Coping diversity

International School Health Network: http://www.internationalschoolhealth.org/

The Education Workforce Initiative: http://educationcommission.org/education-workforce-initiative/

• Teacher wellbeing in low resource communities
• Student wellbeing in Africa
• Relationship-resourced resilience
• Schools and health education
• School-based psychological health

This study has been selected by academics in the African Deans of Education network and it provides a model for translating research from a PhD into usable knowledge for teachers.

3*

The study has high transferability in high-risk, low-resource educational contexts.  The concept that different communities have different strategies for dealing with challenges in their environment is an important concept for teachers to understand. The case in this guide is from a community in South Africa. We welcome summaries of other similar work so that we can look for similarities and differences in communities. Adding cases from different settings would strengthen the Transferability rating.

3*

The strength of evidence in this study, whilst conducted within a bounded system, is strong for practitioners in developing country contexts.  Due to the high level of descriptiveness in this study, the findings are especially useful for teachers and educational psychologists working within similar paradigms on the continent of Africa.

In the study an individual’s environment was considered as multi-dimensional. Teaching professionals and educational psychologists should embrace the multi-dimensional nature of learners’ environments by taking into consideration the following dimensions:

• cultural dimensions
• social dimensions
• physical dimensions (including socio-economic factors, infrastructure and location)

All of us have certain knowledge systems from which our choices and behaviour stem. For this specific study the knowledge system was indigenous in nature, and accordingly indigenous knowledge systems formed an important part of understanding the coping behaviours of the participants. Indigenous knowledge systems refers to “the total knowledge and skills a specific group of people in a specific location possess which enables them to manage and benefit from their environment as much as possible” (Odora Hoppers, 2008, p.29).

Cicchetti, D. & Curtis, J. (2007). Multilevel perspectives on pathways to resilient functioning. Development and Psychopathology. 19, 627-629. doi: 10.1017/S0954579407000314

Similar to coping resources, sources of stress (adversity) can be located within a person (intrapersonal), between people (interpersonal) or located within the physical environment. Adversity can also be episodic or chronic (Ebersöhn, 2013).

Aldwin, C. M. (2007). Stress, coping, and development: An integrative perspective (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Kim, U., Yang, K. S. & Hwang, K. K. (2006). Contributions to Indigenous and Cultural Psychology. In U. Kim, K. S. Yang & K. K. Hwang (Eds.), Indigenous and Cultural Psychology: Understanding People in Context (pp. 3-25). New York, NY: Springer.