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Positive Futures and Hope for a Better Life: A Transdisciplinary Approach for Imagining a Flourishing and Sustainable World
ISBN
9780253063793
Type
book section
Date Issued
2022-11
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Nasser, Ilham
Abstract
This chapter presents a methodology for students in secondary schools that offers them the opportunity to design alternative and positive future scenarios for themselves and the world. The strategy consists of combining the strengths of humanistic futures studies in education, on the one hand, and the strengths of positive psychology, on the other, with the goal of understanding our capacity to build hope. This interdisciplinary approach has been called positive futures, and the concrete program was titled Hope for a Better Life. The main purpose of this program is to combine individual future goals with visions of a good life in a better world and thus support young people in developing a more fundamental hope for happiness and fulfillment. Thinking about alternative and desired futures can give young people new sources of purpose, meaning, and orientation in life (Slaughter, 2002). Images of a better world can give them inspiration and hope (Eckersley, 2002). For this, they first need a realistic picture of a good life and a better world. This need not consist of only short-term
goals but can also include long-term visions for the individual and society at large. And it needs clarity about what is important in life: “Beginning to see what is at the ‘core’ of life deepens one’s understanding of the human experience. It puts the everyday in perspective and hope partly emerges from becom�ing clearer about what it is that really matters” (Hicks, 2003 p. 73).
goals but can also include long-term visions for the individual and society at large. And it needs clarity about what is important in life: “Beginning to see what is at the ‘core’ of life deepens one’s understanding of the human experience. It puts the everyday in perspective and hope partly emerges from becom�ing clearer about what it is that really matters” (Hicks, 2003 p. 73).
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Book title
Education Transformation in Muslim Societies: A Discourse of Hope
Publisher
Indiana University Press
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Contact Email Address
andreas.krafft@unisg.ch
Eprints ID
267011