Hope in education: A dialogue with educators.

Abstract

Contemporary educators (and students) continue to struggle within challenging social, political and educational contexts of power and conformity that often result in despair. Historically, humans have responded to despair through hope. This study examined the phenomenon of hope, as experienced by educators, within the context of systems theory, which holds that there is a serious mismatch between the interconnected or systemic nature of the world and our modern mechanistic perception of the world. The study used a qualitative design with elements of narrative inquiry and phenomenology to investigate the experiences and perspectives of four public school teachers. The findings suggest that educators experience hope: (1) relationally, (2) chaotically, and (3) and as a sustaining and transforming factor. As such, hope provides a supportive foundation that makes possible the continued struggle and growth of teachers, learners, and teacher educators. In light of these findings, I believe teachers and teacher educators need to engage in and provide opportunities for: (1) developing relationships through meaningful interaction and dialogue, (2) exploring uncertainty and ambiguity as means of challenging unnatural conformity in education and life, and (3) sustaining and transforming education and society. I conclude that one of the greatest sources of despair in modern society involves the replacement of natural systemic relationships with unnatural mechanistic relationships and that one of the greatest sources of hope lies in the possibility of recovering natural human perspectives through contemporary public education.