Research in the Teaching of English Nov 2025

Dreaming beyond the Classroom: Exploring Youth Imagination, Civic Praxis, and Relational Pedagogy in Schools

Lauren Leigh Kelly Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights ; Semaj Eric Skillings Quinnipiac University ; Abigail Osorio Seton Hall University

Abstract

Drawing from theories of youth speculative civic literacies and freedom dreaming, this article explores how youth imagine the future of education and what roles schools and teachers play in fostering students’ dreaming. In this research study, the three co-authors—a literacy professor, an undergraduate English major, and a graduating high school student/future teacher—engage in intergenerational qualitative data analysis to discover how youth cultivate the capacities and imagination to engage in speculative educational dreaming. Through analysis of student interviews and youth counternarratives, we found that the types of interactions students have with their teachers as well as the availability of authentic opportunities for youth to engage in civic thought and action in schools are instrumental in the shaping of youth imagination and agency. For many students, school is something that is happening to them rather than for them. However, when their ideas and voices are heard within schools, it compels students to think about the world outside of school and their place in it. Conceptualizing student dreaming as acts of discovering and moving toward one’s purpose, we posit that engagement in critical civic praxis and relational encounters in learning environments are instrumental factors in the cultivation of youth agency and capacities for freedom dreaming.

Journal
Research in the Teaching of English
Published
2025-11-01
DOI
10.58680/rte2025602213
Open Access
Closed
Topics
multilingual writers voice and style

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (3)

  1. Vossoughi et al. (2021)
    Writing as a Social Act: The Feedback Relation as a Context for Political and E…
    Research in the Teaching of English
  2. Toliver (2021)
    Freedom Dreaming in a Broken World: The Black Radical Imagination in Black Girl…
    Research in the Teaching of English
  3. Johnson (2018)
    Where Do We Go from Here? Toward a Critical Race English Education
    Research in the Teaching of English
Also cites 14 works outside this index ↓
  1. Bang (2016)
    Participatory design research and educational justice: Studying learning and relations wi…
    Cognition and Instruction  ↗
  2. Chenoweth (2024)
    Protests in the United States on Palestine and Israel, 2023-2024
    Social Movement Studies  ↗
  3. Garcia (2023)
    Other suns: Designing for racial equity through speculative education
    Journal of the Learning Sciences  ↗
  4. Garcia (2022)
    Futures bound: Re-designing literacy research as a conduit for healing and civic dreaming
    International Studies in Sociology of Education  ↗
  5. Ginwright (2007)
    Youth activism in the urban community: Learning critical civic praxis within community or…
    International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education  ↗
  6. Kelly (2018)
    A snapchat story: How black girls develop strategies for critical resistance in school
    Learning, Media and Technology  ↗
  7. Lee (2023)
    Introduction to the special issue of “TikTok and social movements.”
    Social Media + Society  ↗
  8. Mirra (2020)
    “I hesitate but I do have hope”: Youth speculative civic literacies for troubled times
    Harvard Educational Review  ↗
  9. Orleck (2024)
    Campus protest
    Women’s History Review  ↗
  10. Riddle (2023)
    Reclaiming relationality in education policy: Towards a more authentic relational pedagogy
    Critical Studies in Education  ↗
  11. San Pedro (2017)
    Critical listening and storying: Fostering respect for difference and action within and b…
    Urban Education  ↗
  12. Solórzano (2002)
    Critical race methodology: Counterstorytelling as an analytical framework for education r…
    Qualitative Inquiry  ↗
  13. Thomas (2016)
    Restorying the self: Bending toward textual justice
    Harvard Educational Review  ↗
  14. Veletsianos (2020)
    Radical flexibility and relationality as responses to education in times of crisis
    Postdigital Science and Education  ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network →

Related Articles

  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jan 2026
    Increasing Literacy on the Scams Targeting Latines: Generative Artificial Intelligence, Digital Technologies, and the Latine Community ↗
    Gabriel Lorenzo Aguilar
    artificial intelligence technical communication multilingual writers voice and style
  2. Research in the Teaching of English Nov 2025
    “No Todo Lo Que Pintan Es Real”: Feminista Pláticas toward Speculative Civic Literacies in the Borderlands ↗
    Rita Kamani-Renedo
    translingualism multilingual writers voice and style
  3. Composition Forum Oct 2025
    “The New Illiteracy”: “Why Johnny Can’t Write” at 50 ↗
    multilingual writers voice and style
  4. Philosophy & Rhetoric Oct 2025
    The Interdisciplinary Uncanny: On Not Recognizing Richard McKeon ↗
    Elizabeth S. Goodstein
    race and writing multilingual writers voice and style
  5. Composition Forum Apr 2025
    Style and Substance: Templates for Academic Writing as Frames for Invention ↗
    race and writing multilingual writers voice and style