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This study examines the experiences of 10 neurodiverse students in Amsterdam, Netherlands, who all participated within in-class youth-led book clubs that centered science fiction. Over a 6-month period, the researcher conducted pre- and post-interviews and analyzed these along with transcription data from 24 book club sessions. Findings reveal that book clubs, using culturally sustaining science fiction and healing-centered facilitative practices, provide opportunities to address students' academic and emotional literacies as well as their sense of agency.

Science fiction conventions are places where individuals with an interest in diverse genres and mediums can engage with a community that bridges the world of science fiction and fact. Many of these conventions provide a science "track" where science experts share their expertise and research on scientific findings and applications of science with science fiction enthusiasts. This study explored science fiction conference attendees' (n = 241) interest in science, as well as how attendees (n = 172) plan to utilize science shared at science track sessions. Survey responses were analyzed within "STEM career" groups by comparing science track and non-science track attendees, and documenting what science track attendees plan to do with the information gained at a science track session. There were no differences in how science track attendees and non-science track attendees with STEM careers reported their interest in science. For the attendees that did not report having a career related to STEM, science track participants reported higher interest scores than non-science track attendees. Over half of the science track attendees (66%) shared they will apply what they learned from a science track session to their own personal context. Furthermore, the demographics of the survey respondents may suggest that science fiction conventions are an untapped science learning environment connecting to a younger, more diverse community. Overall, recognizing the benefit of science fiction conventions is crucial to provide spaces for accessible venues of science communication to foster an interest in science for a diverse, public audience.

Engineering and pop-culturist instructors team-teach a first-year experience course exploring science through the lenses of history, literature, film, television, and sequential art. Authors present science fiction discourses as unique for synthesizing fields in the humanities and STEM, and they present curricular and co-curricular design strategies for harnessing its potential in the honors classroom. Course objectives and outcomes are presented, with authors noting specific challenges in implementation and emendation. Adaptability and compatibility figure prominently in the successful delivery of the course. A review of literature relating to interdisciplinary education and team-teaching in honors is included.

In the study, it is aimed to examine the relationship between science fiction self-efficacy and spatial ability of science teacher candidates. The study is quantitative research and correlation research was used as a research design. The study group consisting of 200 science teacher candidates was formed by using the convenience sampling method. The data collection tools are Santa Barbara Solids Test, Spatial Ability Self-Report Scale and Science Fiction Self-Efficacy Scale for Science Teacher Candidates. Correlation analysis was performed in the analysis of data and Pearson Correlation for normally distributed data and Spearman Correlation for non-normally distributed data was used. As a result of analyzes, for science fiction candidates it was concluded that there is a moderately positive and significant relationship between spatial ability and spatial ability self-report, a moderately positive significant relationship between science fiction self-efficacy and spatial ability self-report, and a weak positive significant relationship between science fiction self-efficacy and spatial abilities. According to the findings, it was concluded that science teacher candidates make a consistent self-assessment in terms of their spatial ability. Moreover, it has been determined that some improvement in spatial ability can be achieved by using science fiction as a tool to develop spatial ability.

"The Ballad of Proxima-B" is an educational RPG that promotes learning and collaboration. Students contribute to world-building and game mechanics, creating fictional worlds and characters, including a dystopian Earth, the planet Proxima-B, and alien races. The game incorporates constructivist, constructionist, and Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) principles. The hands-on and collaborative nature facilitates learning, reflection, and a strong classroom community. During gameplay, characters form alliances, encouraging students to reflect on their interactions. Design challenges include workload balance and addressing student anxiety. Game elements emphasize critical thinking and self-reflection, foster collaboration and community, and encourage exploring identity through serious play.

To provide the current student generation with an innovative online learning method, podcasts with science fiction short stories are introduced to marketing education. Findings from neurology and psychology point to positive effects of storytelling for gaining knowledge and developing interpersonal skills. Science fiction stories challenge common conceptions and enable students to engage with upcoming marketing issues in creative ways. An overview of eight marketing related science fiction stories is provided that are available for download as open access podcasts, with 23 more management and economics podcast stories available in the online appendix. To show how science fiction podcasts can be implemented in class, one of the stories is discussed in more detail. Further suggestions for implementation and possible challenges are outlined.

This essay offers a rationale for deploying ecofeminist science fiction stories as object-oriented thought experiments in science and environmental education, with particular reference to developments in genetics and evolutionary biology, and their implications for human (and more-than-human) reproduction and kinship in the period following the determination of the double helical structure of DNA by scientists affiliated with Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory in 1953, and the impact of subsequent gene-centric discourses on the biological sciences and the wider culture. The utility and defensibility of this approach is exemplified by reference to two science fiction novels by the late Naomi Mitchison that foreground and anticipate implications of genetic sciences for matters of concern to ecofeminists, including reproductive rights and responsibilities, population control, human relations with the more-than-human, and problematizing gendered (and other) binaries in everyday speech and popular culture.

