Reviewing the Literature on 'At-Risk' and Resilient Children and Young People

This review paper provides pre-service and in-service teachers, principals and other educational professionals with the information needed to understand the concept of resilience to affect positive development in children and young people in their care. It reviews and critiques the most influential literature on resiliency over the last four decades and is structured in three parts. The first section deals with the definitions of risk and resilience and relevant terms (i.e. vulnerability, at-risk students, risk factors, protective factors) to clarify confusion and ambiguities of concepts. The second part outlines the development of the research on resilience using a historical perspective. It traces its origins in medicine and psychology into education and discusses the evolution of its body of work through four waves. The last part discusses approaches to promoting resilience.