Dreaming forward: Learning designers exploring the gap between current realities and imagined futures

In this paper, we reflect as third space professionals, two academic staff and two professional staff, working in higher education across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Using collaborative autoethnography, we draw on Marty Neumeier’s concept of “applied imagination” to explore how we envision the future of our work. Our dreaming is grounded in lived experience and shaped by the complex psychosocial landscape of navigating contemporary institutions. Through collective reflection, we interrogate not only our own identities but also the wider possibilities and tensions inherent in third space roles. Thematic analysis of our narratives revealed three central themes: agency, autonomy, and authority. We share a desire to be recognised as initiators and leaders who are trusted to shape the future of teaching and learning, not merely to implement the visions of others. For us, autonomy means intellectual and creative freedom; authority is about earned legitimacy and influence rather than formal power. While we acknowledge the tensions and dissonance that arise within this psychosocial landscape, we also find it a generative space for curiosity, collective sense-making, and new possibilities for third space professionals in universities.