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Authentic Hope during Troubling Times

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Title: Authentic Hope during Troubling Times
Language: English
Authors: Steve Grande, A. Renee Staton
Source: New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 2025 (183):79-85.
Availability: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 7
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Higher Education, Efficiency, Mental Health, Expectation, Constructivism (Learning), Community Problems, Teaching Methods, Social Problems, Self Efficacy
DOI: 10.1002/tl.20645
ISSN: 0271-0633
1536-0768
Abstract: The push toward efficiency in higher education is occurring as increasing numbers of faculty and students are struggling with mental health concerns and the world appears progressively polarized. However, education, at its core, can foster hope and effect positive change. This chapter presents a pedagogy of authentic hope that relies on constructivist, community-engaged teaching. As students become involved in responding to community issues, they develop a first-hand understanding of societal issues that fosters self-efficacy. These experiences can ultimately inspire students to be aware that they are part of shared, collaborative efforts that have the potential to dramatically improve our societies.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: EJ1483596
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0188002119;ndt01sep.25;2025Sep18.05:44;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0188002119-1">Authentic Hope During Troubling Times </title> <sbt id="AN0188002119-2">Introduction</sbt> <p>The push toward efficiency in higher education is occurring as increasing numbers of faculty and students are struggling with mental health concerns and the world appears progressively polarized. However, education, at its core, can foster hope and effect positive change. This chapter presents a pedagogy of authentic hope that relies on constructivist, community‐engaged teaching. As students become involved in responding to community issues, they develop a first‐hand understanding of societal issues that fosters self‐efficacy. These experiences can ultimately inspire students to be aware that they are part of shared, collaborative efforts that have the potential to dramatically improve our societies.</p> <p>Educators are currently facing daunting challenges. Faculty, staff, and students are struggling with the irreversible effects of climate change (Hickman et al. [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref1">18</reflink>]), intensifying political polarization (Dimock and Wike [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref2">8</reflink>]), seemingly unchecked gun violence (Reyns, Fisher, and Sloan [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref3">30</reflink>]), the reversal of rights for women and the LGBTQIA+ population (Carrasco [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref4">2</reflink>]; Couzens and Nawaz [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref5">6</reflink>]), and the ramifications of a global pandemic. Furthermore, educators and health officials are noting an increase in college students' feelings of hopelessness and disengagement (McMurtrie [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref6">25</reflink>]; Petersen and Barnes [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref7">29</reflink>]), and students themselves report feeling that the larger concerns of the world are beyond their control. With increasing concerns about student disengagement and isolation, the troubling rise in student reports of declining mental health, and indications of increasing fears about the state of the planet (Hickman et al. [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref8">18</reflink>]), it is not surprising that educators may be feeling at a loss for how to effectively respond.</p> <p>In addition, these global concerns are occurring amidst a push to streamline education and maximize efficiency, inspired by policy makers, consumers, and a desire to increase profitability (Doughterty and Natow [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref9">9</reflink>]). It may be tempting, then, to attempt to monetize higher education and strip away efforts that are not easily measured by cost benefit analyses. We propose, however, that these calls for efficiency suggest a need to more definitively structure curricula and out‐of‐class learning experiences around preparing and involving students in addressing our most pressing concerns. Making effective action the centerpiece of post‐secondary education can actually maximize student learning, build institutional strength, and demonstrate the potential and need for comprehensive higher education.</p> <p>Our current conditions, in fact, may be the ideal time to instill in students a sense of hope that prepares them to inhabit an increasingly destabilized globe. The notion of hope we propose is both a prerequisite for engaging students in a way that addresses the concerns of higher education critics and a method for equipping students and educators with the skills and attitudes for success. Below we share a conceptualization of authentic hope that draws on the diverse research related to hope and then describe the challenges of incorporating such a conceptualization. We offer tools for educators to integrate notions of authentic hope into their work, with the goal of increasing their effectiveness and reducing the sense of meaninglessness and powerlessness that can result from a primary focus on efficiency.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-3">The Context of Hope in Higher Education</hd> <p>Paulo Freire asserted "Without hope, there is no way we can even start thinking about education" (Freire, Macedo, and Freire [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref10">15</reflink>], 87). Freire proposed that education and hope are intertwined because education is not simply about impacting individual students but improving conditions for all. Authentic hope, we assert, is integral to achieving the outcomes of education. Furthermore, we suggest that there are practices that educators can engage in to instill hope that also facilitate the necessary outcomes of higher education.