It’s Not Just the Last Straw: Reframing Resilience as an Embodied Resource

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 13. Higher Education: Retention, Identity and Belonging

Abstract

The concept of resilience permeates much of the programming aimed at student persistence, drawing on scholarly formulations of resilience as an individual capacity. Instead, we imagine resilience as an “embodied resource”, pointing to the necessary condition that, to be resilient, we must have the resources - whether external, such as social support, or internal, such as faith – which must be taken in and activated. Additionally, we focus on chronic stressors, such as racism, more deeply by categorizing them as being in quiescent or active states. To develop our model, we draw on qualitative analysis of annual, in-depth interviews with 26 successful life science PhD students, 24 of whom come from one or more groups acknowledged to experience chronic strains when undertaking science training including women, LGBTQ students, and students of color. Qualitative analysis spanning eight years over their PhD training allows us to detail the myriad ways they experienced acute and chronic strain, marshaled resources, and deployed those resources. We argue that such a formulation is especially useful for understanding the experiences of people whose lives require the deployment of resilience every day, such as people living with chronic discrimination, in poverty, or with other consistent and challenging circumstances, while proceeding toward a goal.

Authors

• J. Lynn Gazley, The College of New Jersey

• Patricia B. Campbell, Campbell-Kibler Associates