Literacy Educators as Worldbuilders: Engaging the Arts, Literacies, and Futurity to Envision Educational Justice

In conversation with the abolitionist scholarship of Bettina Love and concepts of freedom dreaming within the work of Robin Kelley, this article explores how literacy educators envisioned new educational worlds through writing and the arts. This study was grounded in the methodologies of practitioner inquiry and a/r/tography. Data sources include artwork, interviews, and artist statements by 14 participants. Our analysis revealed literacy educators envisioned new educational worlds characterized by (1) transcending constraints, (2) sustaining and protecting identities, and (3) offering possibility. We also found participants valued opportunities for professional learning that fostered their identities as artists and allowed them to engage in multigenerational learning. We offer implications for envisioning literacy teacher preparation and professional learning focused on futurity through a freedom dreaming lens, attuned to the arts and to the promise of multigenerational learning.