Master in Resilience in Education

The Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Resilience in Educational Contexts - EMJM FLOURISH is a 2 years’ full-time innovative master programme that aims to build the capacity of educators and practitioners in creating resilience enhancing contexts which equip children and young people with the necessary resources and competencies to deal effectively with the challenges in their education and development.

It is offered by the University of Malta (leading partner), the University of Crete, Greece, the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and Stefan Cel Mare University, Suceava, Romania and supported by five other associated partners, Dalhousie University, Canada, Rijeka University, Croatia, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Orebro University, Sweden, University of Sao Paolo, Brazil, and the European School Psychology Training Centre. Course participants do 4 mobilities in at least 3 of the degree-awarding Universities.

During the master's programme, students will have the opportunity to study the following subjects and will be able to acquire the following knowledge and understanding:

Semester 1. Departament offering unit: Centre of Resilience & Socio-Emotional Health

• Resilience in human development - This study unit serves as an introduction to the whole Masters programme, and aims to introduce the health promotion and prevention framework; define the nature of resilience; describe the various theories and models of resilience; identify the risk and protective factors across various systems; and discuss the relevance of resilience education for children's and young people's overall development and growth.

Knowledge and understanding: - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Grasp the main principles and tenets of the health promotion and prevention science framework and its application to the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people
• Define resilience and trace its development from the notion of invulnerability to the
  individual-context transactional perspective
• Critically examine different approaches to resilience such as home, community, workplace, health and socio-economic development, examine and evaluate the main theories and models of resilience
• Identify the risk and protective factors for children and young people from adverse circumstances including trauma, poverty, ethnic minorities and forced migration
• Competence and pedagogy in resilience education - This study unit will provide course participants with an opportunity to critically consider the specific attitudes and skills to be cultivated in children and young people inside and outside the classroom as well as the relevant pedagogical approach for such attitudes and skills to be acquired. Resilience cannot be taught didactically as just another domain of knowledge

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Compare and contrast the differences between didactic and experiential approaches in teaching and learning in relation to resilience education
• Describe and analyse the use of the SAFE approach in socio-emotional teaching and learning
• Compare and contrast the different assessment methods required for assessment of knowledge, attitude and skills competences with reference to resilience
• Critically describe the skills that constitute the various competences including the areas of: Relationships and Communication, Growth Mindset, Self-determination, Building on Strengths, and Turning Challenges into Opportunities (Dealing with adversity, rejection, family conflict, loss, bullying, change and transitions).
• Planning, implementing and evaluating resilience programmes - This study unit introduces basic knowledge and skills for planning, implementation and evaluation of resilience programs and interventions using a variety of strategies. These competences will strengthen the capacity of educational professionals to implement resilience interventions with particular attention to implementation quality and to monitoring of the effects of the program. Furthermore students will develop skills on how to design a program/project plan that will make the adoption of a programme by an education system more feasible and sustainable.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Identify the methods used in the general planning model to develop a prevention/resilience program
• Define implementation quality and factors that influence implementation quality, including adaptation and program integrity
• Explain the importance of the school conditions and teacher resilience as well as school community readiness to change in order to successfully implement prevention and resilience programs
• Explain the importance of evaluation in prevention/resilience and identify the use of different types of evaluation
• A Systemic and Family Understanding of Resilience - This unit exposes students to different theories and models in the area of family therapy and systemic practice. It supports learning by including practice sessions in order to help students familiarize themselves further with systemic skills. Furthermore, this unit also enables students to reflect on different client populations/presenting difficulties, and the use of systemic skills/techniques as a form of intervention, especially keeping in mind children and young people in schools. Moreover, this unit will also include a systemic understanding of the school system and other multi-systemic contexts that form part of the broader socio-ecological environment.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Understand the theory pertaining to systemic practice.
• Use a systemic theoretical framework when understanding the complexities of working with different families and their presenting difficulties.
• Barriers to Learning Development - This study-unit will provide an opportunity for participants to deepen their understanding of barriers to learning arising from both within-child impairments and social and instructional inadequacies. It will include consideration of theory and research on the challenges arising from different forms of impairment and learning and social and emotional difficulties as well the impact of social attitudes, structures and processes within the social model of disability.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Demonstrate a deep and wide understanding of how various forms of impairment can become a source of hindrance to learning;
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the challenges and strengths that may be experienced by children and young people with sensory impairments;
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the challenges and strengths that may be experienced by children and young people with communication difficulties and autism spectrum conditions;