Science fiction conventions are places where the convergence of science fiction and science is discussed within diverse communities. Many of these science fiction conventions offer programming focused on science, often described as "science tracks," for science experts to share their experiences, expertise, scientific findings, and applications related to current research in connection to science fiction with the public. Framing the study within a socio-cultural context, this study surveyed experts' (n = 19) perceived beliefs of science communication at science fiction conventions. Experts cited "accessibility" and "promoting scientific curiosity" as the greatest benefits and identified "misconceptions" or "misinterpretation" by the audience as challenges. Overall, experts agreed that "communicating science is important" and "science fiction has a great impact on science." Because of the public access to experts, it is important to highlight the potential influence science fiction conventions may have on science communication via socio-cultural experiences and contexts within popular culture.

Given the increasing popularity of the science-fiction genre, its capacity for worldbuilding and its long-durée vision, coupled with both the difficulty of discussing issues of migration in today's world as something more than a problem of the present and the necessity to go beyond this presentism, the author argues that science-fiction films provide an excellent tool for peace education inside and outside the classroom in general and to address migration in particular. This article discusses the why and how of using science fiction films for peace education, which the author claims is not necessarily taught in the classroom or special programs but should also be seen as part of lifelong learning/continuous education.

The iPhone 62 has just been released. Political gridlock and the governmentally approved process of locking immigrant children in cages continue ad infinitum. Public schools resort to primarily remote learning as pandemic viruses ebb and flow. University students study post-postmodernism on campuses that remain on stolen Indigenous land. In this year of 2071, where humans remain desperately attached to "normalcy," suffering continues beneath the fear that transformation would surely be devastating. Unknowns horrify privileged communities, eased only by the comfortability of a level of "bad" with which they are at least familiar. The world has settled into the Great Banal, an age of blind faith that tomorrow's problems can be answered with solutions of yester-today. Written as an "e-seance" Zoom conversation among "ghost-scholars of the future," we explore the horrors of a future in which the "normalities" of 2021 all persist. This is not a dystopian nightmare in which climate disasters wreak unparalleled havoc on vulnerable communities and new fascist regimes sink their claws into education, nor is it a utopic imagining of a society that has made great bounds toward social-ecological justice. In this seemingly absurd imaginary of "no substantial change at all," we draw from (eco)critical, Indigenous, and feminist frameworks to ask: "What might education look like in a world that has adamantly resisted radical transformation for fear of the worst, in exchange for all hopes of the best?"

Minimum Competence Assessment resembling PISA and Characters Survey replace National Examination in 2021. However, the Indonesian students' score in PISA is still left behind the international average scores. This study aims to find out the extent of the relationship between science informative text and science fiction text skills in secondary school. This research is a quantitative correlational study carried out by distributing online tests of science informative texts and science fiction texts. The participants of this study were 133 students of grade ten at 4th Pematangsiantar Senior High School and they were selected using simple random sampling technique. A bivariate correlation test with the Pearson Product Moment method was implemented to analyze the data. The result found that the value of the correlation coefficient was 0.96 (r = 0.96) meaning that the alternative hypothesis is accepted. In other words, there is a very strong positive correlation between the students' reading skills in fiction text with the students' reading skills in informative text. In short, the result indicates that when the students' ability to read science fiction text increases, their ability to read science informative text will also increase.

Technologies have become an essential part of the daily life of our children. Consequently, artifacts that imply the early adoption of abstract thinking affect the imagination of children and young people in relation to the world of technology, now much more than they did in the past. With the emerging importance of robots in many aspects of our everyday lives, the goal of this study is to investigate which mental representations children have about robots. To this end, drawings from 104 children aged between 7 and 12 years old were used as a map of representations, considering the drawings as a proxy capable of evoking learned or emerging mental frameworks. The drawings were analyzed in several steps: they were first labeled using binary descriptors and then classified using clustering methods based on Hamming distances between drawings. Finally, questionnaire items covering children's perceptions about robots were analyzed for each of the resulting cluster separately to identify differences between them. The results show that there are relationships between the way children draw robots and their perception about robots' capabilities as well as their aspirations to pursue a career in science. These findings can provide meaningful insights into how to design educational robots and learning activities for children to learn with and about robots.