</p> <p>Kuh ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref11">22</reflink>]) proposed high impact practices as specific engagement‐focused teaching and learning interventions that result in deep and profound learning. In 2022 the American Association of Colleges and Universities released a research synthesis on studies of these practices, noting that civic and community engagement had a particularly profound positive effect on student learning and retention (Chittum, Enke, and Finley [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref12">3</reflink>]). These practices may initially appear inefficient in their requirement that students work outside the classroom, collaborate with faculty to build relationships with community members, and then take direct action. However, meaningfully integrating civic and community engagement into the curriculum deepens learning, inspires a sense of agency and hope, and has been shown to enhance retention and graduation rates (Chittum, Enke, and Finley [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref13">3</reflink>]).</p> <p>The headwinds facing civic and community engagement have stiffened though (Kinzie [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref14">21</reflink>]). Trends in decreasing student involvement in civic and community engagement emerged before the global pandemic and were exacerbated during Covid lockdowns. Recently, students have expressed resistance to engaging in civic and community engagement, with many indicating that they feel their participation may not be worth the effort (Kinzie [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref15">21</reflink>]; McMurtrie [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref16">25</reflink>]). Resistance to the engagement pedagogy because of its apparent inefficiency stands in stark contrast to the tenets of the entire educational enterprise, which relies on the belief that not only will the student's quality of life improve with education, the knowledge, abilities, and skills resulting from a formal education will also improve societies (Pasquerella [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref17">28</reflink>]). Education offers students hope by channeling their anxiety, and for some, their outrage, about the state of the world into meaningful involvement in positively shaping their future (Duncan‐Andrade [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref18">10</reflink>]).</p> <p>The scholarship of hope describes emotional and cognitive perspectives of hope (Corrigan and Schutte [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref19">4</reflink>]; Hellman and Gwinn [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref20">17</reflink>]; Ward et al. [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref21">37</reflink>]; Webb [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref22">38</reflink>]), coalescing around the notion that "hope refers to the positive expectation we have toward the attainment of a future oriented goal" (Hellman and Gwinn [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref23">17</reflink>], 270). Our conceptualization of authentic hope extends this idea to include the intentional structuring of educational opportunities for students to work systemically, seek positive collective outcomes, and demonstrate the efficacy and potential of higher education.</p> <p>The concept of hope has over 25 theories and 54 definitions, which Webb ([<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref24">38</reflink>]) categorized as encompassing five overall types of hope: Critical, transformative, patient, resolute, and sound. Of these, critical and transformative hope together can create an <emph>authentic hope</emph> that is uniquely relevant to students and their communities.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-4">Critical Hope</hd> <p>Emerging from the work of Paulo Freire and later Henry Giroux, critical hope is based on the idea that individuals can, and indeed must, think critically about the realities they are facing. They can then begin to uncover the possibilities and unrealized potential in their current situation (Giroux [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref25">16</reflink>]; Webb [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref26">38</reflink>]). When promoting critical hope, educators help students identify the gaps in their communities to highlight what is needed to address those deficits. They simultaneously work with students to draw out their interests and strengths as a means of enhancing their ability to take action. This form of hope combines an ethereal vision of what could be with concrete realism and the personal agency to address social problems (Giroux [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref27">16</reflink>]).</p> <p>Although not a specific critique of critical hope itself, Giroux ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref28">16</reflink>]) cautioned that institutions and agencies are threatened by efforts to name societal deficits and interrogate the status quo. These dominant forces can be powerful agents with the potential to crush feelings of hope by relying on economics, politics, and standardization. Critical hope, by its nature, tends to highlight inequities, emphasize the hidden costs of efficiency measures, and critique actions that prioritize capitalistic doctrine over humanism and social justice. Critical hope is undermined when economic systems and processes take precedence over comprehensive student learning.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-5">Transformative Hope</hd> <p>While critical hope assumes that the world is adaptable and change is possible, transformative hope envisions an ambitious future that we have not previously experienced (Webb [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref29">38</reflink>]). Transformative hope maintains that the world does not need to be the way it currently is—that human suffering resulting from our current societal structures should not be normalized. Transformative hope focuses on the potential reorganization of society (Webb [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref30">38</reflink>]) and invests in collective goals regarding expanded possibilities for individuals and more humane ways of living.