Read For Life

Category: Building Character

  • Narratives in Neuroscience (P3) Implications for Education

    Narratives in Neuroscience (P3) Implications for Education

    Since humans harnessed fire to
    extend their day beyond sundown,
    Stories have been shared –
    to explain the world,
    to calm our fears,
    to preserve ancient wisdom
    & to prepare us for the future.

    Adolescence: A Window of Opportunity

    Adolescence spans the ages from 10 to 19 and is a period of physical, cognitive and psychosocial growth marking the transition from childhood to adulthood. During adolescence peer relationships and large social groups replace adult guidance, influencing self-evaluation as teens seek their personal identity. Social skills including Theory of Mind (ToM) – imagining the world from another’s perspective – emerge in early childhood and continue to develop during adolescence alongside enhanced sensitivity to social signals, motivating behavioural choices; this is a time when teens, viewing themselves from others’ perspectives, choose to abandon performing arts and sports activities. The behavioural and emotional patterns associated with establishing personal identity can result in maladaptive responses and negative spirals during adolescence that can have lifelong effects.

    The incidence of mental illness emerging during adolescence appears to be increasing in Australia and abroad. In Australia, 25% of mental illness originates during adolescence with greater numbers of teens reporting concerns about the environment, problems at school or stress, anxiety, depression and self-esteem compared to earlier surveys; in UK 16 year olds as a group record the lowest self-reported scores amongst children on life satisfaction, self-belief, and coping skills; and in USA 76% of teens regard anxiety and depression as major concern for themselves or their friends. Mental illness during adolescence can cause significant and ongoing disruption to young people’s educational outcomes. However, adolescents must view interventions as being meaningful if they are to be effective in assisting them to improve, maintain and take responsibility for their personal wellbeing.

    Adolescence is considered to be a “Window of Opportunity” both for brain development, and for personal and social development. Reframing adolescence in this way suggests this period of brain plasticity and sensitivity development is also an opportunity to facilitate positive and healthy behavioural and socio-emotional changes. Adolescents are motivated to learn by material that is relevant to learning about themselves and their role in society, and learning how to navigate social relationships. Stories which engage adolescents can provide a variety of social experiences; firstly as they engage with characters within the story, secondly as they discuss elements of the story with other readers, and finally as they develop their capacity to identify and name themselves in the context of the world.

    Self-actualisation &
    Developmental Bibliotherapy

    Self-actualisation – the realisation of ones’ full potential, harmonising one’s actual-self with one’s ideal-self and one’s ought-self – is at the peak of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and is considered to be one of the most important of society’s goals, encompassing feelings of gratification, safety, belonging, and self-respect. Wellbeing, learning, and creativity are important contributors to self-actualisation, but similarly, self-actualisation is important for wellbeing, learning, and creativity. An education that encourages self-respect, self-efficacy, courage, and resilience is one which also supports the development of self-actualization in children.

    Developmental Bibliotherapy was described by Rhea Rubin in 1979 as encompassing voluntary programs for children in classroom settings, usually designed and conducted by teachers and librarians, using imaginary and didactic literature in discussions which encourage reflection and insight with the aim of promoting self-actualisation and healthy development. Developmental Bibliotherapy using Young Adult (YA) fiction can help young people develop a capacity to better manage their own wellbeing by encouraging self-reflection, strengthening core confidence, promoting a growth mindset, and developing feelings of compassion, empathy, tolerance and gratitude. YA fiction which takes the reader on journeys alongside authentic, relatable, and fallible heroes, provides the lesson that even heroes make mistakes. Fiction can provide readers with opportunities to explore alternative attitudes and behaviours – alongside protagonists – in preparation for the problems that they may encounter at some stage of their lives. Developmental Bibliotherapy, which harnesses the adaptive and beneficial effects of storytelling, empowers adolescents to maintain their own wellbeing and to further self-actualisation.

