Building A Practice of Hope in Higher Education
By Samantha Brandauer and Bruno Grazioli
Hope is fundamental to learning and to living. Hope recruits the imagination, giving us temporary respite from the difficult present while we consider how things might be made different. Research tells us that, particularly during periods of uncertainty, hope tilts us toward action and toward engaging with life—even as we remain uncertain about what will happen next.
Denise J. Larsen, “How to Learn and Lead from a Place of Hope“.
Introduction
Perhaps most daunting about imagining higher education for the world we need is the indisputable fact that we are being asked to navigate a complex and turbulent world while sitting within institutional structures that reward us for exclusion, binary thinking, silos and narrow expertise instead of inclusion, interdependence, collaboration and iterative processes.
What is exciting about imagining higher education for the world we need is that as international educators we already have many of the tools, skills and dispositions to be disruptors, marked by our willingness to use our agency to hope beyond what exists. How do we utilize or use our curiosity, empathy, ability to tolerate ambiguity and adaptability to do the work of what Adrienne Maree Brown calls radical imagination: “So, so much of the work, for me, of radical imagination is like, what does it look like to imagine beyond the constructs? What does it look like to imagine a future where we all get to be there, not causing harm to each other, and experiencing abundance?” (Tippet, K., 2022, 8:57). What does it take then to move from not only imagining a different world through international education, but to using international education as a tool to build a more sustainable, equitable and just future (Berger, 2022, Brandauer et al, 2023, Rizzotti & Cruz-Feliciano, 2023)? The answer that has begun to emerge for us is what we are calling a practice of hope in international education.
For us the practice of hope has allowed for a move, a shift of perspective that is necessary to begin transforming higher education, because, as Stein points out “if we simply re-imagine higher education from where we currently stand, we will likely continue to imagine and create more of the same” (p. 144). Stein also calls for new, alternative, horizons of possibility, where we can "commit to holding spaces for multi-voiced, critically-informed conversations” (p. 158). Our practice of hope is thus relational and critically informed. It asks many complex questions at once about power and positionality -- who is being left at the margins and why, whose knowledge is being valued and why, and who is benefiting and who is not.
Firstly, we challenge the concept of “experience”, intended as that process that happens to international and study abroad students and the communities in which they live and learn rather than as one where students and their host communities actively participate. Instead, we propose the adoption of the concept of “practice”, “a more agentive subject who is a pivotal actor in spaces of education”, as a framework for our investigation (Deuchar, 2022). Secondly, we advocate for the creation of a culture of hope and care within the field of international education as a viable way to begin moving toward change. And finally, we require “Embracing the truth of interdependence [which] calls us toward new kinds of civic, ecological, and global understanding. This understanding begins from the foundational reality of interdependence as our human-ecological condition. It asks how we operate ethically within the communities and systems of which we are part, and which support us” (Hartman and Brandauer, 2022).
We are international educators at Dickinson College within the Center for Global Study and Engagement who have different roles and responsibilities and are based in different countries. We have both begun to simultaneously see our work together as a practice of hope that has grown through our conversations and shared projects. What follows are the answers to some questions that help illustrate how through hope, we are shifting not only perspective but practice which is leading to change in how we see ourselves and interact with our students and within our communities.
What do we mean by a practice of hope?
