. Oxford University Press.

47. Wang, M. C., Haertel, G. D., & Walberg, H. J. (1998). Educational Resilience. Publication Series, 11.

48. Whitney, S. D., Maras, M. A., & Schisler, L. J. (2012). Resilient schools: Connections between districts and schools. Middle Grades Research Journal, 7(3), 35–50.

49. Zumpe, E. (2024). School improvement at the next level of work: the struggle for collective agency in a school facing adversity. Journal of Educational Change, 25, 485–529. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833–023–09500-x


Review

For citations:


Kosaretsky S.G. Research on Resilient Schools: New Perspective. Educational Policy. 2025;21(2):108-119. (In Russ.)

Views: 72

JATS XML


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 2078-838X (Print)
ISSN 2949-0987 (Online)