</p> <p>Like critical hope, transformative hope can be difficult to sustain. For instance, Freire ([<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref31">14</reflink>]) advises educators and organizers about the difficulty and necessity of truly understanding the reality of others. Freire shares accounts of his failures in working with communities in Brazil where he was initially inclined to blame the community members themselves for not understanding him and his transformative ideas. Freire came to understand he had truly not appreciated the lived experience of these community members. Thus, well‐intended transformative hope may be insufficient and actually undermine collaborative efforts.</p> <p>According to Ichikawa's ([<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref32">19</reflink>]) analysis, transformative hope enables individuals to reject societal limitations and instead work toward more equitable, social justice‐oriented possibilities based on imagining what may seem outside the realm of possibility. Together, critical and transformative hope offers educators a framework of authentic hope for structuring opportunities that are authentic to the student's unique experiences and empowering communities.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-6">Fostering Authentic Hope in Higher Education</hd> <p>"Recognizing a threat but not knowing what to do about it can make people feel even more helpless, which can lead to increased stress and anxiety" (Schreiber [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref33">32</reflink>], para. 21). Authentic hope acknowledges the nature of being surrounded by challenges that seem insurmountable and respond with efforts to:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Bolster a sense of individual agency while promoting social cohesion;</item> <p></p> <item> Incorporate unflinching honesty about overwhelming odds;</item> <p></p> <item> Take an asset‐based approach to individuals and communities; and</item> <p></p> <item> Integrate reflection to foster meaning‐making of one's experience and enhance understanding of systems, power structures, and social dynamics.</item> </ulist> <p>We present several illustrations of institutional and individual efforts that exhibit the philosophy and strategies of authentic hope. Common among them are learning environments that are constructivist in nature, in which students are supported as active learners and encouraged to integrate their own lived experiences into their learning.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-7">Constructivism as a Foundation for Authentic Hope</hd> <p>Creating constructivist environments that instill authentic hope requires ongoing reflection, which is bolstered when educators seek to build an attitude of respect for students and genuine inquisitiveness about how they make meaning. This also requires educators to create inclusive environments that acknowledge power differentials between themselves and their students, allowing for shared vulnerability. In contrast to instrumental learning environments where students are expected to adapt to new information that exists outside themselves, constructivist learning rests on knowledge within the student that is brought forth by the educator. This partnership between educators and students hones student skills of reflection, analysis, critique, and preparation for action (Staton and Grande [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref34">34</reflink>]). Constructivism is thus transformative in nature because, when it pairs accurate information with personally relevant experience, it can pave the way for paradigmatic shifts in the ways people think (Duncan‐Andrade [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref35">10</reflink>]; Taylor and Cranton [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref36">35</reflink>]). This is a precursor to authentic hope.</p> <p>An additional component for creating authentic hope is the development of thoughtful opportunities for meaningful student engagement. For example, Scott Myers‐Lipton ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref37">27</reflink>]), a professor of sociology at San José State, has worked with his students to conduct social action campaigns in collaboration with the community. This pedagogical approach is based on the idea that social action is one of the most effective tools for educating students on critical thinking, how systems work, and responding to challenges. However, these activities are not mere academic exercises. Myers‐Lipton's students worked hand‐in‐hand with the San José community to mount a successful campaign to overcome steep odds and raise the minimum wage. Myers‐Lipton's classes have incorporated reflection throughout to facilitate meaning‐making about how systems work and can change and often lead students to develop longer‐lasting career connections to the organizations in which they partnered (Myers‐Lipton [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref38">27</reflink>]).</p> <p>In another example of constructivist environments illustrating authentic hope, engineering students at Olin College were introduced to older adults at a residential facility where many of the residents had recently begun using wheelchairs for mobility (Lederman [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref39">23</reflink>]). Residents described the difficult transition to a wheelchair due to the loss of independence coupled with suddenly feeling invisible and overlooked. Through ongoing dialogue, the engineering students prototyped solutions that would improve the residents' access and visibility. The residents were overjoyed with the potential for improvements, and the students were motivated to learn academic content that would make their prototypes possible. Further, the Olin administration noted an increase in student motivation and sense of purpose that may not have resulted from more traditional educational interventions that would, at first glance, offer a seemingly more efficient and less complicated style of instruction.