Sam: Kari Grain’s definition of critical hope resonates with me, “Critical hope is a type of hope that grapples with its own political, emotional and experiential dimensions in order to enact change...Critical hope doesn’t accept simple solutions, and it pushes back against the toxic positivity that sometimes accompanies feel-good narratives of hope” (Grain, K., 2022, pg. 21). I do not mean a hope that ignores reality, truth and harm in the face of marginalization and oppression (Coates, T., 2015, Grain K., 2022). What I mean is an action-oriented hope that helps me keep engaging with my work in higher- and international education, work that can feel overwhelming at times because of the level of injustice, uncertainty and complexity I am often navigating. My identity, income and social capital shield me from many of the negative consequences of hope. As a future -oriented person, this action-oriented hope gives me permission to slow down and reflect “that instead of constantly looking to the future, we should relish and endure life in the present, together. Paying attention to the people around us might be a promising way to step out of the unjust and deceiving fantasies that have so much power in governing our lives” (Dhillion, M., 2021, pg. 7). The practice of hope allows me to prioritize what I love -- building community and holding people up. It is to be inspired by and inspire those around me to imagine and work towards change while also recognizing that we have limitations and need to care for one another. It is very much influenced by Brown’s concept of emergent strategy (Brown, 2017) and particularly how hope and “Emergent strategies let us practice, in every possible way, the world we want to see” (Brown, A., 2017, p. 23). It helps us tell a different, non-linear and iterative story of international education.
Bruno: Practicing hope means nurturing a fundamental trust in students and their ability and willingness to learn and evolve. Despite the difficulties they experience, especially in our post-covid world, where the pandemic has worsened youth disconnection, exacerbated inequality and seriously impacted students’ mental health (UNESCO et al., 2021), hope is the motivating factor that drives me as a supervisor, mentor, instructor. Teaching is what I have always wanted to do, so, in a way, I can say that teaching was and is my calling, one that has significantly matured and evolved over a couple of decades in this field. Research has drawn attention to the existence of strong ties between an individual’s hopefulness and commitment to teach and their calling to teach. Hansen (1995, p. 5) describes this sense of calling as “a hopeful, outward-looking sentiment, a feeling of wanting to engage the world in some substantive way”. However, I would argue that in an educational system that is largely built on a paradigm where students’ choices are driven by extrinsic motivators (grades) instead of intrinsic motivators (learning) and which creates deep shame at the possibility of receiving low, let alone failing, grades (see Gerald E. Knesek, 2022), the sentiment of hopeful teaching (and learning) is lost in the rush towards earning credits.
When did hope as a framework start to surface in our work?
Sam: There is no doubt that hope as a framework started to emerge out of the pandemic and the deep compassion and commitment I have seen within my global team during the pandemic and beyond. It required listening carefully to the varied experiences of my staff in the U.S. and abroad who were afraid and exhausted yet came back every day to re-engage with their work in different and more challenging ways and to try and balance centering students' needs, the needs of local communities and their own needs. We had a strong foundation of trust and laughed a lot together (and still do) which to me is part of the soundtrack of a practice of hope.
Bruno: It surfaced in 2022 when, through extended community engagement in organizations working to address food insecurity in Bologna, students learned to commit deeply to fellow citizens and embrace their (but also their own) vulnerability and interdependence. It also emerged when students’ mental health rapidly became a constant in conversations among program team members, further evidenced by the higher number of students who sought counseling support. Students' almost inevitable response to their surroundings (academic or not) was generally one of preoccupation and resistance. To address the students’ struggles, I began working on ways to develop emotional intelligence and introduced activities designed around expression of emotions and the concept of hope in its simplest terms, that is, the acceptance of possibility.
What is our practice of hope?
We, of course, cannot talk about a practice of hope without Paulo Freire. This is a quote that resonated with both of us. “Whatever the perspective through which we appreciate authentic educational practice—gnoseologic, aesthetic, ethical, political—its process implies hope. Unhopeful educators contradict their practice. They are men and women without address, and without a destination. They are lost in history. In an effort to maintain hope alive, since it is indispensable for happiness in school life, educators should always analyze the comings and goings of social reality. These are the movements that make a higher reason for hope possible” (Freire, 1997, p. 107).
Bruno: Freire’s words still hold true today. Coming back to teaching/program management after the impositions and restrictions of the pandemic, I felt a strong urge towards finding a clearer purpose and a keen desire to experience joy in my daily work. I needed renewed motivation for myself and my students. When we are motivated, we move forward, we take actions, we consider options and assess difficulties. Positive psychology indicates that motivation is “influenced by the satisfaction of needs that are either necessary for sustaining life or essential for wellbeing and growth.” (Souders, 2023). My practice of hope consists in not losing sight of the connections between motivation and hope and doing so holistically, from my personal life to the professional realm and back.