Instead of seeking the slick aesthetics of consumer-friendly creative stories, this paper ventures to the sublime of the incomprehensible and invites us to look into the abyss of education's possibilities. Drawing inspiration from Jeff Vandermeer's 2017 novel, "Borne," and filmmaker David Cronenberg's aesthetic, this paper aims to tell a story that unfetters easily compartmentalized notions of creativity in education. "Borne" tells the story of a young female scavenger who finds and proceeds to care for a sentient--and quite vocally curious--experimental biotech remain, while Cronenberg's films famously bridge science fiction and body horror. Popular culture, in identifying this aesthetic, developed the slang term "to Cronenberg," meaning to affectively highlight exaggerated mutations. To this end, this paper explores specific questions for educational futures: what does creativity mean for a Cronenberg pedagogy and how does the ethics of creativity inform future educational policy directions?

This paper explores a possible future of postdigital education in 2050 using the means of social science fiction. The first part of the paper introduces the shift from 20th century primacy of physics to 21st century primacy of biology with an accent to new postdigital--biodigital reconfigurations and challenges in and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The second part of the paper presents a fictional speech at the graduation ceremony of a fictional military academy in a fictional East Asian country in 2050. This fictional world is marked by global warfare and militarization, and addressed graduates are the first generation of artificially evolved graduates in human history. The third part of the paper interprets the fictional narrative, contextualizes it into educational challenges of today, and argues for a dialogical, humanistic conception of new postdigital education in a biotech future.

Literature has been an imitator of life for generations on this earth, this literature has voiced the voiceless. Recent contemporary and postmodern literary theories have catered to burgeoning notions of logic that go beyond human survival on the planet. Science fiction is a genre of fiction that encompasses imaginative concepts like futuristic scientific-technological settings, faster than light, past and future spatial time travel, the existence of parallel universes and extraterrestrial life etc. An outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by a novel acute respiratory syndrome of coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) occurred in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. The outbreak was declared as a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020. During this crisis, literature also plays an important role and apocalyptic literature has shown the disastrous consequences if humans didn't stop their behaviour and attitude towards the world. This research project aims to take literature out of the realm of imagination and present the harsh realities of culture. This study revealed how literature represents the truth of the world that science is learning every day, and how certain inventions can have harmful effects if they are not halted in time. This research analysed the novel "Oryx and Crake" in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic and pointed a convincing glimpse of the future. Snowman (protagonist), known as Jimmy before humanity was overrun by science, is trying to live in a world where he might be the last human Snowman tells the tale of how Crake's scientific ambitions contributed to the abolition of human civilization. The researcher emphasizes how the reel depicts reality and how people are to blame for the degradation of their world.

In this article, we present reflections on the possible dialogs between literary creation and science teaching. Our considerations will be directed to the work of Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, and the role of science and science education over the text that gave rise to the genre "science fiction." This work aims at presenting the possibilities of using Shelley's work in order to explore historical, methodological, conceptual, social, and political implications that may be useful for motivating reflection in teaching science in the classroom in times of "post-truth." In order to do this, we base our notes on the conceptions of Science, Technology, and Society (STS); in rationality and reasonability; in aspects of bioethics; and on the man-machine implications according to the scientific community in the educational field. In addition to the pedagogical mediation of concepts by the teacher, we seek to look at different strategies as alternatives for pedagogical action in science teaching, through dialog.

In this study, children's meeting with the classics through Mavisel Yener's work named "Eternity Library" will be exemplified by discussing intertextual relations. The study is qualitative and descriptive. By using intensive sampling, which is one of the purposeful sampling types, the aforementioned children's book was chosen because it refers to the classics in a diverse, rich and intense manner in the context of intertextuality. The data were collected through document analysis and analyzed with descriptive analysis. In order to ensure its validity and reliability, the features of the determined classification were clearly drawn, the appropriateness of the classifications and quotations was paid attention to, the determined quotations were analyzed and revised at different times, and the final form was given. In the analyzed book, inter-author, interwork, inter-genre, explicit and implicit references were found in the context of intertextuality, and it was determined that these references were mostly structured through the classics. It was concluded that the work examined in the study directed children to the classics with its rich intertextual references. It can be said that the work examined is a good example in terms of both breaking the negative view of the classics and effectively adding these works to the reading process of children.

The aim of the study was to speculate about the education in the future in terms of students, classrooms, teachers and schools by adhering to science fiction films. The samples of the study comprised 50 science fiction films selected purposefully among motion pictures by two academics from the field of educational sciences, and one expert from the area of cinema and television. In the research, the science fiction films containing the power of thought, biological, space phenomenon and technological subjects were analyzed. The data were analyzed using MAXQDA program. Based on the findings of the study, it was predicted that the school phenomenon would change depending on the development of technology in the future. With the help of VR glasses and fitbit (wearable technology), a teacher would be able to teach in three dimensions by visiting students' homes without leaving their own homes. On the other hand, the necessity of school-like structures in which students could socialize for peer communication seemed inevitable. It could be thought that the idea that science fiction films took the lead of technology was diversified by the acceptance of the society. In this context, it was seen that each science fiction film fulfilled the task of "instilling ideas" on many subjects to the society.

