Towards an understanding of resilience and experiential learning for young people in the context of uncertain futures and climate disruption

Potts, Monique Elizabeth

Towards an understanding of resilience and experiential learning for young people in the context of uncertain futures and climate disruption

Potts, Monique Elizabeth

Permalink

Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2024

Open Access

Copyright Clearance Process

Recently Added
In Progress
Open Access

This item is open access.

Adobe PDF

Download thesisAdobe PDF (33.41 MB)

View statistics

Full metadata record

Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Potts, Monique Elizabeth
dc.date.accessioned	2024-09-12T03:39:11Z
dc.date.available	2024-09-12T03:39:11Z
dc.date.issued	2024
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/180797
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. TD School.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	Young people in Australia are experiencing increasing challenges with their mental health and wellbeing. At least half are worried about the future, with the environment and climate change as primary concerns, and more than one in four experience significant psychological distress. The mental health of young people has been disproportionately impacted in recent years by ‘peak resilience’ events such as COVID-19, climate-induced natural disasters as well as the pace and scale of changes within our socio-cultural environment. This generation of young people has been described as the ‘canaries in the coalmine’ of a rapidly changing society as they grapple with the impact of social media, the changing future of work, loss of connection and belonging, confusion around image and identity and crumbling institutions. My research seeks to better understand the lived experience of young people in this context of increased uncertainty and climate disruption and proposes a paradigm shift in education to better prepare them for their future. My research methodologies combine participatory action research and awareness-based systems change, including interviews with educators and youth workers and a co-design process and pilot program in a secondary school in Sydney, Australia. The findings of my research inform a framework of relational meta-competencies designed to support resilience, which include adaptability, agency, compassion, creativity, interbeing and self-awareness. These relational meta-competencies were found to enable resilience in response to adverse experiences or circumstances, including the COVID-19 lockdowns, by strengthening relationships to self, community and nature. My research articulates a conceptual model of resilience as a conscious, active, dynamic process of interchange between a young person and their environment. This conceptual model of resilience and framework of relational meta-competencies draws on diverse disciplinary knowledges as well as taking inspiration from relational knowledge systems of Buddhism and the wisdom of First Nations Elders and scholars. A pilot program co-designed and delivered over a nine-month period with teachers and students explored the potential for developing resilience through a series of experiential learning modules focused on place-based learning, self-awareness and personal agency, storytelling and perspective, systems thinking and futures thinking. Evidence from my research demonstrates the benefits to students taking part in the pilot program as well as a change within the school system. The co-design process and pilot program offer a case study for a new paradigm of learning for uncertainty to promote greater resilience and wellbeing of young people.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en	en_US.UTF-8
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/180797/1/thesis.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2024 Monique Elizabeth Potts
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/cph
dc.title	Towards an understanding of resilience and experiential learning for young people in the context of uncertain futures and climate disruption	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

Young people in Australia are experiencing increasing challenges with their mental health and wellbeing. At least half are worried about the future, with the environment and climate change as primary concerns, and more than one in four experience significant psychological distress. The mental health of young people has been disproportionately impacted in recent years by ‘peak resilience’ events such as COVID-19, climate-induced natural disasters as well as the pace and scale of changes within our socio-cultural environment. This generation of young people has been described as the ‘canaries in the coalmine’ of a rapidly changing society as they grapple with the impact of social media, the changing future of work, loss of connection and belonging, confusion around image and identity and crumbling institutions. My research seeks to better understand the lived experience of young people in this context of increased uncertainty and climate disruption and proposes a paradigm shift in education to better prepare them for their future. My research methodologies combine participatory action research and awareness-based systems change, including interviews with educators and youth workers and a co-design process and pilot program in a secondary school in Sydney, Australia. The findings of my research inform a framework of relational meta-competencies designed to support resilience, which include adaptability, agency, compassion, creativity, interbeing and self-awareness. These relational meta-competencies were found to enable resilience in response to adverse experiences or circumstances, including the COVID-19 lockdowns, by strengthening relationships to self, community and nature. My research articulates a conceptual model of resilience as a conscious, active, dynamic process of interchange between a young person and their environment. This conceptual model of resilience and framework of relational meta-competencies draws on diverse disciplinary knowledges as well as taking inspiration from relational knowledge systems of Buddhism and the wisdom of First Nations Elders and scholars. A pilot program co-designed and delivered over a nine-month period with teachers and students explored the potential for developing resilience through a series of experiential learning modules focused on place-based learning, self-awareness and personal agency, storytelling and perspective, systems thinking and futures thinking. Evidence from my research demonstrates the benefits to students taking part in the pilot program as well as a change within the school system. The co-design process and pilot program offer a case study for a new paradigm of learning for uncertainty to promote greater resilience and wellbeing of young people.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/180797