Sam: A lot of the work that I do day-to-day is strategic, collaborative and oriented toward community- and bridge-building. That is why this Freire quote is so relatable to me. It asks us to have a destination in mind, to make room for happiness and to question our positionality and frame of reference which is always in motion depending on context. As I rethink my leadership and strategic actions through the practice of hope, I think the largest shift I have seen is how this practice opens possibilities for my team. Like Bruno who is meeting students and his community where they are and helping them direct their own learning journeys, I am doing the same for my diverse global team. I am helping create space for them to imagine and hope for themselves, their students and their communities. They are tasked with being better bridges between students and their communities by better understanding their own positionality, exploring who is marginalized, whose knowledge is most valued and why in their local contexts, and with challenging hegemonic norms.
This is what change is starting to look like.
Starting a practice and a culture of hope has helped cultivate a more expansive sense of what is possible, a multi-faceted sense of wondering before the unexpected and uncertain. We are talking explicitly about making our work as international educators about change towards justice, not just for our students, but for ourselves and our communities and the structures within which we operate. This has practical implications for our day-to-day work. It shapes how we set expectations for students who are engaging in global learning and how we help them set goals for themselves, their communities and the planet. It reshapes how we partner, how we teach and how we build curriculum and engage in experiential learning. It changes how we measure success and outcomes and in turn the kinds of stories we tell. For example, we are starting to see that students no longer act from a place of preoccupation and resistance, which does not mean that they are free of any anxiety, but that they can tolerate it as part of a larger process towards "getting there". Students behave in ways that can be defined as playful and joyful as they benefit from intentional and compassionate group work that is based on the strengths of the plurality rather than on the individual. We are building more trust, support and joy for everyone engaging in this process with us.
References
Berger, L. M. (Ed.). (2020). Social Justice and International Education. NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
Brandauer, S., Teku, T., & Hartman, E. (2022). Introduction: Special Issue on Listening to and Learning from Partners and Host Communities: Amplifying Marginalized Voices in Global Learning. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 34(3), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v34i3.797
Brown, A.M. (2017). Emergent Strategy Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. AK Press.
Coates, T. (2015 December 13). Hope and The Historian. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/hope-and-the-historian/419961/
Deuchar, A. (2022). The problem with international students' ‘experiences’ and the promise of their practices: Reanimating research about international students in higher education. BERJ British Educational Research Journal, 48 (3) 504-518. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3779
Dhillon, M. (2021). Understanding Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Rejection of Hope. Journal of Integrative Research & Reflection, 4 1-9. https://doi.org/10.15353/jirr.v4.1930
Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogy of the Heart. New York, NY: Continuum.
Hartman, E. & Brandauer, S. (2022). Overview: Invitation and Introduction. In E. Hartman & S. Brandauer. (Eds.). Interdependence: Global Solidarity and Local Actions. The Community-based Global Learning Collaborative. Retrieved from https://www.cbglcollab.org/intro-to-toolkit
Knesek, G. E. (2022, April 25). Why Focusing on Grades Is a Barrier to Learning. Harvard Business Publishing Education. Retrieved from https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/why-focusing-on-grades-is-a-barrier-to-learning
Grain, K. (2022) Critical Hope How to Grapple with Complexity and Cultivate Transformative Social Change. North Atlantic Books Huichin, unceded Ohlone Land, aka Berkley, CA.
Hansen, D. T. (1995). The call to teach. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Larsen, D. (2020. July 16). How to Learn and Lead from a Place of Hope. American Association of Colleges and Universities. Retrieved from https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/articles/how-to-learn-and-lead-from-a-place-of-hope
Rizzotti, A. & Cruz-Feliciano, H.M. (2023). Introduction. Rizzotti, A. & Cruz-Feliciano, H.M. (Eds.) in Voices from the South Decolonial Perspectives in International Education (pp. 1-10). The Forum on Education Abroad.
