Freedom Dreaming through Waking Nightmares: A Duoethnography of Education Scholars Navigating Public Schooling as Parents

As advocates for public schools, public school teachers, and the promise of public education, we experience tension related to our roles as parents of school-aged children. While our vision of both schools and our own children's education goes beyond "academic" success, a struggle arises at the intersection of our personal and professional roles. With that in mind, this paper discusses the tensions we experience as both teacher educators and parents. Our inquiry took a reflective nature as we worked to gain clarity into and highlight the differences between the pushes and pulls we feel given the intersections of our personal and professional roles. This tension is even more palpable at a time when being critical of public education, even in a loving and productive manner, only feeds its critics and further burdens its exhausted and alienated teachers.