In the following interview we speak to Joti Ghani, a student of the Master in Resilience in Educational Contexts about her Dissertation research.
1. What topic did you decide to focus on for your dissertation?
My dissertation is an attempt to map the resilience processes of students from informal settlements of Lahore, Pakistan—with a special focus on how gender interplays with resilience. I
want to explore if and what kind support systems (especially in terms of education and
schooling) exist for young people in this context of chronic adversity, and whether these
systems and processes differ for boys and girls.
2. Can you share your dissertation goals, research hypothesis, and methods?
The immediate goal of my dissertation is to map resilience through identifying protective
processes and their interconnections, along with developmentally normative systems that help
young people in informal settlements to adapt and navigate daily life. For this, I have used the
participatory visual method of drawing along with semi-structured interviews to deepen the
understanding of resilience in this specific context through students’ own signifiers and words to
describe their journeys.
I hope that this identification will pave the way for a broader discussion on the unique
sociocultural and socioeconomic realities of students who live in informal settlements, ultimately
resulting in more research and policy action to facilitate educational access and quality for them.
3. What challenges have you faced in your research? How are you overcoming them?
The primary challenge was student identification and recruitment for the research. Initially, the
age range I had covered students from ages 13-18. However, after consulting with a local NGO
I found that most students from informal settlements drop out before secondary school. To combat this, I worked with the NGO and my supervisor to revise the age range to 10-16 years as that was the available sample. Thankfully, the new age range works well with the methodology and rationale, so there weren’t any major changes to the research design or goals.
4. How do you think your work on resilience can be applied in real life?
I believe the application from my research is twofold—first in terms of introducing participatory
methods for data collection, and second in terms of improving educational access and quality
for students in chronic adversity. It can help researchers use participatory methods including but
not limited to drawing, photography, and storytelling to engage with deeply contextual and
nuanced ways in which children and young people view their world(s) and reflect on their lives,
allowing them to be co-creators of knowledge that concerns them. It can also highlight
immediate barriers faced by this population in terms of schooling and mobilize action on grassroots and policy level to eradicate identified constraints.
5. What advice would you give others researching on resilience?
One thing that really helped me was the support and availability of my advisors and instructors, so my primary advice would be to trust the academic support they have and never hesitate to seek advice or clarity. It is the same with my cohort, discussing our research interests and ideas really helped us all develop really meaningful questions—so I would advise forming a network with peers as well, for academic and emotional support!
In terms of research, my advice would be to adopt participatory and emancipatory approaches
that democratize knowledge production. It’s essential to design research that not only studies
communities but also works with them. Honoring their dignity, agency, and local knowledge
systems is crucial to good research practice. This means co-constructing research questions,
methods, and interpretations with participants, rather than imposing external frameworks.
Because ultimately, resilience research aims to foster wellbeing on a multi-systemic level.
