Participatory research: promoting school resilience within the context of a creeping crisis

This research concerns the third and final phase within the project ‘Kansen in Crisis’ (`Opportunities in Crisis`). In the current study we aimed to strengthen and gain understanding of schools’ resilience competences during a creeping crisis, focusing on family-school partnerships as perceived by schools. For this purpose, a collaboration between the first author of this article, teachers and school administrators was initiated to devise a solution aimed at strengthening schools’ resilience competencies. A participatory research design was chosen, in which a postdoc researcher from the UvA and educational professionals from schools developed interventions and (re)usable knowledge about effective factors for (school) practice. Three 'VMBO-schools' (vocational schools) participated in the study. The research was carried out in three steps: 1) exploration phase (to map the school context and initial need for help) by means of semi-structured interviews with stakeholders (school administrators, teachers, parents and students in secondary education) 2) collaborating with educational practitioners in 5 to 6 sessions with the aim of resolving an issue within the realm of family-school partnerships, 3) evaluation of the process and its outcomes by means of of semi-structured interviews.