We talk with Drs. Nicole Mirra and Antero Garcia. These two scholars are long-time collaborators, and, if I did the math right, have co-authored 25 books, conference proceedings, journal articles, together. Both of our guests today are associate professors in Graduate Schools of Education on opposite coasts of the United States: Nicole at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Antero is at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California. Their collaboration spans about a decade, and has most recently resulted in a book entitled CIVICS for the World to Come: Committing to Democracy in Every Classroom. Today, I get the wonderful privilege to pick their brains about their collaboration, civic engagement, why its important to center the ingenuity of young people and how to dream up a more just future.

Works discussed:

Civics for the World to Come: Committing to Democracy in Every Classroom a book by Nicole Mirra and Antero Garcia. (2023). https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324030218

Garcia, A., & Mirra, N. (2023). Other suns: Designing for racial equity through speculative education. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 32(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2023.2166764

Mirra, N., & Garcia, A. (2022). Guns, Schools, and Democracy: Adolescents Imagining Social Futures Through Speculative Civic Literacies. American Educational Research Journal, 00028312221074400. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312221074400

Mirra, N., & Garcia, A. (2020). “I Hesitate but I Do Have Hope”: Youth Speculative Civic Literacies for Troubled Times. Harvard Educational Review, 90(2), 295–321. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-90.2.295