Shifting the Resilience Narrative: A Qualitative Study of Resilience in the Canadian Post-secondary Context

Resilience has been championed as important for mitigating stressors and challenges experienced by students during post-secondary education, as evidenced by the abundance of programs aimed at enhancing student resilience. Despite growing attention to resilience, there continues to be a lack of consensus about the definition or operationalization of the concept. Even less is known about how to foster resilience in the post-secondary context, especially for marginalized or underrepresented students, who are recognized to be at increased risk for negative mental health outcomes during their post-secondary education. To address these gaps, we employed qualitative methodology to explore marginalized or underrepresented students’ perceptions of resilience. Findings demonstrated that resilience arises from a complex and dynamic interplay between personal skills and attitudes and resources available within students’ communities. Post-secondary institutions are called to shift from individual student responsibility to a collective and shared responsibility for students’ wellbeing in the face of adversity.