Cultivating Democratic Hope in Dark Times: Strategies for Action

In this essay, I reflect on the need for an activist notion of hope as an antidote to the social, political, and educational challenges we face in our current times.I first discuss some of these challenges as well as emergent signs of hope based upon different ways of telling the stories of our present.I then define hope as a way of being and intervening in the world, as opposed to a personal character trait or optimistic demeanor, and discuss some enemies of hope.In the heart of the essay, I discuss four important habits of hope that can be cultivated and taught in schools: storytelling, creativity, mindfulness, and community building.I end by discussing ways in which schools can help cultivate the kinds of democratic, critical, and activist forms of hope that can buoy and sustain us in dark times, as well as transform our world.Over the past few decades, there has been a complicated and often paradoxical public dialogue around the idea of hope.While hope has always been called upon as part of the struggle for social justice and as a motivator and sustainer of work toward creating a better world; it is also something many see as fleeting and naïve, something that can actually get in the way of righteous indignation and revolutionary action.Hope has been discussed as a character trait, similar to grit, for example, as something that successful people possess. 1 It has also been described as a habit and way of being in the world that can be nurtured.Former President Obama's election campaigns were built around audacious hope, 2 and for a time, the excitement and energy of Obama's hope-fueled dreams for a better America were palpable, at least in some spheres.Yet for many, hope has fallen on dark times, especially democratic hope.Even worse, we have witnessed an active assault on hope, and concurrently democracy, especially in urban areas.This is evident in the lack of commitment to public goods, the overinvestment in a prison industrial complex, and the seeming celebration of shallow forms of hokey and mythical hope that are only loosely veiled covers for neoliberal exaltations of individual achievement and glory above all else. 3 Our current realities demand new forms of hope: democratic, pragmatist, critical, and ultimately activist.Cultivating democratic hope as a strategy for intervening in Culture 35 (1) 2019: 3-28 3 the world is an antidote to cynicism, passivism, and despair.It is also a strategy for combating pervasive polarization and helping to build bridges across lines of ideological difference.This is not a hope played out as naïve optimism or spectator-like cheerfulness, but it is grounded in everyday actions that can create different ways of being, interacting, healing, and transforming the world. Education andNo doubt our current social, political, ecological, educational, and even interpersonal climate challenges our ability to be hopeful.We are now living in a world where, at least among those in power, there is a blatant disregard for truth and evidence, conspicuous attacks on the most vulnerable of our citizens, and a devaluing, if not outright dismissal, of all things public.I see the impact of our surreal current climate all around me.People are divided, and many are stressed, anxious, shocked, angry, and downright terrified.We are overwhelmed by the challenges ahead of us and many of us feel powerless to respond to what increasingly feels like fascism weighing down on us.And no doubt this weight falls differently upon our bodies, especially depending on our levels of privilege and economic and relational security.The stresses of our public sphere are omnipresent in schools, where students in our most impoverished areas are exhorted simply to work harder.Meanwhile, resources to support high quality education for all students are increasingly shifted toward private, for-profit educational businesses and into the hands of individuals, in the form of competitive voucher systems.These shifts ensure that we have winners and losers in the very system that has historically been set up to level hierarchies, not exacerbate them.It is certainly a cause for despair that public commitment and support of education, alongside other public goods, has been drastically eviscerated under our current political administration, even as this pattern was also present in previous, more progressive administrations.So too are mind-boggling acts of violence, including the repeated pattern of tragic mass shootings in U.S. schools.At the same time, there are also signs of resistance and movement building all around us.For many, it is a kind of awakening.For example, by conservative estimates, over 4 million people marched around the United States and throughout the world the day after our most recent presidential inauguration, demanding not just women's rights, but rights and fair treatment for all marginalized citizens, including minorities, immigrants, refugees, indigenous people, the poor, and members of GLBTQ community.The guiding visions and principles of the women-led, yet intentionally inclusive, march included calls for racial justice; an end to police brutality and racial profiling; reproductive freedom; universal access to non-judgmental comprehensive healthcare benefits; equitable opportunities in education, employment, and housing; transparency in the economy; equal pay for equal work; a living minimum wage; and protection of natural resources and the environment. 4More recently, high school students led a massive march on Washington (supported by concurrent marches and rallies around the world) to call for stricter gun control laws.Teachers have led strikes and walkouts recently in West Cultivating Democratic Hope in Dark Times 5