    Students need School Libraries

    Research indicates that the presence of a caring adult who is available for authentic and meaningful conversation can make a significant difference in adolescent achievement; for some this will be a school librarian. Teacher Librarians (TLs) – so named in Australian schools to reflect their dual Teacher and Librarian qualifications – have a unique role within school communities in supporting student wellbeing. Australian TLs are respected, valued and seen as supportive by their students. The school library space is regarded by students as a welcoming and accessible space in which they have a degree of autonomy over their activities, free of academic and time pressures; a place they might visit for relaxation, for learning and exploring, or to have a chat. School libraries are recognised and valued as safe spaces as there is generally a clear code of conduct which is modelled and enforced because they are spaces where a staff member is always present. TL led reading programs are usually aimed at promoting reading for pleasure, and yet can be simultaneously guided by the themes in the curriculum and tailored to individual needs. However, while many adolescents value reading fiction as a pleasurable activity, in educational settings reading for pleasure is not often recognised as a valuable pursuit.

    Therefore, while Developmental Bibliotherapy can be conducted in classrooms with generalist teachers, the participation of the TL is the key to the success of these programs in 21st century Australian schools because students perceive TLs as being more likely to know students’ reading abilities; more aware of group and individual interests; more able to generate student centred discussion about books; more knowledgeable about books written for young adults; and more likely to model reading as a pleasurable activity and to express their enjoyment in reading compared to teachers of English who students perceive as being focused on curriculum and student achievement. TLs are valued by Australian students not only as the overseer of the school library as a place of sanctuary and a personal guide toward reading choices, but also for their pastoral role in enhancing student wellbeing.

    Yet Australian school libraries are being defunded, many school librarians do not have teacher qualifications, and secondary school reading programs are often undervalued, do not have timetabled allocations, or are non-existent. Research advocating for the benefits of school library programs delivered by qualified Teacher Librarians appears to be confined to the social sciences in research which is based on subjective, intuitive, anecdotal and qualitative outcomes.

    In contrast, the Integrated Literature Review (ILR) provides evidence for the outcomes stated below, derived from analysis and synthesis of quantitative studies from the field of Cognitive Neuroscience. These outcomes provide empirical evidence in support of myriad existing qualitative studies and indicate the potential for Developmental Bibliotherapy programs designed and delivered by TLs to enhance learning environments and thus improve student outcomes.

    Implications for Education

    In summary, findings from the ILR taken together strongly suggest that Developmental Bibliotherapy programs led by TLs and which encourage reading for pleasure have the potential to:

    • build hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism and therefore core confidence, flexible intelligence and a growth mindset;
    • broaden the range of emotional experiences by facilitating vicarious learning by the actions of mirror neurons to promote mutual understanding;
    • reveal diverse perspectives and thus promote empathy, compassion, tolerance, and ToM;
    • increase classroom cohesion and communication and so creating safer learning environments leading to better educational outcomes;
    • demonstrate how diversity can produce different leadership and problem solving styles that might enhance productivity, creativity, divergent thinking and curiosity;
    • introduce language to enable self-expression, and soften barriers to communication;
    • validate emotions and reduce feelings of isolation, remove stigmas and stereotypes, and introduce language and concepts associated with mental illness to increase opportunities for early intervention;
    • promote effective communication, discussion and consensus building;
    • encourage reading for pleasure.

    Conclusion

    The importance that Australian students place on Teacher Librarians and school library spaces, and the potential for secondary school library programs to enhance wellbeing and educational outcomes are supported by abundant qualitative, anecdotal and intuitive evidence. However, books, libraries and qualified Teacher Librarians are disappearing from schools in Australia and around the world, while the incidence of mental illness in adolescents and young adults is increasing. Meanwhile, although studies using narratives as naturalistic stimuli in neuroscience are slowly but unremittingly providing a rich array of robust, objective, quantitative evidence of the mechanisms of DMN under the influence of stories, the origin and focus of these studies currently remain confined within the field of cognitive neuroscience. As noted by Jonathan Gottschall in 2013, “Researchers are not in the habit of pursuing scientific responses to literary questions”.

    By examining the actions of narratives in neuroscience through an educational lens, this ILR has combined findings from diverse examples of quantitative research into an ecologically valid empirical based support for the significance of narratives in nurturing self-actualisation and adaptive behaviours that benefit educational outcomes such as creativity, insight, reward, and pleasure; relationships that, hitherto, have been difficult to prove. It is hoped that by a bridging a knowledge gap between cognitive neuroscience and existing educational research, this ILR will introducing policy makers to the importance of reading for pleasure.

