A Focus on Hope: Fifty Resilient Students Speak

(Paperback)

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Over the course of ten years, this extensive qualitative study focused on the academic resilience phenomenon. The research delves into the educational resilience experiences of fifty low socioeconomic students of color from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. In addition to chronicling specific protective factors and processes active in the students' lives, several symbiotic relationships between groups of protective factors are documented and explored. A Resilience Cycle theory, which was chronicled in previous works of the authors, is used as a framework to view essential elements of the students' academic success. Ultimately, the data and findings are used to propose practical suggestions for promoting academic resilience in at-risk youth nationwide. Furthermore, because one author specializes in education and the other in psychology, both of these disciplines are brought to bear on this crucial and understudied topic.

Reviews

An excellent resource for educational professionals seeking to reach out to their most disadvantaged students, A Focus on Hope is sorely needed, especially in the tough economic times today when education is more vital than ever to securing a stable and rewarding future. Highly recommended. * Midwest Book Review *

Author Bio

Erik E. Morales, PhD. is associate professor of education at New Jersey City University's Deborah Cannon Partridge Wolfe College of Education, in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. He has written and presented extensively on academic resilience and achievement.
Frances K. Trotman, PhD. is professor of psychology in the Department of Psychological Counseling at Monmouth University, located in West Long Branch, New Jersey. She has over thirty years of teaching, research, and counseling experience. She has focused extensively on issues of educationally equity and African American mental health issues.