Semester 2. Departament offering unit: University of Crete, Greece

• Contextual Processes in Resilience Enhancement: Classroom and School Climates - This unit aims to address the most relevant topics related to the contextual processes in resilience enhancement in the school setting and familiarise course participants with:
• Core concepts in inclusive education and strategies to promote successful inclusive settings;
• The importance of cooperative learning and how to plan cooperative activities in the classroom;
• The importance of caring relationships in the resilience process and effective strategies to promote caring relationships in the classroom;
• Main behaviour explanatory models, functional behavioural analysis in the classroom and strategies to promote a positive classroom climate;
• The importance of identifying the need for extra support when dealing with students’ general and special needs.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Evaluate the importance of classroom and school climate for the enhancement of learners' resilience, making reference to the relevant literature on resilience education
• Identify the social and intellectual outcomes of cooperative learning and critically review the advantages of using cooperative learning strategies in resilience interventions
• Identify the main behaviour explanatory models and critically evaluate positive behaviour management strategies
• Critically discuss the importance of identifying the need for extra support of some students and ensure that they are met while avoiding stigmatization
• Working with Parents and Professionals in Enhancing Resilience - his study unit can help practitioners to take up successfully the development of collaboration with parents in the resilience education of their children. It will enable practitioners to engage with parents as key partners in the planning and implementation of resilience programmes at school, home and other relevant contexts.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Give a critical account of the literature on parental and community involvement in children's resilience education.
• Describe and analyse the different ways in which teachers can collaborate with the diversity of parents in the resilience education of their children.
• Describe ways in which community involvement can improve children's opportunity for resilient growth.
• Research Methods in Resilience Education - This study unit aims to enable course participants to develop a critical understanding of concepts and issues related to resilience research and the relevant skills for evaluating and conducting such research. It will enable participants to construct research questions related to resilience education and distinguish those requiring a quantitative, a qualitative or a mixed method design, to design relevant investigations using the appropriate methodology and data collection and analysis strategies, while addressing validity and generalisability issues, and following ethical research standards.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the practitioner-based inquiry, its’ theoretical framework under resilience education research
• Distinguish between research questions requiring a quantative, or qualitative, or mixed methodology design, between the different ways in which validity and generalisability are ensured in quantitative and qualitative research
• Demonstrate the ability to discriminate between different instruments, identifying the most useful in relation to the variables
• Selected Topics in Resilience and Applications in Individual Educational Needs - The study unit aims to cover applications of resilience research in education with a focus on children with special educational needs. Its goal is to help educators utilize applied knowledge and strategies on resilience building, with a focus on vulnerable populations such as children with special needs, including children with disability, migrant children. and chldren with emotional and behaviour difficulties.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Review critically relevant literature on the resilience and wellbeing of vulnerable children (e.g. special education needs: disability, migrant and refugee children, emotional and behaviour difficulties)
• Understand how the consultation process can help teachers resolve problematic situations in schools.
• Evaluate content areas in topics such as parent training and education and family resilience.
• Prevention Programs for Vulnerable Preschool and Elementary School Children - The study unit aims to connect existing literature on evidence-based interventions for young children with special education needs in the school and family contexts, so that educators can utilize such interventions to promote the children's well being and resilience. The overall goal of the study unit is to enable practitioners at school to design, implement and evaluate preventions programs tailored to the needs of school children, particularly young children in early years and primary school.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Identify the necessary steps in designing prevention programs for young children
• Understand the importance of the implementation stage in prevention programs and identify the practical strategies needed to ensure programme effectiveness for young vulnerable children
• Critical review current prevention programs for young and vulnerable children grasping their strengths and limitations

