Critical pedagogy emphasizes the inseparability of politics and education (Freire, 2012; hooks, 1994). However, many strands of critical pedagogy are focused on ideological critique of elements of Modernity such as racism, sexism, colonialism, extractivism, and domination which are treated as unintended errors or ancillary conditions. That is,…

"After the end of the world" is a speculative concept used to imagine what life could be after the world "ends" envisioning a new world that does not currently exist. Taking up Gumbs' metaphor, this essay explores what education could be "after the end of school," imaging a world beyond education as we know it to be.…

This article describes how one department journeys from introduction to incorporation of climate fiction and an ecocritical lens in a program for grades 9-12. It explains the department's endeavors, ensuing projects, future intentions for individual and collective climate work, and ways educators can join in the movement.

This paper considers educational futures from the perspective of social justice. It takes as its framework futures studies, which looks at what is probable (what is likely to happen), what is possible (what could happen), and what is preferable (what we would like to see/make happen). It also makes the case for science fiction as a method of…

In this article, the author reflected on the challenges and opportunities that emerged as they introduced climate fiction, or cli-fi reading and writing into the curriculum, including the author's attempts to navigate the politics of the genre, activate the students' imagination and interest, and invite the students to become creators as well as…

This article constellates N.K Jemisin's "The Broken Earth" trilogy with decolonial epistemologies to push the boundaries of storied curricula and explore how we come to know. I argue that the imaginative world-building of science fiction can serve as worlding stories--not wording stories--that act, move, and connect knowledge,…

Drawing is an ideal technique to understand children's responses to fictional narratives, including digital ones. In this case, a gamified narrative with augmented reality (AR), based on a picturebook, was designed and used in an intervention in 8 Early Childhood Education classrooms (N = 113), aimed at enhancing their literary competence. This…

Fans often express their love of authors or books by creating and sharing "fanfiction," a genre wherein fans write new narratives that add to beloved works or take place in existing story worlds. In this article, we describe a kindergarten teacher's efforts to enhance students' foundational literacy skills by combining author studies…

The relationship between reading and well-being is gaining increasing interest among those working in research, policy and practice, as we seek to better understand if, and how, reading books supports wellbeing. To date, the majority of research has focused on children and young people, neglecting to consider the well-being benefits that reading…

In this article, we describe a year-long superhero storytelling project we facilitated with youth in a midwestern middle school. In this project, students read "Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spiderman," designed superhero stories set in their community, and presented artistic representations of their stories to their families and peers. We…

This study draws on a research project where a model of fiction-based ethics education was developed and put into practice during a school year in five classes in compulsory school, two in grade 5 and three in grade 8. A test was constructed with the purpose of evaluating a multi-dimensional ethical competence. The test was given at the beginning…

This essay uses a fictional narrative to explore the phenomenon of Pretendians in the contemporary university. Summer, who is one of the protagonists in the fictional dialogue, self-identifies as Indigenous, and is hired as an academic based on this identity, and according to affirmative action policies. Whilst working as an Indigenous academic…

The "Star Trek" franchise presents a hopeful vision of the future that is free from many of the social issues that plague our current society. This research explores "Star Trek's" utopian vision through a disabled lens, presenting a critical content analysis examining the representation of mobility disability in the "Star…

This content analysis explored children's fictional storybooks and informational science books to determine their differences in high-quality text features that support oral language (OL) development. We also explored the opportunities for OL development in curricular books compared to trade books. Using systematic coding procedures, we evaluated…

This qualitative study contributes theorised and empirically enriched insights from local practices into children's agency. The authors trace a converging interest in multimodal literacies, postcolonial philosophies and early childhood pedagogy to document and critically engage with children's agency in stories experienced by Malawian children in…