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

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education Graduate Program – Educational Research

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Werklund School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Fraser, Dana

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bohac Clarke, Veronika

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Burns, Amy
• Winchester, Ian

• hope
• teacher hopefulness
• despair
• hopefulness
• hopelessness
• integral theory
• integral methodological pluralism
• phenomenology
• hermeneutics

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/40405

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/115432