Semester 3. Departament offering unit: University of Lisbon, Faculty of Human Kinetics/ Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Faculty of Sciences of Education

• Strengthening the Resilience of Educational Professionals - This Study unit aims to support the resilience of practitioners in educational settings, by helping them to achieve effective coping strategies. Practitioner resilience could be a psychological process transforming the social and cultural negative contexts into opportunities for development. Practitioner resilience also serves as a role model for the learners. It has an influence on the affective and transversal competences, on the academic knowledge that could evolve into transformative knowledge.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Develop a deeper understanding of the ways to promote practitioners' resilience within the systemic, ecological resilience framework
• Describe factors which promote divergent thinking, creative process and collaborative behavious
• Identify the role of positivity in promoting growth and wellbeing
• Identify the way theoretical backgrounds could shape the practitioner role understanding
• Observation And Practice Placements I and II - This study unit, therefore, is necessary for the preparation of practitioners in applying the resilience competences in actual contexts with children and young people. It provides course participants to engage both in observation and application of the resilience competences covered in this programme.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Give a critical account of the most effective strategies in resilience education in their work setting.
• Give a critical account of the factors in the classroom, school or other contexts that enhance children’s and young persons' acquisition of resilience competences.
• Recognize own strengths and difficulties in facilitating resilience building in children and young people
• Organizational Relationships and Supportive Networking in Resilience Enhancement - This unit seeks to provide course participants with a deeper understanding of the processes involved in promoting resilience amongst educational professionals. Participants will have the opportunity to examine professional stress and analyse stress factors in individual professional life and on the organisational school climate. It will then discuss how professional networking may be utilised to help practitioners deal with stress and develop resilience.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Apply the resilience promotion framework to understand and promote the resilience and wellbeing of teachers through organizational climate;
• Identify the main risk and solutions through networking to promote the personal and professional development of the teachers;
• Apply the resilience framework to identify processes which help to promote the resilience and wellbeing of teachers and to became mentors for teachers.
• Identify the strategies in promoting resilience for school leadership.
• Positive Psychology in Education - This study unit aims to provide a deep and critical understanding of the application of positive psychology in education in order to promote a strength based approach in school, in contrast to the erstwhile deficit approaches in education. The main goal is to enable teachers, caregivers, parents and students to look for the strengths in their students and children and to use these to help them overcoming their vulnerabilities.

Knowledge and understanding - by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Define the main aspects of positive psychology
• Identify the principles of positive psychology within different life domains
• Identify the use of the positive psychology within educational settings
• Analyse and synthesise the main wellbeing and resilience theories and models emerging from positive psychology

Semester 4. Departament offering unit: University of Malta, University of Crete, University of Lisbon, Stefan cel Mare University Suceava

• Dissertation - The dissertation provides the opportunity to course participants to undertake practice based research (includes data collection and analysis) in an area related to the resilience and wellbeing of children and young people covered during the course, and contribute to the knowledge of the subject investigated. It should be completed during the third semester of the course and submitted as a dissertation of around 15,000-20,000 words. Students will also sit for an oral examination. Detailed guidelines on the proposal and completion of the dissertation and criteria and procedures for its examination will be made available on a dissertations guidelines document published at the beginning of the master’s degree.

Kills – by the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

• Identify and critically analyse the nature and importance of an original research question in their area of professional practice.
• Produce a scientific study in resilience, with appropriate conduction of the stages of planning, data collection, analysis and write-up.
• Demonstrate skill in carrying out an investigation in an area of professional work relevant to child/young people's resilience and wellbeing issues
• Demonstrate critical skills in the analysis of the limitations of one's own and others' related research work.
• Demonstrate competence in analysing ethical issues relevant to a particular investigation and in implementing the necessary ethical considerations and procedures.

This is the first international, Joint Master Degree in Resilience in Educational Contexts led by an international consortium of higher educational institutions, providing a unique opportunity for aspiring leaders in creating resilience enhancing educational contexts and systems.