Practicing Imagination and Activism in Literacy Research, Teaching, and Teacher Education: I Still Don’t Know How to Change the World With Rocks

Abstract

This address focuses on research and practice in the preparation of preservice teachers in literacy. I begin with an examination of the constructs of practice, activism, and imagination from an historical perspective. Next, I report on two initiatives in field-based literacy teacher preparation. The first initiative engages preservice teachers with inquiry as a curriculum stance. The second initiative engages preservice teachers as researchers with attention to research as too both for professional knowledge and for resistance to contentious policy environments that constrain teacher decision making. Finally, I argue for the need to become more inclusive within our community and to shift our stance from teachers as receivers of knowledge to teachers as participants in the sense-making process around practice.