STUDENTS’ AND HIGHER EDUCATION STAKEHOLDERS’ CONCEPTS OF RESILIENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF INNOVATION CAMPS

Abstract

Graduates who are potential change-makers, able to persevere in the face of adversity, are crucial for the working life and societies challenged by global changes. The authors explore conceptualizations of resilience in the context of innovation pedagogy. The meanings are revealed from the narratives of some stakeholders and students and then confronted with the results of the innovation barometer test administered to innovation camp participants. The theoretical framework for conceptualizing resilience comes from the radical pedagogy of Freire and the literary theory of Bakhtin.
The findings allow the authors to interpret resilience as the capacity for perseverance and problem solving under challenging conditions. Students self-reported efficacy beliefs on that capacity rise aſter the participation in innovation camps. Other values on innovation barometer confirm the intuitive understanding of resilience as the ability to predict and discern causal relationships of own and team efforts to prevent or capitalize on failure.