Examining academic resilience among disadvantaged students across 33 education systems (BeResilient project)

BeResilient project examines the share of academically resilient students and factors contributing to this across 33 education systems, including America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

female student in class working with model of skeleton and internal organs. Photo illustration.

Students who adapt in the face of adversity: The BeResilient project aims to increase the knowledge about academic resilience (Photo illustration: Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash).

About the project

Background

Education is a basic human right; yet, not all children have equal access to educational opportunities. Despite having limited resources and disadvantaged home backgrounds, some students manage to succeed in school against the odds. These students demonstrate academic resilience, that is, the capacity to adapt in the face of adversity and achieve successful school performance. Given the recent sharp increase in inequality due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fostering student resilience takes an even greater urgency than ever before.

Objectives

The BeResilient project aims to increase the knowledge about academic resilience by drawing upon unique data from TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study). TIMSS is an international large-scale assessment with representative student samples that assess student performance in mathematics and science in Grades 4 and 8 every four years.

The project utilizes multilevel data from the TIMSS 2019 cycle across 33 education systems to answer the following questions:

How prevalent are academically resilient students across the 33 education systems?
What factors are associated with academic resilience across these systems?

Countries included

List of countries

Australia
Bahrain
Chile
Chinese Taipei
Cyprus
England
Finland
France
Georgia
Hong Kong, SAR
Hungary
Iran, Islamic Republic of
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Kazakhstan
South Korea
Kuwait
Lithuania
Morocco
New Zealand
Norway
Oman
Portugal
Qatar
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Africa
Sweden
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United States

Map of countries

World map in grey and blue showing the 33 education systems included in the BeResilient project. Illustration. — The map illustrates the 33 education systems included in the BeResilient project.

Financing

This project is financed by Global Education Network Europe (GENE) and European Union through Global Education Award in European Educational Research Association (EERA).