Speculative Pedagogies

Can you imagine future learning environments devoid of the systemic inequities that stifle student learning opportunities and teacher decision-making in most classrooms today? This volume offers the necessary steps—playful, participatory, historically informed—that are required to forge a pathway from the present U.S. educational landscape to a freer tomorrow. The authors use speculative approaches to teacher education and student learning to intentionally design beyond the boundaries of traditional research and practitioner resources that seek to “fix” current schooling conditions. Building from visionary organizing and artistic traditions that have captured the popular imagination, this volume suggests new forms of engagement for diverse learners. It pragmatically explores how to work toward radical new spaces of possibility for learning and teaching. Chapters include a range of learning contexts, from problem solving in complex video game settings to innovative world-building alongside young people in schools and communities. Readers will be inspired to completely rethink what is possible when it comes to justice-oriented, culturally responsive education.

Book Features:

• A collection of over 40 contributors explore speculative education across a range of research settings.
• Examples of digital learning that include videogames and online collaboration.
• Multiple chapters that feature coauthored research and innovation with students and teachers.
• Innovative design and pedagogical strategies, including a chapter rewriting policy documents based on speculative imagination.

Antero Garcia is an associate professor at Stanford University and coauthor of Pose, Wobble, Flow: A Culturally Proactive Approach to Literacy Instruction. Nicole Mirra is an associate professor of urban teacher education at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and author of Educating for Empathy: Literacy Learning and Civic Engagement.