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https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-guest-post-fandoms-in-the-classroom/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=267984

Every month the OTW hosts guest posts on our OTW News accounts to provide an outside perspective on the OTW or aspects of fandom. These posts express each individual’s personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy.

Karis Jones, PhD (she/her) is an educator, literacy consultant, public humanities scholar, and community activist, as well as Assistant Professor of Secondary English Language Arts at Baylor University. She has published widely, including in the journal of Transformative Works and Culture, and won several scholarly awards from the American Educational Research Association.

Scott Storm, PhD (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Literacy in the School of Education at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Scott is a former high school teacher with 15 years of experience designing, founding, and sustaining urban public schools; his work has appeared in Journal of Literacy Research, Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, and English Teaching Practice & Critique, among others.

Today, Dr. Karis Jones and Dr. Scott Storm, authors of the book Fandoms in the Classroom: A Social Justice Approach to Transforming Literacy Learning—join us to talk about how bringing fandom into the classroom can turn student passion into real learning.

How did you first find out about fandom and fanworks?

As fans of fantasy and science fiction genres ourselves, we have long been interested in fandoms and fan cultures. Even as teens, we wrote our own creative fanworks inspired by the stories that we loved. Once we became teachers, we noticed that our students had incredible passionate intensities around the fandoms that they loved. Moreover, they were participants in fan cultures, reading memes, analyzing discourse, and writing fanfiction. As English language arts teachers, we noticed that students were not only excited about participating in fandoms, but also that these were spaces of rich literacy learning. For example, students posting their original writing online often revised their stories based on feedback from the community in order to strengthen the writing and deepen connections. Reflecting on how important fandoms had been to us and in seeing how important fandoms were to our students, we knew that we had to think about how to make school a place that could support these passionate student interests for literacy learning.

Your book highlights how bringing fandoms into the classroom can shift the focus toward student experiences and interests. How does this approach support a more student-centered form of pedagogy, and what kinds of transformations have you seen as a result?

Many English teachers create lectures focused on the teacher’s interpretations of often-read canonical literature. This puts the thrust of intellectual work on teachers. However, it is students who need to be doing the learning and who should therefore do much more of the daily intellectual work of the classroom. We use students’ interests in fandoms in order to center student expertise. Students come with much knowledge about how the texts that they love were created and about some of the different ways to interpret those texts. We have students lead inquiry-based discussions with their peers to dig even deeper into these texts. Then they build off these discussions by reading extensively, writing analytic papers, and presenting their work to the local community. As students engage with fandoms they love, we note when they are using literary elements to create deeper interpretations. For example, sometimes a student will trace the metaphors or characterization in a fandom but might not use those exact words to do so. During student-led class discussions, we sit in the circle with students and chime in when they are using an analytic tool and that literary scholars have given a special name like metaphor, hyperbole, archetypes, or tropes. In this way, over a few weeks, we build a large set of analytic tools that students use to make sense of texts. Thus, throughout all the discussion, reading, and writing that students are doing in our classes, students are learning deeply because it is the students who are doing the crux of the intellectual work.

One of the intriguing ideas in your book is the reframing of academic disciplines as fandoms. How might this way of thinking open up new possibilities for teaching across different disciplines?

In Chapter 6 “Imagining Academic Disciplines as Fandoms,” we give examples of ways that teachers can put their academic disciplines in conversation with media fandoms. This helps students navigate across disciplinary practices, which may at first feel distant or strange, by comparing them with media fandom practices, which may feel more familiar. Guiding youth to compare communities and think through ways to improve or remix their practices can be a productive pathway for making sense of the academic disciplines. For example, teachers can take up a participatory fandom lens to help youth understand disciplinary conversations happening on social media (e.g. the controversy around Charlotte the Stingray’s pregnancy in March 2024), or schools can take up fandom formats like conventions to help youth dialogue around current disciplinary topics (e.g. a school academic history conference including symposium panels moderated by historians at local universities).

Integrating fandom into the classroom sounds exciting—but we know it’s not always straightforward. From your perspective, what are some of the challenges educators face when trying to incorporate fandom-based practices in their teaching?

As educators who have been teaching with fandoms for a long time, we absolutely understand the challenges. In Chapter 8 “Tackling Barriers to Fandom-Based Teaching,” we walk readers through a series of questions that educators have asked us about this kind of work. We give strategies for advocating with one’s administration, even in light of standardized curricula. We talk about ways that educators can bring fandom media into classroom spaces even if they are not familiar with those fandoms themselves. We consider how to balance issues of mature content with issues of censorship. We guide readers through issues of student resistance to publishing their work in fandom communities. We talk readers through suggestions of ways to engage youth with local conventions — or ways to create your own!

How did you hear about the OTW and what do you see its role as?

We are obsessed with OTW! This may not be surprising, but we first encountered OTW as fanfiction readers. We love how this platform is built for fans by fans, and have a special appreciation of how it is organized in a bottom-up way that lifts up fan-created genres (e.g. Magnifico & Jones, 2025). Additionally, Karis is a big fan of Naomi Novik’s writing. At a local author talk, she learned more about Novik’s role in the platform’s founding. This led her to explore current academic work on fandoms in the JTWC. Later, Karis went on to publish her own work in the JTWC. We hope that new trajectories of media and fandom studies continue to remain in close conversation with the field of education, engaging in interdisciplinary conversation and research, because we believe this strengthens our understanding of fandoms and their implications across fields.

What fandom things have inspired you the most?

We have been most inspired by fan acts that move the world toward justice. We are excited by fandoms that bring attention to issues of representation and work to make sure that all kinds of people are represented in creative and fanworks. We love fandoms that think about how to make communities more inclusive and are drawn to fan communities that focus on opening doors for everyone to participate instead of being gatekeepers who want to limit fandoms to only the most diehard fans or exclude groups of people from participating. What inspires us most is when fandoms can be spaces that bring people together in order to follow their passions, and perhaps even change the world.

We encourage suggestions from fans for future guest posts, so contact us if you have someone in mind! Or if you’d like, you can check out earlier guest posts.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-guest-post-fandoms-in-the-classroom/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=267984