This manuscript is meant to support secondary school teachers in their constant effort to find novel ways to engage students. Adolescents seem particularly stimulated by time-travelling scenarios, like the famous "wormhole billiard ball paradox" proposed by J. Polchinski in 1990, which are usually solved through closed time-like curves (CTCs). The concept of "causal loop" has been popularized by a vast sci-fi literature, so that it sounds familiar to high school pupils. We present an adaptation of the Polchinski's puzzle to the possible scatterings (Møller or Bhabha) of an electron entering a time-travel tunnel so that it can collide with its earlier self at low energy. In order to avoid a discouraging mathematical formulation, our analysis is based merely on graph isomorphism and can be viewed, in educational terms, as an introduction to quantum electrodynamics at undergraduate level. In fact, all the electron interactions along the CTCs result in Feynman exchange diagrams (s-channel, t-channel, u-channel).

The global pandemic has pushed many of us to online streaming services. A particular genre in these services is the 'end of the world' science fiction film, in and through which the speculated results of processes such as climate change are depicted. CGI technology is frequently deployed to create images of the end of the world, which is a backdrop to the narrative of, 'saving ourselves amidst the ruins'. This philosophy of education essay will critically examine ten films in order to: (1) Explain how 'the end of the world' images connected to processes such as climate change, obscures and displaces attention from the real, scientifically proven processes that are not so entertaining, but are still deadly. The images are created by capital and its machines for audience attention and have little to do with real social change. Science sits in an ambiguous position in this paper in that the real processes of climate change proven by science may be funded by capitalist mechanisms that can also be their cause. (2) Introduce a reformulated notion of ecosophy from the work of Félix Guattari, Murray Bookchin, Arne Naess and Andre Gorz. This essay will suggest that ecosophy has the potential to teach the underlying split between depictions of the end of the world through the capitalist machine and the real social change necessary under climate change. Ecosophy is in the context of this essay a specific conceptual construction designed for teaching about climate change through cinema.

Science fiction (SF) combines realistic and imaginary elements of science and technology and develops students' imagination, creativity, and interest in science. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine SF stories written by pre-service science teachers (PSTs) in terms of various textual and science variables. The case study of SF story writing aimed to develop a theoretical framework to analyze how narrative elements, plot structure, agency, the nature of science content, characteristics of the SF genre, and ethics in scientific research are included in the stories of a group of Turkish PSTs. The participants of the study were 58 pre-service teachers enrolled in the science education department at a public university in Turkey. Working in groups, they wrote 13 different SF stories. The stories were analyzed with a rubric including two parts: narrative and other story elements and the characteristics of the SF genre. The results showed that the stories included fictional and realistic features of science and technology, scientific concepts, and details about scientific realities. The stories addressed the social and cultural embeddedness of scientific knowledge and details about the scientific method. However, the originality is limited in many stories as they had traces from popular movies, books, and TV series. The stories did consider a range of ethical issues, including unauthorized experimentation and manipulating scientific information for personal, political, and financial interests. The current study could contribute to the literature about the use and assessment of SF stories in science education.

I argue that an analysis of antiblack racism in music education discourse is crucial in identifying and addressing potential for harm in the music classroom. I contend that Black children are particularly, and regularly, subjected to poor stereotypical depictions of their identity in digital media. Furthermore, I contend that this digital socialization has far-reaching implications in school. I use the framework of Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit) to explore interpersonal, curricular, and environmental sites of antiblack assault that are commonplace in schools and, specifically, music classrooms. Using a selection of Janelle Monáe's music, I explore themes of resistance and affirmation through an Afrofuturist lens. I conclude my paper by proposing that Afrofuturism can serve as a disruption that may create sites of affirmation for Black children. [Note: The page range (131-58) shown on the website is incorrect. The correct page range is 131-158.]

This paper reflects on the classroom use of the "Star Trek" American science fiction television franchise to teach critical and emotional geographies to undergraduates specializing in science, technology, education, and mathematics (STEM). Both science fiction and STEM education are ambivalent and contradictory scenes of social reproduction, extending a promise of social transformation, but often maintaining complicity in heteropatriarchy, racial capitalism, and empire. Enlivening students to what Ashon T. Crawley calls the "otherwise possibilities" immanent to both science fiction and STEM education is necessarily difficult emotional work. Reflecting on teacher shame and anxiety and student resistance to course material, I turn to psychoanalysis, particularly the work of Donald W. Winnicott, to argue that "Star Trek" offers a richly contradictory "transitional object" for students to play with otherwise possibilities.

