R.E.S.I.L.I.E.N.C.E!

In a workshop with OBS staff whilst in Singapore, we looked at the theme of resilience with Heather Grenon, who is currently completing PhD studies on the subject; I should really let her speak on the subject!

This topic is of interesting note when delving a little deeper into Singaporean culture, specifically education and OE in Singapore. Reading through some info before jumping on the plane helped me understand the background context to the place we were visiting (there’s a lesson to learn, not just for overseas travel!).

In relation to resilience, a study in recent years by one of our own lecturers, spanning numerous countries (Singapore, Australia, New Zealand) asked Outdoor Educators what they considered to be the most important outcome for OE in their respective countries. Many similarities were found between the countries with personal and community related outcomes ranking most highly across the three, this included increasing resilience.

On first thoughts this may look the same across the countries, but as the authors found, and I discovered, understanding the culture of each place reveals deeper meaning.

For Singaporeans resilience is seen as a national virtue and value that has been forged through the country’s economic, political and historical events of the nation. It is seen as a national virtue, with the notion of continuous effort by the country as a whole, rather than, what I perceive Australian resilience to mean, much more personal grit.

A true understanding of this cannot be obtained by reading and it wasn’t until I was immersed in Singapore, learning from locals the stories of the ‘pioneering generation’, visiting museums, listening to the trials of the war victims and then reflecting on the present day Singapore before me that I gained more of an understanding of what this all means. Still, two weeks in a country is only touching the tip of the iceberg.

To compare this to Australia, back up from some professor like folk might help me explain… an article titled ‘The role and place of outdoor education in the Australian National Curriculum’ stated OE in Australia has three main outcomes for students;

• providing direct personal contact with nature (the outdoors)
• enabling socially critical perspectives on contemporary living and human to nature relationships.
• Developing competence and safety management in the outdoors. (Gray & Martin, 2012).

Back to my Singapore reading, an article looking at the purposes of OE identified ‘building resilience’ as a purpose the current education system is already building, and should continue to build in the future. (Martin & Ho, 2009). I was not the only one amongst the group finding this interesting. It seems Singapore’s definition of resilience is steeped in history and culture unknown to Australian’s, and as I explained in earlier posts – sometimes just can’t be understood within my limited life experience. I won’t go into it too much more, but the history behind Singapore and cultural understanding gives a greater platform to understand the difference between my Australian lived definitions.

During our OBS session however I found it interesting that when working with Singaporean Outdoor Educators talking about the struggles we find in OE, the trials and challenges seemed similar. Maybe, its here that OE shows strength as it has the ability to transcend time, location, culture to enable us to speak the same language and connect with others in the realm of OE. O’Shea spoke well of this in his article, I’ll leave you to the discovering on that one. Talking about the 7 elements of Resilience during the workshop, these being defined by Canadian resilience expert Michael Unger, it was cheering to find similarities in the struggles we as educators find between the countries. Maybe this lends positive evidence to the international realm of research that is occurring in this field.

The eye-opening adventure this trip has been has been incredible in opening up mind, eyes, communication amongst all students on this trip and I have enjoyed the duality of playing ‘tourist’ in visiting this country for the first time, and delving deeper with the knowledge and discoveries made through locals. The background understanding of resilience before coming to Singapore and learning more about the nation’s history has made connections with such concepts much more alive.

References

Gray, T. & Martin, P. (2012). The role and place of outdoor education in the Australian National Curriculum. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education16(1), p39-50. Retrieved from: http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.federation.edu.au/fullText;dn=194250;res=AEIPT

Martin, P. & Ho, S. (2009). Seeking resilience and sustainability: outdoor education in Singapore. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning. 9(1). p 79-92 DOI: 10.1080/14729670802670167