Listening to EFL Teachers' Stories of Hope and Expectation

8/9/2019 Listening to EFL Teachers' Stories of Hope and Expectation

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Listening to EFL Teachers Stories of Hope and Expectation:

Canadian research inspiring Brazilian teachers

Andrea Machado de Almeida Mattos

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

Introduction: how this story begins

In 2006, I had the opportunity to visit Canada and to participate in an event at Acadia University, in

Wolfville, Nova Scotia. The event was the Narrative Matters 2006, an interdisciplinary international

conference on narrative research, as the name suggests. The several papers presented in the

numerous sections held at the event were representative of the diversity that is so often

characteristic of narrative research. Topics ranged from research in Medical Care and Nursing to

research in Psychology, Pedagogy, Linguistics and Literature, to mention just a few. I was lucky

enough to attend the section chaired by Dr. Denise Larsen, Associate Professor at the Department of

Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta and Research Director at the Hope Foundation

of Alberta. The Hope Foundation, a research centre affiliated with the University of Alberta, is a

registered non-profit organization dedicated to the study and enhancement of hope.

This paper, inspired by the research conducted by Dr. Larsen and followers at the Hope Foundation,

seeks to show the power of stories of hope in the life of a group of undergraduate EFL (English as a

Foreign Language) teachers, who participated in a course on language teacher education. The main

objective of the study was to understand how participants find hope in the profession they have

chosen. Through narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), this paper explores the stories of

hope which have supported teachers and teachers-to-be in their choice of becoming EFL teachers.

The Growing Interest on Hope

A joint project conducted by the Hope Foundation and the University of Alberta Faculty of

Education has recently launched the Hope-Lit Database (http://www.hope-lit.ualberta.ca/), the most

comprehensive public database on hope in the world (Ford, 2006). Browsing through the database,

it is possible to notice that research on hope is fast growing in the world and the diversity of areas

interested in research on hope is just as impressive.

The reason for such a boom on the topic of hope is undoubtedly the current historical moment. We

live in a world where theres a faint line between happiness and misery. A world thats heavily

populated, yet we can still feel so alone, and have nobody to turn to. Where people do the same

thing everyday, only to get the same unrewarding results each time. A world where people live way


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below their potential because they fear failure and fear being judged by others. This pervasive

situation makes hope a necessity. To achieve our full potential and to change the situations that are

posed ahead of us, we need hope! This necessity to look for sources of hope in our lives has made

hope an obvious topic for research.

Hope has been described as the ability to envision a future in which one wishes to participate

(Larsen, Li & Mattos, 2007). Research has shown that hope is an important component of learning

and successful change (Cheavens, Michael, & Snyder, 2005). The energy and action that

accompany hope help to make better futures possible for all involved. Although interest in the

research on hope is extensive all over the world, in Brazil, the issue has not yet made its way into

academic areas. One of the objectives of this paper is, thus, to awaken interest on the topic of hope

in Brazilian researchers and scholars. The next sections will present some of the points already

being discussed in research on hope worldwide, in order to clarify what hope is and to show how

the construct may be applied on research on language teacher education.

Conceptions and Definitions of Hope

In a detailed review of research on hope, Eliott & Olver (2002:174) remind us that precisely what

hope is remains problematic, with many definitions, models, and conceptual frameworks proffered

that are not always interchangeable. According to the authors, hope has been described as an

inner power, a process of anticipation, the cognitive energy and pathways for goals, the most robust

resource one can possess, and a means of maintaining a fighting spirit (ibid). They conclude that

there is little consensus in the literature about the meanings of hope and that there seems to be no

single characteristic of hope that is accepted by all authors reviewed. This conclusion is justifiable,

perhaps, because hope is such an individual experience. Indeed, Wang (2000) states that hope is a

common human experience. Yet, according to the author, it may be uniquely and differently

experienced by each hoping person.

Research in the Medical area suggests that hope is positively correlated with health and recovery

(Turner, 2005). The hoping person is motivated and emotionally positive, which promotes healing

and helps to enhance the chances of recovery. In Turners words, as we hope we are confident of

and expect a good outcome (ibid, p. 509). For this reason, hope has been linked to survival and to

the restoration of the individual after periods of stress.