Through the use of horror movie motifs like zombies and mad doctors, "The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials" (2015) stands in drastic contrast to other young adult dystopian properties like "The Hunger Games" (2012), for example, in that "Scorch Trials" uses allegory as a means to comment on neoliberalism, alienated labor, and commodity fetishism essentially functioning as a Marxist critique of capital. However, this reading only occurs subtextually. By using a contextual cultural studies approach, which reads film as embedded in cultural politics, and a "monsterology," which captures capital as a specter within the film, this essay will serve as an intervention surrounding discourse on "The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials." In doing so, this analysis will make the case that films targeted at students and young adults are important sites of pedagogy that contribute to an understanding of how capital alienates us from ourselves, each other, and social democratic structures.

The aim of this research is to determine the effect of science-fiction books on arousing secondary school students' curiosity about science. The research was conducted with 60 students attending 5th and 6th grades in a secondary school in Giresun, Guce district, during 2015-2016 academic year. The students were divided into two groups as one control group and one experimental group. In the control group, 2013 Science Curriculum was followed. In the experimental group, 12 different science-fiction books were added to the exact same curriculum. In this research, quantitative data were collected via Science Curiosity Scale and qualitative data were collected via semi structured diaries. After the application process, the quantitative data were analysed with SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) 16 software and the qualitative data were analysed with content analysis method. As a result of the research, a significant difference was found in favour of the experimental group in terms of science curiosity, compared to the control group who had not read the books. In addition to this, the semi-structured diaries revealed some remarks which state that science-fiction books pique their curiosity about science.

This article provides tips on how popular media, specifically that of science fiction and horror, can be utilized in the classroom to elucidate complex concepts concerning race and ethnic relations. Drawing from the television series "Lovecraft Country," I highlight how concepts found in the work of authors such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon are made more interesting and digestible for students at the undergraduate level when presented in films that rely heavily on science fiction and imagination. Reflections are included from students who watched this series in class during weeks where Du Bois and Fanon were required reading, demonstrating the impact the show had on their understanding of the two thinkers specifically and the study of race and ethnicity generally.

Sci-fi has the power to open dialogue because its alternate world-building enables students to feel far enough from reality to discuss social problems unreservedly. In this essay, I review an assignment I developed using "Black Mirror" and "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams" that present episodes in which militarized policing, segregation, and genocide occur with the consent and complicity of populations convinced that these measures enable their safety. Paralleling U.S. carceralism, the fictional communities have been inundated with media and political advertising for greater segregation but have themselves never experienced the criminalized violence that justifies widespread state harms. Through a generative dialogue engaging the media, a discussion question, and the concept of state terrorism, students move to observe their positionality and critically assess state violence. Therefore, I recommend this teaching tool for any critical instructors--especially minoritized professors teaching primarily White classrooms--to inspire a stimulating dialogue in service of connection-making and peacemaking in the classroom.

While prior research has illustrated the strengths of collaborative teaching between sociology and English, less has examined the potential of cross-listed courses, instead largely focusing on how to bring writing instruction into the sociology classroom. Similarly, other work has explored the possible uses of literary examples "within" sociology lessons. We argue that a fully collaborative teaching model capitalizing on strengths from both sociology and English studies can be beneficial not only for students but also coteachers. Drawing from autoethnographic approaches, we reflect on our experience teaching a cross-listed sociology and English course in science fiction literature as well as the sociopolitical landscape that motivated our pedagogical decisions. We discuss our rationale for choosing the theme of the "alien" as "other" and the importance of low-stakes writing assignments. We offer practical ideas for integrating science fiction into sociology classes and provide insights for anyone thinking about cross-listed classes on any topic.

Sociologists are uniquely positioned to use science fiction literature in the classroom. Despite students reading less, the science fiction novel "The Handmaid's Tale" is more popular than ever. I obtained the data for this study through content analysis of 108 student journal entries in a sociology of gender course at a small liberal arts college. Journal entries were analyzed for identification and application of class concepts in addition to an overall rating of "The Handmaid's Tale." Students successfully identified and connected 58 distinct class concepts to the novel. The most common concepts that students identified were gender stereotype, doing gender, and patriarchy. In addition, students enjoyed the novel and rated it highly. The average rating was 4.2 stars out of 5. Results from this study suggest that science fiction remains relevant and useful in the contemporary sociology classroom.

