Stories of Hope

A participatory narrative inquiry into the emergence of hope during university transition

The transition to university represents a critical developmental milestone in emerging adulthood. However, this is often characterised by elevated psychological stress and lowered wellbeing (Kulig & Persky, 2017). Much of the discourse focuses on the deficits and challenges students face. However, this does not paint a holistic picture of the resourcefulness that enables young people to navigate this transition successfully.

A sense or feeling of hope, for example, is a strong protective and enabling factor, with evidence suggesting that hope is important in predicting resilience in university students (Goodman et al., 2016). This makes hope a critical construct to explore further as we prepare our youth for a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world.

However, a recent critical analysis of this topic suggests the need for a deepened understanding of how hope emerges. One that recognises and addresses the inherent complexities in the emergence of hope and which is grounded in the lived experience of young people (Colla et al., 2022).

The project aims to address some of these limitations by taking a dynamic systems approach to the study of hope – expanding the current meta-theoretical, theoretical, and methodological approaches that have underpinned the research to date.

In particular, the project aims to address two key issues:

1. Limitations in current theoretical models of hope and understanding how hope emerges for young people. Understanding the factors that support resilience and adaptive functioning, particularly post-pandemic, is fundamental to enhancing student experience at university.
2. Student voice is often missing from models drawn upon to support and increase their wellbeing. This project will position students as experts in explaining their own experiences in relation to hope.

The project uses an interdisciplinary methodological approach called Participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI). The project includes some innovations to PNI that draws from the intersection of positive psychology, complex systems dynamics and digital storytelling, to facilitate the analysis of the dynamic interplay between factors that enable hope to emerge.

We will collaborate with MDAP to:

• Co-design a data analysis methodology that enables the analysis of rich and complex relationships in a time-efficient manner. For example, enabling system dynamics tools to be integrated into qualitative research.
• Create data visualisations that detail participants' stories of hope and theories of how this emerges.
• Support the development of a web resource.