Freedom Dreaming: An Abolitionist Teacher Residency

Abstract

Schools are sites of unfreedom. As such we engage in freedom dreaming and co-constituting of non-negotiables of an abolitionist teacher residency (ATR). This conceptual article asks: what non-negotiables are necessary when centering abolition in residency work? Our dream guides illustrate the need to draw on radical imaginations, freedom dreaming, abolitionism, and abolitionist education to dismantle caustic systems. An ATR must: (a) attune to their geo-socio-historical and political situatedness, (b) be democratic/participatory in nature, (c) commit to an onto-epistemological orientation rooted in critical theories and abolition, and (d) emphasize learning as liberation. We invite others into this “abolitionist turn” within residencies.