To Hope Is Not Enough

• In Event: Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Subjects, the Teacher Self, and Investigations Into Teacher Positioning

Abstract

This presentation examines teacher educators’ understandings of hope related to teacher education, providing a previously unexplored perspective on teacher educators’ hope or lack of hope, and gives insight into moving from hope to action. Findings reflect that teacher educators’ “hope” can be displayed as a fluid model that moves between bystander, rescuer, and actualized hope. Through the frames of critical pedagogy and pedagogies of hope, the researcher found teacher educators reflect how they understand hope within their own contexts and, through their own words, and begin to comprehend what hope means when preparing preservice teachers. Teacher educators also recognized their own positionality in this process in order to move from mere hoping to action.

Author

• Melissa B. Rivers, South Ridge High School