Chapter 8: Speculating the Classroom: The Pedagogy of Speculative Fiction and Fandom

Speculative fiction¹ (SF) announces its inquisitive potential in its genre title—it is a genre of speculation, a genre of questions. SF does not seek to provide answers, but rather to open up possibilities, ideas, and new areas for enquiry. It is a genre of generative possibilities.

SF’s relationship to speculation makes it an area that is imbued with pedagogical possibilities. Speculative stories themselves are largely theoretical ideas that are then given characters, a setting, and played out to see what possibilities they bring to light. This experimental nature of the speculative creates a potential for accessing the relationship between the theoretical and the power of narrative and storytelling, which are, ultimately, the first avenues for our education in life.