</p> <p>In a more comprehensive example, a small college used its existing assets—housing, food service, human services training, career support, and innovative faculty—to temporarily house recently arrived refugees in campus residences and assist them in effectively becoming a part of the community. Founded in 2015, Every Campus a Refuge (ECAR [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref40">11</reflink>]) at Guilford College in North Carolina started a nationwide movement. Now, dozens of colleges have developed unique refugee support programs to address pressing community needs by involving faculty, staff, and students in essential roles. At James Madison University in Virginia, for instance, temporary residences reduced the intensity of an acute shortage of low‐income housing for refugees. Students played key roles in connecting the residents to university and local resources while learning first‐hand about the residents' experiences and needs.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-8">Elements of Constructivist Learning Environments</hd> <p>Creating environments that support the development of authentic hope requires designing spaces that are welcoming to all learners and that invite faculty and staff to interrogate their assumptions about students and the learning process. For example, in an initiative such as ECAR, prior to asking students to engage with the refugee community, students and faculty can first explore their own experiences with need, dislocation, and access. Questions may include:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Have you ever relied on the support of others for basic needs? If so, what emotions and thoughts accompany those memories? If not, what first thoughts and emotions do you have about working with those who have?</item> <p></p> <item> What do you personally have to offer community members?</item> <p></p> <item> What can you learn from engaging with this community?</item> </ulist> <p>These types of self‐assessments in group discussions have been incorporated at James Madison University to allow students, faculty, and staff to interrogate their own reality and model vulnerability. The Authentic Hope Checklist (Table 1) offers additional ways students, faculty, and staff can reflect throughout their engagement to build and maintain authentic hope. Each aspect of the checklist draws upon one of the essential elements of authentic hope.</p> <p>1 TABLE Authentic hope checklist.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><th>Before, prior, and after our work, we plan to help each other:</th><th>By assessing ourselves on the following statements:</th><th>Our current degree of commitment (low, medium, high)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Acknowledge our beliefs(Reflection)</td><td>We are committed to the belief that we can help create positive change.</td><td /></tr><tr><td>Acknowledge reality(Unflinching honesty)</td><td>We are honest in our appraisal of the potential and limitations of our situation.</td><td /></tr><tr><td>Acknowledge our narratives(Reflection)</td><td>We acknowledge the potential strengths and limitations in our perspectives and approach to these issues.</td><td /></tr><tr><td>Listen for counternarratives(Asset‐based)</td><td>We are actively seeking and listening to stories and experiences that differ from ours, and that provoke dissonance for us.</td><td /></tr><tr><td>Work with respect(Asset‐based)</td><td>We are building respectful relationships that are tenacious and empathic.</td><td /></tr><tr><td>Collaborate(Individual agency/Social cohesion)</td><td>We are creating mutually beneficial conditions that enhance relationships with community collaborators.</td><td /></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Collaborative exploration such as the Authentic Hope Checklist facilitates conversations about our pre‐existing beliefs and narratives allowing educators to support students in determining the role they want to play in addressing societal issues. Further, educators can provide a scholarly context to help students evaluate root causes and symptoms.</p> <p>For instance, one author (Grande) worked to integrate the United Nations' (United Nations [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref41">36</reflink>].) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into a wide variety of institutional programming efforts. The SDGs address the root causes of sustainability, including climate and environmental concerns as well as a broad array of related areas including inequality, access to education, and health and well‐being. The SDGs are designed for grass‐roots action and lend themselves to place‐ and project‐based pedagogies. Grande therefore worked with the university Community Engagement office to link every program and volunteer opportunity to one of the 17 SDGs. Program information and "pre‐flection" sessions contextualized student efforts by describing the breadth of the challenge and showcasing how the engagement opportunity sought to address the concerns through the SDGs.</p> <p>Nesting local efforts in the SDGs highlighted how students' local efforts mirror and complement the work occurring globally. These linkages eventually inspired the development of student‐led conferences with other local higher education institutions. Structuring student work beyond the scope of the individual increases meaning and counters isolation (Schwartz et al. [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref42">33</reflink>]).</p> <p>Further, understanding multiple perspectives, being exposed to research and literature related to the lives of those who are different from them, and having the opportunity to work in collaboration with others can facilitate the creation of hope‐inspiring educational spaces (Rogers and Flores [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref43">31</reflink>]).