Hope and its Applications: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Despite a growing recognition and empirical base on hope and its value in educational contexts, there has been limited research into hope and hope-related strategies for transforming higher education (HE) teaching and learning practices. We report on a scoping review to uncover current perspectives of hope as contemplated and applied in contemporary HE teaching-learning contexts. Our study draws from six databases (A+ Education, ERIC, Education Source, Education Research Complete, PsychINFO, and Scopus) and thematically analysed 16 studies across the last decade to understand their context, theoretical framing, and practice-based orientations. Our findings highlight the range, use, and value of research into hope expressed as a multidimensional construct and variously understood through individual, sociocultural, and critical perspectives. While many studies adopt an individual view of hope as a measurable trait linked to student wellbeing and academic success, others emphasise relational, collective and community-based approaches, or frame hope as a transformative, collective force for social and political change. Each perspective engendered associated hope-based practices ranging from goal-setting, mindfulness training, dialogic and caring relationships with educators and students to cultivating possible education futures and justice-oriented teaching. We argue that this diversity reflects both the richness and the generative tensions that are thinly understood within current hope scholarship. Our findings contribute to the interdisciplinary, institutional planning and development of hope-based curricula and approaches and have implications for HE practice and the scholarship of hope.