Curriculum SF (speculative fiction)

Reflections on the Future Past of Curriculum Studies and Science Fiction

Abstract

In this essay I want to take a look at past attempts to incorporate science fiction (SF) into the discourses of curriculum studies, present attempts by a few scholars to revitalize and, more importantly, reshape SF within curriculum studies, and then finish with a look at why perhaps SF is no longer a possibility but speculative fiction is a necessity in forming our thinking about current and new future issues and concerns facing curriculum scholars and societies in general. I will begin with the ground breaking work of Noel Gough followed by a collection I helped to edit at the turn of the millennium, then I want to look at the current work of Sarah Truman and Boni Wozolek, and finish with a challenge to Samuel Delany’s proclamation that SF is not the same as speculative fiction while relying on Katherine Hayles’ latest work to suggest SF is a reality in everyday interactions in the economic, scientific, and technological non-fictional worlds.