</p> <p>Leading students through this process of thoughtful interrogation requires educators to help them understand the nuances of the issue at hand, including influences such as cost, political policy, and personal beliefs and values. Working interprofessionally by including administrators, staff, and educators from varied disciplines, can ensure that students develop a comprehensive view of the issue. The role of educators here is to help students dissect varied attitudes, consider their strengths and limitations, and look for points of potential exploration and negotiation.</p> <p>During these processes, students and educators ideally revisit their Authentic Hope Checklist (Table 1) to assess their ongoing ability to collaborate and act effectively. In doing so, they may find that students and/or educators are allowing their own biases or inadequately researched assumptions to influence how they see other stakeholders' opinions. The process of hope‐based engagement presented here would suggest that these realizations would then suggest specific action steps and "homework" for the team members as opposed to falling prey to the traps that can foil hope.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-9">Addressing Hopelessness Traps</hd> <p>In the spring of 2023 when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its synthesis report on the expected impact of a warming planet (Kaplan [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref44">20</reflink>]) many commentators suggested that our planet was doomed (Featherstone [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref45">12</reflink>]). They accurately interpreted the report that the irreversible shifts to our climate will lead to more frequent disasters and the potential for more crises. However, these commentators also implied that we are powerless to influence our climate future. Although dramatic consequences can be expected, we do not lack the agency to work collectively to limit destruction—the window has not closed on actions that can positively influence our future. On the contrary, individuals and communities have been taking significant steps and can still influence decisions at every level that can affect how we respond to this overwhelming challenge (Featherstone [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref46">12</reflink>]).</p> <p>The entire higher education enterprise faces a similar crisis. The increasingly vocal chorus of criticism about rising tuition bills, free speech, preparedness of graduates, and the curriculum (Brown [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref47">1</reflink>]) may be lacking in reasoned critique, but that does not limit the effect it has on the growing doubts about American higher education.</p> <p>We assert there are multiple ways that students, as well as educators, can understandably fall into the grips of hopelessness. It is reasonable to feel grief and anxiety when one thoughtfully considers, even for a short time, the state of our world. Here we describe four prominent hopelessness traps: Hopium, "doom‐a‐gogy," false hope, and perfectionistic thinking. We assert that our role as authentic hope educators is to help our students, and each other, understand and avoid getting mired in these traps.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-10">Hopium</hd> <p>When the odds appear low, the news is particularly depressing, or students seem inconsolable, it can be tempting to offer platitudes that suggest the world will right itself and things will work out. This approach offers complacency as a way of coping with unfairness and is consistent with the just world fallacy (Decision Lab [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref48">7</reflink>]), in which we deal with the idea of injustice by justifying it. Illustrated by oversimplistic or dismissive sayings such as "everything will turn out in the end," or "good will prevail," hopium (Featherstone [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref49">12</reflink>], para. 10) is essentially non‐action in the face of challenge or injustice. As educators, when we recognize the impulse to minimize the severity of a situation by suggesting that things are not as troubling as they seem or engage in distortion to protect ourselves from feeling troubled, we may be practicing "hopium." Engaging in the authentic hope practices of reflection and unflinching honesty will allow us to recognize and respond to this trap, and be more effective educators.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-11">Doom‐a‐Gogy</hd> <p>While practicing "hopium" is concerning, engaging in spreading doom and gloom undermines political will altogether. Doom‐a‐gogy, a term invented by the authors, describes the careless spread of despair. It is illustrated, for instance, when media commentators share apocalyptic messages of fear that imply inevitable negative consequences. These messages, regardless of their intention, run the risk of creating a sense of nihilism and powerlessness. When faced with doom‐a‐gogy, ideally we will recognize the ways we can fool ourselves into believing that no effective action is possible and instead consider the potential impact of collaborative, well‐informed action. An inherent benefit of higher education is that it enables students and faculty to apply facts and research to respond to any societal concern. For instance, although students and faculty may not be able to stop the refugee crisis, they can articulate the needs of refugees, map resources in their community, and practice multi‐level advocacy. While one student's individual action will not halt global environmental destruction, it can influence peers, members of the surrounding community, and policymakers.