According to Turner (2005: 509), hope is said to be the emotion on which all other emotions of

elation are grounded. The same author also points out that hope is an intrinsic emotion, universally

experienced by all human beings and that it is necessary to life. As such, hope is integral to the

human condition (ibid).


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Nekolaichuk, Jevne & Maguire (1999) say hope is action-oriented, which defines hope as an

emotion that brings agency and empowerment to the hoping individual. Sillito (2005) argues that

hope is connected to change and growth, and brings the discussion to the area of education.

According to her, education for change would benefit from the explicit use of hope-related language

and stories. In her own research with second language students and teachers in Canada, results show

that participants were personally empowered by sharing their reflections, stories and images of

hope.

According to Dufault & Martocchio (1985:379), hope is a multidimensional dynamic life force

characterized by a confident yet uncertain expectation of achieving a future good which, to the

hoping person, is realistically possible and personally significant. Other researchers have defined

hope as unidimensional (Wang, 2000; Snyder et al, 1991 & 1997, for example). Eliott & Olver

(2002:190), however, argue that measurements of hope that are unidimensional, focusing on a

single aspect, cannot do justice to the complexity and multiplicity of hope.

Turner (2005) reviews a number of important studies on hope in several different areas. Among the

many characteristics listed by the studies reviewed, the author highlights that hope is motivating

and futuristic, in the sense that it is always aimed at the future. Turner also calls attention to the fact

that hope is a pervasive human emotion and that it is necessary to life. She also mentions that hope

is self-sustaining, as it may exist even in face of very unfavorable conditions.

Moreover, some other studies contrast hope with optimism and distinguish it from wishful thinking.

The main difference between hoping and wishing, according to these studies, is exactly the fact that

hope is realistic, which does not tend to be a necessary characteristic of wishful thinking and

optimism (Turner, 2005). Sillito (2005:6), for example, says that hope is realistic because it

doesnt deny the circumstances; it just denies the inevitability of the outcome.

All these studies claim that hope is important and necessary to the human being, specially in

difficult times. Turner (2005), in particular, calls attention to the necessity of attaining and

maintaining hope (p. 509).

Finally, Larsen (2005) says that hope and hopelessness may even co-exist, as individuals may show

in the course of a single short conversation. The author urges us to listen to the discourses of hope

and learn more about the individual nuances of hope experienced in difficult circumstances (p.

516). Larsen also agrees with Eliott and Olver (2002:190), when they call attention to the

complexity and multiplicity of hope.

Research Design

This paper, as mentioned in the beginning, was inspired by the work conducted by Larsen and

Miller (2006). The two authors reported two different studies of teacher educators and counselling


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educators stories that foster possibility and hope. They also discussed the impact that working

with stories of hope has on their own narratives of career and hope.

The data for this study was collected at the end of an EFL teacher preparation course for

undergraduate students I offered at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. The course included

seminars on several readings related to the area of language teaching and language teacher

education and a component on Action Research, when the participants had to develop a mini action

research project.

At the end of the course, participants were supposed to take a final test. As the course was mainly

reflective in nature, I decided the test should also be reflective. The questions included in the test

were devised to help participants reflect on the issues discussed during the course from the stand

point of a teacher-to-be. The five reflective questions stimulated the students to reflect on their

future careers as language teachers and on their role in promoting change in their communities and

in their future learners lives. Three of these questions were specifically devised to foster

participants reflections on issues related to hope and hopelessness. These were the three questions

on hope:

What stories from your life experience give you hope for being a teacher? What experiences at the

university help you have hope for being a teacher? What experiences support your hopes for

teaching? What experiences threaten your hope?

Thinking about the topics that were discussed during the semester, what do you hope that being a

teacher will mean to you and to your (future) students?

In face of all the problems that our country is going through nowadays, and also thinking about the

problems specifically related to the teaching profession, how do you hope to contribute to your

profession?

From the 26 undergraduate students enrolled in the course, 18 gave me permission to use their

answers as data for this study. Their answers were analyzed in terms of the hope stories they told.

The findings are similar to some of the findings reported in Turner (2005).

