The form and function of education fiction: a design heuristic to foster convivial forms of inquiry

The production of education fiction fosters social inquiry to imagine more equitable and socially just education futures. To support these claims, we reflect on our work developing character-based stories representing aspects of what it might mean to become an academic of working-class heritage and propose a design heuristic for creators and analysts of education fiction. We consider the relationship between form and function; encoding (making) and decoding (interpreting) to explore the affordances of education fiction as both process and material product. The design heuristic is conceptually grounded in our own projects, and is informed by media and cultural studies, the broader humanities and education. Our work illustrates how the design heuristic can be used as a prompting device in both the analysis and creation of education fiction. We argue that the design heuristic supports people to convivially work and live with difference to imagine more inclusive education futures through education fiction projects.