This past Winter term, the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Book Club participants read Hope Circuits: Rewiring Universities and Other Organizations for Human Flourishing by Canadian educator, Jessica Riddell. I chose this book after it was introduced to me at a meeting of the B.C. Teaching and Learning Council last May. Aside from the word âhopeâ in the title (arenât we all searching for hope these days?), I was especially intrigued because the book is grounded in a Canadian post-secondary education context. In this post I will introduce you to the book in general, then jump into some of my own thoughts coming out of the discussions our group had over four weeks. Note that I will be presenting points from the book based on my own takeaways, and the ideas I have chosen to focus on arise from the context in which we find ourselves today, both in our post-secondary institutions and on the world stage.
Riddell poses many questions in Hope Circuits, but in general asks: âHow do we model abundance and generosity – in teaching, in learning, in leading organizations, particularly non-profits – when dealing with fiscal austerity and other forms of scarcity thinking?â To explore this, she has divided the book into a series of chapters related to what it might mean to conceive of and build what she calls âHope University.â
In Chapter 1: âHow do we Hope?â Riddell explores the nature of higher education and the connection of post-secondary institutions to our broader societies. She explains the concept of hope circuits, which was inspired by research into mapping electrical pathways in the brain, saying âif we can understand the logic of how an electrical system is wired, how a brain uses wiring to transmit information that shapes behaviour, and by extension how we live and work within systems that wired us in certain ways, then we can begin to illuminate where and how we might go about rewriting systems for human flourishing.â And we can ask âwhat does it look like if we can build hopeful systems where individuals and communities flourish?â
Not surprisingly, Riddell recognizes the many disconnects when considering institutional values (which should lead to flourishing) versus what we reward and support systemically in our institutions (which often lead to conflict and discouragement,) stating âto move past what is rotten at the system level, we must be willing to remember and unlearn.â In other words, maintaining our status quo will not lead us forward into a flourishing future, or into Hope University. To move beyond our current state, Riddell advises us to acknowledge some of the realities of our higher education systems:
- Our systems are built on mystification and exclusion.
- Our systems are built on precarity and insecurity.
- Our systems are built to be siloed and hierarchical.
- Our systems are built on conditions of austerity and scarcity.
While we like to believe we are moving away from these realities by embracing Indigenization, decolonization, equity, diversity, inclusion, Universal Design for Learning, innovation, etc., Riddell wonders if this is true when our current systems âare built on mystification and exclusion, predicated on colonization, racism, ableism, classism, and other forms of discriminationâ and when âmany [of our] policies no longer serve our communities, and many more never served equity-deserving and historically excluded groups.â She adds, in fact, âat many of our institutions, innovation, delight, and transformation happen despite the conditions in which we work and learn, not because of them.â
Finally, in her discussion of the concept of âhope,â and creating frameworks for it, Riddell states that for her purpose, âhope is a theoretical framework and a verb, a moment and a mindsetâŠhope is as much a thought prompt as a call to action. It will be different for each reader.â Most of all, though, she says âhope is deliberate and intentionalâŠ[and] manifests when we intentionally perform incremental steps toward solutions we imagine. Only then can hope move from a thought experimentâŠto a set of actions, a mindset, and a social movement.â And most importantly, for the discussion in our book club group, hope is NOT optimism, and âin our pursuit of hope, we must also be mindful there is room for hopelessnessâŠâ The last thing we need when trying to navigate through challenges and crises is to deny that hopelessness (as well as rage and heartbreak) is an integral part of the process, rather than the opposite of hope. Then, to build hope circuits (and Hope University), Riddell tells us we need to slow down, surface our systems, practice divergent thinking, commit to learning and unlearning, live in the questions, stay with the trouble, reimagine authority and expertise, take a systems-level approach, change our language to change the world, and build intentional community.
From there, Riddell plunges us into Chapters 2 through 10 which are concerned with specific themes around what Hope University can be and how we Value, Learn, Teach, Mentor, Lead, Research, Govern, Fund, and Build it, with each chapter exploring these concepts as they exist in post-secondary institutions now, and how we need to rethink them to create something new.
Throughout the book, Riddell poses many questions based on conversations with hundreds of people in the post-secondary sector, but she provides us with no easy answers, acknowledging the presence of a certain amount of âgappinessâ in her discussion. Some specific ideas that stood out to me as I read and discussed the book include:
- The timeliness of this book and the subject of finding hope and rethinking higher education considering the current conditions Canadian post-secondary institutions are finding themselves in.
- The idea that crisis is a feature of life and the world, not a flaw, and that we should use times of crisis to lean into creativity (and my own thought around this is that this is very difficult if you do not feel that your entire institutional community is on board with leaning into creativity.)
- The definition of learner (humans) versus students (units) and how we are often encouraged to count/track student numbers to support our financial stability.
- The concept of governance versus leadership and how governance exists to sustain an institution over the long-term, while leadership is temporary and based on an individualâs short-term goals and vision.
- The puzzle of what it means to flourish, and that happiness is a moment whereas flourishing is a mindset (and for me, flourishing takes a village â it is very challenging to flourish if you feel you are alone.)
- How in some ways we are trapped as part of a hierarchical, colonial institution which leads us to ask ourselves: can we simply renovate our systems, or do we need to demolish them and rebuild them in a new image? I wonder though, can we truly re-vision post-secondary education if we leave existing governance, support, and policy systems in place? Can we truly Indigenize and decolonize an institution without pulling apart institutional systems (itâs not just about Indigenizing your curriculumâŠ)?
In the end, my own conclusion around the concepts Riddell discusses in Hope Circuits is rebuilding or re-visioning our institutions is challenging when people in various roles (from the faculty who support students in the classroom, to institutional leadership, to governance bodies) have different ideas of what post-secondary education should look like. And right now, we seem to be stuck between our belief that education is a fundamental human right that should be accessible to all, and needing to make money to survive (in part due to decision-making outside of our institutional control), therefore making post-secondary education inaccessible to many.
Our discussion group, on our last day together, asked ourselves what gives our work as educators meaning, and we wondered: Is the purpose of higher education to produce workers or to support students to grow as human beings? But whatever our purpose, in order to realize it we need to take a systemic approach â itâs not about us as individuals, or even as an individual institution â we are part of a much larger network. But for the moment, what we can do is to discover what creates meaning for ourselves, to see students as learners, not beans to be counted, and to lean into what we do well and support each other to do better.
If you are considering joining the next faculty book club, please see CETLâs Calendar of Upcoming Events.