ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in this book. The book argues that attention to becomings of place in literacy research requires participation in material mobilities in addition to analyses of discursive representations of movement. The work of educators is governed by geographies of the future. Built from stores of measured and makeshift materials, from experiences, memories, outcomes, standards, and metrics, these geographies locate our students and ourselves on trajectories of unified progress-time. They challenge to keep immediate and distant horizons always in mind, building paths and charting growth in increments. Their studies and assignments anticipate and assessments measure readiness for the next unit, grade level, the first year of college, an academic discipline, a global marketplace. By focusing on how to best prepare for these presumably self-evident futures, people often forget to consider the ways in which students' and their own projections and histories shape current needs, desires, perceptions, and practices.
