Recording of a presentation to UKCGE Annual Conference 2021. Abstract: Failure is part of being human, we learn more through
failure than through success. We are psychologically and biologically wired to
remember the negative, this instinct helps us to protect ourselves against
future disasters and keep us safely away from harm. Failure is often
a considered a negative but looking at it differently can open unexpected
routes to success. Albert Einstein said, “failure really is just success in
progress.” However, the pressures of the research environment can make it
difficult to take this view. Paradigms of educational histories teach us that
failure can have disastrous consequences for future success (Jackson 2003).
Elliot and Thrash argue that for many young people, fear of failure becomes “a
dispositional burden that they must carry with them into each new achievement
situation and that affects the goals they choose to pursue” (2004, 968). By the
time high-achieving students reach PGR level, fear of failure is often strongly
developed and can lead to intense anxiety, as well as a risk-averse approach. What
can we do about this? Salford University’s Doctoral School has developed a
“Flipping Failure” initiative, in which experiences of failure are re-framed as
opportunities for personal development and pathways to success. In this series
of case studies, we explore applications of failure as a collective
problem-solving framework to help researchers manage the isolation and
remoteness, reflect and re-purpose, making the most of what they have already
developed, increase resilience and capacity to cope with change
and uncertainty.