“It Gives Me a Kind of Grounding”: Two University Educators’ Narratives of Hope in Worklife

Abstract

University educators rarely speak of the deeply personal connections they hold with their work. Indeed, large institutions can make very difficult settings for the heart-filled quest of being a teacher. Within the university, it is often safer to speak of teaching in terms of efficiency, to speak of the effective application of educational methods that support efficient learning, and to speak of working to meet the needs of students. These aspects of teaching are important. Yet, they also serve as cover stories (Connelly and Clandinin 1995; Crites 1979) of university education, often leaving other deeply meaningful, more personal stories of teaching unspoken. In this study, I sought to learn about what university educators deeply hoped that being an educator would mean. The inquiry was framed around educator hope and stories told by educators when asked to reflect on their deepest hopes in being a teacher. The chapter begins with a discussion about teacher hope followed by a description of the use of narrative inquiry in this study. Next, narrative excerpts from two university counselor educators, Meagan and James,¹ provide windows onto the role of hope in sustaining teacher engagement and well-being. The chapter closes with my reflections on the role of hope in sustaining a teacher’s vital personal connection to career.

In my future I plan to maybe become a teacher … I might like to be a counselor at a college … I like working with people so these would all make a good career. I am not so worried about my wages. I think that I would like good wages but helping others is really more important. (Larsen 1978, p. 19)

—Seventh Grade Language Arts Assignment “Me: An Autobiography”