Resilience and Intercultural Education on Secondary School: A Comparative Study in Mexico and Germany

• Main Authors: Octaviano García Robelo, Ileana Casasola Pérez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) 2017-05-01
• Series: BCES Conference Books
• Subjects: resilience; intercultural education; secondary school
• Online Access: http://bces-conference-books.org/onewebmedia/2017.052-058.Octaviano.Garcia_Ileana.Casasola.pdf

This paper presents one product of a research report about the promotion of resilience in the school setting in two public secondary schools, located in Mexico and Germany, and its relation with the pupils’ multiculturalism. The paper focuses on the need of the results’ analysis to identify the school actors’ perceptions of the promotion of resilience at the secondary school, in contexts where pupils’ cultural characteristics are highly diverse. The theoretical guidelines are linked to resilience research, especially research focusing on resilience in schools, as well as to studies on intercultural education. A mixed method was used; it is a dual comparison in two geographical, economic, political and cultural different national contexts, where the analysis unit was “the school”. Research was conducted with secondary schools’ principals, including the teaching staff, from both schools and with a first graders group on Telesecundaria 42, in Hidalgo, Mexico, and one group of the same grade from a Realschule in NRW, Germany. The results provide significant data that show a strong nexus between students’ and teachers’ perceptions of resilience development at the school. This article focuses on resilience promoting factors. It was concluded that positive emotional relationships between students and teachers build resilience and decrease risks of failure and dropout.