Souders, B. (2019, 5 November). What is Motivation? A Psychologist Explains. Positive Psychology. Retrieved from https://positivepsychology.com/motivation-human-behavior/
Stein, S. (2023). Reflection on “Unsetting the University” and Its Call to Responsibility. Critical Internationalization Studies Review, 2(1) 59-63. https://doi:10.32674/cisr.v2i1.5527
Stein, S. Beyond (2019) Higher Education as We Know it: Gesturing Towards Decolonial Horizons of Possibility. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 38 143–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-018-9622-7
Tippet, K. (Host). (2022, 23 June). We are in the Time of New Suns. On Being. (Audio Podcast). Retrieved from https://onbeing.org/programs/adrienne-maree-brown-we-are-in-a-time-of-new-suns/
UNESCO, World Bank, United Nations Children's Fund. (2021). The state of the global education crisis: a path to recovery. Retrieved from https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/state-global-education-crisis-path-recovery
Samantha Brandauer is Associate Provost and ED of the Center for Global Study and Engagement at Dickinson College. While she approaches her work as someone who embodies a “traditional” international education professional: CIS-gendered, White, heterosexual and American, her own identity formation has been complicated and shaped by being a linguistic and cultural outsider across many contexts. A career-long international educator, she is working toward an international education model that is a force for positive and equitable change across all the people and communities it impacts. She currently leads a diverse, global team with staff and faculty in Cameroon, Argentina, England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. It is the relationships with these incredible individuals who feel and guide the impact of U.S. student in their own local communities that inspires her and fills her with hope that international education can and should lead to creating more just, sustainable and equitable communities.
After almost two decades in the UK and USA as an Italian Studies faculty member, Bruno Grazioli relocated to Italy in 2018 to launch a new Dickinson College Italian Studies Program in Bologna, where he serves as Resident Director and Contributing Faculty. Bruno has worked with colleagues to build a program based on rigorous academic standards and immersive linguistic and cultural opportunities for students. In this five-year period, he has engaged in Dickinson initiatives (on community engagement, sustainability, social justice, DEI, etc.), that have reshaped his teaching and research interests, particularly in the aftermath of the global pandemic and its impact on students. Bruno is completing a three-year training program in Humanistic-Existential Counseling and is fascinated by the effects that advanced language learning in an abroad context has on personal growth and is committed to designing pathways for students to learn and grow.
Institutional Context: Dickinson is a nationally recognized liberal-arts college chartered in 1783 in Carlisle, Pa. Dickinson has developed an international reputation for our commitment to imbuing our students with an immersive global perspective, a holistic sustainability education, a community orientation and civic skillset, and the ability to think across disciplines and dialogue across differences. Through these interdependent dimensions of a Dickinson education, students are better able to connect their values to their career and civic goals. Our alumni are out in the world building more just, equitable, sustainable and prosperous communities.
Snapshot Institutional Profile* The IPEDs database we have used for other profiles in this project was malfunctioning at the time this post was uploaded. This data will be updated in the days and weeks to come.
This entry is part of a Public Writing Project, Higher Education for the World We Need, co-edited by Eric Hartman, Shorna Allred, Jackline Oluoch-Aridi, Marisol Morales, and Ariana Huberman. Initial reflections in that writing project will be posted here, on the blog of the Community-based Global Learning Collaborative (The Collaborative). The Collaborative is a multi-institutional community of practice, network, and movement hosted in the Haverford College Center for Peace and Global Citizenship. The Collaborative advances ethical, critical, aspirationally decolonial community-based learning and research for more just, inclusive, sustainable communities.
Join us for the next Collaborative Summit, Collaboration for a Better World: Global Learning, Hope, and Justice, from November 8-10, 2024, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA.