Dr. Nicole Sieben is an accomplished educator and avid “Hope” researcher. As an educator at an institution rooted in social justice, her work and experiences over the years have allowed her to explore factors that influence students’ development of academic hope, especially writing hope, across varied educational levels. Thus, she has acquired invaluable insights into how hope operates in important ways across diverse contexts and has developed a pervasive understanding of the need to teach for social justice, so that all students have an equitable chance at being successful in college and beyond.
Of note, several of the chapter authors in this work are alumni of the SUNY Old Westbury School of Education graduate programs, which Dr. Sieben has been teaching in for the past ten years. Many of these authors are former students from the English education graduate programs, which Dr. Sieben coordinates and teaches in at the institution, while other authors are students or faculty from the literacy graduate programs. All authors are included in this work because they have chosen to share how they integrate hope and social justice practices into their own ELA classrooms for and with their students. It is this kind of ripple effect that hope can have in education and in individual lives that makes a difference. The very act of writing a chapter on found “best practices” during uncertain times is also an act of hope that will create a ripple effect into the next stage of possible unknowns in education.
Dr. Sieben’s goal as an educator and researcher has consistently been to create equitable, motivating learning experiences for her students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and this work is one manifestation of that goal. Dr. Sieben believes “it is important to ensure that all students are afforded equitable opportunities for developing pathways to success through differentiated, interdisciplinary education initiatives across contexts.” Her research interests include intersections of English teacher education, hope theory, composition studies, critical literacy, and positive psychology with social justice as the overarching theme.
Dr. Sieben’s book, Writing Hope Found in Uncertain Times: Teaching English Language Arts in Search of Hope Moments contributes to the knowledge and body of work in the field. It amplifies the voices of educators building hope through English language arts curricula in the classroom for and with students. It creates a space for novice and seasoned teachers to share their experiences, challenges, triumphs, and hopes. Each chapter creates a nuance of hope worth reading and integrating into classroom practice.
The chapters, which include research in the field of writing/teacher education and hope theory, are largely narrative, and as such share accessible pathways to hope that each author has found in their work and lived experiences. They share how these life lessons bring them to hope in these uncertain times in the classroom too. By reading about the hands-on approaches teachers have used to build hope in their classroom contexts, other educators can glean hope from these pages for their own classrooms. In this way, hope is found and grows.
Diana Sukhram, Ph.D.,
Dean-School of Education, SUNY Old Westbury