Scholars suggest that through visioning preservice teachers can imagine their ideal classroom and construct instructional practices aligned with their knowledge of effective pedagogy. However, less is known about the relationship between preservice teachers' visions and their personal ideologies and histories. During the semester, preservice teachers were asked to engage in autoethnographic processes to examine their histories, beliefs, and experiences. With a cross-case narrative design, a dialogic analysis was used to explore the how and why of preservice teachers' visions on critical literacy teaching. Discussion focuses on the need to provide spaces within courses for students to explore their histories and articulate practical ways to live-out critical pedagogical visions in their future classrooms.