What kind of society does the resilient subject need? Exploring the role of resilience interventions in education

Abstract

Resilience interventions continue to be deployed in schools, as communities grapple with concerning mental health crises and contemporary global challenges, such as war, pandemic and climate change. Interest in resilience has given rise to independent, often not-for-profit, enterprises that package resilience training into programs offered in schools for a fee, often attracting public and private funding. Although there is little doubt that the resilience of our youth is of critical importance in these uncertain times, and interventions have achieved some positive outcomes, scholars have raised important points of contention around resilience as a concept, including its role in responsibilisation. Less frequently explored is the role of independent resilience practitioners engaged by schools in progressing social purposes of education and promoting a ‘successful self’ that advances these purposes. This paper critically explores these themes through examination of the marketing material, program information and learning activities of a popular resilience program in Australia, The Resilience Project (TRP). Specifically, this paper probes resilience interventions in connection with Biesta’s question: ‘what kind of society does the school need?’, asking who is the resilient subject in these programs, and what kind of society will a generation of these subjects create?.