    This ILR has also demonstrated that viewing narratives from the perspective of DMN reveals empirical evidence to suggest a central role of narratives as catalyst for the evolution of the human DMN, characterised as an evolutionary triptych comprising the Concept Building Brain, the Storytelling Brain and the Social Brain, working together to enable Homo sapiens to overcome great challenges in the past to ensure not just the survival, but the success of the species, and just as critical to ensure the ongoing survival of the species into the future.

    Download References for Part 3

  • Literacy Links to Wellbeing

    Literacy Links to Wellbeing

    Reading Fiction can Influence Wellbeing Literacy.

    A team at Melbourne University is proposing a Capability Model for Wellbeing Literacy. This model attributes an agency, intention and freedom of choice (a capability) to enhance and maintain the wellbeing of ourselves, others and the wider world, made possible by way of multimodal forms of language. The team’s 2021 paper entitled “Wellbeing Literacy: A Capability Model for Wellbeing Science and Practice” (Oades et al. 2021) adds further weight to the assertion that reading enhances wellbeing.

    The Melbourne University team defines wellbeing literacy as the “capability to comprehend and compose wellbeing language, (across contexts) with the intention of using such language to maintain or improve the wellbeing of oneself, others or the world”.

    The article refers to language as a “resource that people use actively to construct their psychological and social realities”. Wellbeing literacy relies on being able to recognise and interpret the language of wellbeing. But as our capacity to use language expands, so does our capacity to recognise, interpret and articulate our wellbeing insights and experiences. Not only do we become agents in our own wellbeing, but we are able to make conscious choices that influence our own wellbeing and that of others, and we recognise that our state of wellbeing is a personal choice and we have the freedom to make those choices.

    According to the Capability Model, language provides people with the capability to convert wellbeing opportunities into wellbeing experiences and achievements. This article also recognises that with more language opportunities comes more choices, greater freedom of choice and a broader interpretation of concept of wellbeing. Language can also reframe experiences to enhance wellbeing – an aspect of the written word as well known to poets as it is to journalists.

    It is easy to see how reading supports this model: as protagonists use language to support their own wellbeing and demonstrate agency in their own choices we might start to recognise and realise our own values, agency and potential. Through the narrative we are able to find insights into our wellbeing experiences and achievements.

    In the Capability Model wellbeing literacy becomes a recognisable aspect of Developmental Bibliotherapy, both dynamic and very personal, and closely connected to agency and the “freedom to choose what wellbeing means to a person and [the] choice in how that is maximised via language and knowledge.”

    Ultimately, maintaining our wellbeing is a personal endeavour, related to our goals, values, relationships and past experiences. However, as language expands our capability of experiencing wellbeing, fiction provides language in context and offers a myriad of opportunities to learn the language of wellbeing and the freedom to discover, trial and explore our own unique versions of wellbeing.

    Bibliography
    Oades, Lindsay G., Aaron Jarden, Hanchao Hou, Corina Ozturk, Paige Williams, Gavin R. Slemp, and Lanxi Huang. 2021. “Wellbeing Literacy: A Capability Model for Wellbeing Science and Practice.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (2): 719. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020719.

  • Great Leaders Read Fiction

    Great Leaders Read Fiction

    Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought.
    To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.
    To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.
    To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen.
    To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies.
    To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.
    Octavia Butler – Parable of the Sower

    “Great leaders are Made not Born”

    The thousands of books and articles published on the subject of leadership effectively illustrate how difficult it is to define the qualities of a great leader.

    The Centre for Creative Leadership identifies the Core Leadership Skills as:
    Self awareness, Communication, Influence, Learning agility, Integrity, Gratitude, Empathy, Courage, Respect and an Ability to delegate.

    Great leaders are also expected to be visionary, humble, virtuous, inspirational, charismatic, intelligent, just, generous and compassionate.

    Great leaders must know how to Unite team members to pursue a common goal, and they must know how & when to Praise, Encourage & Admonish.

    Great leaders must develop Trusting Relationships by
    Sharing Responsibility & Sharing Accolades.

    Great leaders must know when to take the Role of the Hero and when to take the Role of the Sage.
    Great leaders must be able to accommodate a variety of Perspectives and balance a range of Outcomes.

    Great leaders must be Mentors who recognize and nurture the Potential in individuals, and can Inspire & Motivate individuals to achieve their potential within the goals of the team.

    David Foster Wallace says:
    “A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get up to do better things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.”

    How does fiction help us differentiate Great Leaders from Tyrants and Charlatans?

    Reading fiction activates our Default Mode Network – the regions of the brain associated with the personal qualities, memories and dreams that go towards defining our personality. The Default Mode Network is also responsible for building social awareness, and for insight, problem solving and creativity.

    Stories nurture Core Confidence – with Hope, Efficacy, Resilience & Optimism – and help us to adopt a Growth Mindset.

    Stories Increase Cognitive Flexibility, Intuition, Insight and Spontaneous Thought.

      Leadership is a social process.

      The list of what makes a good leader could include every positive human quality. But as every leader brings their own leadership style to the role so there are many different styles of leadership.

      “A real leader is somebody who … is able to inspire people. Leadership is a mysterious quality … but we always know it when we see it, even as kids.” David Foster Wallace

      Indeed, it is often easier to identify poor leadership than to recognise a Great Leader for, as Lao Tzu says, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

      But while we may not be able to isolate the Qualities of a Great Leader, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Great Leaders Read Fiction

      References

      Anhalt, E. (2017, October 16). Ancient Greek wisdom for today’s leadership crisis. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/ancient-greek-wisdom-for-todays-leadership-crisis-84902

      Nevin, M. (2017, October 8). Why Leaders Should Read Fiction. Linkedin.Com. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-leaders-should-read-fiction-mark-nevins

      Popova, M. (2014, February 17). David Foster Wallace on Leadership, Illustrated and Read by Debbie Millman. Brain Pickings. https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/17/dfw-leadership-debbie-millman/

      Popova, M. (2020, August 23). Octavia Butler on How (Not) to Choose Our Leaders. Brain Pickings. https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/08/23/octavia-butler-parable-leaders/

      Shinagel, M. (2013, March 7). The Paradox of Leadership. Blog.Dce.Harvard.Edu. https://blog.dce.harvard.edu/professional-development/paradox-leadership

      What Are the Characteristics of a Good Leader? (2019, January 14). Center for Creative Leadership. https://www.ccl.org/blog/characteristics-good-leader/

      Photo by Joshua Hibbert on Unsplash

    • Stories Help Young People Navigate Adolescence

      Stories Help Young People Navigate Adolescence

      Young People need School Libraries

      Students need school librarians and dedicated reading programs to enhance their mental health and wellbeing.

      Not only does reading fiction help adolescents navigate personal and emotional development during their teens, but developing a reading habit can help to mitigate the disruptive effects of mental health throughout their entire lives.

      What’s special about stories?

      Stories show us that it’s okay to fail, that mistakes are opportunities for learning, that courage isn’t an absence of fear, and that not everyone is as they seem.

      Stories help us identify and refine our values and ideals, show us what resilience looks like, help us to define our goals and encourage us to explore our emotions.

      Stories reflect and validate our lived experiences, help us to accept our past, help us to create order from our chaotic lives, and encourage us to be optimistic about the future.

      Stories comfort us, help us connect with others and make us feel less alone.

      Stories reframe our problems, help us create distance and see different perspectives, and nurture optimism, hope and self-efficacy.

      Stories promote empathy and compassion, remove stigmas and stereotypes, help us to embrace diversity and show us a wider view of normal.

      Stories introduce us to ancient wisdom and create intergenerational connections.

      Stories help us to understand our world, help us to recognize the importance of our own life story as part of a bigger picture and help us to be more accepting of ourselves.

      Stories give us answers to questions we don’t know how to ask.

      Stories stimulate our imagination.

      Stories give us role models to inspire us to persevere and improve, to empower us to speak out, to join in celebrating the successes of others, and to help us to be grateful and accepting of ourselves.

      Stories give us the insight, the language and the confidence to seek help when we need to share our concerns or can’t manage alone.

      Stories are not only the easiest way but sometimes the only way to learn about ourselves, and find our place in the society and the world we inhabit, from a safe and secure place.

      Who can ensure our students are learning these things if not the teacher librarian?

      Why is a Teacher Librarian is the best person to implement
      Developmental Bibliotherapy?

      Teacher Librarians love to talk about books and
      Teacher Librarians provide guidance, encouragement opportunities for learning without grades.

      NOTE: Books do not judge and neither should librarians – remember that in developmental Bibliotherapy activities there are no wrong answers.

      Developmental Bibliotherapy occurs when
      Young People recognize that a change has taken place
      in their Thoughts, Feelings, Actions or Beliefs.

      Implementing Developmental Bibliotherapy is about asking the right questions to help this self reflection to take place. It can take as little as fa few minutes as an informal chat, or it can be developed into a unit of work.

      Whether as an informal chat, recalling an event or quote from a novel, creating a piece of artwork or writing a book review, Developmental Bibliotherapy is almost certainly taking place in every library wherever a skillful teacher librarian is talking to young people about the books they are reading.

      Go to the Activities and Printables page for ideas on Implementing Developmental Bibliotherapy or ways you can ensure that your existing programs are creating the conditions for change.

      If an activity results in the reader reflecting and articulating a positive change
      in their       Thoughts, Feelings, Actions or Beliefs
      then Developmental Bibliotherapy has been in action.

      Although reading fiction is not a panacea, by showing young people a wider view of normal, by allowing them to explore their emotions and their identity alongside fictional heroes, by removing stigmas and stereotypes and by giving them the language and the confidence to seek answers from trusted adults, Developmental Bibliotherapy programs gives students skills that can promote better mental health outcomes throughout their lives.

    • Cultivating Core Confidence

      Cultivating Core Confidence

      When children read about ordinary people achieving extraordinary successes, they come to realize that the brain is flexible and adaptable, and that intelligence, like confidence, can be also be developed – they adopt a “growth mindset”

      How can we immunize young people against the disruptive force of mental illness? Joseph Gold (2001)

      By ignoring the potential of books in the development of Core Confidence in young people we are depriving them of the opportunity to develop this most vital aspect of their being.

      Alexander Stajkovic’s theory of Core Confidence says that Confidence resides unseen in the core of an individual’s character, and is manifested in Hope, Self-efficacy, Resilience and Optimism. These distinct but interconnected elements can predict job satisfaction, job performance and, ultimately, satisfaction with life. Furthermore, Stajkovic believed that these elements can be cultivated in all of us.

      I believe they can be cultivated in young people using Developmental Bibliotherapy.

      Cultivating Core Confidence with Books

      Self-efficacy

      “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”

      Peter Pan in J.M. Barrie’s book of the same name.

      Self-efficacy refers to the belief in one’s ability to produce a given level of attainment. It is disctinct from but related to self-esteem, motivation and resilience.

      Self-efficacy influences the goals that we choose for ourselves, the confidence in our ability to learn new tasks and especially, whether we believe that abilities can be learned and developed or are fixed.

      Unsurprisingly, mastery of a skill is the most powerful way to build self-efficacy. Through mastery we see that skills can be acquired and as our self-efficacy increases we are encouraged to attempt still more new skills. But influential people in our lives can also strengthen our self-efficacy – with meaningful feedback, encouragement and support we are motivated to greater efforts.

      The second most powerful way to cultivate self-efficacy is through Vicarious Learning – watching or reading about people, especially role models, succeeding by their sustained effort raises our beliefs in our own abilities, much the same way that an outstanding team member can raise the achievements of less talented players in a team.

      Whether we are reading horror and suspense, romance or an autobiography, mirror neurons respond to the emotions and triumphs of characters as if they were our own. And as our brains are flooded with the thoughts and experiences of characters within the pages of a book our brain is leaning vicariously – imagining conversations, testing alternatives and refining our beliefs.

      Hope

      “Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”

      Laini Taylor in Daughter of Smoke & Bone

      Hope has the power to heal afflictions and helps us endure times of great suffering. Hope has a very positive impact on health, academic achievement, athletic accomplishment, emotional health, personal meaning and our ability to cope with adversity.

      Hope has a positive impact on health, academic achievement, athletic accomplishment, emotional health, personal meaning and our ability to cope with adversity. Hopeful thinking is both a trait and a positive motivational state. We think of Hope as being made up of Pathways towards achieving a goal and the determination to achieve a certain goal known as Agency).

      We cultivate Hope by visualising multiple pathways towards our goal, by maintaining our motivation towards achieving that goal and by believing in our power to achieve our goal.

      “No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.” 

      Dalai Lama XIV

      But to cultivate Hope we must first identify our dreams; and our dreams emerge once we recognize those things we value in ourselves, our relationships and our environment.

      Literature helps us to identify our values and decide what is important to us by guiding us through self-reflection. As we share the hopes and disappointments of fictional characters facing obstacles in their fictional quest, we learn to be flexible and adaptable, we visualize alternative strategies towards our own quests, we learn that setbacks and detours are obstacles to be overcome; and we begin to imagine our own paths and dreams.

      “The idea of a happy ending is a very powerful thing. Living in a world without hope would be very bleak indeed”. 

      Josh Dallas (Once Upon a Time)

      We accompany characters as they make mistakes and choices, forge relationships and face dangers and we learn to predict, to envisage alternative actions and to consider “what if” outcomes. As we follow, and sometimes identify with, the fictional character on their quest, we learn to forgive their mistakes and transgressions, and we develop empathy and compassion.

      Optimism

      “What day is it?” asked Pooh.
      “It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
      “My favorite day,” said Pooh.”

      A.A. Milne in Winnie the Pooh

      Optimism is the belief that we are responsible for our own happiness and that more good things will happen to us in the future. For optimism to be a positive force this belief must be realistic – appreciating the positive aspects of a situation without ignoring the negative – and our belief must allow for the possibility that bad things do happen to good people.

      Optimism can affect our personal growth, our sense of purpose in work, our relations with others, our pride in our accomplishments, and our general level of happiness and life satisfaction. Optimistic students are less susceptible to stress, loneliness and depression, and less likely to drop out. Optimists are also more likely to have healthy lifestyles.

      Literature helps to cultivate our optimism by helping us escape the limitations of our environment and negativity from our influencers. Literature stimulates our imagination and enables us to organise our own experiences while in the process of deciphering someone else’s. Literature helps us to make sense of the past and become less fearful of an uncertain and sometimes terrifying future.

      Resilience

      “It came to me that I hadn’t known that I was less than I could have been until then, when I saw there was so much more of the world for me to be myself within.”

      Griz in “A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World” by C. A. Fletcher

      Resilience is the ability to take responsibility for creating the future we want, to persevere through everyday adversities and tribulations, to adapt or overcome major setbacks, and to reach out to new experiences and challenges.

      Resilience transforms hardship into challenge, failure into success, helplessness into power, victims into survivors and allows survivors to thrive.

      Resilience comes when we believe that we have the power to control the events in our life and to change the things that need changing, and that belief is accurate. Resilience is not a trait that one either has or does not have; resilience is a state that involves behaviours, thoughts and actions, and it can be learned and developed.

      • Resilient individuals seek connections, they accept help and they try to help others.
      • Resilient individuals accept change as a path to growth.
      • Resilient individuals can recognise and articulate feelings, needs and viewpoints and are open to the opinions of others.
      • Resilient people stay curious about their world, and about the past and the future, and they are reflective and mindful of their own and others’ thoughts and emotions.
      • Resilient people maintain a positive self-image, a sense of perspective and derive meaning from failure.
      • Resilient people are see obstacles as ambitious but attainable tasks.
      • Resilient people enjoy learning new skills and use creative experiences to bolster their wellbeing.

      Fictional characters can inspire us to develop our own resilience by watching them develop through the choices and responses they make. We learn that resilience is something that we cultivate, not something we are born with, and that sometimes resilience requires immediate action, but most often it does not. We see that resilience involves a realistic evaluation of a situation, to consider for alternative solutions, to be less reactive to our emotions, and to respond better when adversity strikes.

       

      The Danger of Excess

      It is possible to have too much of these elements of Core Confidence:

      • Too much Self efficacy can make us over confident and we neglect our training, we believe we have nothing left to learn, or we reject new ideas and suggestions.
      • Too much Hope can anesthetise us, keeping us passive when we should be motivated into action.
      • Too much Optimism can shroud us in illusions and irrational beliefs, or cause us to waste energy on unattainable goals.
      • Too much Resilience can make us overly tolerant of adversity, or make us resigned and apathetic in the face of danger.

