Critically Dreaming Curriculum Otherwise: Collective Storytelling through Justice-Oriented Pedagogies

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Abstract

This paper examines curriculum as a site of refusal, healing, and collective dreaming amid intensifying attacks on justice-oriented education. Through the lenses of rememory (Morrison, 1987) and critical dreaming (Kelley, 2002), six cross-racial educators engage in storywork, arts-based reflection that traces how they navigate erasure, trauma, and resistance in their professional lives. Their work affirms belonging, cultural integrity, and educational justice in times of political repression. We argue that curriculum is not merely content, but a co-constructed, living practice animated by memory, resistance, and care. Findings demonstrate how radical imagination becomes a tool of survival, allowing educators to dream and build liberatory futures.

Authors

• Dianne T. Wellington, SUNY - College at Cortland

• Alycia M. Elfreich, Montana State University