Findings

Turner (2005) reports on a study that explored the narratives of hope of a group of 10 Australian

young people. The researcher provided participants with a disposable camera and asked them to

take pictures that would represent hope for them. After that, participants were interviewed by the

researcher. These interviews were initially prompted by the participants photographs and were

meant to encourage participants reflections on their experiences of hope. The study revealed four

different horizons of hope which were labeled hope as an experience of at-one-with, hope as a

driving force, hope as having choices and hope as connecting and being connected to people.


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The present study, likewise the study reported by Turner (2005), also revealed, through the

participants stories, two different meanings of hope: hope as a driving force and hope as

connecting and being connected. In the next two subsections, some of these stories are presented

and discussed. The stories were originally written in English as they were taken from the

participants final test. The excerpts were not edited. Only a few small corrections were made in

order to facilitate reading and avoid misunderstandings. The participants names were substituted

for their initials to preserve their identity.

Hope as connecting and being connected to people

Many of the stories told by the participants talk about their desire and necessity to connect and feel

themselves connected to their students and students-to-be. The examples below show excerpts from

some of these stories, in which participants refer to this sensation of connecting and being

connected to other people. Here, it should be highlighted that all the examples refer to the fact that

what supports participants hopes for teaching is exactly this connection with their students.

I really enjoy being a teacher and I love the relationship I have with my students. They certainly

contribute a lot in giving me hopes to continue with this job. (A.M.)

What gives me hope to go on teaching is the relationship I have with my students, their caress with

me, to see them learning and to see that they are satisfied with their learning process. (L.I.)

What supports my hopes for teaching is knowing that I can help someone to learn. (D.A.)

Hope as a Driving Force

Another meaning of hope found in the participants stories was hope as a driving force. This finding

once again corresponds to the findings reported by Turner (2005).

() teachers must believe that we can do something for improving the teaching profession in our

country. (D.A.)

Of course there are bad things too (). But I am hopeful: I believe that there is always something

that we can do. (D.A.)

It is hard to make changes in our country but we have to believe that it is possible to do something

more and to turn our work and our classes more attractive and more respectable among the

students. (F.O.)


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In these excerpts, participants talk about the necessity of doing something to improve the

educational environment in Brazil, a reality that they are all very aware of, either as students or as

teachers. Although some of them do not use the word hope explicitly, we can perceive that there is

always something that drives them in the direction of believing that it is possible, that they need

to cling to their hopes for a better future, both for themselves and for the generations to come.

Conclusion

As shown in the introductory sections, there is a growing interest in the research on hope in several

areas all over the world. In Brazil, however, hope has not yet been pursued as a relevant topic for

research. In a recent lecture held at Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Tim Murphy (2007) defined

teaching as a hoping profession. From this perspective, hope is but a natural topic for research in

the area of teaching and teacher education.

Murphy (2007) also talked about creating Learning Ecologies. He referred to these learning

ecologies as affinity spaces or communities of practice where learning is made possible through

contagion. Murphys proposal was based on the conception of emotional contagion. The author

explained that emotions are caught by others and certain peoples emotions are extremely

contagious. For Murphy, language use can be contagious in these learning ecologies.

Following Murphys suggestions, it is possible to imagine, then, the creation of hoping ecologies.

As hope is a pervasive emotion among all humans (Wang, 2000; Eliott & Olver, 2005), in these

hoping ecologies, hope would be spread and experienced through contagion. Larsen and Miller

(2006) stated that talking about hope helps to foster hope in those around us. Thus, in a hoping

ecology, participants would all become more hopeful through sharing each others experiences of

hope. Through creating and researching these hoping ecologies, it would also be possible to study

and understand both the individual dimension of the hope experiences and the collective

complexities of the hoping community.

References

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physiological benefits. In: J. A. ELIOTT (Ed.). Interdisciplinary perspectives on hope. Hauppauge,

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DUFAULT, K.; MARTOCCHIO, B. C. Hope: its spheres and dimensions. Nursing Clinics of North

America, 20(2), 379-391.

ELIOTT, J. ; OLVER, I. The discursive properties of hope: a qualitative analysis of cancerpatients speech. Qualitative Health Research, 12, 173-193, 2002.


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FORD, D. Worlds largest hope database inspires record numbers. Express News, Jan. 30, 2006.

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NEKOLAICHUK, C. L.; JEVNE, R. F.; MAGUIRE, T. O. Structuring the meaning of hope in

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Documents

Listening to EFL Teachers' Stories of Hope and Expectation