How students’ pro-social behaviour relates to their resilience: Implications for an inclusive environment

Abstract

Inclusive education for all students is an important educational approach for promoting equity and diversity within our society. However, teachers have often struggled to fully enact inclusive practices and policies. The current study proposed that inclusive values can function as an overarching framework within which other constructs are considered to measure and enact inclusion. In particular, this study operationalised pro-social behaviour and resilience for this purpose. This offers a pragmatic way for thinking about inclusion and has potential as a measure of inclusive behaviours. One hundred and five primary and secondary school students provided cross-sectional quantitative data regarding pro-social behaviour and resilience. Results found a consistent pattern between pro-social behaviour and the mastery and relatedness dimensions of resilience. In particular, relatedness was consistently associated with pro-social behaviour; although differences were observed between primary and secondary school students. Within a framework of inclusive values, these results suggest a promising approach for promoting inclusive behaviours among students.