Cultivating hope: reimagining strategy pedagogy in higher education

Purpose Higher education is increasingly expected to prepare students for uncertain, contested, and rapidly evolving futures. However, traditional strategy pedagogy often emphasizes prediction, optimization, and retrospective analysis, which may be insufficient for developing the capabilities required to navigate indeterminate contexts. This paper reconceptualizes hope as a strategic learning capability grounded in agency and pathway thinking and examines how strategy pedagogy can intentionally cultivate this capability through inquiry-based learning. Drawing on hope theory, experiential learning, and sensemaking perspectives, the study proposes a pedagogical design that engages students with longitudinal data, comparative analysis across industry peers, and iterative collective sensemaking. These learning processes encourage students to move beyond seeking predictive certainty and instead construct multiple evidence-informed strategic pathways. Illustrative evidence from classroom implementation demonstrates how learners develop the capacity to initiate action, reinterpret emerging signals, and adapt pathways under conditions of ambiguity. By embedding uncertainty into the learning process, the pedagogy transforms ambiguity into a resource for strategic imagination and adaptive reasoning. This paper contributes to debates on redefining higher education by positioning hope as a learnable capability that supports resilience, creativity, and forward-looking decision-making. It further extends scholarship on strategy education by demonstrating how inquiry-based pedagogy can cultivate agency and pathway thinking simultaneously. The study concludes by outlining implications for curriculum design and future research, emphasizing the need for pedagogies that enable learners not only to analyze complexity but also to act constructively within it. Cultivating hope as a strategic learning capability offers a promising framework for preparing graduates to engage in uncertain organizational and societal futures. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on hope theory, experiential learning and sensemaking perspectives, this paper develops a conceptual pedagogical framework. The proposed design engages students with longitudinal firm-level data, comparative analysis across industry peers and iterative collective sensemaking. Illustrative classroom evidence is used to demonstrate shifts in learners' reasoning and strategic orientation. Findings The inquiry-based pedagogical approach encourages students to move beyond seeking predictive certainty and instead construct multiple evidence-informed strategic pathways. Learners develop agency by initiating action under uncertainty and strengthen pathway thinking by generating alternative strategic possibilities. Embedding uncertainty within the learning process transforms ambiguity into a resource for strategic imagination and adaptive reasoning. Practical implications The findings suggest that educators can foster lifelong learning and entrepreneurial capability by incorporating inquiry-based analysis of evolving data, peer comparison and collaborative sensemaking into curriculum design. Originality/value The paper reconceptualizes hope as a learnable strategic capability rather than an affective state and demonstrates how strategy pedagogy can cultivate agency and pathway thinking simultaneously. By linking conceptual theory with pedagogical design, the study contributes to debates on redefining higher education for uncertain futures and offers a framework for preparing graduates to engage in complex organizational and societal challenges.