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-12">False Hope</hd> <p>One of Webb's ([<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref50">38</reflink>]) five conceptualizations of hope is sound hope (p. 404), which imagines a specific goal or end state, including picturing what the world would be like if this hope is realized. Ironically, this belief can invite the possibility of false hope. Coulehan ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref51">5</reflink>]) postulates that false hope arises when the "hoper" becomes attached to one specific outcome. Viktor Frankl reflected this phenomenon in <emph>Man's Search for Meaning</emph> ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref52">13</reflink>]) when he compassionately described men who believed their rescue from the Nazi concentration camps was imminent. When the men remained imprisoned, they lost their agency for making sense of their suffering. Their purpose for surviving was eviscerated.</p> <p>In contrast, authentic hope requires honesty about the challenge and a focus on meaning‐making even in the most difficult circumstances. For instance, if students are collaborating with community members to halt the construction of a pipeline, they must also be prepared for the potential that their efforts may not be fully successful. In those types of cases, they can nevertheless be helped to identify specific ways their efforts empowered citizens, educated their community, and built infrastructure for future challenges.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-13">Perfectionistic Thinking</hd> <p>Emerging from the doom‐a‐gogy critics and the notion of sound hope described above, perfectionistic thinking suggests that there is one "correct" way of taking action that will lead to effective change and ultimately success. For instance, students may believe that they must completely eliminate their carbon footprint in order to make any impact on climate change or purge all stereotypes from their consciousness to be effective allies. However perfectionistic thinking can be immobilizing. Due to its dogmatic nature, it also inhibits our ability to act in an authentic manner based on our unique values and capabilities (Mark [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref53">24</reflink>]). When we run into perfectionistic thinking, we advocate that educators gently help our students and colleagues move to more expansive thinking by exploring uniquely relevant strategies to take action. Powerful societal changes have often come about from millions of imperfect people making small, yet significant, changes.</p> <hd id="AN0188002119-14">Concluding Thoughts</hd> <p>We suggest that authentic hope enables students and educators to have a sense of individual agency and offers a framework for people and communities to make meaningful changes. Our conception of authentic hope, like critical and transformative hope, does not shy away from acknowledging the overwhelming odds we face. Instead, we suggest that students and educators work within communities to co‐create comprehensive conceptualizations of community assets and social concerns; make community‐building essential to reduce a sense of isolation; and create collaborative action.</p> <p>Undoubtedly, educators, students, and community members will fall prey to the hope traps mentioned above or will insist on narrowly defined educational interventions that appear efficient from a time and cost perspective. Further, the mention of authentic hope as a legitimate educational practice may inspire skepticism from those who prefer classroom‐based learning over community and civic engagement. Therefore, educators are strongly encouraged to build into their efforts intentional assessment and evaluation processes to document their work, illustrate successes and failures, and inform future initiatives. The need for ongoing advocacy at the level of local, state, and federal policy is also important and offers a valuable, comprehensive learning opportunity. The assessment and evaluation outcomes can inform that type of advocacy.</p> <p>As educators are faced with the growing challenges of student disengagement and troubling states of mental health, it could be tempting to move away from engaging with students on our most vexing social concerns. Instead, we encourage our colleagues to encounter these challenges head‐on to provide students with a sense of meaning and purpose. When paired with preparation and critical reflection (Mitchell [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref54">26</reflink>]; Staton and Grande [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref55">34</reflink>]), working collectively on our intractable issues can have the effect of reducing powerlessness by bolstering students' sense of agency.</p> <ref id="AN0188002119-15"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref47" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Brown, A. 2018. Most Americans Say Higher Ed is Heading in Wrong Direction, But Partisans Disagree on Why. Pew Research Center, July 26, 2018. https://<ulink href="http://www.pewresearch.org/short‐reads/2018/07/26/most‐americans‐say‐higher‐ed‐is‐heading‐in‐wrong‐direction‐but‐partisans‐disagree‐on‐why/">www.pewresearch.org/short‐reads/2018/07/26/most‐americans‐say‐higher‐ed‐is‐heading‐in‐wrong‐direction‐but‐partisans‐disagree‐on‐why/</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref4" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Carrasco, M. 2022. 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  Data: Authentic Hope during Troubling Times
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Steve+Grande%22">Steve Grande</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22A%2E+Renee+Staton%22">A. Renee Staton</searchLink>
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  Data: The push toward efficiency in higher education is occurring as increasing numbers of faculty and students are struggling with mental health concerns and the world appears progressively polarized. However, education, at its core, can foster hope and effect positive change. This chapter presents a pedagogy of authentic hope that relies on constructivist, community-engaged teaching. As students become involved in responding to community issues, they develop a first-hand understanding of societal issues that fosters self-efficacy. These experiences can ultimately inspire students to be aware that they are part of shared, collaborative efforts that have the potential to dramatically improve our societies.
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