ABSTRACT
This chapter provides understanding of a spiritual pilgrimage to a significant concept, namely hope, in the cultivation of deliberative encounters. While conceptually different, hope and faith or belief exist alongside each other and are often used interchangeably by believers who argue that faith cannot exist without hope. For Paolo Freire, what makes hope spirituality is that natural, possible, and necessary impetus in the context of unfinishedness. Hope is an indispensable seasoning in our human, historical experience. Freire is widely recognised for his work in education and is popularly referred to as the 'father' of critical pedagogy, and critically acclaimed for his seminal text, Pedagogy of the oppressed. The point about a Freirean understanding of hope is that humans should remain open to the possibility of justice, non-discrimination and equality. When teachers and students engage in hope-ful encounters, they recognise the possibility for the individual selves to change and also for the selves to induce change in their environmental contexts.