The Alien Worlds project teaches ethnographic skills using the societies of dystopian, postapocalyptic, and science fiction texts as imagined field sites and targets for analysis. These exercises and assignments, which illustrate principles of qualitative fieldwork, were developed when COVID-19 precautions made it impossible to assign tasks that involved in-person social interaction. Preliminary findings from use in 2020-2021 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (n = 140) and Science Fiction and Society (n = 10) classes suggest that science fiction may have an ongoing place in beginning and intermediate social science courses, as it provides an entertaining, low-stakes way for students to practice observation and analysis. The original project is designed to span at least six weeks or the course of a semester, but variations for shorter and stand-alone assignments are provided in addition to ways that it can be adapted to suit the needs of different audiences. Though it will not replace all in-person field experience for advanced sociology and anthropology students, it provides a bridge between classroom content and hands-on interaction that encourages a growth mindset in learning.

With the challenges and revolutionary changes in the world, it is essential that the sources of social power direct the communities towards the right path that leads to a brighter future, especially when it comes to young adults. Young adults represent a critical social group that needs special attention. Therefore, the present paper tackles one of the fascinating literary genres to young adults; young adult science fiction. The paper attempts to investigate how the social themes of order and chaos are delivered to young adults in young adult science fiction through conducting a critical stylistic analysis of certain extracts in selected young adult science fiction novels. The linguistic tool employed for the critical stylistic analysis is negation for its prevalent use in the discourse, in general, and for its textual effectiveness in rendering hidden ideologies, whether intended or unconscious.

As a unique literary genre, science fiction can serve as a motivating text to develop students' critical analytical skills and to promote critical thinking about new technology and its societal controversies under proper guidance. In the field of English as Foreign Language (EFL) learning, using science fiction films in the classroom affords EFL learners new language-learning experiences. This paper explains how films, as a multimodal resource in EFL classes, can enrich students' multiliteracies--specifically how the science fiction genre can develop students' critical literacies under careful meaning-making curriculum design. A preliminary study, taking 30 students in a foreign language high school in China, is reported in this paper. Findings reveal that carefully selected science fiction films such as "I am Legend" and "Blade Runner" can serve as pivotal sources for developing EFL learners' literacy under the multiliteracies pedagogy. Such films can also connect students with Western ideology to reinforce their identity as participants in globalization. This study further suggests that key points in successful design of the course in an EFL classroom include posing critical questions to promote critical thinking and actively analyzing multimodal texts to uncover underlying meanings in source material.

An integrative tool that we have piloted in two LCs, the interdisciplinary index, is an integrative template that students use to make connections between disciplines. In the learning community, "Cli-Fi: Stories and Science of the Coming Climate Apocalypse," faculty developed the Climate-Change Stress Index (CCSI) that students used to identify evidence of climate-change impacts in the fictional setting of each novel they read. In another learning community, "All things Connect: Living with Nature in Mind," students again used an index consisting Ecopsychology principles to describe, explain, and/or evaluate how these principles informed excerpts from environmental literature. We present a variety of student samples using Barber's (2012) model of integrative learning and conclude with a review of the functions of interdisciplinary indexing.

In this article, the author recounts his mission: a voyage into the "strange" world of American high school, specifically the science fiction elective classroom. His mission is one of curricular intervention to transform how students, particularly those of color, envision their own futuristic missions. The study strives to serve the too often miseducated and undereducated students of color, particularly adolescent African American and Latino/a students. Science fiction is nothing if not a place for the imagination. But what teachers see too often in these courses is a narrowing of the imagination based on what many deem as canonical in terms of authors and themes. This article presents an effort to help convince teachers that such continued lack of imaginative vision merely repeats the mistakes of exclusion that have been made in countless classrooms, textbooks, and curricula. Teachers must question where this way of understanding the relationship between the present and the future comes from. Two central questions guide the author's project: (1) How is the future constructed in science fiction curricula and classrooms, and how does this representation exclude students of color as well as discussions surrounding race and racism? and (2) To what extent can a "multiculturalized" speculative fiction course interrogate the structuring of both the race-erased classroom and the future it constructs by enabling the agency of students of color to envision their own futures within these spaces? To investigate these notions of how students of color are encouraged (and discouraged) to think about their future, this study takes place in two science fiction classes during the spring semester of 2012 at a high school located in a medium-sized city in Wisconsin. The study's findings prove to be emblematic of how science fiction is allowed to remain so segregated in terms of gender and race. Stated simply, certain students are expected in such classrooms and certain "others" are not. These expectations are expressed by both teachers and students and are then reflected in classroom discussions and materials.

