The Indefatigability of Hope

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(Image sourced form the excellent http://art.zerflin.com)

Barack Obama famously wrote about the ‘audacity of hope‘. Unfortunately, such audacity was always likely to be quashed under the crushing weight of partisan politics. Is it so that hope is therefore an impractical approach to the realities of our work-a-day life? Hope is most often associated with naïveté – a failure to grasp the gritty truths that daily life offers us. Can this seemingly limp abstraction be redeemed and provide us with more than the succour of promise?

Can hope yield results?

Yes it can.

I’m one for gritty realism. I like a good tragedy over a comedy every time. I’m even often cynic about the motives of others: politicians, bankers and the rest. But I’d hate to be just a tired old cynic. There would be little to look forward to. I’m more of what I would term a cynical idealist. Less naïveté, more having a firm grasp of some of the darker instincts of humanity, without it letting me lose faith in us all and our humane instincts.

I teach teenagers. This means that every day I see the best and worst we have to offer. From instinctive curiosity and unremembered acts of kindness, to hormone driven selfishness and random acts of irrationality. But if I didn’t see more of the best in my charges than the worst then I likely wouldn’t be a very good teacher. If I didn’t have the strong sense of hope that my students could arise out of whatever negative circumstances they were mired in then I would surely be a poor role model.

Why do I retain my idealism and my sense of hope? I suppose it is a leap of confidence. I feel confidently competent enough to take control of my life and make a difference to the lives of e students I teach. I have a good degree of what Albert Bandura, from Stanford University, would term ‘self-efficacy‘: the notion that I have the ability to control most of the events in my life. Henry Ford’s quote is apt:

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”

Hope can make a difference.

Self-efficacy is often a notion associated with professionals in leadership positions. As you would likely expect, people who run organisations feel happier with their role because they feel empowered to control their career and their decisions reinforce their sense of power and self-belief. It is something leaders should think deeply about. A happier, more hopeful workforce is more productive and successful. Bandura and Edwin Locke, from the Univeristy of Maryland, have collated a great deal of research on the importance of self-efficacy and its importance – see here.

In an article for Psychology Today – see here  – it cites the seven things happy employees do, hope is a key component. Rather than a mere abstraction, this attitude can yield significant results. The article cites Dr Shane Lopez who states:

“Hopeful salespeople reach their quotas more often; hopeful mortgage brokers process and close more loans; and hopeful managing executives meet their quarterly goals more frequently” (Lopez, 2013).

Of course, hope is bound up in a range of personal qualities that impact upon our performance and our attitude to the world and our careers. Optimism, trust in others, to self-efficacy and resilience in the face of failure. But I like hope as a catch all concept. If we are hopeful we will better persevere in the face of challenge – we will likely be more proactive in makes changes when circumstances are against us.

Francis Bacon would argue that ‘hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper‘, something of a falsehood, but when hope is pinned to self-belief and action it can yield positive results. Positive psychology often takes a good kicking from pragmatic professional types. Hope, love, trust and such are qualities people more associate with greetings cards rather than the world of work. But perhaps hope is more than a mere fuzzy, warm abstraction – it could be an essential prerequisite for us to do great work.

8 thoughts on “The Indefatigability of Hope”

  1. Hi Alex.

    First off, thanks for the post, and the blog in general. You are one of my must reads on feedly, and every time your feed pops up, it’s an interesting, engaging, and at times challenging read.

    And that’s valuable, and valued.

    I’d agree that self efficacy, and associated concepts like utility are hugely important in learning. But I’d also argue that it’s a more involved, and nuanced idea than positive thinking.

    It’s the belief that a task is achievable by us, and that the environment in which we are doing the task will allow us to succeed. Even facilitate us.

    It’s partially to do with confidence in ourselves, and positive thinking will give a boost here. Our confidence in ourselves, and our teachers confidence in us are hugely important here, and I think you put that second part well when you talk about how you see the positive in your charges.

    But the other aspects are key. Tasks must actually be achievable, and the environment in which they are conducted must be conducive, or at least not an obstacle. Without well structured tasks and a conducive environments, self confidence on its own is not enough, and may, in fact lead to reduced self efficacy.

    I think of self efficacy as a complex dance where the constituents of self belief, feedback, peer success, fear and optimism, and good, student sensitive task design, hope, past experience, prior knowledge, and the perception people have of the educator, task and environment all play a part.

    Positive thinking is hugely important, but it is only one mechanism amongst many. When it is missing a key element is undermined. Our confidence in ourselves, and the confidence others have in us are meaningful rich gifts with concrete effects on learning, and so many educators, policy makers, parents and administrators at times fail to see this. But hope requires structure, detail, planning and context in which to bear fruit.

  2. I see that you used my illustration on your page, I’m flattered!

    While I don’t mind you using my image at all; it’s important to me to have the image credited with the author; myself. I make a living by selling the work I do. 🙂

    It’s part of a series of quotes I did on famous people. You can see more about the series here (and you can repost them if you like): http://art.zerflin.com

    1. Hello, I am sorry – as I sourced the image from another blog I didn’t reference. I have updated the post to credit you and your website – with a link.

      Many thanks for letting me use your excellent work. I will tweet a link to your website.

      Best wishes,

      Alex

  3. Clare Harms

    I’m really sorry to be so picky (I enjoy your blog posts very much) but I didn’t realise that Barack Obama had changed his name/nationality and joined the Irish family of O’Bama!
    As an English teacher perhaps you should take some of your own advice and check for accuracy! (It did make me giggle though!)

  4. Pingback: ORRsome blog posts from the week that was. Week 31 | high heels and high notes

  5. Pingback: The Indefatigability of Hope | The Echo Chamber

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