Saudi EFL Teachers’ Journeys of Hope: A Case Study

Abstract

As an emotion, hope seems to play a critical role in the field of education. However, much of the research up to now has been preoccupied with the emotions of students, rather than teachers; and the Saudi Arabian context is not an exception. This study thus sought to fill this literature gap by exploring the hope journeys of Saudi EFL teachers. Using a qualitative collective case study design, I recruited four female Saudi EFL university-level teachers for the study. Open-ended surveys and semi-structured interviews were used in generating data from these participants, while reflexive thematic analysis was used in the data analysis. The first set of findings suggested that the nature of hope is complex, with participants defining it in relation to emotional, cognitive, spiritual, and visual dimensions. The second set of findings showed that participants had internal, external, and interpersonal sources of hope they found in their teaching journeys. The third set of findings focused on the unique ways in which participants plan to cultivate and generate hope as they move forward in their journeys. The findings provided an important opportunity to advance our knowledge and understanding of the rarely investigated area of study, namely Saudi EFL teachers’ hope. The study thus holds important implications in the area, especially for interested teachers.