Pedagogy of Hope in Higher Education: Explicating Faculty Narratives of Critical Agency in a Conflict‐Affected Society

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study explores how higher education faculty in a conflict‐affected and fractured society express professional agency as a form of critical hope. While existing scholarship has addressed the role of education in conflict, a notable gap remains in understanding the lived experiences of individual educators. Addressing this, grounded in the theoretical framework of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of Hope, this narrative inquiry explicates the stories of eight university faculty members from two universities in Ethiopia through in‐depth semi‐structured interviews. This qualitative approach was chosen to deeply understand their pedagogical choices and professional roles amidst societal fragmentation. The analysis constructed three key themes: the lived reality of division on university campuses, the deliberate use of professional agency as an act of praxis, and the purposeful cultivation of critical hope. The study illustrates that faculty members are not passive actors but rather agents of change who actively and purposefully work toward social cohesion. It also concludes that in conflict‐affected and fractured societies, the pedagogy of hope is not just a theoretical framework but a lived, organic, and situated response from academics who actively resist despair and work toward social transformation, providing useful insights for peace‐building and higher education policy in the Global South and beyond.