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 there’s a faint line between happiness and misery. A world that’s 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
 2
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 Turner’s 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).
 3
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
“doesn’t 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
 4
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.
 5
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.)
 6
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. Murphy’s proposal was based on the conception of “emotional contagion”. The author
explained that “emotions are caught by others and certain people’s emotions are extremely
contagious.” For Murphy, language use can be contagious in these learning ecologies.
Following Murphy’s 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

CHEAVENS, J. S.; MICHAEL, S. T. & SNYDER, C. R. The correlates of hope: Psychological and
physiological benefits. In: J. A. ELIOTT (Ed.). Interdisciplinary perspectives on hope. Hauppauge,
NY: Nova Science, p. 119–132, 2005.

CLANDININ, D. ; CONNELLY, J. Narrative inquiry. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers,

2000.

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 cancer

patients’ speech. Qualitative Health Research, 12, 173-193, 2002.
 7

FORD, D. World’s largest hope database inspires record numbers. Express News, Jan. 30, 2006.
Available from http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/, access on Aug/13/07.

LARSEN, D. Put hope to work: a commentary. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 52(5), 515-517,
2005.

LARSEN, D.; LI, Y. ; MATTOS, A. M. A. Believing that it’s possible: the power of student and
teacher narratives of hope. In: International Conference, 1., 2007, Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil. 2007
Book of Abstracts… Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil: Associação Brasileira de Professores
Universitários de Inglês, 2007.

LARSEN, D. ; MILLER, D. Hearing it slant: Hopeful stories from teacher educators and counseling
educators. Symposium presented at Narrative Matters 2006 (The Storied Nature of Human
Experience: Fact & Fiction), Acadia University, Wolfville-Nova Scotia, Canada, 24-27 May 2006.

MURPHY, T. Learning ecologies of linguistic contagion. Lecture presented at I ABRAPUI

International Conference (Challenges in Language and Literature), Federal University of Minas
Gerais, Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil, 3-6 June 2007.

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

health and illness. Social Science and Medicine, 48, 591-605, 1999.

SILLITO, J. Images and stories of hope: understanding hope and transformation with adult ESL
learner and teachers. In: ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, 24., 2005, London, Ontario.
2005 On-line Proceedings… London, Ontario: Canadian Association for the Study of Adult
Education, 2005. Available from:
http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/CASAE/cnf2005/2005onlineProceedings/CAS2005Pro-Sillito.pdf.
(Access on: Ago., 16, 2006).

SNYDER, C. R. et all. The will and the ways: development and validation of an individual-
differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 570-585, 1991.

__________. The development and validation of the Children’s Hope Scale. Journal of Pediatric
Pshychology, 22, 399-421.

TURNER, de S. Hope seen through the eyes of 10 Australian young people. Journal of Advanced
Nursing, 52(5), 508-515, 2005.

WANG, C. H. Developing a concept of hope from a human science perspective. Nursing Science
Quarterly 13, 248-251, 2000.