      Hope, Resilience, Self-efficacy and Optimism are states that amalgamate to form Core Confidence, so interdependent that when one is out of balance, the others will fail alongside it or fall behind and either way our Core Confidence is diminished. So it is far better to have too much Core Confidence than too little.

      Developmental Bibliotherapy and Core Confidence

      Joseph Gold (1998) describes the beneficial power of fiction thus:
      “Fiction extracts the reader from their immersion in personal confusion … using narrative to engage the reader emotionally while generating new and newly arranged information so that cognitive shift can take place. The results of this are improved problem solving skills, a greater sense of normality, a breakup of rigid and confusing cognitive frameworks, improved socialization and increased self-actualization.”

      Developmental Bibliotherapy has the advantages over other all programs in that it can be infinitely tailored to meet the needs of almost any student. It can be practiced anywhere at any time, alone or in a group, at any age.  

      And the resources necessary to implement Developmental Bibliotherapy are already abundant in most schools.

      By ignoring the potential of books in the development of Core Confidence in young people we are depriving them of the opportunity to develop this most vital aspect of their education.

      “I was seeing the world through the lens of the books I had read about it”

      Griz in “A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World” by C. A. Fletcher

      Further Reading & References

      ‌Get Printable Version Cultivating Core Confidence

    • Teens Need books Now More Than Ever…

      Teens Need books Now More Than Ever…

      “Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.”
      G. K. Chesterton

      What is Developmental Bibliotherapy?

      Developmental Bibliotherapy is a branch of Bibliography which usually takes place as part of a secondary school reading program using young adult fiction and designed to help young people navigate the many issues they encounter during their adolescence.

      Inside contemporary Young Adult Fiction, authors create authentic characters and anticipate their readers’ questions and concerns. Teens gain insights from characters living in similar situations, validating readers’ experiences and introducing them to language and options that may not have been previously known to them.

      In this way, Young Adult Fiction becomes an effective way to break down the stigmas and stereotypes that are the major barrier preventing young people from seeking help for themselves or for others.

      The objective of Developmental Bibliotherapy is to change readers’ Thoughts, Feelings, Actions and Beliefs, especially related to mental health issues, enabling conversations and addressing fears, so that issues can be identified and addressed as early as possible.

      And yet, while Developmental Bibliotherapy is easily incorporated into most school reading programs, its potential for changing the lives of young people by building resilience and equipping them with skills in preparation for a crisis or a troublesome situation, has not been given sufficient attention in the fight to save school libraries and librarians.

      At a time when our children and young adults need their stories told more than ever, schools are ignoring the potential within the school libraries by trimming library budgets, abandoning library programs in favour of academic programs and moving teacher librarians into classrooms.

      Confronting ‘Difficult’ Topics in YA Fiction

      We need stories to experience what it’s like to survive the unsurvivable; to find light in the darkest night.

      Jeff Zetner

      During their teens, young adults refine their personal expectations, desires and values while simultaneously facing pressures and expectations from their peers, the adults around them, and the wider community.

      Adolescence may involve issues of gender and sexuality, physical or mental illness, different ability and disability, otherness, grief, guilt, family issues, mental illness, addiction, sexual assault, relationship issues, peer pressures and significant life decisions, in addition to preparing for the 21st century issues that will confront them as an adult.

      Young Adult fiction is becoming more edgy, reflecting readers’ desire for stories dealing with these ‘difficult’ and sometimes controversial topics. Young adults want to see characters who are empowered, informed and able to build fulfilling lives – developing coping strategies and participating in meaningful relationships even while accepting the setbacks confronting them.

      Authors of contemporary Young Adult fiction are aware of their responsibility to represent the concerns and experiences of their audience respectfully and realistically in a way that is accessible and authentic without being didactic. In turn, Young Adult readers trust authors to give them accurate and relevant information, and answers to questions they may not know how to ask, in storylines that mirror the difficult issues they see amongst their peers.

      Mental Health

      In 2019, 70% of US teens, identify anxiety and depression as their major concern, either for themselves or as a concern for their peers.[ii] Australian young adults are no different. On average, one in seven young Australians currently in secondary education will experience one of the common mental health illnesses in any given year.[iii] Others will experience mental health issues as a carer or see a family member experiencing mental health issues.