Polysemy has always become a significant issue in interdisciplinary studies, mainly because particular words or phrases tend to have multiple meanings and the way to decide on the intended meanings involves cultural understanding that may be problematic for different groups of people. This paper divides the main research questions into two inquiries: (1) What is the meaning of the micro-unit polysemy in the science fiction film Arrival (2016)? and (2) What is the interpretation of the macro-level of polysemy in the film? The purpose of this research is to describe the interrelation between the polysemy in the film and the polysemy of the film. It is assumed that revealing the phenomena of polysemy found in the film helps to construct a better comprehension of the objective of the polysemy of the film. This has been done by implementing two stages of procedures in this research: (1) identifying the translation of the most significant polysemous words, phrases, clauses, and sentences found in the film by using meaning patterns and contextual patterns (Schmidt, 2008) and (2) discovering the three potential themes of polysemy of the film that include resistive reading, strategic ambiguity, and hermeneutic depth (Ceccarelli, 1998). The analysis shows that examining the phenomena of cognitive linguistic meanings from the 30 micro-unit polysemy to the rhetorical criticism of the polysemous text opens up multiple interpretive possibilities that may go unnoticed.

This exploratory case study affirmed the merit of using science fiction-inspired story writing to help Saudi Arabian Grade 10 female students learn science. Recognizing that teacher-centered rote learning was not reaching her rural students in the western part of Riyadh Province, the female teacher in this case switched to the constructivist active learning pedagogy, especially story writing. The case study report reflects data from a teacher interview, classroom observations (n = 2), and a content analysis of students' (N = 25) two homework assignments. In the spirit of science fiction (SF), they were required to (a) demonstrate their science learning by weaving their imagination and personalities with the world of arthropods and writing a story that reflected the values and principles they aspired to spread in society and (b) answer the third conditional sentence question "What would you ask god for if you were a Crustacean?" A content analysis confirmed that students correctly used science facts while creatively and innovatively using their imagination to write stories reflective of their value systems. They valued identity, societal recognition, validation and respect, enduring friendships, dialogue and conversations, protection, and family. Regarding the God/Crustacean question, they wanted to be happy, at peace, safe, valued, respected, and have a clean place to live. The study confirmed the value of further investigating the use of the science fiction genre in Saudi science education and using writing to learn science.

Higher education is at a pivotal point of reflection due to the forces of neoliberalism, anti-Blackness, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, higher education has overlooked the university's far future, opting to focus on readily conspicuous change. Along with this disregarded conversation, these crises present higher education faculty, administrators, and staff an opportunity to critically re-think the future of higher education given what we know now and what we do not. In this dialogic essay between a higher education policy doctoral student and a tenured media and communications professor, the authors peer into the hit HBO series "Lovecraft Country" and its underlying themes of horror, fantasy, and historical reality to extract vital lessons for higher education. The authors further participate in conversations about utilizing world and story-making tactics to help higher education envision the university of the future--a future that is radical and boundless.

Since the advent of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs, first in K-12 and now in college curricula, many variants of STEM have arisen to include other disciplines in developing cross-disciplinary literacy among students. This paper briefly defines our own variant STE[A]M branch within the context of cross-disciplinary teaching and learning and then describes an interdisciplinary course, The Science in Science Fiction, in which professors of Biology, English, and Physics provided a range of science fiction texts which undergraduate and graduate students studied and discussed in depth. Students then produced and presented collaborative cross-disciplinary research on topics of their choice from the course work. Finally, students provided input on their experiences with collaborative cross-disciplinary teaching and learning. The overall effect was extremely positive. This article provides a framework for other faculty who would like to model this approach.

When the act of reading becomes a stimulus, it has the power to enact change within the reader and through readers. Adopting and using the methodological tools of autoethnography, personal narrative, and creative writing, I reflect and explore virtual/online education prompted by a personal reading experience of Ernest Cline's science fiction novel, "Ready Player One." Cline's story offers a unique vantage point as well as a rich fictional vision through which I evaluate, contrast, and reflect on virtual education. My goal is to demonstrate how the reading experience of a popular science fiction novel may shape, modify, and/or inspire the development of future online education. I argue that reflective reading combined with the reader's embodied creative acts (e.g., the composition of personal narratives prompted by the novel and creative writing addressing a current problem that is inspired by the novel's fictional reality) lead to innovative ideas to foster the development of new paradigms for the creation of better online learning management systems. Thus, I present a personal narrative of reading to demonstrate how fictional works may offer relevant platforms for readers to contribute, to innovate, and to advocate for change within insufficient or inadequate systems.

