It is broadly assumed that following armed conflict, education is a crucial means to support the transformation of society from war-torn to reconstructed. In spite of this, it is often the case that girls face considerable in-school challenges. Using a social ecological framework, this article examines these challenges for a cohort of adolescent girls in a girls' educational setting in Sierra Leone. It explores their risk and protective factors and their education-based resilience. Contradictions exist between positive discourses of girls' education and girls' own schooling experiences in these settings. In particular, the contradictions between the discourses of empowerment and caring and the centrality of in-school violence are analysed in this article. It considers the ways in which the students responded to these contradictions in their schooling and thereby construct resilience in their lives. (Contains 1 note.)