      On average, one in seven young Australians currently in secondary education will experience one of the common mental health illnesses in any given year. Others will experience mental health issues as a carer, friend or family member of someone experiencing mental health issues.

      We experience good mental health as being in control of our emotions, able to make well considered decisions and having positive interactions with people around us. We meet life’s challenges with confidence in our own abilities, or seek help when we need it. We might say that our resilience is high.

      When our mental health is poor, our resilience is low, and we become confused and fearful. Setbacks often escalate into more serious issues that significantly disrupt our daily activities and relationships. And although early intervention can minimise the amount of disruption caused by a mental illness and increase the rate of recovery, we are fearful and reluctant to seek help because of the common stereotypes and stigmas that surround mental illness.

      And, while most teens readily discuss most aspects of their lives on social media, few feel able to discuss mental health concerns on these platforms.

      Young people need access to an adult they can trust – non-judgemental, discreet and knowledgeable and available – to discuss their concerns. It has been said that one trusted adult can make a significant difference to an adolescent’s outcomes. Amongst their most trusted adults are teachers, librarians and the authors who speak through characters with whom they can identify.

      Characters in Young Adult literature, introducing language to describe their experiences, enable readers to articulate their own experiences and help them facilitate their own real life conversations. Characters’ actions and experiences answer readers’ questions, validate their experiences, identify symptoms, explore options and explain treatments in ways that reduce the fear, eliminate the stigmas and shatter the stereotypes that may be preventing young people from discussing the way they are feeling or from seeking help.

      Books … explain us to ourselves and to others, and make us feel less strange, less isolated and less alone.

      Alain de Botton

      Furthermore, as young people read about fictional characters experiencing a mental illness, they develop empathy, becoming more supportive of others with a mental illness, and feeling more able to seek help for friends or family members who may be unable to take the effective action needed to help themselves.

      Being supported and equipped with appropriate vocabulary gives young people the confidence to share troubling thoughts and feelings with others and do so sooner, which improves the chances of better outcomes.

      Developmental Bibliotherapy

      The Limitations

      Developmental Bibliotherapy implemented by teachers, parents, librarians and counsellors can be a preventative strategy for teens but should not be seen as a substitute for long-range therapeutic intervention by a psychologist or psychiatrist where necessary. Bibliotherapy is not a panacea but it can be an effective adjunct to other treatments.

      For Developmental Bibliotherapy to have meaningful benefits, it requires cooperation, reading ability and desire on the part of the reader, a positive relationship between the reader and the therapist, and a skilful matching of reader with quality YA literature.

      School based Developmental Bibliotherapy programs need to include guided discussions and planned activities if they are to maximize positive outcomes.

      The Benefits

      Humans are the story species – the only species able to communicate across time and space. Stories have helped us survive as a species; by increasing our ability to make decisions, solve problems and deal with stress and change, by allowing us to safely test out courses of action, by improving social communication, and by learning from others’ mistakes.

      Bibliotherapy, the use of stories for personal growth and emotional healing, predates the written word. It is thought that storytelling emerged when primitive peoples harnessed fire and extended their wakening hours beyond sunset. Stories soothed fears, answered questions, stored knowledge, related heroic exploits and guided our physical and spiritual journeys.

      Fiction validates our emotions and experiences, and fortifies our resilience. When we read fiction we learn vicariously. Fiction provides us with a safe place from which to explore our thoughts and feelings, and provides opportunities to rehearse our interactions with others.

      Fiction promotes empathy by introducing us to diverse communities and showing us a wider variety of normal. Reading fiction provides us with models, helping us to define our boundaries and our values, and find answers within ourselves. And, by seeing our experiences in written form, fiction gives us the language to express ourselves.

      Fiction helps us relieve stress and emotions in a controlled manner, gain insight into our own behaviour, see different perspectives and find alternative solutions. It allows us to see others experiencing similar problems so we feel less isolated and alone, and prepares us for some of the issues we may be anticipating with dread, encouraging us to face problems before they escalate.

      Developmental Bibliotherapy must be implemented more widely in schools. It is an effective technique for helping children with a variety of topics – the advantages are many and the disadvantages are few.

      If literature is a really important human resource, how can we accept a situation that tolerates the loss of this resource to millions of people?

      Joseph Gold

      References for this post can be found on the Online Resources & Further Reading page.‌