This study aims to examine how English teachers in upper secondary school utilize fantasy in the EFL classroom, and to what extent they use it to engage with the civic mission. The study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with eight upper secondary English teachers, all of whom have experience using fantasy in their teaching. The results were analyzed through the theoretical frameworks of defamiliarization, recognition, and transactional theory of reading.

The results of this study show that the participants incorporated fantasy in various ways. All the teachers used fantasy literature, while six of the teachers also used fantasy films, TV series, or games. Four of the teachers incorporated fantasy in creative writing. Student interest, rich literary devices, and the promotion of creativity were found to be key motivating factors. The main challenge identified was the complexity of fantasy in terms of structure, language, and setting. Five of the teachers used fantasy to engage with the civic mission, either through discussion about democratic values or by contrasting and drawing parallels between our world and the fictional one. The study indicates that fantasy can serve as a valuable tool for examining societal structures, as we are confronted with them in an unfamiliar setting, which enables reflection on what we might not notice by observing our own world. For future research, it would be valuable to conduct large-scale, teacher-centered studies that explore teachers’ perceptions of using fantasy in the classroom, as well as the challenges they may encounter.