Resilience

“The waves are really strong today and surfers are making the most of it.”“Even when they are knocked over or wiped out they still get up and continue to surf.”“This relates to the strength of resilience, even when we are knocked down, we are able to get up again. This strength exists because we have been brought up with many challenges in our lives ... one of the main strengths among today’s young people is resilience.”“We can support those who are experiencing challenges and provide them with the support they need to overcome the problems that they might face to help build their resilience.”Photographer: Liz SollyThis
photograph featured in the Youth Booth
exhibition showcasing the work of 10 Victorian young people produced over the
2019-2020 Australian summer. Their work captures their collective experience:
being digitally savvy, the stress of study, influence of social media, climate
change and the impact of poor mental health. These perspectives, along with our
video series produced alongside this, allow us to see the complex situations
that impact the youth experience of education.

For
schools, teachers, parents and policy-makers it highlights the importance of
listening and collaboration with young people, particularly when developing
policies and implementing practice to build more inclusive communities. For
researchers, we hope this exhibition highlights one way to use participatory
visual research methods to support and strengthen the voice of youth.

The
exhibition adopts a rights-based perspective which emphasises the importance
not only of listening to youth, but actively and authentically collaborating on
matters that directly affect them.

The
study was conducted by researchers Dr Christine Grove and Louisa Trainer in
2019-2020 at Monash University and is funded by the Monash Education Small
Grant Award.