The Relationship Between Teachers and Hope: An Integral Study of How Teachers Experience, Enact and Understand Hope in their Teaching Contexts

Date
2022-11-04
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the phenomenon of hope in teaching. While teaching may seem like an inherently hopeful act, there are few existing studies to draw upon to understand teachers’ relationships to hope and whether or not teachers see hope as meaningful and important in their lives and in their teaching practice. The problem that centred this study was: How do teachers experience, enact, and understand hope in their teaching contexts? This study used Integral Methodological Pluralism as the guiding conceptual framework. There were 14 teacher participants in this study, all of whom worked in elementary and/or middle schools in one school district within the British Columbia public school system. The phenomenon of teacher hopefulness was investigated four distinct ways according to the conceptual framework. First, by using a small-scale questionnaire to collect data about observable behaviour from 13 participants, it was found that teachers enact goal-related behaviours and social behaviours. Next, using phenomenological interviews with eight participants, it was found that hope and hopelessness have their own distinctive phenomenologies for teachers. Next, using hermeneutic conversations with six participants, it was found that teachers keep their hope and hopelessness a secret rather than sharing their genuine feelings with their colleagues. Then, using qualitative interviews with six participants, it was found that teachers feel powerless to affect policy change and as a result teachers focus on doing their best within the constraints of the existing system. Teachers are not focused on changing the system. Finally, by using policy and document analysis it was found that policies that limit self-efficacy and self-determination contribute to hopelessness and humanizing policies contribute to hopefulness. Recommendations for improving teacher hopefulness include legitimizing despair and teaching teachers how to hope well.
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Keywords
hope, teacher hopefulness, despair, hopefulness, hopelessness, integral theory, integral methodological pluralism, phenomenology, hermeneutics
Citation
Fraser, D. (2022). The relationship between teachers and hope: an integral study of how teachers experience, enact and understand hope in their teaching contexts (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.