Using Fictionalization to (Re)Calibrate: Integrating Theoretical Frameworks for Literacy and Liberation

• In Event: Critical Curriculum Issues in Higher Education: Access and Teacher Preparation

Abstract

Amidst the challenges of the current sociopolitical context, including executive orders that reify whiteness and seek to dismantle public education, we consider the integration of three frameworks—tight and loose spaces, whiteness and niceness, and liberation pedagogies. We argue that integrating frameworks can foster teacher candidates’ radical imaginations, allowing them to better navigate the equity barriers and tensions they face in the field with principled action towards liberatory pedagogy. Employing fictionalization as method, we create composite narratives, employing tightening and loosening to understand current educational realities (and the ideologies that shape curriculum and instruction) and engage in the recalibrations needed to cultivate the courage, clarity, and collective imagination to disrupt what is and build what can be.

Authors

• Tierney B Hinman, Auburn University

• Wendy L. Gardiner, Pacific Lutheran University

• Amy Leigh Tondreau, University of Maryland - Baltimore County