Using Lived-Experience to Cultivate Student Resilience & Academic Success

Overview: Educators must explore, identify, and nurture strategies that enhance our students' resilience, commitment, and drive for social justice. Using lived experiences as educators enables us to share and leverage our social work journey which has been shaped by our unique intersecting identities to cultivate student resilience and academic success.Proposal text: The need for social workers today is great, as are the complexities and challenges facing our society. The wage gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to widen (Oxfam, 2013). In 2019, there were 38.1 million people living in poverty in the United States (Pierson, 2019). When assessing the poverty rate by race for the same year, one finds that 20.8% were Black or African American, 17.6% Hispanic or Latinx, 10.1% Asian, and 8.1% were non-Hispanic Whites or Caucasian. Food insecurity was experienced by 89.5% of the U.S. population in 2020 (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2021). One in five people are impacted by mental health issues (National Institute for Mental Health, n.d.) and 19.7 million adults struggle with substance use (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2018). The United States leads the world for incarceration rates with 2 million people in jail or prison (Sentencing Project, n.d.). On average 56% of the population in neighborhoods that house facilities that release toxic chemicals, that are a threat to human health and the environment, are people of color (Center for Sustainable Systems, 2021). Poverty, the rising wage gap, food insecurity, mental health, substance use needs, environmental hazards, etc., the complexity of needs impacting society today continues to grow.

As social work educators, we are teaching our students to understand human dynamics and the social environment from a holistic lens that honors the uniqueness of an individual and builds upon one’s strengths and resilience. Resilience is “the capacity to bounce back in the face of adversity and to go on to live functional lives with a sense of well-being” (Turner, 2001, p. 441). A resilient framework requires “whole person” engagement and acknowledging the “humanness” in ourselves, our colleagues, and our students. Educators must explore, identify, and nurture strategies that enhance our students' commitment and drive for social justice and fosters energy, tenacity, and power to sustain and thrive as practitioners. Using lived experiences as educators enables us to share and leverage our social work journey which has been shaped by our unique intersecting identities to cultivate student resilience and academic success. Presenters will share tips and strategies for instructors to cultivate belonging, promote diversity, equity, and an expansive practice lens that honors and celebrates our diverse student body and society. Students need to hear and see their instructors, themselves, and one another, as we all stand together in working for a more just society.

The panel will discuss strategies that are successful in student engagement, discernment related to the use of lived experience stories and our own diversity lens to support students' success.