Malala Yousafzai Overcomes Enormous Challenges to Graduate From Oxford University (And How Students Can Find Meaning in Uncertain Times)
Discovering meaning in life isn't easy in challenging times. Yet, such times might present the best opportunity to do just that.
Malala Yousafzai had a difficult journey filled with uncertainty. The youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, Malala fought for better education for girls in her home country of Pakistan.
She attended school when the Taliban seized control of her town in 2008. The fundamentalists threatened severe punishments for anyone disobeying their regime, which, among other things, banned girls from going to school.
Malala promptly left school at the age of 11 and waited for the moment when the girls’ schools would reopen. When that time eventually came, Malala was already starting to engage in activism. And several years later, she stepped up as an advocate for all Pakistani girls and their right to receive an education.
Unfortunately, this made her a target.
As she was returning from school one day in 2012, a masked gunman shot her in the head.
Luckily, Malala survived and, after a lengthy recovery, came back with strengthened resolve. She and her family moved to the U.K. and Malala established a charity to empower girls worldwide to pursue their dreams.
In 2020, Malala graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. She owes her achievements to her desire to succeed and the dignity with which she overcame adversity and uncertainty.
Today, Malala is an inspiration to students worldwide who face struggles in their lives.
And the good news is that the strength she’s displayed sits in all of us.
People often seek out positive solutions to uncertain situations. Malala's activism gave her efforts meaning and provided her with the inner power to move forward.
Finding meaning in what you do is crucial in staying motivated. This especially goes for struggling students and for all of us in uncertain times, like living through a global pandemic.
The Importance of Meaning
What does having meaning actually mean?
Finding meaning has much to do with how we make sense of our life and the world we live in. It's also a question of discovering the inherent value in life and finding things to strive for in accordance with our values.
A large number of studies support meaning as a foundation of wellbeing and health. According to those studies, people with a firm grasp of meaning have stronger positive emotions, better relationships, and exhibit many positive personal and social traits.
Furthermore, those people are likely to report fewer health issues, have strong immune systems, and live longer.
When it comes to dealing with stressful circumstances, meaning helps you develop very effective coping strategies.
Finding meaning in life and using it as a motivator in uncertain times is crucial for students and all of us. Luckily, there are things that you can do to help your students find meaning and alleviate their struggles.
Helping Your Students Find Their Meaning
Meaning isn't always easy to find in everyday situations which means that it is not uncommon for students to go through their education feeling a lack of purpose. It's even harder to discover meaning in life when our world seems to turn upside-down, which has been the case with the COVID crisis.
Today, students are facing a double effect that makes the challenge greater. On the flip side of this coin, young people can use this global disruption to create significant opportunities. If they can find their meaning now and use it to move forward through all of the difficulties before them, they'll discover a source of inner strength that can stay with them always.
How can you, as a teacher (or as a parent), help students expand their net of meaning?
The first thing you can do to help your students progress is to encourage them to take their efforts up a level.
What do I mean by this? Well, at first, most students might act for their own benefit. This is something we all go through, and it's useful for our survival, but there's little meaning behind actions aimed exclusively at helping ourselves.
The next level is leading students towards helping themselves so that they can help others. In other words, you can help them to see how their education can improve the world. This is a particularly strong point in times of COVID.
The world has spent over a year being in distress and we all have people in our lives we are concerned about more than usual. During this period, it’s common to spend time caring about other people’s welfare as much as our own. Finding meaning through the mindset of helping others and improving the world may be one solution to help students rise above their own struggles and see the long term view that will help them stay motivated at school right now.
Today might be the best time to ask students one crucial question: How will their education improve the future for others?
And even though many students might find it difficult to express a purpose in their learning, that's a spark that you can ignite just by prompting them to consider the large-scale benefits of their efforts.
The teacher's role is, of course, vital in this process.
As a teacher, you can help your students rise above their worldview and discover their meaning in the long-term good that they can bring to the world. You can make this the focus of your content and projects or tasks you assign to your students.
In this way you can go the step above what we've discussed so far, too. Your goal can be to help others, help others.
Discovering the Meaning in Life
Teaching is about having faith in your students and providing them with ways to learn and grow through all experiences. At least that’s the way I feel about teaching my students at university and I’m sure you feel that way, too.
There's no better motivator than discovering meaning in life. And that is why every teacher who gives their students a chance to do that can remember their own meaning in turn.
While we’re at it, I’d like to invite you to take our Visible Wellbeing Teacher Quiz. Discover how you score and where improvements lie.