Humans read and listen to stories not only to be informed but also as a way to enter worlds that are not like our own. Stories provide mirrors, windows, and doors into other existences, both real and imagined. A sense of the infinite possibilities inherent in fairy tales, fantasy, science fiction, comics, and graphic novels draws children, teens, and adults from all backgrounds to speculative fiction--also known as the fantastic. However, when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, we often discover that the doors are barred. Even the very act of dreaming of worlds-that-never-were can be challenging when the known world does not provide many liberatory spaces. The dark fantastic cycle posits that the presence of Black characters in mainstream speculative fiction creates a dilemma. The way that this dilemma is most often resolved is by enacting violence against the character, who then haunts the narrative. This is what readers of the fantastic expect, for it mirrors the spectacle of symbolic violence against the Dark Other in our own world. Moving through spectacle, hesitation, violence, and haunting, the dark fantastic cycle is only interrupted through emancipation--transforming objectified Dark Others into agentive Dark Ones. Yet the success of new narratives from "Black Panther" in the Marvel Cinematic universe, the recent Hugo Awards won by N. K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor, and the blossoming of Afrofuturistic and Black fantastic tales prove that "all" people need new mythologies--new "stories about stories." In addition to amplifying diverse fantasy, liberating the rest of the fantastic from its fear and loathing of darkness and Dark Others is essential.

For the past 20 years, a constant effort has been made by physics teachers and communication specialists to promote the use of characters from comics or science fiction films in physics teaching practice, because of its positive impact on student motivation and attention. This implementation often comes up against the problem of obtaining permissions to use copyrighted images, leading some authors to avoid using images and simply mention the character's name and others to resort to avatars.

Greater emphasis on ethical issues is needed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. The fiction for specific purposes (FSP) approach, using optimistic science fiction texts, offers a way to focus on ethical reflection that capitalizes on role models rather than negative examples. This article discusses the benefits of using FSP in STEM education more broadly, and then explains how using optimistic fictions in particular encourages students to think in ethically constructive ways. Using examples of science fiction texts with hopeful perspectives, example discussion questions are given to model how to help keep students focused on the ethical issues in a text. Sample writing prompts to elicit ethical reflection are also provided as models of how to guide students to contemplate and analyze ethical issues that are important in their field of study. The article concludes that the use of optimistic fictions, framed through the lens of professional ethics guidelines and reinforced through ethical reflection, can help students to have beneficial ethical models.

In this research, opinions of preservice elementary teachers on science fiction films are investigated in terms of gender, academic success and department. The survey research method was used in this study. In this descriptive study, a relational screening model was used from survey method to determine the current situation. The relational screening model is a type of research model that aims to determine whether there is a relationship between two or more variables and to determine the degree of the relationship. Likert type attitude scale developed by Çemrek et al (2005) was used for gathering data in this research. The data were gathered from 142 students at the department of elementary science teacher and classroom teacher education at Hacettepe University during the 2014-2015 academic year. The collected data has been analyzed and interpreted with the help of SPSS statistical programme and recommendations were given in the light of results gathered at the end of this analysis.

As science fiction has a way of capturing the human imagination that few other genres can rival, this study sought to investigate the effects of using science fiction on the performance and interest of high school chemistry students. An action research approach was used to guide the first author's practice as she studied two college preparatory chemistry classrooms. One class was used as a control group and received traditional chemistry instruction through lecture and labs. The second class was provided with supplemental excerpts of science fictional reading and film. Student scores on a pre-assessment and post-assessment achievement test items were analyzed and supplemented with student interviews and field note observations, and a teacher reflective journal was used to complement achievement data and inform findings regarding the effectiveness of including fiction as a pedagogical choice. Implications for this study on teaching tools, methodologies, and curriculum development are discussed.

There are many published examples of strategies for using movies in science education, ranging from individual activities within a class to complete courses like "The Biology of Jurassic Park" at Hood College or "The Physics of Film" at the University of Central Florida (Borgwald and Schreiner 1994; Dubeck et al. 1988; Dubeck et al. 1995; Firooznia 2006). However, all of these strategies employ the use of the film within a formal classroom setting. This paper describes a collaborative program connecting hands-on science activities and new release motion pictures for informal science education in the innovative setting of a movie theater.

French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-95) was something of a cult figure among his university students in the 1970s and 1980s, "telling ghost stories with the voice of an ogre" (Jaeglé, 2005:10). More recently, academic interest in the educational possibilities of his work has grown considerably in Anglophone countries. Perhaps texts such as "A Thousand Plateaus" (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004b3), which discuss "things which, at the time, didn't fully exist, and which just seemed science fiction," have become more readable since 21st-century shifts in geo-politics, notably the events associated with 9/11 and their echoes in current affairs (Antonioli in Dosse, 2007, p. 583). Questions remain as to whether Deleuze's well-known suggestion in 1968 that his empiricism necessarily has affiliations with science fiction (Deleuze, 1994) can really shift attention from the current focus on outcomes to the "actual ontology" of practice (Strom, 2015, p. 10), thus informing more socially just teacher education and research. In this article, the author addresses this question by examining the potential of Deleuze's "science fiction" ontology, where being is expressed in the reciprocal determination of virtual and actual (Deleuze, 1996, 179-185), to enhance social justice.