By Laura Hughes-Gerber, Lancaster University and Noel McGuirk, Ulster University
Why resilience requires intentional design
At the ANTF symposium in Newcastle on 12 May 2026, we shared our work on ‘resilience by design’. Although our context focused on undergraduate legal education, the central question is relevant across higher education more broadly: do our curricula effectively and holistically equip students with the life skills they require for long-term employment?
Resilience is often regarded as an individual trait. Yet Luthar et al. (2000) describe it as a dynamic process of positive adaptation in the face of adversity. This necessitates pivoting towards intentionally designing learning environments promoting resilience.
In legal education, students enter a demanding disciplinary culture where expectations around reading, reasoning, writing and participation are not always explicit, which can in turn have a detrimental impact on their wellbeing. Many disciplines have similar hidden rules. Meyer and Land (2005) remind us that threshold concepts can be transformative, but also troubling and disorientating. Students may therefore need support not only with content, but with the emotional and intellectual work of becoming disciplinary learners.
Repurposing existing teaching spaces
For colleagues in any discipline, the invitation is to reassess our pre-existing opportunities to promote resilience within our own curricular context. Formative assessment opportunities need not be formal but we must be explicit about the developmental opportunities on offer. A seminar, workshop, lab, studio or tutorial can become a low-stakes place where students practise the skills they later need in assessment and gain valuable and constructive feedback. These activities do not necessarily increase assessment. The value lies in explicitly connecting teaching, feedback and assessment.
Reflection is also important. Crane et al. (2018) show resilience being strengthened when learners have repeated opportunities to reflect on experience, feedback and adjustment. A short reflective prompt after a seminar, placement task or assessment briefing can enable students to appreciate the learning process. Across a programme, these moments could build a record of development.
Questions for our own teaching practice
So, what does your curriculum communicate about success, failure and help-seeking? Where do students have permission to be uncertain before they are judged? Are formative opportunities sufficiently visible? That is the challenge. Resilience by design does not lower standards. It seeks to align rigour with care. As Duncan, Strevens and Field (2020) argue, learning environments can intensify stress or help students thrive. Across disciplines, we can design curricula that support students to become confident, reflective and adaptable learners, prepared for wherever their learning takes them.
References
Crane, M.F. et al. (2018) ‘How resilience is strengthened by exposure to stressors’, Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 32(1), pp.1-17.
Duncan, N., Strevens, C. and Field, R. (2020) ‘Resilience and student wellbeing in Higher Education’, The European Journal of Legal Education, 1(1), pp.83-105.
Luthar, S.S., Cicchetti, D. and Becker, B. (2000) ‘The construct of resilience’, Child Development, 71(3), pp.543-562.
Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2005) ‘Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2)’, Higher Education, 49, pp.373-388.
